Last week was so momentous and satisfying that we cats are still doing our happy dance and feeling like we've barely recovered. But even though we're quaffing champagne and throwing confetti and sucking up every ounce of news coverage we can, we're nevertheless aware of what the pundits aren't yet saying. Here are a few points that we'd just like to get on the record.
Everybody is agog over President Obama's singing during that remarkable eulogy for Clemenza Pinkney on Friday, and we cats concur. But although the video has gone viral, is anyone focusing on the real eloquence of his sermon? ("Sermon" because, well, that's what it was. Thank you, Reverend President.) We cats were so impressed when Obama tied the immortal line "I was blind, but now I see" to white America's sudden understanding of how black Americans feel about the Confederate flag. Sheer, sheer eloquence — and a reminder that preaching can be uplifting when it's done by someone with intelligence and perspective.
As for the little prick who killed all those warm and welcoming people on June 17, has anyone mentioned when his trial(s) will be? It looks like he'll be tried by South Carolina for murder and probably also by the federal government for a hate crime to end all hate crimes. So most likely he'll be back in court first in October, and then in February 2016 — right in the middle of Presidential primary season. Heck, the South Carolina primary is February 20! The Republican Party can't be looking forward to that.
As for the so-called backlash against the removal of the Confederate flag, we cats say, piffle. Who's "renouncing history"? Not us. (In fact, we wish Americans understood more of their history. Can PBS rerun Ken Burns's "Civil War" any time soon?) That battle-flag rag belongs in a museum, or maybe in a Confederate cemetery, but nowhere else — especially on public lands. We cats applaud the gutsy woman who scaled the flagpole in Charleston and ripped the damn thing down from the state capitol grounds. It's a symbol not only of race hatred but of an armed insurrection against the United States — and we're surprised that all those faux patriots who defend it (and the opinion leaders who wring their hands over "renouncing history") don't understand that.
So that's it for the moment, although we're sure that more pointers will occur to us as the days go by (and the champagne wears off). Meanwhile, let's just say that we hope Pundit World will get more thoughtful about a lot of this stuff. They should stop bouncing between left-right and thinking that they do their jobs if they merely present both sides, and maybe inject a little nuance into their coverage instead. For inspiration, we suggest that they read, and reread, Obama's Pinkney eulogy. And we PURR.
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