An interesting story out of Miami, Florida this afternoon. You might recall how O.J. Simpson was going to write a book If I Did It that would have chronicled how he would have murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. The magnitude of the insensitivity was overwhelming and at the last moment, the publisher pulled the book.But, there was still a book.
Ends up O.J. had way too close of connections to the publisher. A court ruled that the publisher and O.J. were so closely linked that the book belonged to him, and as a result of the civil lawsuit he lost, the bankruptcy courts got a hold of If I Did It.
Fred Goldman, father of the deceased Ron Goldman, has made it a personal campaign to thwart Simpson's every move, which his is prerogative. I fault him not for this, I fault him for this:
The family of Ron Goldman has purchased the rights to O.J. Simpson's canceled book, "If I Did It," from a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee in a settlement reached Monday... The Goldmans want to rename the book "Confessions of a Double Murderer" and plan to shop it around.
I see and understand the importance of wrestling away the book from O.J. The man is a jackass to the nth degree. He should not in any way profit off these poor people's murders.
But, should the father of the deceased? Should Ron Goldman's dad really "shop around" this book?
The insensitivity issue is still prevalent. I don't know that I'm comfortable with that.
Photo from The Sydney Morning Herald
3 comments:
I'm torn on Fred Goldman.
On the one hand, he was a crusader determined to get to the truth and reveal Simpson for what he is: a fraud at the very least, a murderer at the worst. He had to know that, eventually, even if it took close to a decade, people would stop caring about OJ Simpson, as they have now. He's a punchline to everyone but Fred Goldman, whose visibility in Simpson's life is borderline obsessive.
At what point do you politely ask the man to move on? I think the vast majority of the American public believes Simpson killed Ron Goldman, and I can understand that the elder Goldman is insistent on not letting the world forget that. But what's getting accomplished here? Is he hoping to uncover new evidence or magically re-write the rules of double jeopardy, and finally get Simpson behind bars for good? It's not going to happen, and while I'm sure Fred prefers a more grisly fate for OJ, shouldn't he be satisfied that Simpson's life and career has turned into a public mockery?
Of course not, because his son is still gone, and that's horribly tragic. It's hard to say: "dude, get over it" when that's involved. But Fred Goldman's connection to the Simpson story has gone from being a byproduct (Lance Ito, Marcia Clark, Mark Fuhrman) of the story to a central figure, and I don't think he's going to be associated the way he'd like. Far be it from me to tell someone how to grieve, but I can't think this is healthy anymore. Just let Simpson be a loser and leave it at that.
That was a far more worthwhile post saying the same thing than as mine.
Well said.
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