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News
FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2009
Wet Towels Editorial: Death of Jett Travolta (contains no humour, sorry)
Disclaimer: This is meant to be neither scientific nor necessarily informed. I've tried to research the matters which come up to the best of my abilities given time restraints, but I am not trained in any of the medical issues which this raises, and so this should not be considered to be anything other than the opinion piece which it is.
It is my sad duty to report the death of John Travolta's son, Jett Travolta. Jett died on the 2nd of January he suffered an alleged seizure and struck his head while holidaying with his family in the Bahamas. Jett was sixteen years old, and I offer my sympathies to the Travolta family on this tragic occasion. It is never easy to lose someone close to you, especially at such a young age.
While it is right and proper that the Travolta family should be offered our sympathy, the issues unfortunately go much deeper than this. Accidents happen, and sometimes when accidents happen, people die. It's a sad fact of life, and should be treated with appropriate sensitivity; however, there are times when accidents occur, preventable accidents, and people die. This is a much, much sadder fact of life, and while sensitivity and sympathy should of course be employed, they must not be used as a shield to protect people who are guilty of wrongdoing. If parents have been found to be negligent in the care of their children, and this results in the death of the child, then it needs to be discussed.
The life of Jeff Travolta was one that has been kept very much from the public view, which I certainly don't hold against his parents. If I were in their position I would do everything in my power to keep my children from the paparazzi too, but this level of almost secrecy, along with what little evidence there is about Jett, has given rise to suggestions that he had autism, a condition not recognised by the Church of Scientology. While I'm not suggesting that Jett died from Autism, this does reflect a wider issue, which is the secretive nature of the child's health. It has long been asserted by the Travoltas that Jett suffers from Kawasaki disease, a heart condition of unknown origin (although some think that it has a viral or bacterial origin, while John asserts that it was brought on by the use of chemical cleaners used around the house when Jett was very young). Kawasaki is rare, affecting fewer than one in every 25,000 children in the UK, and those who are affected by it are overwhelmingly under the age of eight, so if Jett was indeed suffering from Kawasaki disease, then he was an incredibly, incredibly rare case. The Travoltas have claimed that the Scientology detoxification program helped treat Jett, although for his sake I really, really hope that this wasn't the case. While Kawasaki disease cannot be prevented, prompt treatment, in the form of an intravenous gammaglobulin (which the BBC medical site assures me are purified antibodies), can help prevent the life threatening complications which can arise from this condition. Still, Kawasaki disease does not seem to be the most likely suspect in Jett's death, it's too often a heart-related condition rather than a brain-related one, but it should be examined as again, it's indicative of much larger issues: did the Travoltas rely more on Scientology's treatment, or science's treatment?
While it is unlikely that Jett's autopsy report ever sees the light of day, sources at the morgue where it was carried out did say that the cause of death was listed as “seizure”, and that any wound to the head that might have been resulted from the fall was slight, and so would not have been fatal. As of yet, it is unclear if Jett suffered from epileptic seizures, or if the seizures had another cause. A spokesman from Scientology said that Scientologists are encouraged to go to a doctor for physical conditions, and they reserve their famed medicine-bashing for psychiatric conditions, and that Jett Travolta had been receiving treatment for his seizures for many years, until a couple of years ago when he was taken off it on the advice of his neurologist, as the treatment had lost its effectiveness. However, can we trust what the Church of Scientology tells us? Of all organisations that I can think of, Scientology has done more than any other to take the arts of lying and propaganda to an artform, so I will take any press release from them with not so much a pinch of salt as a swimming pool full of Dead Sea water (and a pinch of salt).
As with all things Scientology, it all harkens back to that unique figure, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (L. Ron to his pals). Scientology's practices are laid down by his writings, and while I'm sure they have been tweaked in time, the underlying principles have remained the same. As previously mentioned, Scientology's defense from Tommy Davis (last seen on BBC's Panorama program stalking BBC reporter John Sweeny until he broke down and started screaming in his face) is that Scientology only has a problem with psychiatry, and tells people with physical problems to go and seek medical attention from a certified doctor. That is the right answer Mr. Davis! Perfect thing to say to placate the media, it distances you from the issue, while still hinting that you're all still a little bit crazy. People will buy that, and I congratulate your script writer. Is it true? Not really, no.
