Despicable

          Despicable.  That’s about as negative a term as one can use to describe another person.  For me it’s worse than hateful, vile, or corrupt.  I have had only two people in my life that I truly despised.  One was a former boss who bullied, intimidated, and otherwise abused everyone around him.  Not a tear was shed when he was fired for grossly unethical behavior.  The other rose to the top of my list in July, 1972.

          How can anyone of my generation forget Jane Fonda praising North Vietnam while posing next to an anti-aircraft gun and calling American military leaders criminals?  How soul-crushingly awful was it for her to accept messages on tiny pieces of paper from POWs only to turn them in to their captors who then beat them mercilessly and even killed some for their effrontery?  And how did the surviving POWs feel upon their return to be called hypocrites and liars when they told the world of Ms. Fonda’s treachery?  It doesn’t get any more despicable than that.

          “Hanoi” Jane was in the news again lately.  At 77 she still looks gorgeous, thanks to breast implants and multiple facelifts.  But now she says she can’t stop crying as she comes to terms with her mortality.  Boo hoo!  Does she think that her celebrity as a Hollywood icon gives her a pass on the inevitable?

          It is only natural for people coming close to the end of their years to examine their legacy.  They may look beyond death for solace, but even a belief in an afterlife can’t change the past, neither the good nor the bad.

          In Jane Fonda’s case, I suspect she may have moments when she contemplates the treasonous part of her life and regrets this blot on her legacy.  That contemplation would bring tears to my eyes, too, had I given aid and comfort to the enemy the way she did.  Perhaps she is horrified at the thought of surviving veterans of the Vietnam conflict lining up to spit on her grave when she is finally put in the ground.  Unfortunately, there are some things we can’t ever take back.  We can only hope that in the end the good will outweigh the bad.  Such is life.

          A good man I knew passed away a short time ago.  I will always remember him as a man of great dignity, class, warmth, and generosity.  His funeral was attended by his loving family and over a hundred of his friends who came to mourn his passing but also to celebrate his life.  The scales of his legacy definitely tilt heavily to the good side.  Would that ours be so inclined when the time comes, and the tears of grief be mixed with those of love, hope, and grace, as they were for my friend.