Oh, those Hall of Fame things...
Several (actually, many) years ago, I remarked within earshot of someone deeply involved with the National (USA) Sprint Car Hall of Fame that I thought it was a travesty that Bill Cummings was not included in their roster, and the person subsequently encouraged me to put forward an official request, complete with a short (?) resumé of his career, to which I retorted that he was missing my point: someone of Cummings's stature wouldn't need a recommendation, least of all by me. That conversation didn't get very much farther, but at least someone listening in took me aside a little while later and explained: they are not interested in "dead history" - Halls of Fame do revel in admitting living members, with all the pomp and circumstance that goes with an induction, but are completely (and I mean: COMPLETELY) ignorant and blasé about deceased heroes of our sport.
My advice to Simon, and to you, Darren: let it go... it's not worth the effort.
Michael, Michael, Michael, I expect a level of deep cynicism, Nitzscheism or Heideggerian philosophizing from you, but the level of internet defeatism displayed here by you suprises even me And yet, Bill Cummings is in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, so...
The rest of the points you and Don make are well taken. However, to me, this doesn't mean to throw ones hands up and simply walk away. Even less so with sneering disdain. Look, there's likely no one here more crippled by Nihilism than I, particularly when it comes to my interests, and none of those more than motorsports. I have reached a point and situation in life where everything seems utterly pointless, and most things involving motorsports, even more so. But, if you're a voting member, you can do your part to correct that. And so long as the particular "Halls" don't pointedly instruct voters to tow that line about inducting living members, nothing's stopping them from doing so either. So this seems even beyond the normal deep cynicism from you (Full disclosure, like Don I am a voting member for a HoF, and probably should be on others. I routinely vote for "dead guys." So far, no one has stripped me of my voting membership.)
Besides, when it comes to Halls of Fame, it could always be worse. Like a Hall of Fame that inducted Jeff Gordon's stepfather, I assume so he would join their board of directors. He was inducted as a "builder", despite having built what exactly?, I'm not sure. That he was inducted ahead of - to this point - 49 others, including George Snider, Dick Atkins, Dave MacDonald, Rick Mears, Mike Bliss, Billy Wilkerson, Howard Kaeding, Frank Secrist, Walker Evans, Joe Leonard, Scott Pruett, Mickey Thompson, Fred Agabashian, George Bignotti, Bill Cheesbourg, Bill Vukovich, Bob Sweikert, Marshall Sargent, George Follmer and some short track standouts you might not be familiar with, well that's beyond farcical, it's a travesty.
Edited by Jim Thurman, 18 June 2021 - 20:27.