Falwell

The Missus reports that she drove down Madison's famously funky Willy Street tonight and saw a man carrying a sign saying something to the effect of "the king is dead" with a picture of Jerry Falwell on it. This random guy was walking in the street, by a row of parked cars. Mrs. Verb (not her real name) said the overall impression of the scene was clearly of somebody who was celebrating Falwell's death. That doesn't strike me as a healthy thing to do with your time and energy, but Falwell invited, or maybe prayed on his knees for, very harsh reactions.

Very little is certain in this world, save for death, but it is hard to imagine that history will not judge Falwell harshly, for the sometimes bizarre positions he took (see picture just above to the right) but also for the substance of the values he practiced.

In recent days, Pat Robertson's Regent University has been in the news with Monica Goodling's role in the Justice Dept scandals. As I read those stories of corruption, every time I heard or read 'Regent University', I always thought about how this went to the heart of the old "Moral Majority". Must have been stressful for Falwell, Robertson and many others.

I'm far past the age I expected to reach, so I'm working to be comfortable with my own mortality. Gonna happen, gotta face it. I just hope I don't leave a stain on human history when I go.

Update, Wed. 6:00 am: Check out this from Talking Points Memo: MSNBC ran a piece yesterday about Falwell quoting whitehouse.org as if it were a serious political website. Man, that's a Safirean level of research.