{"id":23376,"date":"2026-04-18T17:51:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T17:51:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/ben-sasse-is-going-to-die-and-so-are-you\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T17:51:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T17:51:07","slug":"ben-sasse-is-going-to-die-and-so-are-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/18\/ben-sasse-is-going-to-die-and-so-are-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Sasse Is Going To Die \u2014 And So Are You"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Life doesn\u2019t come with a handbook, and neither does death.<\/p>\n

Why do we keep it hidden away? Why do we try so desperately to cheat it? I suppose we\u2019ve come a long way since Walt Disney froze his head (fact check: false<\/span><\/a>), but forever-young Bryan Johnson<\/span><\/a> isn\u2019t any closer to living forever, and, judging by his thawed-over looks and massive supplement regimen, I\u2019m not sure most people would find that route appealing anyway. But Silicon Valley<\/span><\/a> pushes ahead with its plan to play God \u00ad\u2014 or at least outwit Him. Spoiler alert, not a good plan with Him<\/span><\/a> or the IRS<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

But when someone like Ben Sasse comes along, it\u2019s hard to look away. In fact, we must look and look with wonder and awe.<\/p>\n

The former senator from Nebraska was diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 pancreatic cancer in December 2025. He was the guest on New York Times columnist Ross Douthat\u2019s \u201cInteresting Times<\/span><\/a>\u201d podcast on April 9, where he called the diagnosis \u201ca death sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Days later, Sasse went viral. It wasn\u2019t because of his appearance on the podcast, per se<\/i>, but because of a clip<\/a> of a young couple sitting courtside at an Indiana Pacers game engaged in a conversation. It was later revealed to be about Sasse\u2019s thoughts on the state of liberal arts colleges and America\u2019s higher education system, as discussed with Douthat.<\/p>\n

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Pacers TV had these fans on the broadcast, and she is NOT having it \ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n

After he finally stops yapping, she says, \u201cthat\u2019s you\u2026what the f*** are you talking about?\u201d pic.twitter.com\/XdXMC6xhE9<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Alex Golden (@AlexGoldenNBA) April 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Source: @AlexGoldenNBA\/X.com<\/p>\n

So here we have a made-for-meme moment starring two Pacers fans breathing fresh life into a man not just dying before our eyes but leaning into it so far that Sheryl Sandberg is taking notes. Now we can\u2019t look away.<\/p>\n

The good news and bad news are the same: you are going to die. We are all going to die. Fear not! There is no commitment on your end \u2014 other than the fate of your eternal soul. The trick to seeing both ways is to pause and consider what this means in life.<\/p>\n

Americans are a dynamic, forward-thinking, happy-go-lucky crew who have too much going on at any given moment to stop and think about when things will stop forever<\/i>. That mentality has had its benefits. We boldly ventured into the great Western frontier, stormed European beaches not once, but twice, to bail out our Old-World brethren from tangles of their own making. We rule the seas and explore the skies.<\/p>\n

But all that moving and world-shaking leaves us wholly unprepared for the end. So yes, we\u2019re all going to die. Death and taxes, as the saying goes. Except taxes can be managed, depending on who wields the political levers of power, or if you have an accountant whose address is a P.O. box and insists you pay in cash. Death has no workaround, comes with no instructions, and looks different for every person on the planet. But the good news is that being reminded of our mortality crystallizes the urgency and preciousness of life, and that life isn\u2019t lived out on our timeline, no matter what technological advances the tech wunderkinds promise, and there are no one-size-fits-all guidelines.<\/p>\n

In Tim Burton\u2019s 1988 film \u201cBeetlejuice,\u201d married couple Barbara and Adam Maitland (played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) die in a car accident and find themselves stuck in the afterlife with nothing but the \u201cHandbook for the Recently Deceased\u201d to guide them. It contains tips and quips: \u201cLive people ignore the strange and unusual,\u201d and \u201cThe living usually won\u2019t see the dead.\u201d But Burton\u2019s film is a fictional tale with a fictional book, devoid of faith, and it spares us the actual dying<\/i> part.<\/p>\n

Ben Sasse doesn\u2019t have a handbook on death or dying, yet here he is publicly facing his mortality in the most painful and gruesome way. Sasse is turning Beetlejuice\u2019s \u201cHandbook\u201d on its head, doling out valuable insight and wisdom to the living, and we treat it like a spectator sport, except this Pacers fan boyfriend, who is trying to impart a piece of that wisdom to his girlfriend. \u201cWhat the f*ck are you talking about?\u201d she responds. Keep trying, buddy; a nation is cheering for you, and for Ben Sasse.<\/p>\n

Douthat asked Sasse if he felt \u201cready to die.\u201d He replied that although he didn\u2019t feel ready, he had hope, due to his Christian faith, that he would be with God, \u201cI know that that\u2019s what I need,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

We can plan for the afterlife: I want Elvis singing over the loudspeakers and free cigarettes at the funeral cash bar. But mostly, I want people to reflect on how they\u2019re spending their limited time among the living \u2014 because even a one-day crash course on death could have repercussions in life. And that is exactly what Ben Sasse did and is doing: offering his death so we might reflect on our lives.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not something we can find in any handbook.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n