Print
Return to online version

September 17, 2007

"Shame!"

Justin Katz

Mark Steyn solves the problem of our lack of general consensus about what to shout at speakers who deserve remonstration:

This year I marked the anniversary of September 11th by driving through Massachusetts. It wasn't exactly planned that way, just the way things panned out. So, heading toward Boston, I tuned to Bay State radio colossus Howie Carr and heard him reading out portions from the official address to the 9/11 commemoration ceremony by Deval Patrick, who is apparently the governor of Massachusetts. 9/11, said Governor Patrick, "was a mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States."

"Mean and nasty"? He sounds like an over-sensitive waiter complaining that John Kerry's sent back the aubergine coulis again. But evidently that's what passes for tough talk in Massachusetts these days — the shot heard around the world and so forth. Anyway, Governor Patrick didn't want to leave the crowd with all that macho cowboy rhetoric ringing in their ears, so he moved on to the nub of his speech: 9/11, he continued, "was also a failure of human beings to understand each other, to learn to love each other."

I was laughing so much I lost control of the wheel and the guy in the next lane had to swerve rather dramatically. He flipped me the Universal Symbol of Human Understanding. I certainly understood him, though I'm not sure I could learn to love him. Anyway I drove on to Boston and pondered the governor's remarks. He had made them, after all, before an audience of 9/11 families: Six years ago, two of the four planes took off from Logan Airport, and so citizens of Massachusetts ranked very high among the toll of victims. Whether or not any of the family members present last Tuesday were offended by Governor Patrick, no-one cried "Shame!" or walked out on the ceremony. Americans are generally respectful of their political eminences, no matter how little they deserve it.

Let's all agree on "Shame!" as the voice from the crowd when the crowd is too polite (or deluded) to take the microphone away.

Comments

Yes, indeed. Good post, Justin.

My reaction to Governor Patrick's remark was only anger. It's interesting to hear the perspective of Mark Steyn, who certainly does not share the Governor's delusions about the 9/11 attacks.

Posted by: Monique at September 17, 2007 8:15 AM

Actually, with regard to Gov. Patrick, I think that "LAME!" might serve just as well as "SHAME!"

I think of Patrick as kind of an "accidental" Governor. Among the Dem hopefuls, A.G. Reilly self-destructed and kind of left an open field for Patrick. In the general, he ran at a time when the Republicans -- who held the Corner Office for 16 years -- did not have a strong dynamic candidate.

Face it, the media gave Patrick a pass for any number of reasons.

So he ends up Governor, without any real battle test and without the kind of previous experience in high office that would make him realize how stupid his 9-11 remarks would sound. It's just another in a string of rookie mistakes.

The good news for Patrick is that he has plenty of time to get better. The bad news is that, nine months in, he shows little sign that he recognizes his own weaknesses.

Posted by: brassband at September 17, 2007 8:33 AM

Compare Gov. Patrick's 9/11 coments to the vile and bigoted 9/11 coments made by the "kook right-wing heroes" The Revs
Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.Or the lies of Cheney/Bush and echoed by their felow Vietnam Draft-Dodger Don Carcieri

Posted by: scott at September 17, 2007 12:25 PM