I’m struck by a column by Tim Ellsworth:
JACKSON, Tenn. (BP)–An unusual obituary ran in a California newspaper in August.
It was an obit for 79-year-old Delores Aguilar in the Times-Herald of Vallejo, Calif. Her daughter Virginia Brown was the writer.
“Delores had no hobbies, made no contribution to society and rarely shared a kind word or deed in her life,†Brown wrote about her mother. “I speak for the majority of her family when I say her presence will not be missed by many, very few tears will be shed and there will be no lamenting over her passing.â€
…
John Bogert of another local paper, the Daily Breeze, got hold of this and went round to determine if the obit was legitimate or a hoax. He found it was real of course, and Interviewed Brown about why she wrote what she did.
“I wanted to do the right thing, the honest thing,†Brown told Bogert. “When she died a co-worker gave me a copy of an obituary she wrote for her father as a kind of writing guide. What struck me was how my mother was none of the things I was reading. She was never there for us, she was never good and she left no legacy.â€
I find this striking because the kind of writing in question seems a singularly shallow thing, and I wonder if another writer would have handled it differently, would have passed on the chance to give her mother… her mother, for pity’s sake… a final shot for some perceived slight.
Being able to attribute victim status to ones’ self is something of a national sport anymore, particularly in coastal, liberal states like California. Perhaps then, this is just an example of where we’re going?
If that’s true, I submit to you the multi-layered thought that Obama and his election is a mere symptom.
Cross-posted from BitsBlog.