Mark Halperin, author, talking head, 52 year old Harvard graduate, says that he understands from these accounts that my behavior was inappropriate and caused others pain. For that, I am deeply sorry and I apologize.
I'm sorry for the women in his life if it took five others to bring to his attention that which they have been watching forever. I'm bothered by the men in his life who watched and said nothing. And I'm annoyed that time will pass and he'll be back after his mea culpas have been swallowed up by the next sexy story.
Bush the Elder, former President, groped two women at a photo shoot. His spokesman released this statement:
At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures. To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke — and on occasion, he has patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely.In her dotage, G'ma, who never told a blue joke in her life, began to leer at the young male aides at the Old Folks Home. Her younger self would have been appalled. That younger self was expert at the Oh dear not again, Daddoooooo eye roll, the same one Barbara Bush gave Heather Lind when she heard, once again, that bad joke, that unfunny joke, that reminder that her husband was just a little bit off.
Do I understand him because it's familiar or because I think it's generational? I wonder if it's the reverse aging that comes toward the end, when your parents regress and become your children, replete with 3rd grade potty humor?
I'm not sure why. I believe the one, and I'm skeptical of the other. They were both wrong. Why I am willing to accept the sincerity in one case and not in the other remains a mystery.
Senior Bush appears senile and it's been going on for a while as there are quite a few women saying he groped them-- the excuse that it's all he can reach from the wheelchair doesn't hold water since groping is not patting. I wonder if he had a stroke and it impacted him. I've been around a lot of very old men and none did that.
ReplyDeleteWith all the stories coming out, it'd make a person feel all men were perverts except I don't know anyone in my family who would want to do what is being described by these yucky guys. Still, I remember years back a study of college men had 25% admitting they'd rape a woman if they could get away with it. And that's just the ones who admitted it. I talked about it to my son the other day and he said he didn't understand it at all as what enjoyment would there be in doing that. I think that's the case of most men-- but then there is that percentage, and power just seems to make them worse. Ick is all I can say about it-- and that it's not most men-- none who are close to me.
I, too, am surrounded by men who are appalled by the actions of some of their gender. It’s power and not sex or enjoyment.
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