DON'T BOTHER TO DEFAME THE DEAD

That's touching Charles. You should speak at his funeral.

smoten.

I'll be sure to show West the same courtesy and respect in death he showed me in life, so in that spirit...

Enjoy Hell Jim! You sanctimonius self-hating bigot.

Forgive me if I somehow fail to shed a tear.

Charles Mudede, that was probably more poetic than anything West deserves... and yet just about perfect.

Another dreamy and poetic posting Charles. Thanks. You are by far the best poet in Seattle.

It will be interesting when West gets to heaven for the fianl talk, and Jesus introduces John the Beloved, with no holding back.

West will very surprised and dismayed, yes, you should have Jim.

Another wasted life consumed by self hating and loathing - the expected product of old times homophobia .... the deep, so deep closet.

Had West come out long ago, he migh have been the eastside version of Ed Murray.

Since he died from colon cancer, the obvious conclusion is that he died like his lived: a royal pain in the ass.

In the Roman Catholic church, there is the concept of purgatory, for those who were deemed not so evil as to deserve immediate eternal damnation, but also not good enough to be in God's presence. It implied that while they did evil while on earth, it was the result of "circumstances beyond their control" as the saying goes. It implied also that they were tortured souls, not merely evil, on the face of things. (As the mythology goes, when Jesus returns, those in purgatory get released and can finally "be in the presence of God.")
If indeed there is such a place as purgatory, I think perhaps Jim West is now there, along with the late Richard Nixon. Anyone who rents Oliver Stone's Nixon, will come to understand that Nixon was a sad, complicated soul; and there's enough "based-on-fact" in that movie, so one can understand why he was, such as he was.
Who really knows why Jim West was like he was. To call him pathetic or evil, just doesn't seem to come close to the mark.
Once, when he was still in the State legislature, I sent him an e-mail, at the urging of Planned Parenthood, asking him to consider re-instating monies in the State budget to teach teenagers how to avoid unwanted pregnancies. He had gone on record with some wacky reasoning, along the lines of "it would encourage promiscuity."
He responded; and while I forget exactly what he said, I do recall he implied that the monies were being spent to encourage a political agenda. Like most of us, I likely would never have imagined his own sad reality.
If nothing else, the political saga of Jim West shows that indeed, there is (sometimes at least) value in asking some questions about a politician's personal life, in an attempt to understand how, and why, he or she votes as they do - or would. P.S. If there is a heaven, surely actor Jack Warden is there now - RIP.