Edwards *patted a woman on the head*? Good grief!

[Mairead]

NY POST - Senator John Edwards lost some votes in the disabled community the other night when he failed to provide a sign language interpreter during a speech in Rochester, and then patted a wheelchair-bound woman on the head. "It seems that Sen. Edwards lacks disability etiquette," Debbie Bonomo, who has cerebral palsy, said in a news release from the Center for Disability Rights. "Just because I am a woman who uses a wheelchair does not mean anyone should be patting me on the head. That is so 1950s."

(picked up from www.prorev.com)

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. Recycled, Day 2. n/t

[patricia92243]

2. Sarcasm-he should be made to marry her- he de-flowered her by touching her

head. Silly!

[KamaAina]

3. Here ya go...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=391350&mesg_id=391350

oh, and why is the Post using the term "wheelchair-bound"? She "uses a wheelchair".

Oh, right, it's the Murdoch cat box liner. Silly me.

The sad thing is that Sen. Edwards really only did what most Americans probably would have done. Yeesh.

[atre]

17. That's if you assume that this is even true

which I do not.

[KamaAina]

21. It was first reported in the local Rochester paper

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0224GV3CJTC_news.shtml

The Murdoch rag that gets all stuck to the bottom of your shoes in the subway was merely picking up the story. Can't blame you for being skeptical of them, though!

[AP]

4. Debbie Bonomo is an activist looking for confrontation.

I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but this women almost definitely went to this event interested in getting publicity for her group. I suspect she went there looking for trouble so that she could get in the press and raise awareness for her issues. Of course, everyone who doesn't like Edwards is going to give her all the press she wants.

Here's background on her group (notice that their newletter is called "Incitement" & that it's "published three or four times a year, usually following a major ADAPT action or event" -- I wonder if this one qualifies):

They went to both Republican and Democratic Committees to present the demands and a copy of MiCASSA. The Committees took the info and their Heads signed letters stating that they received the copy of MiCASSA, the demands, would read through it and schedule a meeting within two weeks time.

Debbie Bonomo and “Wrong-Way” Bruce Darling got Rochester ADAPT folks to both party headquarters. The Republican staff person who had not returned calls on support for MiCASSA found herself facing people who didn’t like having calls left unreturned. The staffer mentioned that she recognized our group. “Hadn’t we protested Hillary Clinton?” We responded that THEY could be next. They agreed to contact Bush’s campaign headquarters and expected Republican Senatorial candidate Guilianni. While at the Democratic Headquarters discussing our concerns and faxing our demand list to the national office, we got an emergency call to negotiate the release of one of our group from a nursing home. They couldn’t believe the hassle we were being put through in order to get our friend out and back into his own home.

http://www.adapt.org/incitement/incspr00tx.html

[no name no slogan]

33. So it's okay to confront and protest, as long as it's Repubs?

Nice double standard you got there. If somebody's not paying attention to what I'm saying, I will get in front of them any way I possibly can: Democrat, Republican, Green, Independent, Martian, whatever.

NO POLITICIAN is immune from this-- nor should they be. This is exactly what people NEED to do in this country when the "regular channels" don't work.

Maybe if we did a little more agitating, we wouldn't have had an election stolen from us by a little swindler from Texas and Connecticut.

[bigtree]

5. This doesn't look anymore of a legitimate issue than it did last night

on Fox News.

[Uzybone]

6. Much ado about nothing

sounds like something the media would have used against Gore in 2000.

[spooky3]

8. I agree. I said yesterday that unless I saw him do this, I

would not put any stock in the story. Now I am glad to have more info that backs up my questioning the story.

[Fridays Child]

7. If he hasn't done so, already, Kerry should apologize and thank her...

...for reminding him that such acts can feel demeaning. That would be graceful.

[Shanty Oilish]

9. Not Kerry, Edwards

...and then he morphed into John Kerry! ;)

[bigtree]

12. :+

:+

[Fridays Child]

18. Oops, sorry!

:P

[JohnLocke]

10. DUPE

[PurityOfEssence]

11. Then he did a line drive to Tiny Tim's head with his own crutch

Cackling all the way. After which started speaking in tongues and yelling something like past-yeeks or beseech or nasteech and had to be restrained after stabbing the waiflike visually impaired pencil girl with the fifth pencil.

Tom Delay called him when he was under observation to congratulate him and ask him to switch parties.

Sad.

He coulda still won, too...

[kayleybeth]

13. Thanks for posting this

As the mother of a teenager with cerebral palsy, I gotta say Edwards' behavior-- if this story is accurate-- really pisses me off. Once in a while some asshole will treat my daughter that way- pat her on the head like she's a dog. Makes me want to slap some sense into them. The VAST majority of people know better or just plain have better manners than to treat a human being in such a demeaning way. You'd think Edwards, having represented people with disabilities throughout his career, would freakin' know better. I sincerely hope this story is not true.

[citizen snips]

14. As a teenager.

I am a teenager I don't give damn anymore about these nasty attacks on Edwards.

[kayleybeth]

20. My post was not a "nasty attack on Edwards"

It was legitimate criticism from a parent of someone who's been a direct recipient of the type of behavior Edwards allegedly displayed.

I am not an Edwards basher and I have no particular preference of candidates since Clark left the race. But if the story about Edwards is true, it is disgraceful and he deserves to be called on it.

[Padraig18]

23. 'Allegedly' and 'if'.

