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Current Events » in reply to Sure they can

re: Sure they can
azstrummer — (archived)

Good points but I have no desire to go down that road you describe. I can distinguish clearly respect given to a living person and a lowering of responsibility once that person ceases to exist. Obviously one must be extremely cautious about hurting others that survive the person.

Our society has always had a double standard for the privacy rights of people depending on whether they're dead or alive. There seems to be this collective sigh of relief that happens when someone passes on in regards to suddenly unveiling the dirty little secrets they held. Relatives start eyeing and laying claim to possessions even though, while the person was alive, they would never even hint that the object might be dear to them.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong. It's just that, to the deceased one, it truly doesn't matter anymore. Of course, I'm looking at all this through the eyes of an atheist. To someone that believes the spirit lives on and grandpa's ghost is hovering the hallways, they obviously have a different outlook on the effect of disrespecting their rotting loved ones.

Bottom line though on the discussion that started all of this is that I truly doubt that Cindy Sheehan was saying anything different now than she'd be discussing with her son while he was alive. Just because many view his death as some "noble cause", it does not put some ethereal restriction on his mother from discussing her antiwar feelings in public. That is an absurd thought that for her to do so in some way disrespects her son. Had she called him a baby-killing redneck while he was marching up and down the streets of Baghdad, that would probably qualify as disrespect.

Art

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