(Cross posted from my blog.)
Much has been made in the liberal blogosphere about the "sincere apology" offered by Chris Reichert, the "gentleman" wearing the white shirt and tie who threw money at Dr. Bob Letcher at the Tea Party Rally in Columbus, Ohio, a month ago. The opinion on the liberal blogs seems to run from "everyone makes mistakes" to "he got caught up in the moment" to "well, at least he apologized," to "he can take his apology and stick it where the sun doesn't shine."
Here’s a clip from the Columbus Dispatch news story about this "apology."
"I snapped. I absolutely snapped and I can’t explain it any other way," said Chris Reichert of Victorian Village, in a Dispatch interview.
In his first comments on an incident that went viral across the Internet and was repeatedly played on cable television news shows, Reichert said he is sorry about his confrontation with Robert A. Letcher, 60, of the North Side. Letcher, a former nuclear engineer who suffers from Parkinson’s, was verbally attacked as he sat before anti-health care demonstrators in front of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s district office last week.
"He’s got every right to do what he did and some may say I did too, but what I did was shameful," Reichert said. "I haven’t slept since that day."
"I made a donation (to a local Parkinson’s disease group) and that starts the healing process."
Earlier this week, Reichert, 40, denied any involvement in a confrontation featured in a Dispatch video that drew an emotional response from viewers across the country.
"I wanted this to go away, but it won’t and I’m paying the consequences," Reichert said.
So, does that constitute a sincere apology? Dr. Letcher wonders in an essay he sent to "My Parkinson’s Diary" earlier today.
Further "Finds" in the Video of T-people Acting Badly
toward an Old Guy Afflicted with Parkinson’s
by Robert A. Letcher, PhD
April 28, 2010
I send my thanks to Doral Chenoweth III, the camera guy from The Columbus Dispatch. His videoing of me at last month’s healthcare rally in Columbus helped to allow me to feel safe enough to risk sitting down in front of what felt like a boisterous bunch of T-people. Plus, it was his videoing of me for those 31 tumultuous seconds that—quite unexpectedly—brought my "15 minutes of fame", which explains why you are reading this note over my name, instead of doing something else that would otherwise have seemed more worthwhile to you;) Thanks again, Mr. Chenoweth.
But we have more to thank Mr. Chenoweth for. To see it, however, requires "sweeping" the several virtual cutting-room floors where the various shortened versions of his 2:31 original were made. And to do that, we need to be precise about which cuttings had fallen onto those various floors. That, in turn, requires that we be more precise about what did not show up on that floor.
One way to "get a handle" on that would be to allow ourselves to tighten the focus of Mr. Chenoweth’s video to the same extent as did the editors of the various "shorts" floating around the Internet. Many of those editors chose—understandably, from my point of view—to tell the story as "Incivility run amok: T-people show Bob Letcher how they would have democracy work". For that purpose, the story began at about the 0:51 mark and ran for those 31 seconds, ending at about 1:22 of Mr. Chenoweth’s "long version". Thus, the "cuttings" that would have been there to be swept up if anyone thought to do so are the first 51 seconds and the last 69 seconds.
And that’s where I looked this week, more than a month after the actual event. Guess who I found at the front of the "bill killers", only 9 seconds into the long version? Well, you can see for yourselves in this screengrab:
Yepp, he looks a lot like Mister "Cultivatedly Cold": crisp white shirt, tie, wrap-around sunglasses, white-sidewall haircut, and pen-in-pocket, who was featured in the shorts. Only he looks like he’s out front, leading. Hardly the newbie follower he later portrayed himself as being. Hardly the person who later tried the "I snapped" defense. Makes me wonder... Exactly when did he "snap"? How many times did he "snap"? Did he "unsnap", only to "re-snap" in time for the "short"?
With all that snapping and unsnapping and re-snapping going on, how could a person who was never quoted as saying either "I apologize," or "I am sorry."—and never said either directly to me, or to the millions of Americans whom his pure ugliness offended, or to the millions of people around the world who count on America as a symbol of relative decency in a sea of that same ugliness he exhibited—how could he even begin to claim to have been sincere in his apology? And wouldn’t an insincere apology be oxymoron?
Seeing him out in front of the group early on, and seeing him later, during the "short", pull an "AFP" sign from under his arm also makes me wonder again about whether his relationship with AFP might have been more than merely coincidental. And that makes me hesitant about accepting the disavowal issued subsequently by the AFP leader, claiming that there was no relationship between him and them. It also makes me wonder whether there might have been a hastily-convened conference call during the surprisingly long interim between the rally and AFP’s official disavowal, just to make sure that everyone involved knew which page they were talking from.
Does all of this make you wonder, too?
Yeah, Dr. Letcher. It does. Well, sorta. OK, not really. It seems to me that this oaf intended to be there, has probably been to rallies before, he knew all the talking points, and let’s face it — the video camera was NOT invisible so it seems likely he was playing to the camera when he threw the money at you.
Let’s remind ourselves of the scene by reviewing the video evidence.
Now, I understand it is in the progressive nature to be kind, understanding and forgiving. But let us NEVER excuse the kind of behavior Reichert and the other teabaggers showed in this clip. Let us REMIND the rest of the country — at EVERY OPPORTUNITY — of what kind of people want to "take the government back" from those who lawfully elected it! At every Democratic campaign rally, this video should be shown! Every time someone remarks that teabaggers are just patriotic freedom loving Americans, this video should be shown!
We need to REMIND America, time and time again, what the TEABAGGER vision of health care reform is!
Thanks again, Dr. Letcher, for your bravery and for using my humble blog as a conduit.