Dying to Write and Thoughts on a Failed Assassination
Dying to Write and Thoughts on Assassinations
“The criterion of truth is that it works, even if nobody is prepared to acknowledge it.” – Ludwig von Mises
Okay, I admit that I have zero idea who Ludwig von Mises is, and I had to Google the quote, searching for one that fit my topic de jour. I’m not even sure if the quote is accurate given when I did Google “quotes about truth” it gave Mark Twain and Jesse Ventura as saying the same thing, several decades apart. But having seen some good quotes from Twain/Ventura, George Orwell and Malcom X, this one is the one that made the cut.
To borrow a trite expression, the Grim Reaper has been busy the past few weeks, particularly among the Hollywood crowd. I never had a particular affinity for any of the actors or celebrities who left our mortal coil. Shannen Doherty, Dr. Ruth, and Richard Simmons were familiar but not pertinent to my everyday life. I liked Donald Sutherland a lot, but my favorite film of his was “Animal House,” which, most assuredly was not his favorite. Robert Towne, screenwriter extraordinaire, who wrote “Chinatown,” was the one passing which I noticed and immediately read his Washington Post obituary, learning he was brought on to help with the final draft of “The Godfather,” among other credits. The others I got around to eventually and learned some new things about these people I didn’t know personally, probably wouldn’t have cared enough to read about, until this past week…
…A cousin of mine through marriage, Colleen, died a few weeks ago. I was not close with her or her family. My mom was closer, but they lived thousands of miles from each other, and family reunions ceased years ago. Safe to say, I hadn’t seen my cousin in over ten years. Her death still came as a bit of a surprise, even though, at 81, it would most assuredly would have been sooner than later.
Her obituary appeared in the local paper this week. Written by her daughter (I’m assuming, since she brought it to my mom’s attention), it was a lovingly written and accurate representation of all the positive aspects of Colleen’s life. Nothing surprised me about it, and I learned little about her, even though as a distant relative, you might think I would. But Colleen wasn’t perfect, and I heard stories over the years about some of her, uh, eccentricities. None of these were included in her obit, which seemed appropriate. Private citizens are afforded the luxury of being admired from afar, given most obituaries are written by relatives or close friends.
I have never written an obit. I am still in a generation where a peer’s death still would come as a shock. People still get cancer or are hit by cars, but, by and large, death in your 50’s is still a shock. So “opportunities” are rare, and I’m not honestly sure how to even begin one. The closest I probably ever came was when a co-worker died (somewhat expectantly) when I was in my early 30’s. Dave was a good guy, a great co-worker and came through the ‘60’s and ‘70’s the survivor of the events you would expect of a record label employee, which he was. Dave was fun to hang out with, was a friend in the true sense of the word and would give you the shirt off his back without a second thought. He didn’t want to be “known” as that kind of guy. He just wanted to be that guy. His foibles and personal issues were not unusual or unknown. He deserved to have his private life private.
Of course, NONE of that would have found its way into an obituary – at least one I would write, or one anyone else would write. Private citizens are afforded the luxury of being remembered fondly and the obits reflect only their best qualities.
Ironically, celebrities – who are most concerned about image and appearance – are not given the same luxury. The last couple weeks of morbidly reading obituaries of celebrities or near-celebrities made that abundantly clear.
Shelly Duvall was never an actress I followed much. I saw “The Shining” and eventually “Nashville” but what I learned in her obituary was almost all new information to me. Her mental health issues were detailed extensively in The Washington Post; the drugs and torment she suffered at the hands of Stanley Kubrick on the set of “The Shining” puts the movie in a whole different context for me. Some episode of Dr. Phil in which she was portrayed as crazy was detailed extensively. Hers was a sad last half of life, and I didn’t really need to know any of it.
Shannen Doherty was treated similarly. Her death from breast cancer at 53 sounded painful and tragic. Her ability to deal with it bravely deserved accolades. But what I learned most from her write-up was that she was a pain in the ass to work with; she was late to work sometimes; there were rumors of substance abuse and, oh yeah, she had cancer. A paragraph was written to highlight her acting chops (of which she had some, I learned from a different obit), but the overall image of the young, deceased cancer victim left for the reader was of a spoiled Hollywood actress who never knew how good she had it.
I think – and I could be wrong – we all want to know the “warts and all” information about people we admire from afar. It humanizes them, and as I mentioned, I learned things I never considered about those two actresses. Granted, it is a small sample size I reference here, but other obituaries of public figures follow an approximate pattern.
I’m not sure why I am bothered by this. Clickbait culture makes obituary writing the easiest job at a newspaper. For whatever reason(s) there are lots of people who want to know the sordid histories. I have no doubt when Bruce Springsteen dies (if ever), I will learn of his penchant for brutalizing kittens or not being a good tipper or not signing enough autographs (I’m just sayin’, Boss. Only an example. Send me an autograph anytime you want).
I have no idea how anyone would write my own obituary or what they would say in a eulogy. I hope only nice things. Or perhaps, it would be best if no one wrote anything at all.
Interlude
The assassination attempt on Trump was surprising but not totally unexpected last weekend. He is responsible more than anyone for the violent level of discussion in politics and virtually anything else these days. Check out Facebook chat rooms if you want to see some people lucidly rip apart Noah Lyles’ personality.
And I’m not a political reporter or analyst. I don’t really know what I am talking about most of the time and take my lead from only a couple different reporters and pundits.
The insane takes – or conspiracy theories -- on what happened sprung up almost immediately. Trump orchestrated the attack; the bullet didn’t graze him, it was the shattered teleprompter; it was Biden conspiring with the Secret Service, etc. etc…
Not being a ballistics expert or even being inside that crowd, I can still probably say with some confidence this was a lone gunman and not some “Manchurian Candidate” scenario. It was awful, dumb and murderous. And we can move on.
However…
For those rushing to condemn people for suggesting Trump may have been behind it the whole time, a couple things to keep in mind:
1) He stated he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it.
2) Charlestown race riots – “good people on both sides”
3) He actively encouraged people to overturn an election and gave blessing to peo0ple seeking to murder Mike Pence
4) He thought it was good immigration policy to separate mothers and babies
5) I could go on, but it would be exhausting
For someone to suggest Trump was behind the shooting, given the facts above, is not all that inconceivable. No, I don’t think he was behind it. Yes, I can see where someone would logically make that conclusion. He is responsible for it. Full stop.
And we move on…