Fresno State professor who mocked Barbara Bush’s death is getting a reality check

[GMDino]

(04-18-2018, 11:51 PM)Nately120 Wrote: Honestly, I'm just jealous that no one will get fired for the inevitable celebration of my death.

When a celebrity passes I will often make a "too soon?" joke on a page I run.  It's a tribute to Joan Rivers who use to do that all the time...and I like to make the point that just because someone was famous it doesn't mean their death is any more important than anyone else who died that day.  And also that death should be something so feared that we cannot make light of it.

I make exceptions: War heros, people who fought off a disease and lost, people held only in the highest esteem, etc.

I caught flack once for making a joke about the girl who played the youngest child on the "Partridge Family."  People took that one WAY seriously for some reason.

I did NOT make a comment on Barbara Bush because a) She seemed like a honest, fine woman b) She fought a disease c) I was being lazy.

There are plenty of things one could say to criticize the late Mrs. Bush, and those can be discussed in the future.  In the OP case it was entirely "too soon" and too crass a way of discussing her flaws.  She has a "right" to say what she wants.  Her place of employment, however, can enforce their own rules and punish her for them.

FTR: The guy I share the page with, who I have known and worked with since 1992, agree that whichever of us outlives the other there better be a good joke made!