#2 (reprinted editorial)
No news story I've seen so far has done this man justice, so this is my own take on the life, loves, public service and tragic demise of the late, lamented Mr Ben Martinez, of Chama, NM.
Now Mr Martinez was no saint, that much has been established; but how much of a sinner must one BE for the Catholic Priest officiating at your funeral to rant and rave things like "the Lord vomits people like Ben out of his mouth to hell"?
For a little perspective, Mr Martinez was 80 years old, and for the last year of his life he was in poor health. And while this may have prevented him from regularly attending mass, according to this priest, it did not prevent him from courting his "many mistresses", his low and violent outbursts when intoxicated, his utter disrespect for both civil and church authority, willingness to gamble, curse, fight, steal, and vandalize.
So for the better part of an hour, according to his family, the priest, using the finest epithets of both the Spanish and English tongues, cursed and condemned Mr Ben Martinez all the way from where his coffin was removed from the hearse to when the earth finally was being thrown upon it.
The epilogue for this tale, though, has yet to be written, as it is for the family of Mr Ben Martinez to decide. They are suing the priest, not for the defamation of Mr Ben Martinez, but for the defamation of his survivors, who must now pass through town with others wondering if their patriarch is indeed slow-roasting in a Catholic afterlife.
Let us raise a glass in the honor and memory of Mr Ben Martinez, wherever he resides. |
