updated Aug 30, 2012; Nov 8, 2012
Two years ago, former attorney-general Michael Bryant, while driving his car in Toronto, was involved in an incident with the cyclist Darcy Sheppard, resulting in Darcy’s death.
On Saturday, August 18, Brian Crockett, Crown Attorney for Oxford County, was charged with impaired driving and failing to provide a breath sample. The Woodstock Police Department and the Fire Department responded to the call of a pickup truck in the ditch (Impaired Driver, Aug 19, 2012; Oxford County Crown Attorney, Aug 20, 2012).
Coincidentally, Michael Bryant, former Attorney-general of Ontario, has just announced the release of his new book, ‘28 Seconds: A True Story of Addiction, Tragedy and Hope,’ although public reception of it hasn’t been good. In it, he criticizes the Toronto Police for jumping in too fast to lay charges (Police reject Michael Bryant’s criticism, Aug 21, 2012). He was initially charged with criminal negligence causing death and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death (Bryant charged, Sept, 2009) but the charges were dropped.
One news report on Brian Crockett’s unfortunate incident congratulated the police on doing their duty and not simply letting Crockett off – hardly an expression of faith in our legal system (Kudos for cops in Crockett arrest, Aug 23, 2012). But seeing how Michael Bryant managed to escape due process and possible punishment leaves one wondering.
Obviously, the charges facing Brian Crockett are not even close to the severity of those Bryant had initially faced. The whole purpose of laying a charge of impaired driving – and being strict about it, even for first time offenders – is to lessen the chances of future incidents involving needless death due to impairment. Perhaps it is assumed that some people are likely to benefit more from punishment than others, for whom a one-off is really just that – a one-time incident that will never happen again.
One reader commented that she “supported” Brian Crockett, though what she meant by that isn’t clear, whether it meant she would be bringing him home-baked cookies if he ended up behind bars, or was trying to influence opinion. What she did was judge him on his reputation – his career, and his family and community standing. And just as it was with Michael Bryant, the claim was made that stress had something to do with it, as though it is only people with high status careers who feel such stress and whose lives are difficult. If this is the case, with Brian Crockett, perhaps being relieved of his duties might help (and also relieved of the $200,000 salary). Then he could partake of living a stress-free life, and use a bicycle and public transportation to get around on.
I know Brian Crockett has done good deeds, years ago helping those with little or nothing. Whatever happens now, making one mistake shouldn't have to result in a person's reputation or career being destroyed. I’m sure no one wants to see Brian Crockett be punished for lack of good judgment, if that’s what happened, but if one person escapes paying a penalty while another one is punished, for the same deed, then is that justice? Is it the deed that matters, or does social context (work, family, community) – and character - count just as much? See ‘If Michael Bryant should be judged on his merits, shouldn't we all?, May 26, 2010).
Added Aug 30, 2012
In December, 2005, while still living in the UK, where I had been doing a PhD, I started writing a blog, and one of the first pieces I wrote was about an entertainment writer – Nick Douglas - who had committed suicide (Taking action to prevent, or passively doing nothing, Dec 22, 2005). A magazine writer – Barry O’Kane - claimed afterwards that it was the actions of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HPFA) that had driven him to it, by taking away his livelihood (Golden Globes 'forced writer to suicide,' Dec 22, 2005).
In response, the HPFA claimed that it was simply untrue that Mr Douglas had been denied the opportunity to make a living as an entertainment journalist. And yet, taking away Douglas’s access to resources, and undermining his attempts to be reconized and gain access to important activities of the HPFA, in effect, did limit his capacity to make a living. Douglas was able to continue trying to make do, without the support of the members of the association he belonged to. But without their support, his efforts were almost guaranteed to fail.
Sometimes people like to pretend that a person’s ability to succeed at their career depends on merit, when the real truth is that the person’s social network, membership in the right organizations, and family and community status matter more. People in power may pretend they have done the right thing in allowing someone to continue to work, and may not be doing anything that would actively prevent the person from pursuing their career, but their passive approach could be enough to prevent that person from moving forward.
On reading Jennifer Wells’s article on Michael Bryant’s memoir, we learn that he said nothing to Mr Sheppard throughout the 28 seconds. “I didn’t want to provoke him in any way,” he says. “I didn’t say anything to him at all” (Michael Bryant’s memoir 28 Seconds, Aug 18, 2012).
And yet, isn’t it just this sort of passivity that can cause harm – at least misunderstandings – through lack of communication? What if Bryant had tried to talk to Darcy, to apologize for his car lurching forward, unintentionally, he says, as it had stalled. Why didn’t he explain this to the person who needed to hear it – Darcy Sheppard - instead of to readers of his book?
Which one is the victim, when we look at the story in its broadest terms? Who has been hardest done by, and whose life stagnates as the rich and powerful seek out ‘understanding’ and ‘justice,’ on their own behalf?
Additional information: added Nov 8, 2012
The Brian Crockett impaired driving case has ended, with a fine and a 12 month loss of driver’s licence for The Crown attorney (See Oxford Crown attorney Brian Crockett pleads guilty to impaired driving, London Free Press, Nov 7, 2012; Oxford Crown attorney Brian Crockett pleads guilty to impaired driving, Woodstock Sentinel-Review, Nov 7, 2012).
