Monoculture and Cynthia Doyon
Jan. 15th, 2004 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsAn incident today has me thinking about how I get my local news, and how getting it from one news source can leave me in the dark about detalis that, if not important in the wider view, at least lead me to think more about the smaller things.
It was hard to miss the news this morning. It's everywhere-- in every box of the Seattle Weekly, staring at at us. I'd always wondered what happened to Cynthia Doyon.
You see, Doyon was the host of KUOW's, the local NPR affiliate's, Saturday night show, "The Swing Years and Beyond," which Omaha and I listened to with some regularity when we would cook Saturday evening meals. She had a very smooth voice and a deep, reliable knowledge of the jazz and swing from 1920 through the 1950s, and I always enjoyed listening to her.
Then, one day she was gone. The staff at KUOW was frustratingly coy, talking about keeping the show alive "in Cynthia's memory," discussing only her "sudden passing away," without revealing the reason. Doyon was only 48.
I read lots of national news magazines and papers, and watch CNN and other international news outlets, but the only local news I get daily is from KUOW. I suppose if I'd watched the local if-it-bleeds-it-leads news, or read any other newspaper, I would have learned what the people Doyon worked with were keeping silent: Cynthia Doyon killed herself.
I guess this only replaces the solvable mystery, the physical reality of how she died, with the deep and unsolvable mystery of "why". She left behind few clues-- her note mentions financial struggles and frustration that her radio career hadn't gone farther-- but notes are not reliable indicators. Maybe we should take her at her last word.
I'm just trying to make sense of this here. I met Doyon once, at a fundraiser naturally, and I don't recall anything particular about her. She was professional but not particularly outgoing. I just wish I understood.
It was hard to miss the news this morning. It's everywhere-- in every box of the Seattle Weekly, staring at at us. I'd always wondered what happened to Cynthia Doyon.
You see, Doyon was the host of KUOW's, the local NPR affiliate's, Saturday night show, "The Swing Years and Beyond," which Omaha and I listened to with some regularity when we would cook Saturday evening meals. She had a very smooth voice and a deep, reliable knowledge of the jazz and swing from 1920 through the 1950s, and I always enjoyed listening to her.
Then, one day she was gone. The staff at KUOW was frustratingly coy, talking about keeping the show alive "in Cynthia's memory," discussing only her "sudden passing away," without revealing the reason. Doyon was only 48.
I read lots of national news magazines and papers, and watch CNN and other international news outlets, but the only local news I get daily is from KUOW. I suppose if I'd watched the local if-it-bleeds-it-leads news, or read any other newspaper, I would have learned what the people Doyon worked with were keeping silent: Cynthia Doyon killed herself.
I guess this only replaces the solvable mystery, the physical reality of how she died, with the deep and unsolvable mystery of "why". She left behind few clues-- her note mentions financial struggles and frustration that her radio career hadn't gone farther-- but notes are not reliable indicators. Maybe we should take her at her last word.
I'm just trying to make sense of this here. I met Doyon once, at a fundraiser naturally, and I don't recall anything particular about her. She was professional but not particularly outgoing. I just wish I understood.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-15 08:30 pm (UTC)I guess this only replaces the solvable mystery od the physical reality of how she died of with the deep and unsolvable mystery of "why". ... I'm just trying to make sense of this here. ... I just wish I understood.
In every suicide in which the suicider is not incurably ill, there is always that question.
Why? Why would this person choose to kill himself/herself?
As the widow of a suicide, I've asked myself that question over and over, and I have no more answers now than I did in July, 2002.
She left a note, but it still doesn't indicate Why. Bob left no note, and no indication of Why.
There are never going to be more answers than there are right now. It's not something that we can understand, or explain away. I think this is true for *every* suicide.
As far as the Weekly's front page is concerned, I disagree. *Every* suicide is one suicide too many. Cynthia Doyon's. Bob's. *Any*. It is always, always, "too many" for those who are left behind.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-15 08:35 pm (UTC)So I searched the web. I think I used Google news. Here's what I found, back in August.
I guess it's just another reminder about the importance of checking with more than once news source - a check and balance form of information consumption.