This message was self-deleted by its author

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

285. Oh, please.

Are you suggesting that the minute a person dies they must never again be criticized because it might cause their "spirit" some unrest? So we can't offer any discussion of the ways in which Thatcher (for example) implemented policies that damaged Britain's economy, for example -- if, for no other reason, to offer a reasoned analysis of why her policies (loved also by Reagan, whom I was happy to criticize while he was both alive and dead) were harmful so maybe they won't be tried again? I assume Thatcher has family who loved her and mourns her death, and of course one should be respectful of that - It would be quite wrong to go to her funeral and walk up to her son and say, "You know, your mother was a vicious old cow and I'm glad she's dead." But don't tell us that death automatically immunizes one from criticism; it doesn't.

And I'm definitely not worrying about hurting the feelings of the spirits of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Vlad the Impaler, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, or any of the other people who are now dead but who did great harm while they were alive.

There is a middle ground. While one should refrain from unnecessary viciousness, legitimate criticism does not become illegitimate when a person dies.

I do think that this article makes some very good points: http://www.salon.com/2013/04/09/thatcher_warren_haters_dont_cheer_for_death/ "Nobody’s saying you have to be sad Margaret Thatcher has shuffled off this mortal coil, or making you send a sympathy card to Rick Warren. Nobody’s saying, in fact, that you have to take a single day off from despising either of them. Just don’t be a jackass, OK? Few of us will ever attain much power and influence in our lives, but when we’re gone all of us will be measured by how we’re remembered. And who’d ever want to be remembered as the person who saw a family’s loss and celebrated?"