Another noteworthy case is that of Bonita Purtill, also coming out of Woodstock, which ended in Sept, 2012, with a 7 year prison sentence (see ‘The Bonita Purtill impaired driving case: unanswered questions and other matters’ Oct 17, 2012).
The Bonita Purtill impaired driving case: unanswered questions and other matters
By Sue McPherson
Sue’s Views on the News
Oct 17, 2012
http://suemcpherson.blogspot.ca/2012/10/the-bonita-purtill-impaired-driving.html
Bryant charged with criminal negligence after crash
ctvtoronto.ca
Sept 1, 2009
http://www.ctv.ca:80/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090901/fatal_collision_090901/20090901?hub=TopStories\
Court date set for Crown facing impaired charges
By Heather Rivers and Ron Thomson
Woodstock Sentinel-Review
Aug 22, 2012
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2012/08/22/court-date-set-for-crown-facing-impaired-charges
For Michael Bryant, an extraordinary kind of justice
By Christie Blatchford
Globe and Mail
May 25, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/christie-blatchford/for-michael-bryant-an-extraordinary-kind-of-justice/article1580911/
http://www.caledoniawakeupcall.com/updates/100525globe3.html
http://lists.von.ca/pipermail/fasd_canadian_link/2010-May/001763.html
Golden Globes 'forced writer to suicide' (added Aug 30, 2012)
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Independent online World News - Americas
Dec 22, 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article334669.ece
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/Miscellaneous/2005_Dec_GoldenGlobesForcedWriterToSuicide.doc
If Michael Bryant should be judged on his merits, shouldn't we all?
By Sue McPherson
Sue’s Views on the News
May 26, 2010
http://suemcpherson.blogspot.com/2010/05/if-michael-bryant-should-be-judged-on.html
Impaired Driver (link added Aug 26, 2012)
Excerpt from Media Release prepared by: S/Sgt Shelton
Woodstock Police Service
Aug 19, 2012
http://www.woodstockpolice.ca/images/19AUG12%20Media%20Release.pdf
Kudos for cops in Crockett arrest
By Andrea Demeer
Woodstock Sentinel-Review
Aug 23, 2012
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2012/08/23/kudos-for-cops-in-crockett-arrest
Michael Bryant and Darcy Sheppard: divided by class
By Sue McPherson
Sue’s Views on the News
Sept 10, 2009
http://suemcpherson.blogspot.ca/2009/09/michael-bryant-and-darcy-sheppard-class.html
Michael Bryant’s memoir 28 Seconds recounts tragic death of bicycle courier (added Aug 30, 2012)
By Jennifer Wells
The Star
Aug 18, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/1243483--michael-bryant-s-memoir-28-seconds-recounts-tragic-death-of-bicycle-courier
Oxford County Crown Attorney Brian Crockett faces impaired driving charge
By Ron Thomson
Woodstock Sentinel-Review
Aug 20, 2012
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/2012/08/20/oxford-county-crown-attorney-brian-crockett-faces-impaired-driving-charge
Police reject Michael Bryant’s criticism of probe into fatal 2009 incident
The Star
Aug 21, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/1244643--police-reject-michael-bryant-s-criticism-of-probe-into-fatal-2009-incident
Taking action to prevent, or passively doing nothing: is there a diffference? (added Aug 30, 2012)
By Sue McPherson
Sue’s Views on the News
Dec 22, 2005
http://suemcpherson.blogspot.ca/2005/12/making-living-or-not.html
4 August 2012
Here Comes the Judge: Lori Douglas (Manitoba)
The inquiry is examining whether Douglas should lose her job because she failed to disclose the matter of the photos and solicitation of sex partners when she was appointed a judge in 2005 (Blackmail risk kept Manitoba judge from prior appointment, July 27, 2012).
That is not the entire purpose of the inquest, but this will be the focus here. Lori Douglas is the name of the lawyer who eventually became a judge in 2005, after at least one attempt previously. Jack King is her husband, whose actions, apparently without her knowing of them, got her into a great deal of trouble. Alex Chapman is the name of the man - the black man – who King attempted to enlist to have sex with his wife, and to whom he showed photos of his naked wife. These are the main players in this scenario, with additional characters consisting of their lawyers and other members of the Judiciary and the legal system – as well as the media, without which we wouldn’t have a story at all. For a brief outline and interesting comments on the case see ‘Testimony expected today from man who complained about Manitoba judge in sexually explicit photos’ (July 16, 2012).
At the end of July, 2012, in the final session before taking a break for several months, until December, 2012, it was revealed that Lori Douglas had previously applied to become a judge, in 2003, before applying and being accepted in 2005 (Blackmail risk kept Manitoba judge, July 27, 2012). The first time, someone at the Judicial Affairs Commission, which was responsible for making the decision about Ms Douglas, discovered that nude pictures had been taken of Douglas and made public.
According to this CBC news article, “Manitoba Chief Justice Marc Monnin opposed Douglas's appointment because of the potential risk of embarrassment and blackmail” though who informed him and whether Ms Douglas knew herself about the photos at this time isn’t clearly stated in the article.
