Truth and consequences

The managing editor of the University of North Florida's student newspaper hanged himself in the newsroom on the morning of 19 September. Having worked in student publications for a number of years, I sympathize with the staff. But I'm struck by the distance between the staff's tributes to Richard O'Bryant -- almost all of which note with fondness hisis wit, impatience with grammatical errors, and well-developed sense of irony -- and the sentimental rubbish they wrote about him which would, no doubt, have made him gag. Doesn't he deserve something more than the prayers of a media adviser, hoping that "all these Richard stories as a mass of rose petals swirl toward heaven"? (And check out that sentence's grammar). Someone on that staff must be pissed off by his suicide. It would have been more honest to publish less pious testimonials: vengeful dismissals, fuck-yous, and the like. Prayers and thoughts of love do nothing to assuage grief, and they certainly don't honor his memory.