(Photo: CNN) |
Pat Robertson died today.
He was 93.
I'm guessing I don't need to explain who he was but the short version is that he was someone you liked if you were a religious far right kind of soul.
The rest of us were likely not a fan.
I can't say I was ever a fan and, basically, I laughed when I heard he would run for president back in the 1980s.
I laughed because I knew he basically had no chance and because of what he represented at that time.
Regardless, he died today having said a lot of things that were fairly mean or even hateful, especially towards the LGBTQIA+ community.
It's not unfair to say he represented some of the worst of religious zealots.
In fact, he's the kind of person that drives people like me away from religion but I digress.
Here are some of his "greatest hits."
Still, the amount of -- and there's no other word for it -- celebration over his death was sort of disheartening.
I realize he said a lot of bad stuff, most of which didn't adjust with the times.
And, yeah, pretty evil stuff.
Still, there aren't many people whose passing brings me joy.
I suppose I simply nodded with a certain acceptance at the deaths of a few names that brought great harm.
Maybe I should see Robertson that way but I don't think so.
The vitriol among the brave warriors of the keyboard has been pretty intense.
One tweeter posted this:
"I just wanted to take the time to say to everyone that this piece of inhuman shit was evil.
I hope hell is real because that’s where he fucking belongs.
I spit on his grave."
Oof.
I'm more inclined to believe in karma and it just feels like bad mojo to celebrate Pat Robertson's death.
When faced with bad stuff, it's easy to want to break out the nasty. Yet there's that voice that says to let karma take over.
So I try to hear that out.
And I guess that's what I feel about Pat Roberston. No, I don't agree with basically anything the man ever said. I think he said some really awful, hurtful things. They weren't the words of an outdated mind that never grew. They were the words of a person who continued to espouse such things. He had no interest in the empathy and understanding that comes with wisdom and, simply, with time.
Yet, for what it's worth, he also had loved ones and why dump on them?
All of that occurs to me as one sings "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" regarding Pat Roberston.
Sometimes it's OK to just say nothing or simply take the high road.
Why must we all be so mean? Because two wrongs make a right?
I'd hate to be the person just throwing this stuff on the socials (or retweeting it, for that matter). Seems like a rather worthless existence.
I figure Pat Robertson will get what's coming his way wherever he's going.
Up. Or down.
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