Victims and heroes

Burt Prelutsky agrees with Ann Coulter's underlying point, which is that the Left likes to hide behind people who, through sheer sad and bad luck, lost their loved ones in the course of a well-publicized event, whether 9/11, the Iraq war, or Al-Zarqawi's sadism.  He then has this to say:

In America, we have a way of confusing victims with heroes. Part of it can be blamed on all the tabloid journalism that infests the popular media. Go on TV and spill your guts about your addiction to drugs, booze or sex, and you can count on the studio audience, and one assumes the folks at home, reacting as if you’d come up with a cure for cancer.

Or consider Coretta Scott King. For all I know, she may have been a nice woman. But the fact is, as Reverend King’s wife, she got to stay home with the kids while her husband ran off and, apparently with a regularity Bill Clinton couldn’t help but admire, cheated on her with other women. But no sooner was he killed than the widow got to assume the mantle of martyrdom, not to mention complete moral authority. She became not only the keeper of the flame, but the executor of his literary estate. And as such, the lady made people pay through the nose any time they wanted to quote a line from one of his speeches. Even, as I recall, once when the line was meant to appear on a memorial in his honor.

I hate to be cynical, but in her case, as with the Jersey Girls, widowhood proved to be a good career move.