Thursday, January 13, 2011

Heavenly rain puddles

Washington Post political blogger and wunderkind Ezra Klein has a curious bone to pick.

He writes:
"For me, the one really false note in the president's speech last night came when he said, "If there are rain puddles in Heaven, Christina is jumping in them today." It was ... cheap, somehow. More like what you tell children when a pet dies than what you tell adults when a child dies. Or maybe it wasn't. I haven't had to talk to many parents in that situation."
Wow. I nearly fell out of my chair when I read that. A cheap “false note?” Really? Aren’t we over thinking this a wee too much, Ezra?

Obama’s gentle use of Christina’s fate as a poetic allusion for hope and idealism was, I think, the most poignant, humanizing aspect of the speech. Of all the victims, this little girl was the most innocent and least deserving of death. That it occurred haunts me. The image of her jumping in heavenly rain puddles, as Obama metaphorically painted it, is comforting. And that is precisely why Obama, a poet at heart, expressed it in those endearing terms. I’m certain America gets it and appreciates the sentiment.

It floors me that Klein clearly doesn’t. But I guess this is the occupational hazard of living and writing inside the hermetically sealed bubble of Washington. It will sap your human heart if you let it.

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