forsyth | Jerry Falwell

So, he's dead. I find it hard to be terribly upset about this. I know, it's not good of me, the man preached racism and hate for years. And he died wealthy, at age 73, after the peak of his political influence. The damage he did to our politics and our country will take many years to undo, and the worst of the heirs of his ideology are still around. And the media mostly is playing dumb about it, as far as I can see. There's an instinct in America to speak well of the dead, or at least not speak badly of them. And it's admirable to a point, and let the body cool and all, but hiding the things he did in vague words about his being "controversial" is dishonest and does no one any good.

So here's an obituary from the World Socialist Website, and here's an excerpt from Jerry Falwell's autobiography about a batshit crazy prank his dad played, (warning, involves deliberate torture of an animal, his dad was batshit crazy). Seriously completely batshit crazy. And if Jerry Falwell, like most people, modeled his image of God on his parents, especially his dad, no wonder Jerry Falwell's God is completely batshit crazy.

But while that may explain some of his actions, it doesn't excuse them, and it definitely doesn't excuse all the people who helped him rise to a position of power and gave him a soapbox for his craziness and hate.

In the end, I guess I want to feel more conflicted than I do about his death, because I should appreciate everyone's humanity etc etc, but I really don't. The man preached hate that covers, one way or another, me and just about everybody I know, and he parlayed this hate into an enormous political movement that helped us end up with Bush and all that's gone along with him. So no, no sympathy for the dead from me.

I think I may go back and revise this into a conversation with an imaginary person later.