And so today we here note: Rep. Erik Paulsen has publicly called attention--multiple times now--to the great platonic intimacy he feels he shares with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
If you were severely disabled as the result of a madman's attack, would you like high-status people to publicly offer their love to you--and to publish photographs of themselves alongside pre-injury you?
I don't claim to know which alternative thinking people ought to prefer--though I do hold that respectable opinion can encompass the view that it is reprehensible (of the high status love-giver) to engage in such behavior--as it cannot help but be viewed as political, when publicly broadcast.
And that, by the bye, is this writer's opinion--that it is disgusting when Rep. Paulsen preens on so.
The 2011 Tucson shooting was a great tragedy. If public policy lessons are to be drawn from it, bring on the suggestions. But let us take heed: We live in an era that expects the crime victim to engage in public interviews after having been shot in the head.
A congressman gladly accepts a flattering supporting role in the made-for-tv remarkable recovery narrative.
To the dustbin!
Might it not be more dignified to keep one's statements to the Giffords in confidence?