Two years later, when Ms Douglas once again went through the process to become a judge, she was required to disclose on the form if there was anything in her past that might embarrass the Judiciary. This same article (Blackmail risk kept Manitoba judge, July 27, 2012), doesn’t actually state whether she did or did not disclose this on the form, as required. She did, however, apparently have a confidential conversation about it with Margaret Rose Jamieson, executive director of appointments with the the Federal Judicial Affairs Commission (JAC) from 2003 to 2009. Margaret Jamieson, now retired, said she recalls Douglas told her at the time about photos “that may have been provided to someone or posted on the internet.”
Although Manitoba Chief Justice Marc Monnin had opposed Douglas's appointment due to the possible risk of embarrassment and blackmail, he withdrew his opposition in 2005 under the assumption that the photos “had been destroyed and the matter wouldn't resurface.”
Martin Freedman, Manitoba Appeal Court Judge and head of the Judicial Advisory Committee (JAC) in 2005, said that he had heard a few years earlier that photos of the naked Lori Douglas had been posted online, and heard about the sex solicitation, but apparently the original concerns of embarassment and blackmail had ceased to be, and Douglas was made a judge in 2005.
The claim that there was nothing of concern regarding Lori Douglas having anything she should disclose before her selection in 2005 to be a judge seems to be illogical. Supposedly acting on the belief that nothing would be raised that could embarrass the Judiciary, it was decided it was appropriate to make her a judge. And yet the selection process itself was conducted in a secretive manner, with no official form completed by Lori Douglas on which she declares potentially embarrassing events from her past, such as the photos online and the sex solicitation. It was only on the belief of certain officials of the JAC, rather than on the existence of potentially damaging material and events, that the final decision was made.
One very emphatic comment on this subject, of the potential for embarassment of the photos online, comes from ‘G P’, on July 28, 2012, following the article ‘Man. judge disclosed nude photos, inquiry hears’ (July 27, 2012):
“In assuming these photos ceased to exist because Chapman agreed to destroy the ELECTRONIC COPIES sent to him by King, those responsible for vetting Douglas demonstrate a jaw-dropping ignorance of how the Internet operates. The Internet consists of HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of computers around the world, all interconnected. Setting aside the mail servers used, when someone anywhere in the world, views a webpage, a copy, complete with pictures, is saved (cached) on multiple, intermediate servers, to reduce network latency and congestion. Those intermediate servers (and the path can change from one request to the next) are all backed up daily, as a matter of standard operating procedure. Deleting the photos from the original site has absolutely no effect on these cached and backup copies, reducing King’s hush money agreement with Chapman to absurdity. No custodian of an Internet server outside Canada cares about any pronouncement from a Manitoba judge. When the judge’s husband posted them on the Internet he, albeit unwittingly, put them in the public domain. Further, every viewer of a photo King posted had a copy cached on their local machine, automatically by their web browser, plus anyone who liked what they saw had only to ‘right-click, save’ to overtly preserve it for future enjoyment anytime they like, for as long as they choose. For the sake of brevity, I will simply say King’s distribution of the photos by unencrypted email compounds the number of machines with copies. Why is this an issue and why does it matter? It has been established that the existence of the photos was well known in the legal community, thus it was possible for any client to learn of their existence. If such a client was facing a huge distribution of assets and/or contentious child custody issues in a divorce before Judge Douglas, the fact the photos were thought to be secret for seven years left the judge vulnerable to blackmail from EVERY litigant in her court. To find the photos, one need only visit a few Internet chat rooms and discussion boards, anonymously through a proxy server, placing an ad offering $XXXX to anyone who could retrieve them. Even now, I bet I could get copies of the photos within a week, if the reward I offered was sufficient to arouse interest. Making the payment anonymously, the motivated litigant could send the photos to Judge Douglas by mail, maintaining end-to-end, plausible deniability, in case the blackmail effort should backfire” (GP).
I’m sure most people would agree. Once something is posted to the internet it can never be guaranteed that it will disappear completely. And it is this that makes the decision to allow Lori Douglas to become a judge at all seem naïve, or uncaring of the implications of such secrets having to be kept.
It’s easy to say that a person’s personal sex life is nobody’s business, and that what the judge does has no effect on how well she does her job, but we do live in a society that is governed by people’s conformity to norms. While these have changed greatly over the years, the fact is, they exist.
People might heap praise upon the judge, for example, Vivian Hilder, law prof at the University of Manitoba, who wrote in an email that “Lori's professional reputation in my opinion is that she was a top notch family lawyer, is a good negotiator, was a good choice as a Family Division judge when she was appointed and has been a good judge in the Division to date” (Lori Douglas sex scandal inquiry, July 27, 2012). But is it her ability that is in question, or her credibility?
Even if she is found innocent of any attempt to deceive the JAC, after having such photos of herself displayed and her sexual activities made public, is it possible that she would be treated with respect, by the defendants and witnesses in cases she oversees in the future?
This case is about more than just her sex life being an open book. It’s about women’s sex lives being treated like men’s, even though they’re not the same, and even though photos of naked women are much more profitable and desirable and subject to humiliation and/or reward than photos of naked men.
