I’m going to say it: Some of the language in Jarrar’s tweets was in terrible taste, and juvenile. But her main point – frustration with the hagiography of Barbara Bush – is legitimate.
I wouldn’t say about anyone short of an Osama bin-Ladin “I’m glad he’s dead.” But Bush was a very public figure in a very public family, and therefore someone to whom normal rules of politeness don’t really apply, even in death. Calling her a “witch” is too much, but she herself publicly called a political opponent of her husband’s “something that rhymes with witch,” so maybe she had a karmic debt to pay.
The central idea of what Jarrar wrote is something a reasonable person could believe: That Bush, while being both “smart and generous,” lived her entire life in a bubble of white privilege – in her case, it was a bubble of real privilege, quasi-aristocracy, not the kind of marginal advantage the left goes nuts about – without doing anything to challenge it, or even to acknowledge it. That she owed her prominence – her chance to be as beloved and admired as she was – to the success of her husband and son in political campaigns that could be (and were) described as racist. That she did many good works, but she was also a fierce partisan and did much to support a party that was far less tolerant than she. And that it probably wasn’t her fault, but while she was being a model First Lady and later Queen Mother her husband and son made some horrible decisions that cost millions of innocent non-American, non-European people their lives and effectively destroyed several countries elsewhere in the world.
I don’t mean to support those points. I don’t even know if I agree with them, although I know I don’t dismiss them out of hand. The issue of Barbara Bush’s complicity in her husband’s and son’s worst moments is a complex one.
But I don’t agree at all that this is “hate speech.” It’s rude speech.The rude parts are trivial. I hear as bad or worse almost every day. It’s largely directed at living people, sure, and I understand that treating the recent dead the same way is seen as somehow worse, but I’m not clear why that is. I think it’s all bad, but mostly trivial.
@JHS We can disagree with someones political views, party positions, etc. But it should be down with an argument that requires critical thinking, especially from a purported college professor. Unfortunately, these days critical thinking is a thing of the past. To post what she posted was over the top, probably designed to get her on MSNBC or something. Like momma used to say, if you can’t say anything nice, keep you mouth shut.
@Muad_dib I certainly hope this professor will apologize. Mrs. Bush apologized for “speaking her mind”. That is a left handed apology if I ever heard one. Basically she was saying I meant it but should not have said it. A simple apology was not forthcoming. But people are people. It’s the way of the world now to attack people verbally, on social media etc. There is a better way to speak out but people seem to have lost their minds lately.
I recall a quote from Aristotle to the effect that:
“It is impious to speak ill of the dead, for they are blessed and are now beyond the evils of this world and are thus already better and more virtuous than you.”
I’m not a big fan of the Bush family but I do have to say that Barbara Bush and extended family have generally served this country with a lot of dignity and class that the current administration could take some lessons from.
Well she got publicity. Maybe that was the motive. She got her name and picture in the papers. She embarrassed her employer but small cost to be noticed. Some people really want those 15 minutes of fame or infamy.
“Well she got publicity. Maybe that was the motive. She got her name and picture in the papers. She embarrassed her employer but small cost to be noticed. Some people really want those 15 minutes of fame or infamy.”
I wouldn’t have known about this at all if you hadn’t started a thread on her. Wasn’t in the NYT today (and still isn’t as I just checked.) I didn’t see it in WaPo either.
Is it really going to change anything in the world by making these comments now? It’s like people saying bad things about Eleanor Roosevelt when she died. No purpose.
I am more concerned by the professor’s reckless endangerment of life. I think it is fair to assume those who call a suicide hotline are in a life threatening situation. To intentionally disrupt and delay those calls should be criminal.
So that’s what you re-interpreted her comments, and explained them away as?
Umm…okay. Kind of reminds me of what people are doing for our current administration. Taking rude, vicious, petty, crass comments and trying to explain them in a reasonable manner. This is what he/she really means.
I have to say I was shocked when Barbara Bush made that nasty comment about Geraldine Ferraro just after she had debated her husband. Should she have been fired from being the VP’s wife after that?
I don’t agree with what the professor did, but let’s not conveniently sugarcoat anything.
My mouth literally fell open when I read what this Professor wrote about Barbara Bush’s passing on social media. So mean spirited! It was hurtful, no doubt, to all those saddened by Mrs. Bush’s passing.
No one is a saint, so most of us have uncharitable thoughts about others from time to time, but thinking those thoughts and expressing them publicly are not the same thing. I spend a lot of time on social media (though rarely do I engage in Facebook anymore). Sometimes I watch a YouTube video and feel a urge to post something snarky in the comments, but then check myself. I ask myself if my snark will add anything to the discussion, and would I chose to say those words to the content creator’s face. The answer is almost always no, so I quash the urge.
I wonder if this professor always exhibits such poor impulse control. What she did in response to criticism, posting the no. of the mental health crisis hotline as her own, is highly disturbing. It makes me wonder if she herself might suffer from some underlying mental illness or personality disorder.
I know, poetsheart…the prof certainly does seem to have a lot of issues, if one goes beyond this occurrence and looks at previous writings and even photos.
In this day and age of people spewing whatever they want on social media is anyone really that surprised that this happened? Shocked? Possibly. Surprised. Not really.
