Quote of the Day - Funerals

I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. – Mark Twain

I occasionally think of this quote after the death of a fitting individual. That does not mean someone with whom I strongly disagree - nor even someone I dislike. I reserve it for the truly despicable, those whose actions go beyond foolish into the depraved.

O. J. Simpson fits that category. Not just for his actions, but what he did to American society. He literally got away with murder, killing two people in an especially brutal manner. That was not the worst part. To do so, he undermined the pillars of American society. To obtain an acquittal, he inflamed racial tensions; tarring two police officers as racist and framing the charges as whitey trying to bring down a successful black man.

The win-at-any-cost tactics he successfully used were widely imitated in the years that followed. As a result we have a coarser society. Because Simpson succeeded, victory has supplanted virtue in our society today. Yet as John Adams noted, "Public virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private Virtue, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics."

This triumph of victory over virtue is nowhere more visible in our body politic. As Adams predicted, it may well destroy us. Thanks, O. J. My sincere wish for you is half of one I wish for even my dearest dead: that you receive the afterlife you have earned. The other half? About God's infinite mercy? I'll reserve that one for Ron Goldman and Nichole Simpson.