Wit and Wisdom
Here's a pretty old legacy post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 20 years ago, in 2004, on the World Wide Web.
I’m no great fan of Hillary Rodham Clinton. But she does have her moments. Among them is this:
It’s always sad when anyone dies.
… when asked for her thoughts when J. Strom Thurmond finally shuffled off this mortal coil.
(Thanks to One Good Thing for the pointer.)
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I am not sure if that is a good principle. Who can say they were not happy when Hitler or Stalin died? And concerning senator Thurmond, I am glad to say he is dead. God knows how much suffering he caused with his politics of racism and the promotion of the most henious right wing policies. How many blacks are now dead, or suffered because of Thurmond actions? So I have no problem to feel happy for his death.
Sergio,
I certainly agree that Thurmond was a rotten man and the world shouldn’t spend too much time mourning his death.
Clinton’s remark has to be taken in the context of news coverage and commentary at the time. After Thurmond died, there was a huge pile of drivel from news outlets and lawmakers — especially, but not only, from Thurmond’s Republican colleagues — eulogizing Thurmond’s long and storied career as a legislator, portraying him as a grand old warhorse of the Senate who just happened to have some funny ideas about race at some point in his life. In the context of that sort of maudlin, rose-colored treatment, the fact that all Hillary Rodham Clinton could bring herself to say on his behalf is that “It’s always sad when anyone dies” is a case study in damnation by faint praise.