2 EXTREMELY important words to remember when reading this kind of stuff.

[kayleybeth]

26. Thus my inclusion of

the words "allegedly" and "if". :eyes:

[californiahippie]

15. Well maybe she was a good girl ...

ROFL!

(oops, edited because I didn't see she was handicapped, sorry about that)

[TheBigDemo]

16. Yes I heard this too. It makes me angry. However, I don't think

Edwards did it to be demeaning. So I do like Edwards still. But it does show that he out of touch with what is polite and the possible needs and concerns of the disabled. This rules Edwards out of the possible choices for me and did play a role when I picked Kucinich last night in the Primary. In my county, Edwards and Kucinch were nearly tied for second on the first count. After this, most the Dean people that didn't make 15% and the uncommitted people, like me, went Kucinich.

[atre]

24. -deleted message-

nevermind.

[Mairead]

19. My point, people, is that it was an *incredibly* tactless thing to do

Particularly for a successful trial lawyer whose stock-in-trade is not making really minging gaffs of that kind.

To touch a strange adult at all, unasked, is a boundary violation. To pat an adult on the head (as opposed to the back, shoulder, or arm) is to treat them like a small child, because even the average 10-y.o. will resent head-patting. Since wheelchair users are typically infantalised to a fare-thee-well anyhow, the most charitable possible way to construe Edwards's gaffe is as a psychotic lapse.

(Twenty years on, I can still clearly remember being out one day with a wheelchair-using friend. Carol wanted to pick up something, so we went into a shop for it. The damned clerk then treated Carol--a 40-ish engineer--as though she were not only not the principal in the transaction, but incapable even of participating! About the fourteenth time that clerk addressed a question to me rather than Carol, I had all I could do not to grab and shake her til her empty head fell off. And except for a tendency to sarcasm I'm quite a gentle person by nature.)

[AP]

22. Read post 4 and tell me whether you totally trust this woman's

characterization of the situation.

It's not even clear from the story if she's claiming that he did it to her, or if she saw him do it to someone else, and, for a such a serious accusation, it's interesting that they don't have a second person confirming that it happened.

And I should also note that if I were worried about Edwards winning, I'd want to drive a wedge between him and this specific demographic because the nature of what he did professionally before he went into politics.

There have be signs at DU of this very wedge issue a brewing for months despite no real solid argument that Edwards is weak on this issue (and when, quite to the contrary, nobody is really stronger in terms of actually getting something done beyond lip service for this community).

In fact, in the first chapter of Four Trials there is a VERY compelling portrayal of how Edwards treats people in wheel chairs. In fact, if I were working against Edwards, I'd go out of my way to plant a very different seed in people's minds, and this is what this story is all about.

[Mairead]

28. Well, fwiw, there are this

As for patting people in wheelchairs on the head, spokesman Colin Van Ostern said, “I’m sure his interaction with them was intended to be respectful.”

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0224GV3CJTC_news.shtml

That certainly sounds like a spokespersonly attempt to defuse things, and the alleged act sounds like an unlikely thing for people to invent.

On the other hand, all the reports seem to originate from that one source, which doesn't sound good--you'd think someone else could confirm, if it's true. Of course, by the same token you'd think someone could disconfirm it if it's false.

[spooky3]

29. The spokesperson is not confirming anything.

He may not have even been present, so he is simply making a general statement.

I thought this story sounded suspicious the first time I heard it. I DO think it is a thing that people could invent if they have a particular agenda, and unlike offensive words, many people present might not know whether a "head-pat" did or did not occur. Obviously, since I wasn't there, I don't know for certain, but the burden of proof should be on the accuser here as it always is in other situations. I have yet to hear Edwards say that he did do this.

[Padraig18]

25. IF he did it.

Is there a film? Independent witnesses? This was debunked yesterday, and yet here it is again...:eyes:

[kayleybeth]

27. Debunked?

Edwards' campaign apologized for any inconveniences, saying the campaign doesn't bring an interpreter on the road. They added that many people, handicapped or not, had a hard time getting access to the speech because of the large crowd.

As for patting people in wheelchairs on the head, spokesman Colin Van Ostern said, "I'm sure his interaction with them was intended to be respectful."

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0224GV3CJTC_news.shtml

Doesn't sound to me as if they are even denying it.

[spooky3]

31. They are acknowledging

that they couldn't afford to bring an interpreter. If Colin wasn't there, how can he affirm or deny whether this alleged "head patting" took place?

The burden of proof is on the accuser, not on Edwards to prove the non-existence of an event. This is beginning to sound like unfair criticism of Kerry about the "intern".

[bluedog]

30. well, bush

wiped his glasses off on a womans skirt when he was on TV and the gov of Texas...

[JVS]

32. Maybe he was attempting a faith-healing

[robbedvoter]

34. Local paper coverage

Edwards rankles area disabled
Joseph Spector
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/forprint/0224GV3CJTC_news.shtml
Staff writer
(February 24, 2004) — The Center for Disability Rights knocked Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards’ speech in Rochester, saying Edwards didn’t have sign language interpreters and instead patted the heads of people in wheelchairs.
“It seems that Sen. Edwards lacks disability etiquette,” Debbie Bonomo, who has cerebral palsy, said in a news release. “Just because I am a woman who uses a wheelchair, does not mean anyone should be patting me on the head. That is so 1950s.” more...