politricks and other distractions

Three Wise Men, All Dead

It's been an amazing week in death. James Brown, Jerry Ford and Saddam Hussein. It's like a backwards astrology: see what you share with those who weren't born when you were, but did die when you did.

And of course, who's the most influential of these dead? James Brown, surely. Anyone who could so change the way we hear music and move to it has a more lasting effect than either Ford or Hussein.

Ford: He's being praised this week as a wise man. Sorry - he shouldn't have pardoned Nixon. If we'd prosecuted him and his minions, we wouldn't have had Rumsfeld and Cheney in power these last few years to screw things up. He might have been a nice guy, but nice guys don't always finish first for their country.

Hussein: Who's to say he wasn't wise in his way? Now that we've cracked open the Pandora's Box of his country we can see the value of his iron fist. I'm not saying how he ruled was right, but he had a certain understanding of his culture and countrymen that is woefully lacking in our current foreign policy.

Brown: The Godfather. The hardest working man in show bidness. The man who took incredible odds stacked against him and did something with them. He made huge mistakes along the way and paid for them in ways American men of other classes never had to. But he forged a trail through our society that few could even attempt.

It's been quite a week. 2007 here we come.

posted by dcnative @ 9:12 PM