I know, the “Dick Cheney’s got a gun” story has been done to death (pardon the pun, and I wish Mr. Harry Whittington a full and speedy recovery), but the only way to eliminate temptation is to surrender to it.
I’m a teacher and I seek out “teachable moments”–and I found in Mr. Cheney’s recent Elmer Fuddian misadventures a VERY teachable moment.
More below the fold.
“Ultimately I’m the guy who pulled the trigger that fired the round that hit Harry.”
This is Vice President Dick Cheney’s “mea culpa” during his “interview” on the Fox “news network”–assuming responsibility (sort of) for shooting his hunting companion, 78-year-old Harry Whittington, during a hunting trip in Texas. Cheney had refused public comment for several days after the interview, but “ultimately” bowed to public pressure and gave his half-hearted confession on the Republican Party’s official propaganda channel.
(The entire sordid story is here: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=59986)
My students and I parsed Cheney’s sentence today to see how it provides psychological distance from responsibility for the act. The comparison/contrast sentence was–
“I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy.” (That Bob Marley was a mensch!)
Oh, by the way, my lovely wife (who is an excellent physician but NOT a good driver) knocked over one of our neighbour’s flower planters. This is how I told her to break the news:
“Ultimately, I’m the woman who was holding the steering wheel of the car that rolled its wheel over the flower planter.”
Because taking responsibility is the ADULT thing to do.
Well, she’s not actually going to tell the neighbour directly–she’s going to wait a few days and then tell the publisher of a small local newspaper, who will publish a tiny classified advertisement on page sixteen which my wife hopes our neighbour will read.
Cross-posted at http://thebloggingcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/