I am in
partial agreement with what she says, particularly with regards to Romney’s dismissal
of the incident. Bullying someone is not a prank, regardless of why you were
bullying them. Forcibly holding someone and cutting off their hair is not a
harmless prank. Romney made a serious mistake in dismissing it as such. And
that, to me, is why this story is important.
Should
Romney’s actions in high school be under scrutiny like this? I’d have to say,
no. High school bullies can see the error of their ways and grow as people,
just like we all do. However, we can’t put that cat back into the bag. The
story is out there, and Romney responded. And that is what is problematic.
Romney failed to recognize how potentially serious an incident
like that could have been. He literally laughed it off, while ‘apologizing’ for
it. Even if he didn’t actually remember the incident, he could have at least
discussed the seriousness of bullying, etc.
When Judy Shepherd said:
“This incident calls into question whether Mitt Romney can be an advocate for the nation’s most vulnerable children.”
I imagine she was probably
talking about the incident in high school. I would argue that really, it’s
Romney’s response to this incident that calls his ability to advocate for vulnerable
children into question.
This was also published at The
Good Men Project.
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