There’s more of a double standard in this area than any other I can think of, and yet . . . . are we ready for this? In one article, the traumatized Alex Chapman tells how difficult the entire process has been, reminiscent of times when women had trouble having their cases of sexual assault and harassment heard (Manitoba judge sex inquiry called 'bloody coverup,' July 17, 2012.)
Something I have noticed among the general population, is that those who are most sexually active often have a heightened sense of themselves as superior to those who aren’t, and often have little understanding of or appreciation for people who are not sexually active. I am reminded of the abortion movement, which for some time was called the Pro-abortion movement, then changed to ‘pro-choice’ which is what it should be about, with neither side - the pro-choice or pro-life - being ‘better’ than the other.
In a similar way, being sexually liberated shouldn’t automatically mean being sexually active or even actively promoting sex for others. Rather, it should mean being aware of what’s right for you at any given time of your life, and being respectful of others’ choices, limitations, and needs and desires. Unfortunately, life’s not like that.
In the case of the judge Lori Douglas, the Judiciary didn’t disapprove of her sex life. They disapproved of it being made public. So is this an example of a woman gaining favour through her sexual activities, or someone who is being punished because of them? Is a rap on the knuckles enough?
What would a solution look like that was neither of these two – neither a favour nor a punishment? Or could it be both?
Blackmail risk kept Manitoba judge from prior appointment
CBC News
Jul 27, 2012
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2012/07/27/mb-judge-sex-scandal-inquiry-manitoba.html
Lori Douglas sex scandal inquiry: Manitoba judge and husband Jack King known as standout Winnipeg lawyers
By Josh Tapper , Staff Reporter
The Star
July 27, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1233159--lori-douglas-sex-scandal-inquiry-manitoba-judge-and-husband-jack-king-known-as-standout-winnipeg-lawyers
Man. judge disclosed nude photos, inquiry hears
The Canadian Press
CTV News
July 27, 2012, updated July 28, 2012
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/man-judge-disclosed-nude-photos-inquiry-hears-1.895203
Manitoba judge sex inquiry called 'bloody coverup'
yahoo.com - CBC News
July 17, 2012
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/manitoba-judge-sex-inquiry-gets-tense-171434157.html
Testimony expected today from man who complained about Manitoba judge in sexually explicit photos
The Canadian Press
National Post
July 16, 2012
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/16/testimony-expected-today-from-man-who-complained-about-manitoba-judge-in-sexually-explicit-photos
Additional sources
Canada’s Bondage Judge Faces Judicial Inquiry This Month
By Georgialee Lang
O.Canada.com
May 2, 2012
http://o.canada.com/2012/05/02/canadas-bondage-judge-faces-judicial-inquiry-this-month-2/
Jack King falls on his sword over nude photos of judge wife - plus comments
By Christie Blatchford
National Post Full Comment
July 24, 2012
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/07/24/christie-blatchford-jack-king-falls-on-his-sword-over-nude-photos-of-judge-wife/
Judge sex controversy lawsuit quashed
Nov 16, 2010
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2010/11/16/mb-lawsuit-judge-sex-photos-winnipeg.html
Manitoba judge upfront about nude photos when screened for bench, judge testifies
Winnipeg — The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
July 27, 2012
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/manitoba-judge-upfront-about-nude-photos-when-screened-for-bench-judge-testifies/article4444288/
Man. judge disclosed nude photos, inquiry hears
The Canadian Press
July 27, 2012, last updated July 28, 2012
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/man-judge-disclosed-nude-photos-inquiry-hears-1.895203
Man says he never talked sex with Manitoba judge in naked photos case
Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press
The Star
July 17, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1227675--complainant-says-he-never-talked-sex-with-manitoba-judge-in-naked-photos-case
Manitoba judge sex inquiry called 'bloody coverup'
yahoo.com - CBC News
July 17, 2012
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/manitoba-judge-sex-inquiry-gets-tense-171434157.html
Nude photo controversy was 'well-known' in Manitoba's legal community, husband says
By Steve Lambert
Winnipeg — The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
July 25, 2012
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nude-photo-controversy-was-well-known-in-manitobas-legal-community-husband-says/article4440460/
Photos of Manitoba judge beyond sadness
By Heather Mallick, Columnist
The Star
July 24, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1231212--mallick-photos-of-manitoba-judge-beyond-sadness
Testimony expected today from man who complained about Manitoba judge in sexually explicit photos plus comments
The Canadian Press
National Post
July 16, 2012
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/16/testimony-expected-today-from-man-who-complained-about-manitoba-judge-in-sexually-explicit-photos
That is not the entire purpose of the inquest, but this will be the focus here. Lori Douglas is the name of the lawyer who eventually became a judge in 2005, after at least one attempt previously. Jack King is her husband, whose actions, apparently without her knowing of them, got her into a great deal of trouble. Alex Chapman is the name of the man - the black man – who King attempted to enlist to have sex with his wife, and to whom he showed photos of his naked wife. These are the main players in this scenario, with additional characters consisting of their lawyers and other members of the Judiciary and the legal system – as well as the media, without which we wouldn’t have a story at all. For a brief outline and interesting comments on the case see ‘Testimony expected today from man who complained about Manitoba judge in sexually explicit photos’ (July 16, 2012).
