Maybe. I saw a snippet of a re-run of Lay being interviewed by Larry King. What struck me was an almost complete lack of affect. He was casually discussing events that literally ruined hundreds of people, defrauded millions out of a portion of their investments, plunged the energy infrastructure of California into costly disarray, and threatened land him in the hoosegow on top of it all, this being a short list of the problems he was responsible for as an Enron executive. It was like they were discussing a ball game, not even his team’s ballgame. Bumbling Lundergaard was a parody of weak incompetent. Lay was cool, confident, unrepentent, completely convinced of his innocence, and seemingly unmoved by the trail of destruction in his wake.
There is fullsome praise and there is comparing the deceased with the Son of God.
Say Lay was a “generous friend.” Say he was a “loyal supporter.” Say he was a “good father and husband.” Say he had fine appreciation for art and a great sense of humor. Whatever. There are ways to do a eulogy for the guy that are flattering, don’t speak ill of the dead, and don’t trigger the snicker alarm - frankly, triggering the snicker alarm is worse than snickering when it goes off.
(I made the mistake of triggering the snicker alarm - at a wedding - unfortunately, I was the bride and I triggered it by marrying the bozo. I used the snicker factor when we got divorced - any ceremory becomes null and void if enough people snicker through it).
And then there’s that Health South ex-CEO guy, Richard Schrushy. He was the Ken Lay of the health care industry. Now he’s a televangelist.
Which, I think, would be an important difference between him and Jesus.
As someone said on another messageboard, the only thing Ken Lay has in common with Jesus is that they both got nailed.
Daniel
If you’re expecting people to compare you to Jesus and MLK when you die, then yeah, you don’t want me to give your eulogy.
Just not really the same thing, huh?
I didn’t even think the Jesus and MLK comparisons were the most ridiculous part of Rev. Lawson’s speech. That would be this peach right here:
(Just to review: James Byrd was the man in Texas who was dragged to his death behind the pickup truck of three white supremacists.)
The funny thing is that if you cut that sentence off at the second comma, you have one of the truest statements ever made.
I have to disagree. My favorite was “(Like Jesus Christ) he was crucified by a government that mistreated him.”
So was Robin Hood, and he used more honest methods, did less harm, and took more personal risks. But somehow I can’t imagine Lawson eulogizing him.