Firstly, this wasn’t really a major story in the big scheme of things, but I find it awfully illustrative as to the character of the opposition and it reminds us not just who we fight but who we fight for.
I happened to be hanging out on Twitter when it went down, I follow @rosannecash and I admire the way shehandled Boehner, as well as the subsequent personal assaults by craphurlingwinged monkeys unleashed by Politico’s post.
Secondly, what Merle says below sort of points out that no one of us, whether in heartfelt admiration (my grandma was fond of saying that she loved Johnny Cash just like she did her own equally flawed yet mostly goodhearted sons) or in venal opportunism (Boehner), has any real rights of appropriation to the individuals who become our cultural icons, but we still keep trying to possess them nonetheless, usually to their ultimate detriment. And to ours.
Thirdly, that said, when such an individual, or said individual’s family, tells you to back the f*ck off, backing the f*ck off is usually considered the decent thing to do, at least by principled folk.
Fourthly, on the eve of a monumental election, shouldn’t Politico have been putting their energies to something, I don’t know, a bit more substantive?
Fifthly, as expletives go, “asshat” barely qualifies, despite Smith’s pearlclutching.
And finally, even when I was a kid, this song always made me cry, and it still does. Splits me open straight to a tender, unguarded place. That tender ragged place is a good place to be this dark morning, rather than curled up, closed off, defended, and blind.
“Till things are brighter,”this is good practice for these times. So, I guess thanks to theGreat Pumpkin are in order for this reminder of our marching orders, and a chance to revisit an enduring piece of art by one of our great flawed warriors.