At the end of July, 2012, in the final session before taking a break for several months, until December, 2012, it was revealed that Lori Douglas had previously applied to become a judge, in 2003, before applying and being accepted in 2005 (Blackmail risk kept Manitoba judge, July 27, 2012). The first time, someone at the Judicial Affairs Commission, which was responsible for making the decision about Ms Douglas, discovered that nude pictures had been taken of Douglas and made public.
According to this CBC news article, “Manitoba Chief Justice Marc Monnin opposed Douglas's appointment because of the potential risk of embarrassment and blackmail” though who informed him and whether Ms Douglas knew herself about the photos at this time isn’t clearly stated in the article.
Two years later, when Ms Douglas once again went through the process to become a judge, she was required to disclose on the form if there was anything in her past that might embarrass the Judiciary. This same article (Blackmail risk kept Manitoba judge, July 27, 2012), doesn’t actually state whether she did or did not disclose this on the form, as required. She did, however, apparently have a confidential conversation about it with Margaret Rose Jamieson, executive director of appointments with the the Federal Judicial Affairs Commission (JAC) from 2003 to 2009. Margaret Jamieson, now retired, said she recalls Douglas told her at the time about photos “that may have been provided to someone or posted on the internet.”
Although Manitoba Chief Justice Marc Monnin had opposed Douglas's appointment due to the possible risk of embarrassment and blackmail, he withdrew his opposition in 2005 under the assumption that the photos “had been destroyed and the matter wouldn't resurface.”
Martin Freedman, Manitoba Appeal Court Judge and head of the Judicial Advisory Committee (JAC) in 2005, said that he had heard a few years earlier that photos of the naked Lori Douglas had been posted online, and heard about the sex solicitation, but apparently the original concerns of embarassment and blackmail had ceased to be, and Douglas was made a judge in 2005.
The claim that there was nothing of concern regarding Lori Douglas having anything she should disclose before her selection in 2005 to be a judge seems to be illogical. Supposedly acting on the belief that nothing would be raised that could embarrass the Judiciary, it was decided it was appropriate to make her a judge. And yet the selection process itself was conducted in a secretive manner, with no official form completed by Lori Douglas on which she declares potentially embarrassing events from her past, such as the photos online and the sex solicitation. It was only on the belief of certain officials of the JAC, rather than on the existence of potentially damaging material and events, that the final decision was made.
One very emphatic comment on this subject, of the potential for embarassment of the photos online, comes from ‘G P’, on July 28, 2012, following the article ‘Man. judge disclosed nude photos, inquiry hears’ (July 27, 2012):
“In assuming these photos ceased to exist because Chapman agreed to destroy the ELECTRONIC COPIES sent to him by King, those responsible for vetting Douglas demonstrate a jaw-dropping ignorance of how the Internet operates. The Internet consists of HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of computers around the world, all interconnected. Setting aside the mail servers used, when someone anywhere in the world, views a webpage, a copy, complete with pictures, is saved (cached) on multiple, intermediate servers, to reduce network latency and congestion. Those intermediate servers (and the path can change from one request to the next) are all backed up daily, as a matter of standard operating procedure. Deleting the photos from the original site has absolutely no effect on these cached and backup copies, reducing King’s hush money agreement with Chapman to absurdity. No custodian of an Internet server outside Canada cares about any pronouncement from a Manitoba judge. When the judge’s husband posted them on the Internet he, albeit unwittingly, put them in the public domain. Further, every viewer of a photo King posted had a copy cached on their local machine, automatically by their web browser, plus anyone who liked what they saw had only to ‘right-click, save’ to overtly preserve it for future enjoyment anytime they like, for as long as they choose. For the sake of brevity, I will simply say King’s distribution of the photos by unencrypted email compounds the number of machines with copies. Why is this an issue and why does it matter? It has been established that the existence of the photos was well known in the legal community, thus it was possible for any client to learn of their existence. If such a client was facing a huge distribution of assets and/or contentious child custody issues in a divorce before Judge Douglas, the fact the photos were thought to be secret for seven years left the judge vulnerable to blackmail from EVERY litigant in her court. To find the photos, one need only visit a few Internet chat rooms and discussion boards, anonymously through a proxy server, placing an ad offering $XXXX to anyone who could retrieve them. Even now, I bet I could get copies of the photos within a week, if the reward I offered was sufficient to arouse interest. Making the payment anonymously, the motivated litigant could send the photos to Judge Douglas by mail, maintaining end-to-end, plausible deniability, in case the blackmail effort should backfire” (GP).
I’m sure most people would agree. Once something is posted to the internet it can never be guaranteed that it will disappear completely. And it is this that makes the decision to allow Lori Douglas to become a judge at all seem naïve, or uncaring of the implications of such secrets having to be kept.
It’s easy to say that a person’s personal sex life is nobody’s business, and that what the judge does has no effect on how well she does her job, but we do live in a society that is governed by people’s conformity to norms. While these have changed greatly over the years, the fact is, they exist.
