Quote of the Day

From the lovely and brilliant Peggy Noonan:

"We do free speech here."

The quote is from her must read column regarding the funeral of Coretta Scott King.

What I saw as the outrageous antics of a hopelessly disgruntled and hateful leftwing, she saw as free speech. I appreciate her point.

I especially enjoyed these two paragraphs:

There was nothing prissy, nothing sissy about it. A former president, a softly gray-haired and chronically dyspeptic gentleman who seems to have judged the world to be just barely deserving of his presence, pointedly insulted a sitting president who was, in fact, sitting right behind him. The Clintons unveiled their 2008 campaign. A rhyming preacher, one of the old lions, a man of warmth and stature, freely used the occasion to verbally bop the sitting president on the head.

So what? This was the authentic sound of a vibrant democracy doing its thing. It was the exact opposite of the frightened and prissy attitude that if you draw a picture I don't like, I'll have to kill you.

Heh heh!

Her column is a perspective worth reading and a point well taken. Compared to the rest of the world, we exemplify free speech. But are funerals really the time and place to be so vociferously critical of the president? Afterall, how does that honor the deceased?

Still, it's good to contrast the fact that republicans, although offended by the embarrassing performance of various funeral attendees, didn't storm the DNC Headquarters and participate in destructive riots or kill anyone.