♫ There’s a ribbon in the willow and a tire swing rope
Oh, and a briar patch of berries takin’ over the slope
The cat’ll sleep in the mailbox and we’ll never go to town
’Til we bury every dream in the cold, cold ground ♫
— Dead souls trigger the singing of weeping songs.
Bo knows philanthropy.
Permit your sepulchral Weekend Politics Thread host to take a most un-Uvular1 approach and share unmitigatedly good news.
The greatest American-born pure athlete of his generation did another great thing a couple of months ago. Specifically, Bo Jackson wrote a check for tens of thousands of dollars to cover the costs of burying deceased victims of the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas.
Jackson, joined by a second person who remains unnamed, made that donation anonymously. The act of kindness calls to mind more than one gospel lesson concerning how to perform good deeds. Declining to run to the press reflects the injunction at Matthew 6:5-8 to pray sotto voce in camera. Dipping deeply into a retiree’s coin purse? Open your New International Version’s to Mark 12:41-44 and see what the purported son of some people’s god had to say about the essence of true charity.
“Uve,” Politicados now ask, “did you just compare Jackson to Jesus?”
Heaven forfend, no. Even though the former Kansas City Royals outfielder did walk on walls-ter,2 Jackson never achieved apotheosis.
Rather, offering gratis graveside services paints Jackson as an anachronistic Joseph of Arimathea. Only the crustiest of curmudgeons could fail vibe on the big Matthew 27:57-60 energy at play here, viz.:
57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.
Rising to the challenge of embodying said crustiest of curmudgeons, Uvular highlights, copies, pastes, and complains about the parts of the biblical and modern-day stories involving involvement of elected officials. Subtext suggests Joe of A bribed the governor of Judea. Details divert thoughts to wondering about what Texas governor did with the cash.
AP reports “[Gov. Greg] Abbott’s office said Jackson’s money was ‘quickly directed to cover funeral cost’ through Onestar, a nonprofit created to further volunteerism and community services in Texas.” That same article notes funeral homes in Uvalde and its surrounding county did not charge massacre victim’s families.
Back to the good news for one paragraph. Charity Navigator rates Onestar highly. Uvular definitely wasted everyone’s time3 even question the delivery, transfer and handling of the donation made by Jackson and Jackson’s compatriot.
But, man, woman, child, nonbinary, and religio-mythical avatar of holiness, why put Pilate or Abbott into the mix? The potential for fuckery4 overwhelms. Nothing untoward appears to have availed the Uvalde funerary funds. Still, moving forward, try to end run proven rogues and scoundrels when looking after widows and orphans in their distress.
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