People might heap praise upon the judge, for example, Vivian Hilder, law prof at the University of Manitoba, who wrote in an email that “Lori's professional reputation in my opinion is that she was a top notch family lawyer, is a good negotiator, was a good choice as a Family Division judge when she was appointed and has been a good judge in the Division to date” (Lori Douglas sex scandal inquiry, July 27, 2012). But is it her ability that is in question, or her credibility?
Even if she is found innocent of any attempt to deceive the JAC, after having such photos of herself displayed and her sexual activities made public, is it possible that she would be treated with respect, by the defendants and witnesses in cases she oversees in the future?
This case is about more than just her sex life being an open book. It’s about women’s sex lives being treated like men’s, even though they’re not the same, and even though photos of naked women are much more profitable and desirable and subject to humiliation and/or reward than photos of naked men.
There’s more of a double standard in this area than any other I can think of, and yet . . . . are we ready for this? In one article, the traumatized Alex Chapman tells how difficult the entire process has been, reminiscent of times when women had trouble having their cases of sexual assault and harassment heard (Manitoba judge sex inquiry called 'bloody coverup,' July 17, 2012.)
Something I have noticed among the general population, is that those who are most sexually active often have a heightened sense of themselves as superior to those who aren’t, and often have little understanding of or appreciation for people who are not sexually active. I am reminded of the abortion movement, which for some time was called the Pro-abortion movement, then changed to ‘pro-choice’ which is what it should be about, with neither side - the pro-choice or pro-life - being ‘better’ than the other.
In a similar way, being sexually liberated shouldn’t automatically mean being sexually active or even actively promoting sex for others. Rather, it should mean being aware of what’s right for you at any given time of your life, and being respectful of others’ choices, limitations, and needs and desires. Unfortunately, life’s not like that.
In the case of the judge Lori Douglas, the Judiciary didn’t disapprove of her sex life. They disapproved of it being made public. So is this an example of a woman gaining favour through her sexual activities, or someone who is being punished because of them? Is a rap on the knuckles enough?
What would a solution look like that was neither of these two – neither a favour nor a punishment? Or could it be both?
Blackmail risk kept Manitoba judge from prior appointment
CBC News
Jul 27, 2012
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2012/07/27/mb-judge-sex-scandal-inquiry-manitoba.html
Lori Douglas sex scandal inquiry: Manitoba judge and husband Jack King known as standout Winnipeg lawyers
By Josh Tapper , Staff Reporter
The Star
July 27, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1233159--lori-douglas-sex-scandal-inquiry-manitoba-judge-and-husband-jack-king-known-as-standout-winnipeg-lawyers
Man. judge disclosed nude photos, inquiry hears
The Canadian Press
CTV News
July 27, 2012, updated July 28, 2012
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/man-judge-disclosed-nude-photos-inquiry-hears-1.895203
Manitoba judge sex inquiry called 'bloody coverup'
yahoo.com - CBC News
July 17, 2012
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/manitoba-judge-sex-inquiry-gets-tense-171434157.html
Testimony expected today from man who complained about Manitoba judge in sexually explicit photos
The Canadian Press
National Post
July 16, 2012
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/16/testimony-expected-today-from-man-who-complained-about-manitoba-judge-in-sexually-explicit-photos
Additional sources
Canada’s Bondage Judge Faces Judicial Inquiry This Month
By Georgialee Lang
O.Canada.com
May 2, 2012
http://o.canada.com/2012/05/02/canadas-bondage-judge-faces-judicial-inquiry-this-month-2/
Jack King falls on his sword over nude photos of judge wife - plus comments
By Christie Blatchford
National Post Full Comment
July 24, 2012
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/07/24/christie-blatchford-jack-king-falls-on-his-sword-over-nude-photos-of-judge-wife/
Judge sex controversy lawsuit quashed
Nov 16, 2010
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2010/11/16/mb-lawsuit-judge-sex-photos-winnipeg.html
Manitoba judge upfront about nude photos when screened for bench, judge testifies
Winnipeg — The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
July 27, 2012
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/manitoba-judge-upfront-about-nude-photos-when-screened-for-bench-judge-testifies/article4444288/
Man. judge disclosed nude photos, inquiry hears
The Canadian Press
July 27, 2012, last updated July 28, 2012
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/man-judge-disclosed-nude-photos-inquiry-hears-1.895203
Man says he never talked sex with Manitoba judge in naked photos case
Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press
The Star
July 17, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1227675--complainant-says-he-never-talked-sex-with-manitoba-judge-in-naked-photos-case
Manitoba judge sex inquiry called 'bloody coverup'
yahoo.com - CBC News
July 17, 2012
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/manitoba-judge-sex-inquiry-gets-tense-171434157.html
Nude photo controversy was 'well-known' in Manitoba's legal community, husband says
By Steve Lambert
Winnipeg — The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
July 25, 2012
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/nude-photo-controversy-was-well-known-in-manitobas-legal-community-husband-says/article4440460/
Photos of Manitoba judge beyond sadness
By Heather Mallick, Columnist
The Star
July 24, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1231212--mallick-photos-of-manitoba-judge-beyond-sadness
Testimony expected today from man who complained about Manitoba judge in sexually explicit photos plus comments
The Canadian Press
National Post
July 16, 2012
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/16/testimony-expected-today-from-man-who-complained-about-manitoba-judge-in-sexually-explicit-photos
8 July 2012
Ageism and Karen Klein: the school bus monitor incident in Greece, NY
The You Tube video of bus monitor Karen Klein, of Greece, NY, has been seen by over a million people (Karen Klein Bus Monitor video, 2012). The event made her a celebrity (see Bullied bus monitor Karen Klein, June 26, 2012). I have included mention of relevant articles and documents here – a point or two from each one – and my own views. Links to articles follow, listed alphabetically, by title.
