Democrat Was “Nauseated” By Moment Of Silence In The House For Michael Jackson
I don’t blame him.
YARMUTH: Um, I was close to nauseated by it. I thought it was outrageous. In my two and a half years, we’ve never done that for anybody else who’s a celebrity. We’ve done it for former members, and that’s about it, for former members who’ve passed away … I basically got up and walked back to the cloakroom and got off the floor, because I just thought it was totally uncalled for and over the top.
ZIEGLER: And were you alone in that feeling?
YARMUTH: Oh, no, the cloakroom was pretty well packed. I think there were a lot of people who were disgusted by it.
The problem I have with a moment of silence for Jackson is two fold:
First, Jackson was a mixed bag. He killed himself by overdosing on drugs. While he was never found guilty of molesting children, it’s pretty clear he had some uncomfortably strange interactions with them. He was a very talented man, but also a very troubled and (I’d say) mentally ill one as well. Despite his accomplishments, which weren’t trivial, I don’t think he deserves this level of acknowledgement from Congress.
Second, when symbolic gestures such as this are casually thrown out to tabloid celebrities it lowers their meaning. It’s sort of like the baseball hall of fame. Whenever some well-liked ball player dies there’s always a big push to enshrine him in the hall of fame even though his numbers may not have been on-line with usual inductees into the hall of fame. Sentiment makes us want to honor and remember, but the reality is that when we act based on emotion instead of logic and fact we diminish the honor paid to others who actually earned it.
