Only Say Good Things!!

I do not know how much national coverage this story got, and I doubt that it was even a blip on the international radar - but in Miami it is a big deal.

Former Miami and Dade County Commissioner Art Teele killed himself last week. He spattered his brains all over the lobby walls of The Miami Herald. Needless to say, when a high profile politician shoots himself in the lobby of a major newspaper, it results in some headlines.

For those of you who do not live here, Art Teele was a crook. Just google his name and read some stories yourself. He was found guilty of accepting bribes, there are audio recordings of him making threats to police officers, he pulled strings so companies he had a stake in got fat county contracts - even if his companies were not the low bidder, and there are even reports from a free paper (which by the way has an excellent reputation for accurate in-depth investigative reporting) that Teele was involved with male and female prostitutes, drugs, and all sorts of other things.

There was nothing good about this man. He was a crook that STOLE MILLIONS from taxpayers. He killed himself because he was going to serve jail time, and could not deal with that fact. He was not going to get away with it.

Teele was able to stay in office mainly because he played the race card on voters. Teele was a black man, and represented areas where there are a lot of black voters. His supporters did not want to hear any bad things about him, they were convinced he was doing positive things for them. Not that Teele was the only crook in office, it is just that the other crooks would move on to bigger and better things, or the bad press would cause them to loose an election so some other crook could take over.

but after Teele killed himself, people protested. What did they protest? Who did they blame? Whose fault was all of this? Obviously it was the newspaper! Had the newspaper just not printed anything, Teele would still be alive today! How DARE the media to report news! The man is dead now, and it is their fault.

People have protested both the Miami Herald and the New Times. They have protested the police. They have protested the State Attorney. Basicly, anyone who had anything to do with the investigation into Teele are being blamed for his suicide.

Another thing being said is that ONLY good things should be said from this point on, because Teele has children. Excuse me?!?! We should not say that the man was a crook who STOLE from the public because he has kids? We should lie, and cover up the truth, and condemn the media, because of what?!?!

The people who are protesting are also victims here - their tax money was stolen too. But they do not see this. I do not know what they see, but apparently it is something not in line with reality. The man they voted for and supported WAS A CROOK, and still would be a crook if he had not blown his brains out. And Art brought all this on himself by being a crook, NOT the newspaper. Had the man choose an honest life, he would have never been under investigation.

But forget all that. We should only say good things about him now. We should forget the rather long list of bad things.

And if Hitler had children, what then? Would the same logic apply, or would it be OK to print the truth about him?

I think this is bullcrap. Just because you die does not mean you deserve a flowery eulogy from everyone. Anything good he did (not everything he did was bad) was wiped out by his criminal activity. He made his own legacy, not the newspaper.