On Monday June 18, while accompanying students on a school bus, Klein was harassed, through verbal demeaning and rude language, by four 13 year old Grade 7 boys (Bullied bus monitor rallies, June 23, 2012) Another student on the bus recorded the incident in a video lasting ten minutes, which was uploaded to You Tube, going viral.
Explanations
The incident raises many questions, about society, teenagers, bus monitors, not to mention the use of it in US politics to attempt to sway readers over to the Republican party, which questions why America’s citizens won’t stand up for themselves (We are true Americans, July 4, 2012). Another politically-oriented article, but with a different aim, suggests that bullying in politics, and between groups vying for power, is the same kind of bullying that Karen Klein experienced (Bullies on the Bus, June 22, 2012). If one did agree with Charles Blow’s ideas, one would also have to admit that the tendency to ‘bully,’ to ‘harass,’ or to ‘scapegoat’, did not start on the bus, or with 13 year-old boys. It started somewhere else, by more knowledgeable people, with more power.
The term ‘bullying’ is used frequently in various articles, supporting the idea that this was ‘bullying.’ But few address the kind of bullying it entailed, or question this description of the harassment Klein underwent. More detail about the events as they happened on the bus, and Klein’s own views, are explained in ‘Bus Monitor Bullies,’ Jun 12, 2012. One failing, however, is that there is no further discussion on the kind of bullying it was – the groups Klein was a member of, that were targeted.
I’m not convinced this was a typical case of ‘bullying,’ as news reports tend to call it. Neither was Barbara Kay, when she wrote ‘The bus tormenters are cruel, but not bullies,’ June 27, 2012, although we don’t share the same idea about what it was exactly that happened to Karen Klein. But this was no typical case of schoolyard bullying, one child bullying another. This was young teens harassing an adult woman - 68 years of age – an employee placed there to ‘monitor’ them. Calling it bullying is a misnomer! The comments following Kay’s piece offer a sampling of perspectives. But just how many of the articles about the harassment see it as a form of ageism?
Could it be that this incident was an instinctual response by young teenagers against a group most of society seems to be expressing hostility towards, these days. Even if older people were loved and not seen as a burden, stupid, or sexually unattractive by their standards, it is fairly normal for the next generation coming up to want to take over the world and confine most of the older ones, where they can be controlled.
This makes it hard to understand Rick Salutin’s views, and his insight that “What you can eventually learn is that those impulses are inside you, but don’t have to control you” (The fourth of July and the bus monitor, July 05, 2012). Other than that, he tries to make what happened sound ‘normal’ – normal behaviour for rebellious teens.
In my response online to Salutin’s opinion, I referred to the St Patrick’s Day riot in London, Ontario, in 2012, as an example of kids exerting power over authority (1 riot, 68 suspects, 175 charges, July 6, 2012). It wouldn’t be my choice of theories to explain Karen Klein's experience, though it is probably part of what happened.
Neither does this remark by one of the teens’ parents add anything useful: "One of the boys’ dads said he was stunned by the video because it’s not how he raised his kids." (The fourth of July and the bus monitor, July 05, 2012). So if it wasn’t home attitudes, gained from banter around the family dinner table, perhaps the teens picked up these attitudes about baby boomers at school – or from online newspapers on the internet! Lillian Zimmerman, in her piece on older people, thinks it is a strong possibility, saying,
“Take a look at some of the reports we’re regularly exposed to in the media and elsewhere. Aging boomers – also known as the “grey tsunami” or the “ticking time bombs” – are seen as signs of the coming gloom and doom. We’re seduced into feeling that longevity – which simply means we live longer thanks to advances in biological and medical sciences – is a looming threat, poised to reduce our system of social welfare, including medicare – our whole economy, in fact – to penury” (Zimmerman, ‘Why we should like older people,’ Sept 16, 2011).
This bus situation, as captured by the video, involved a “confluence of factors which provided an opportunity for the 10 minutes of bullying to occur” (Psychology of Middle School Kids, June 21, 2012). John Grohol explains six contributing factors, while also mentioning the psychological factor of one the boys’ incredible capacity to be “a pro at identifying Klein’s weaknesses.”
More than once, I saw explanations for the escalation of the verbal abuse suggest that the boys seemed to waiting for, or ‘asking’ for, the adults to take charge. “When there was no reaction, they revved up further” (School-Bus Bullies: Are Adults to Blame Too?, June 26, 2012); or this one - “I think you can hear them testing the limits of what they can get away with” (Fourth of July and the bus monitor, July 5, 2012). Both of these views are simply another version of the ‘boys will be boys’ syndrome, making excuses for their bad behaviour and blaming it on their victims.
