Two Events In Tucson

[Geee]

Human Events:



Two events were held concurrently at the University of Arizona in Tucson on Wednesday night.

One of them was a memorial service for the dead and wounded from Jared Loughner’s rampage on Saturday. This event went quite well. The other was an embarrassing political pep rally, held before a mob of rowdy kids whose cell phone numbers were likely harvested by the Obama campaign at rock concerts in 2008.

There were some weird touches, like the rambling Indian ceremony performed at the beginning. No matter how authentic it might have been, it felt oddly ad-libbed. The university president hosting the speech seemed like he really wanted to leave the memorial service and join that pep rally.


The undisciplined audience was bad enough to provoke criticism from observers across the political spectrum, and that leads to some questions. It is said that the event organizers cannot be blamed for the behavior of the crowd. Is that really true? They staged this thing like a pep rally, complete with rush-week T-shirts bearing the rock-concert name of the event, “Together We Thrive.” Organizers could have prepared the crowd by insisting on silence during the speeches, and making sure the kids understood the gravity of attending a memorial service that would be viewed by the entire world.

One of the most emotional moments came when President Obama departed from his script to announce that wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords had opened her eyes… and he proceeded to work the line with hallelujah fervor, repeating it several times to juice up the crowd. There doesn’t seem to have been much effort to engineer an atmosphere of solemn dignity.

[pollyannaish]

This is excellent commentary. Last night's event left a very bad impression on me. It is really bothering me this morning.

[Pepper]

Funerally was one term.