Eight-fifteen in the morning in Washington is not a happy time. - Ross Thomas

You can grieve when someone dies. But when someone is near death, and there is the chance that you might prevent it if you make the right decision, anxiety takes over.

Does she know all the people she says she knows?”
“She knows everybody.”
“Maybe that’s why she’s getting old.

They were chosen to die because somebody in our government thought that the world would be a better place to live if they weren’t around any more. Perhaps they thought it would make a difference, and maybe the world did get better for them because they received a promotion or a discrete commendation. But it didn’t change things much for the rest of us.