Recently, outgoing Florida governor Charlie Crist has seen fit to use his power of governmental pardon to give the late Jim Morrison a get-out-of-jail-free card. Imagine it as a sort-of “sorry about having you arrested and sentenced to jail” present, forty years too late. While Doors fans like myself are pleased, The Doors themselves are not as pleased. The Doors say the pardon of Jim Morrison is a shame, because his record should have been wiped clean.
“Four decades after the fact, with Jim an icon for multiple generations – and those who railed against him now a laughingstock – Florida has seen fit to issue a pardon. If the State of Florida and the City of Miami want to make amends for the travesty of Jim Morrison’s arrest and prosecution 40 years after the fact, an apology would be more appropriate – and expunging the whole sorry matter from the record,” said an angry statement from the surviving members of The Doors. “And how about a promise to stop letting culture-war hysteria trump our First Amendment rights? Freedom of Speech must be held sacred, especially in these reactionary times.”
When I think about it their way, they’re right. Rather than simply brushing all this away, the matter should be resolved in the proper manner. The case was a witch-hunt from the very beginning; the whole sorry sordid state of affairs should have been thrown out long before Jim Morrison died.
Tags: The Doors, Jim Morrison, Charlie Crist, Florida, Miami, Jim Morrison pardoned by Florida, Jim Morrison’s pardon angers surviving doors, press releases, The Doors angry at Florida, music, rock and roll, false arrests, Doors, Florida governor’s pardon for Jim Morrison angers Doors musicians, Florida governor Charlie Crist
