“I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction”
– Clarence Darrow
That quote has been making the rounds on my Facebook feed today in light of Rep. Franklin’s death. He died young, probably from a heart attack. I’m not one to celebrate over people dying, because it makes me uncomfortable to basically dance on people’s graves. I feel for his family and it sucks losing someone like that. Having said that, I don’t blame a single person who posted that quote and I don’t blame progressives who are breathing a sigh of relief at his expense. I can’t say that I’m going to bat an eyelash or shed a tear, and I’m not going to comment on women in Georgia who have a slight boost in hope now. I’m not going to talk about how some people are being downright ghoulish about the whole thing either.
I’m too pissed off about the revisionist history bullshit that the media is pulling with this guy to comment on those things. People are saying that he was kind, gentle, principled and that he was a great man. Fuck that. This is a man who wanted to demand proof of natural miscarriage from women, which is not that easy to prove. He wanted to restrict women’s right to exercise their reproductive freedom. This is a man who demeaned victims of rape. He didn’t want gays openly serving in the military, or getting married. This is not kind, gentle, or great. I don’t know why it’s okay to speak ill of the dead in some cases, but there’s the urge to silence those who are calling out the shit in this case. His ideals and policies, what he wanted for the US, were no better than the Taliban. But somehow, for no good reason, he’s being propped up as an amazing man and politician.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t look at his death and feel like it sucks, that it was too soon or that it doesn’t have some measure of tragedy….but let’s remember Rep. Bobby Franklin for who he really was. He was a misogynist, a bigot and perfectly worthy of the tag assweasel. Let’s remember him for the douche he was and hope someone like him doesn’t get elected in his place.
But MA, he was gentle, kind, and principled-with the only people who matter: white straight males. Sheesh. And I’m sure he and Jesus are having a heart-to-heart right now.
Bobby Franklin was a giant — in faith, in intellect, in fidelity, in so much more. We came to be friends as we worked on the Constitutional Tender Act together — and I learned that if a majority of State legislators would only vote the Constitutional and Biblical way he voted, our State — and probably our nation — could be turned away from the coming destruction.
I know that Bobby is in the presence of Jesus now, and rejoicing forevermore. He exemplified Philippians 1:21: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Have a glorious Home-going, Bobby. I will miss you — I’m sitting here crying as I type this — but I will share your joy in full one day.
And I would be remiss in Bobby’s eyes if I didn’t ask YOU, the person reading this, two simple questions: Have you come to the place in YOUR spiritual life where YOU know for *certain* that if you were to die today, you’d go to heaven? And if you *were* to die today — as Bobby can testify, it can happen to young and old — and you were to stand before God, and He were to say to you, “WHY should I let you into my heaven”… What would you say?
Bobby answered the first question with a resounding YES (1 John 5:13) — and he answered the second question with a resounding, “Because I’m trusting in JESUS CHRIST ALONE for eternal life” (John 14:6). And Jesus has now answered back to Bobby: “Well done, good and faithful servant… Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matt. 25:21).
It would be a comfort if I believed in hell. That he can no longer terrorize people on earth will have to do.
@BG: OMG, that is the best satire I’ve read in AGES! Thanks!
One of my best friends is a Creative Loafing reporter here in Atlanta, and is on the politics beat, he told me yesterday that Franklin and his wife were separated and his kids were refusing to speak to him and these rumors were all over the Capitol earlier this year. Which is evident in the fact that he lay dead for several days without being found. Anyways, my point is that he probably wasn’t a kind and gentle man if his kids hated him… But you never know I guess.
Bobby Franklin was a clown. He wasn’t a menace to anything but a straight face. He liked to wear a Lone Ranger mask and campaigned to abolish drivers’ licenses.
He tried to pass a bill that would force the state of Georgia to do all its business in gold and silver coins.
The doomed prenatal murder bill was just one of his bits of legislative performance art.
