Happy Tuesday FR readers! We hope you had a good Labor Day. Stephen actually got me his post Sunday night as usual, but I didn’t check my email until later in the day, so I put the post off until today. Thanks Stephen!!
Have a good week everyone!
A couple tweets caught my attention regarding the recent funeral, however extended and drawn out, in that Candace Owens derides the recent trend in politicizing funerals, which many of us became a rather shameful display starting with the Paul Wellstone campaign rally/funeral.
https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1035894195867803648
To which a number of other people, taking the opportunity to gain a little notoriety in response, thought to engage in the ever favorite internet theme of “ackshually”, to explain to her why her tsk, tsking of the political speeches/eulogies.
The one which caught my attention harkened back well over two millennia for an example of where a funerary rite was an occasion for swaying public opinion from politicizing the event.
https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1036283841164533760
I was at lease amused and impressed with the level of smug condescension he managed to pull off in so few words. It was, however fairly obvious that she was not saying that it had never been done but that it had recently become a more prominent trend which was in some sense more than a little disturbing and distasteful.
Still others, in response to her statement were wanting to point out that she had politicized the murder of Mollie Tibbitts by an illegal alien rather recently, though in their rush to claim hypocrisy they failed to notice that distinction that it was not her funeral which was politicized but her murder.
And let’s be honest, the case of Mollie Tibbitts was already made a national missing persons story, one of the very few which actually manages to attract national attention, for days before it was discovered just what had happened to her.
It has to be recognized that when a missing person story becomes national news that there are half a dozen ways in which it may end up politicized, depending upon what was to be discovered to have happened to the young lady. It just happened to hit on the illegal immigration topic.
In looking at some of the responses and discussions surrounding this little quip, I also found it amusing that the discussion took on the character of politically spinning not merely recent events, but ancient history as well.
https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1036359322752692224
Who knew that Pericles was warning us about Trump two thousand years in advance?
Omitted from such a quip is the nature that such historic politicization of funerary practices are rather the exception than the rule, and that such are notable precisely because they are so unusual and rare.
Just as in the case of Pericles, you have the circumstance of the PeloponnesianWar and the survival of the newly formed alliances backing Athens and Sparta. Such instances of politicization of funerals noted in history generally involve catastrophic events. Is it only because of the surrounding catastrophe that such political eulogies are noteworthy, or is such partisanship so ubiquitous that just recording normal events will take note of it?
If American history is an example, most of the time a person’s politics are noted and talked about in context of the rest of their lives, the things which were personal and more important to them than just their job. ‘Tis a sad, sad life which is solely defined by one’s job, such that your own daughter giving your eulogy spends her time talking about your career.
At the same time as many were either lionizing or vilifying a certain career politician, other political figures were taking the opportunity to grab some of the limelight from a recently deceased black singer.
Collectively on stage representing their respective constituencies of urban political fiefdoms were Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Bill Clinton, being famous for their shared musical talent and interests with the Queen of Soul.
It was odd to see such a collection of political figures at the funeral of a singer and cultural icon which stage one would tend to expect to be filled with her musical peers, admirers, and aspirants.
It was not out of place to have music, and even singers like Ariana Grande giving tribute performances. It did seem out of place to have the stage filled with politicians.
Of course, the respect due to be given to a legend of song was diverted by the captured videos of Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Clinton visibly leering at the backside of Miss Grande. (We don’t need to mention the mockery created because of that same Mr. Sharpton’s previous misspelling of said singer’s most famous song as r-e-s-p-i-c-t.)
It is to be expected for the funeral of a political figure to be of a somewhat political nature, after all that was a large part of the decedent’s life. Traditionally, that is normally kept to a rendition of their accomplishments and affiliations as just a part of their otherwise full life.
However, what really struck me the most about those political rallies/funerals, which I was trying my best to completely avoid, was the stark contrast between the actions of one of my favorite women in history, and that of the speaker at the politician’s funeral.
Probably the greatest rendition of an idealized woman in history, to my mind, was Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus. She, like her father before her, defied the authorities and the counsels of well meaning people, her sister and brothers, to do what was right regardless of what it might cost her personally.
It was the duty of the her brothers to see to it that their father was buried so that his soul might find peace in the Hades, but upon seeing them lack the courage to do so as it could have cost them their very lives, she undertook the task herself.
In contrast, I witnessed a daughter who appeared to be set upon furthering her own career and advancement in the wake of her father’s fame and/or notoriety. This is not the first time that this woman has traded upon the family name for personal advancement, but to deliver a scathing political speech for a eulogy?
As much as Antigone is esteemed in my imagination of every virtue, so much less is my estimation of that certain daughter of the recently deceased career politician. Let the dead rest in such peace as their deeds in life may merit them. It is the deeds of the living upon which we may justly judge.