The following extract is taken from a lecture given by Lafayette to the Flag Dianetic Auditing Team on 7th April, 1972: “And then people who have epilepsy, which is a type of disease which gives them seizures, are almost always found on some minor drug that prevents them from getting these... And then you come along as an auditor and you try to audit the pc and you tell the pc that he'll have to go off that drug. And then all of a sudden, why something will happen from someplace or another that the pc will tell the doctor that they have been taken off the drug by the auditor. And the doctor will call up plaintively asking you to please put her back on the drug because she needs this. And you get into a collision between medical treatment and so on. Now I've been using a lot of medical words here or chemical words really. Just don't pay any attention to them because they're mostly gobbledygook, and theres an awful lot of gobbledygook words. Gobbledygook just means nonsense chatter, you see. There's an awful lot of them.”
That's right folks! Medicine for seizures? Gobbledygook. Mindless chatter, don't pay attention to them. Take them off the drugs and expect a conflict with the doctors. We know that Jett used to be on drugs for his seizures, but that he was taken off them, it's claimed on the advice of his neurologist. We know nothing about this neurologist, but it's entirely possible that he himself is a Scientologist, as Scientologists are often advised to surround themselves with as many other Scientologists as possible. Then again, maybe he's the most famous and best neurologist in all the land, a Buddhist and has never even heard of Scientology, whose medical advice is never, ever wrong, and Jett's death was just one of these tragic things which happens every now and then. For the sake of the Travoltas, I hope and pray that this is closer to the truth.
Prominent Scientologist Lisa Marie Presley has come out to say that this is not the time to try to persecute Scientology. “Folks, as popular as it has been to discriminate and ridicule Scientology and Scientologists in the recent past, now is NOT the time,” she wrote in her MySpace blog. “I realize that there is a lot of misinformation out there about the subject, which has caused a lot of stone throwing, but we are not still in the dark ages, and it is still an unconstitutional injustice to partake in and encourage such condemnation.” Well, much as I hate to be disagreeable, I disagree. I disagree with foaming-at-the-mouth fury. This is EXACTLY the time that we need to be talking about this! It's only in the wake of a disaster that real, radical change can be made. If a plane falls out of the sky with the suggestion that it was because the passengers had taken on too much baggage, or it had been stowed incorrectly, causing weight imbalance which sent the plane into a spin (an aeronautics expert I ain't, but bear with me), an investigation is launched immediately. You do not sit on your hands for a couple of months because you're afraid that you'll offend the families of those who died, or those who packed the bags. Their intentions were the best in the world, they were doing what they were told, they just wanted a pleasant flight for the passengers, so they packed it in a rush, or some of the passengers just felt that they really needed that kitchen sink in her suitcase. The reasons why they did whatever they did aren't necessarily as important as the one simple fact. It might have been their fault. Then again, it might not have been. Maybe there was a birdstrike which knocked out the engines, crashing the plane. Maybe there was some other reason for the crash, an electrical short, or the wings just happened to fall off at the wrong moment. Ultimately the reason for the crash is unimportant at this point, what is important is that there is doubt, and valid questions have been raised. It could well be that there was no wrong doing, that there was nothing which could possibly have prevented this tragic accident, and I truly do hope that this is the case. I greatly admire John Travolta as an actor and just as a man in general, nor do I doubt for a second that this has to be the worst pain that he has ever felt, and I can't possible imagine how terrible it must be for him, and I hope that nothing which he has done (or not done as the case may be) has caused this, but if there is cause for concern, it needs to be looked at. If there is a crime here, it needs to be investigated, and if Scientology has caused the death of this young man, then we have a responsibility to bring them to account for it. If not even for the sake of Jett's memory, then for any others who could suffer as a result of Scientologist policies.
RIP Jett Travolta. May you rest in peace.
Whether or not it's fitting to the true circumstances, this article is dedicated to the memories of Lisa McPherson, Elli Perkins, Michael Waliki and Kathryn Waliki, who died as a result of Scientology's denying those in its care the treatment that they needed and deserved.
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Wet Towels Editorial: Death of Jett Travolta (contains no humour, sorry)
