from The Washington Post via JMG
'John Lauber, a soft-spoken
new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his
nonconformity and presumed homosexuality.
Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection.
Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled. A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair.
Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground.
As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record.
Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be named.'
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| Little Mittsy Romney |
Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection.
Mitt, the teenaged son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled. A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair.
Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground.
As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record.
Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be named.'
Mitt Romney's spokespeople claim he doesn't "recall" this incident that at least five of his classmates do. But, he giggles and recalls the "pranks" he pulled in high school.
He giggles when told the story of another student at his school, a young closeted gay man who, whenever he spoke up in class, Little Mittsy the Bully would say, "Atta girl."
Mittsy laughs as he, sort of, remembers that story.
Does this make him non-presidential?
Well, it's one of the many reasons he should never be president. But, what it shows is that he has a longstanding anti-LGBT slant, and, as a young boy, was not afraid to act on it.
And for him to giggle and chortle about it now, and call it a prank, and then mutter some half-assed apology, is disgusting.
People change--no one more than Mittsy who never met an issue he didn't love and then hate and then love again--but this is a character flaw in Mittsy that was evident 48 years ago, and still evident today.
He doesn't like gay people.
That was not a prank, that was not hijinks - that was assault.
ReplyDeleteLike all bullies, it was just "prank" to the victim it was an assault that haunted this man for the rest of his life.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course he doesn't remember this incident, because like all abusers he can't own his behavior.
he looks like a jerk
ReplyDeleteThis story is brought to you by Etch-a-Sketch.
ReplyDeleteIn President Obama’s first memoir, “Dreams From My Father”, he recounts an incident which occurred while he was in middle school. When our president became the subject of taunts from his fellow classmates, he decided to shove a little girl named Coretta. As he recounts, he pushed and shoved this defenseless little girl until she was chased away while he and other boys laughed at her. Although he chronicles his feelings of regret in the book, he has never offered her an apology or apologized for this incident.
ReplyDeleteWhat does this incident mean? Nothing. Nothing at all. People change- Romney himself admitted that the love of his wife and his missionary work overseas made him a better person. I'm sure Obama no longer eats dog and shoves around little girls.
On the other hand, we do know Obama's record as President for the last 4 years- let's vote on that.
Whom. Shoving a girl and detailing regret, versus not remembering & brushing off mean ass sit as "youthful high jinks" while chuckling.
ReplyDeleteSomething tells me the later just might be worse.
And on the record front, Romney will be the first to note that it's soooo unfair to associate job losses at the start of a term with the in coming executive.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/30/1095931/-Mitt-Romney-defends-lousy-jobs-record-by-saying-he-inherited-recession