I suppose if I do start blogging I will have to comment on important events, like the death of Jerry Falwell.
I remember being a youthful malcontent back in the ’80s, sitting around Perkins or IHOP drinking too much coffee… We hated Falwell back then, just as we hated Reagan. There wasn’t any particular reason we could point to, any egregious infraction of the rules of public discourse or specific outrageous comment about some disenfranchised group which got our bile up — heck, we probably were just as homophobic out of naiveté as Falwell was because of his narrow-minded reading of Christian doctrine. We just hated everyone we blamed for the ugly sorry state of the world, and we equally blamed Falwell, Reagan, Jesse Helms, rednecks, cops, guys in suits, skinheads, teachers, the homeless, the Army, communists, Marxists, capitalists, punk bands with self-indulgent guitar solos… Everyone, pretty much.
Now that I’m older I try not to just pass around blame and condemnation so wantonly; I try to dispense the bile that people earn. So now, judging him on his merits, rather than simply as a piece of background furniture, do I feel any different about Falwell?
No, not really.
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As the Worm Turns 