Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

In fact, film it. Put a clip on the internet. Let MoveOn use it. Pass around petitions at the gala affair. Shout out about injustice, discrimination and war. Have really terrific, blasting anti-war songs, the louder the better. Found a PAC. Unfurl a banner that urges impeachment of someone horrible for this country or endorses something progressive. Wear political T-Shirts, by all means. Do some fundraising right then and there for progressive causes. Pass the hat. Or take credit card charges, whatever works. Make it as overt and effective as possible.

What else is a funeral anyway but the marking of the passing of a life? And what else is a life but the passions and causes that fill it? People who make demarcations between politics and personal life have always struck me as odd ducks. How we spend our time, what work we do, what purchases we make, the people we hang out with ... the millions of little decisions we make over a lifetime add up to a political stance, defined or not. The personal and the political are seamlessly one.

Now if I - a mere speck of dust in the political solar system - feel this way, how am I to believe Coretta Scott King felt? Here we have a woman who spent her lifetime speaking out, marching, lending her name to causes and fighting injustice with integrity in every breath she took. Her husband died for speaking out and she continued to do the same. Am I really to assume she would "tut tut" at the heartfelt and sometimes raucous, sometimes tear-inducing funeral we witnessed today? Am I really expected to presume that Michelle Malkin and the other winger crybabies know better than her family what would have pleased her at her last official ceremony?

Please, these people need  - and I say this with all the respect it's due - to shut up. Go have a second 10-day proto-patriotic binge about Ronald Reagan. Progressives won't begrudge it, we promise, as long as we're not forced to watch or attend. The music will suck and have a lousy beat, and the speeches will put everyone in a godawful coma, but ... hey, whatever floats your flag-wrapped, compassionate conservative boat.

Just get out of our lives. And our deaths. And our funerals. And the way we honor our heroes, damn it.