I’d best classify myself as Agnostic, but if there is a god, I believe s/he created an amazingly diverse population and a variety of spiritual beliefs NOT as a test to identify those who professed unyielding adherence and faith to the one “true” religion, but rather to test a person’s level of tolerance, kindness, and acceptance. Those who rant and rave against all who are different, those who seek to deny others their rights based on cherry-picked passages from a book, those who use their self-perceived superiority in faith and morals as a weapon against others are failing. When they stand before god s/he will say “I will not let you into my Heaven, for you have propagated hatred and pain in my name,” while those who truly tried to live lives of kindness and acceptance will be welcomed.
I cannot tolerate the idea of hell, so rather than dooming those who don’t make it into heaven to fire and brimstone, perhaps instead they will wander a vast wasteland for all of eternity, lost and empty. Which is fitting since I suspect that those who try to justify immense hatred with spiritual righteousness are lost and empty in life as well.
what Tall said
I’m with Marie in saying mourn the human being but not their ideas or the system that spawned them. Fix the system and the humans living in it might come around from their mixed up ideas.
Speaking of religious extremists try to affect their nation’s politics, anyone here going to do a post on the recent terrorism in Norway? I keep checking but I haven’t seen any posts or even comments about it here. My coworkers have been ignoring it, either it’s too foreign to hold their attention, or they don’t want to acknowledge that they assumed the terrorist would be muslim until he turned out to be blond, white, anti-islam, anti-liberal, a self-proclaimed Christian (which O’Reilly refused to accept) and apparently did a big rant against so-called slutty behavior as per the brief Jezebel post. And now his young victims are compared by Glenn Beck to Hitler Youth despite their liberalness and that the terrorist was a white supremacist. And the terrorist’s manifesto still got praise from far-right nationalist parties in Italy and France for example.
Being someone who’s family includes relatively recent immigration from Norway this has been very shocking and sad. But I would appreciate a post on it, please.
@veganmarcy: Yes, probably going to do a post on it—I spent enough time arguing about it on FB. Although it’s probably going to be something sarcastic like “White Christians are terrorists too! Conservatives shocked because they have no recollection of recent history!”
My main rant is when it’s a white Christian it’s a lone madman (anti-choice murders for example), but anyone else is a terrorist. But never a far-right Christian het male. The only thing we call domestic terrorism is, ironically, pacifist environmental and animal rights groups. It’s fucking NUTS.
@BG: So Franklin was smug and egotistical enough to assure himself of his own moral worth while attacking the helpless? What a moral exemplar to us all. It’s people like him-and you-that make it very difficult to take the idea of God seriously.
Thanks, Harpies, for putting up this reminder of what the real world is like. It’s good to remember that not everyone is a Harpy…
@veganmarcy
Next time you have a request on what we should be writing, could you please email one of the Harpies privately? It comes off as really rude when a thread gets hijacked with a “I want to read this, why aren’t you writing about this?” comment, whether you mean it to or not.
Thanks!
I know this makes me a terrible person, but I did actually hop up at the breakfast table and do a little dance of vindictive glee as I read the newspaper article announcing his death. Because now I don’t live in an area that has THAT ASSHAT representing it. My blood pressure will be phenominally better for a few months.
And I know exactly why they’re saying all these “nice” revisionist things about him — a frightening number of Georgia politicians secretly wish that they were as “strong” as dear departed Bobby at acting on their principles, and feel that they’ve sold out to us nasty Little People
(Oops, hit “submit” too soon in my anger.) Seriously, I get the distinct impression that a very vocal minority of the state’s population and reps would like to send us straight back to [insert era of choice where women and minorities knew their place]. It’s terrifying and I plan to leave as soon as I have the funds.
I’m sure someone somewhere truly loved Bobby Franklin and misses him terribly. But the man’s purpose on this planet seemed to be to cause as much pain as possible to everyone who wasn’t him. It’s funny how those who are, shall we say, overly obsessed with the next life can do so much damage in this one. >_<
I am glad I do not live in the area that actually voted this guy into office. Living in Texas is bad enough.
@Verity Khat- AGREED!! Can’t wait to get out of here, either.