Sad but true

I was going to comment on the John Lewis kerfuffle, then thought better of it.  I was waiting for something that struck the right balance.  This is it.  Leave it to Goldberg to bring sanity and, sadly, truth to the subject.

When Charlton Heston died, it put many liberal Civil Rights leaders in a bind.  Heston was one of the A-List stars of the day to get fully behind the Civil Rights Movement.  And one of the first to do so.

In later years, we all know he became a symbol of modern conservatism, especially regarding the NRA.  How did liberal Civil Rights leaders handle it?  Easy.  They heaped praise on Heston for his support for them during those years of struggle, but reserved the right to criticize him about his later positions.

So the notion that anything said about John Lewis was blasphemy rang a bit hollow to my ears.  Sure, he was a hero. A hero’s hero.  A man who served his time in hell for all the right reasons.

But that means nothing when it comes to evaluating him now.  He has become, unfortunately, symptomatic of so many of the problems plaguing discourse today.   And hero or not, guilty is guilty.

Kudos to Anderson Cooper for being one of the few journalists to call it like it is, even in the midst of Conservatives and others who, in typical fashion, ran for cover.