The memorial was nothing short of magnificent, and it was exactly what this city needed. It was, at turns, somber and celebratory. Tucsonans have been in a severely depressed funk, dazed and stunned that something like this could happen here.
I hear some small-minded grumbling that the event was somehow too “raucous” or a “rally.” Well you know what? A rally is just what we needed. Those who sit in judgment in their comfortable offices and studios on the coasts tut-tutting last night’s memorial haven’t had to drive by the still-closed Safeway every morning and every evening to and from work. They haven’t been within a thousand miles of the nightly vigils at UMC and at Gabrielle Giffords’s congressional office. They haven’t turned on television to see their own neighbors grieving in wall-to-wall coverage.
Jim should know.
Why, in life, are there always whiners?
ReplyDeleteThe whiners (or whingers) you will always have with you. It is written...somewhere.
ReplyDeleteSome of my best friends are whiners! At first watching the Memorial - I was surprised by the cheering and clapping -- but it was life returning to a place of death. They wanted something to cheer about after days of silence and grief -- that so many had been so selfless and even the dead had cared more for others than themselves. The young gay aid, the young woman university student body president, the president - all signs of life and hope.
ReplyDeleteBecause these people are the bottom-feeders of American politics. By the way, the Speaker of the House didn't attend the memorial because he had a cocktail party/fundraiser to go to. Just sayin...
ReplyDeleteBex, not to mention that he was offered a ride in Air Force I.
ReplyDeleteYikes - really - they offered to take him and he refused. What a loser
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest. When the cheering and clapping started, I had flashbacks to Paul Wellstone's memorial. I was worried there would be blowback. Wellstone's certainly touched a nerve among the Republicans.
ReplyDeleteAt best, politics and funerary things are uneasy bedfellows, and it cuts both ways.
I remember when Mel Carnahan was killed while running against John Ashcroft. Ashcroft tried to wheedle his way into the funeral procession, which was a walking procession in front of the state capital building. There was no doubt in my mind it was for people to see him being "gracious" right before the election.
The family told him no. He was welcome to attend the memorial as a mourner, but not as a participant. The Republicans made hay of it.
I think things have turned out okay so far on this recent memorial, but I am watching for delayed blowback.
In my mind, ultimately, it is about if the families involved found peace and healing, and I'll leave that decision up to them.
The reaction of the crowd, who were presumably mostly from Tucson or nearby, was out of the control of the organizers or the president. The memorial or rally was what it was, and it's over now.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what Democrats do, there will be blowback from the Republicans.
Hard to imagine how the Republicans could do very well trying to make hay over a Democratic president being cheered raucusly in a Republican leaning district.
ReplyDeleteIn any event, I've read several bloggers who commented on being surprised - and even a little put off at first - by the cheering and such. But most of them (unlike some whiners) were able to come to terms with it.
The new thing that strikes me from Jim's comment is that, in addition to the dead and their families, in addition to the wounded and theirs, in addition to everyone else who was traumatized by the events, we also have some untold number of retail workers whose livelihood has been taken away - at least temptorarily.
All these victoms, and Sarah still thinks its all about her.