Larry King, Inept Euphemism

Larry King recently interviewed Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in connection to a Cirque de Soleil promotion featuring the Beatles music. The interview fascinated and went well until Mr. King asked of McCartney: Where were you when John (Lennon) passed?

My wife and I both looked at each other having a fixed memory of the tragedy and wondered aloud the reason King, quite often trenchant in his observations, chose to used a euphemism, for as most people know Lennon was murdered.

A Euphemism is the substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener; or in the case of doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker (Concise Oxford Dictionary).

How would King have offended McCartney or Starr by using the literal word? While the event was unpleasant, it occurred many years ago; shouldn't we speak literally in some cases, less history be ill-served, less the victim himself be ill-served? Were not his companions ill-served. McCartney looked oddly at King seeming to ask for a more relevant word.

At times, we must speak literally. Too much use of euphemism can make reality oblique, dull its telling edges. History is a serious subject providing us perspective. John Lennon did not "pass" so much as he was "taken." We say that a life is taken, using the passive voice to ease our pain. Hurricanes take lives, automobile accidents take lives, disease takes lives. Yet when another human takes a life, it's called murder, a useful, sober, and in this case, an historically accurate word.