# RIP Elizabeth Edwards **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 7, 2010, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341 "2010-12-07T22:35:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341/61 "2010-12-09T06:52:14Z")
> [@not\_alice](#): > > So when what happens to poor women regularly in private happens to a rich white woman in public, the world weeps? Still having a hard tome reconciling the size of the outpouring here. > > Compare your description above with, e.g., Anna Nicole Smith. Fatal condition, younger than Elizabeth Edwards, unstable relationships with multiple men, including marriage to at least one man many times wealthier than the Edwards combined, and kids from ~1 to ~20, all in a very public way. > > Do we feel the same way about Smith as we do about Edwards? Why or why not? [mod hat on] **not\_alice** , I think everyone understands your point of view, and it would be good of you to drop it, or open another thread to discuss it. No warning issued. [mod hat off] Why is this such news? In my opinion it’s partly because of the celebrity factor, both her own and John Edwards’, and also because she was dealt a triple whammy depending on how you want to count the blows. Death from cancer, preceded by her husband having an affair and fathering a child through it. Celebrity marriages break up all the time, but to have the aggrieved party endure a fatal disease concurrently is a little more unusual. People do feel badly for her, and the wealth factor may be a part of that, too, because here she was with all this success and accomplishment, but sometimes that isn’t enough to get what you need. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341/62 "2010-12-09T17:09:59Z")
Westboro baptist church say they will picket the funeral. > **[Controversial church plans to picket Edwards' funeral](https://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8749610/)** > > A Kansas church famous for its anti-homosexual protests at funerals plans to protest at the Saturday funeral of Elizabeth Edwards, the estranged wife of two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. ---
**Author:** ![not\_alice](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_alice/32/7283_2.png) [@not\_alice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_alice)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341/63 "2010-12-09T17:22:48Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Westboro baptist church say they will picket the funeral. > > [http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8749610/](http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8749610/) OK, well that alone is evidence of a life well-lived. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341/64 "2010-12-09T17:24:41Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Westboro baptist church say they will picket the funeral. > > [http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8749610/](http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/8749610/) Those assholes would probably picket their own funerals. ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341/65 "2010-12-09T20:59:06Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Those assholes would probably picket their own funerals. Would it be wrong of me to go to that just to smile and laugh at them? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341/66 "2010-12-11T13:38:47Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > Those assholes would probably picket their own funerals. Maybe they’ll find out who God really hates… ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341/67 "2010-12-11T15:08:41Z")
Considering thr fact thhat Shirley Phelps’s son Sam is illegitimate, I don’t see what gives her the right to cast stones. She thinks that she’s so holy. But she can’t even spell. The truth is that she’s whorey. With an “R” and not an “L.” And she’s going straight to hell. So you better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout, I’ll telling you why. Shirley Phelps is spreading her legs. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341/68 "2010-12-12T02:17:41Z")
Only 5 Westboro nuts showed up but 2 of them were kids. About 250 locals showed up to drown them out. MSNBC and CNN showed the funeral but I don’t think FOX showed any of it. CNN only showed parts. It was on locally too. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341/69 "2010-12-12T02:45:30Z")
Let us be quietly sad that another person, much like us, has died, and hope that before the end she was granted a moment of clarity in which she could see all her deeply-held faiths and deeply-held falsehoods held up against the truth and celebrate the similarities and accept the differences. Let us also be sad and hopeful for the other two-thirds-million or so who have also died, in either better or worse circumstances since, and also be sad and hopeful for ourselves, still waiting for that moment, and more, of the clarity we’re talking about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-elizabeth-edwards/563341.md?page=3)