Vitriol and Celebration, Spirit and Hate

I've been struggling a bit with some of the Facebook posts I have seen from many, many friends that absolutely celebrate the death of Phyllis Schafley. I somehow can't go there. I can completely hate the philosophies she spewed, hate what she did, feel contempt for the person she was, but I just can't celebrate cancer and death. I go around in circles thinking, well, how bad would someone have to be for me to celebrate that...and I just can't pin down the answer. Could I be relieved at someone's death, that they are no longer doing evil or harming others? Yes, of course...but to take joy in death....?

Maybe I could have thrown some nasty comments in the past, trying for a quick laugh. I am a different person, in many ways, than when I was younger however. I have my caustic side and I can be as unfair as anybody else, and I admit I can hate...and many things are worthy of hate. But when you start celebrating death...and pain...it just seems you are bringing yourself down to the level of those you are against. I find myself bristling in the same way I do when some people lump all religious folks in the same basket. Personally, I am not particularly religious at all, yet as I used to argue with Ernie, "If you are assuming that every religious person is a certain type of person, then you are being as narrow minded about them as you are saying they are about you...."

I don't mean that what she stood for should be sugar coated now that she is dead. I just mean that we have to be careful of what kind of spirit we give out. Cancer and death are so completely uncaring about politics and what kind of life a person has lived, or has yet to live. To celebrate it seems foolish.