Recently, during a town hall event in Iowa, Sen. Joni Ernst was confronted about a Republican bill that would cut Medicaid. A voter argued that people would die as a result of the bill. Sen. Ernst replied, ““Well, we all are going to die.”
Following some outrage, Sen. Ernst subsequently doubled down on the adequacy of her response, seemingly mocking critics with a video of herself taken in a cemetery.
Sen. Ernst’s now infamous statement reminded me of a kinder use of the phrase in a song by Australian singer-songwriter Kasey Chambers. In “We’re All Gonna Die,” Chambers has a more joyous take on the reminder of death. She uses the phrase as a sing-a-long that ultimately reminds us mortals to enjoy life because we are all gonna die.
Well, it hurts down here on Earth, Lord;
It hurts down here on Earth;
It hurts down here ’cause we’re runnin’ out of beer;
But we’re all gonna die someday.
“We’re All Gonna Die” appears on her outstanding 1999 album, The Captain.
Leave your two cents in the comments.