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EDGES MAGAZINE Issue
35 |
November
2003 |
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The funeral of Dr David Kelly, the government weapons expert
took place recently in the Oxfordshire village of Longworth, near to the place
where his body was found. His death has aroused interest from the world’s
media. As a family try to pick up the pieces after this shattering event,
journalists like a pack of wolves are hovering around intrigued by his death.
The fascination is not based on his scientific achievement but on who leaked
his name into the public domain just before he died. Some politicians and
newspaper editor’s sense blood and they’re in for the kill. I find it
disturbing that just like Dr Kelly became a victim; the outcome of the Hutton
inquiry might make more casualties and destroy other families. The scientist
family have already requested that the inquiry led by Lord Hutton be held in
private so that his death doesn’t become a piece of entertainment for the
nation’s appetite and other people don’t have to suffer the plight of
the former scientist.
From the various reports, it is obvious that Dr
Kelly was a quiet man who got on with his job. He worked behind the scenes and
did not like the limelight. In fact on the day he gave evidence to the foreign
affairs select committee, he was asked three times to speak louder and fans had
to be turned off to help him be heard. He admitted he was "softly spoken." Dr
Kelly’s death is a reminder of our human vulnerability. Everything can be
going so well and then all of a sudden we meet a difficulty and it leads us
into despair. The words of Socrates, the Greek philosopher comes to mind:
"Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs." It is said that the
friends of Dr Kelly find it hard to believe that he actually killed himself.
His life seemed to ooze stability and self-sufficiency. He was the ideal family
man, married with three children who rose through the ranks of the Ministry of
Defence’s chemical research centre at Porton Down in Wiltshire to become
the head of microbiology. He spent the majority of his career as a consultant
to the MoD and other government agencies advising them on arms control, his
area of expertise. In fact just before his act of suicide, it is believed that
he finished an assignment for the Foreign Office and then took that final walk
into the woods that would end an international renowned career and leave a
family devastated. He seemed to walk to his death with precision and implicit
conviction.
The Hutton inquiry is to investigate the circumstances
behind his death. However, before the conclusion to the investigation, there is
one eminent truth that we all can learn. In the words of Virginia Satir, " We
must not allow other peoples’ limited perceptions to define us." So often
we can become the victim of character assassination. In our society it is not
the tyrannical regimes with dictatorial and despotic power that destroys our
freedom. It is the power of the word spoken in the ordinariness of life that
splinters and destroys our human dignity. We need to understand each
other’s fragility.
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