On the other hand, John Grohol writes on the subject of teens crying out for authority only that “These teens will then sometimes take advantage of such a situation when the moment presents itself” (Psychology of Middle School Kids, June 21, 2012), not that they are waiting for someone to stop them. Furthermore, in Lagace’s article, the perception is that “it is clear from that video that these students are doing everything in their power to break Klein and make her snap,” (Emotional reactions pour in, Jun 22, 2012).
Solutions
Carol Di Tosti writes,
“Bullies exist because they know the system offers them impunity and the chance to ‘look strong’. If victims try to fight back, punishment usually falls on the victim along with the shame and humiliation of being labeled the provocateur” (Viral Universe More Dangerous, June 25, 2012).
Di Tosti expands on this thought in the article, explaining how our system promotes this upside-down mentality, while also delving more into the effects of social media on such boasting and getting caught.
Was the harassment a symptom of a larger problem? Most definitely. But how does one address such ganging up of like-minded individuals or groups against individuals they seem to despise? Is love and healing the answer (Are the Bus Bullies Monsters, June 22, 2012), or separation from peers, learning through informative sessions and community service? In the end, it was decided that the four boys would undergo some form of alternative program away from their regular school for a year, and do community service – with seniors (Students who bullied NY, June 29, 2012).
50Plus.com refers to the harassment as ‘elder abuse,’ Lisa Lagace saying that “The issue of elder abuse is a big one, but most people mistake it for something that happens privately between family members or at nursing homes” (Emotional reactions pour in, Jun 22, 2012). Lagace also claims that “the idea that children no longer respect their elders comes in full force when watching such a video.” The video definitely illustrates that idea, to an extent probably most people wouldn’t want to think about. But the disrespect and abuse by children is only part of it.
Abuse by families and caregivers, including organizations meant to provide care of various kinds, are another huge area. These and other forms of elder abuse committed by outsiders to the person’s own network are described in the article on the website Helpguide.org, under the headings Signs, Risk Factors, Prevention, and Help (see Elder Abuse and Neglect, June 2012).
Another suggestion to prevent such occurrences as Klein experienced was to build up the self-esteem of potential victims (Anti-bullying campaigns should build, June 25, 2012). On its own, this piece by Andrea DeMeer seems coldhearted and blaming the victim. But taken along with other suggestions, it also should be seen as being part of the solution – though not the only one as bullying is one of those things that can happen to anyone. Until it happens to you, you may not realize that.
Other responses to the event offer helpful advice, such as what she should do with her good fortune, (Financial Advice for Bullied, June 22, 2012) due to the more than half million dollars donated to her cause (Greece students who harassed, June 29, 2012).
Why give donations?
Many articles focused on the money that was donated to Mrs Klein, an amount that surpassed expectations. Here is where Canada became involved, Max Sidorov from Toronto placing Klein’s story on his fundraising website where the amount rose to over $600,000 (Guy behind bus monitor mania, June 21, 2012). Latching onto an idea expressed in a film, someone decided to ‘pay it forward’ and reward Sidorov for his effort by collecting donations for him, so far, $7,254 (Love for Max Sidorov too, 2012).
Why are people giving money to bullied bus monitor, Paul Farhi asks? (Why are people giving, June 21, 2012). He concludes that “perhaps the Internet, and a few political fundraising cycles, have taught Americans to transform sympathy, support and revulsion into transferable dollars.”
But another article suggests that people identify with Karen Klein because they feel undervalued at work (Why America Bleeds For Karen, June 26, 2012), - have empathy for her, perhaps, due to being bullied on the job, or worse yet, feel the need to make up for some past indiscretion as a bully. Perhaps, for the same reasons people donate to causes abroad rather than look at what’s going on in North America, it is easier to use donations to appease a sense of guilt, of turning away having witnessed harassing behaviour.
It appears as though Mrs Klein may have gone from being a scapegoat to a token. And yet, if she had not represented that aspect of America that exemplifies family and all that matters about the country, such as grandparenting, working and paying taxes, and just being the stereotypical older woman, perhaps all this wouldn’t have happened to her.
More on ageism, elder abuse, and scapegoating
According to Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse “Ageism can involve stereotypes and myths, or outright disdain and dislike” (Ageism, CNPEA, 2012). But does this explain the severity of the hostility shown in the video of Karen Klein? The concept of scapegoating seems apt for this incident as it involved singling out one person (although it can also be about a particular group), and the heaping of verbal insults and contempt upon the target.
‘Scapegoating and Othering’ is the title of a lesson plan for teaching purposes for Grades 8 to 10 (2012). While the information is valuable, unless readers and students change their attitudes, or are able to empathize, I don’t know how scapegoated (or bullied) individuals can come out of it any better. Such bullying or scapegoating can be directed to many groups, on the basis of age, body type, marital status, sexual preference, type of disability, class, etc.
The idea of mob mentality is part of scapegoating, as more individuals are likely to join in once one person starts by singling out one person. Tamara Avant, Psychology Department director, explains the idea of mob mentality, without naming it scapegoating or bullying, but focusing on the temporary loss of individual identity and the emotional component of joining with others to harass someone who is not one of them (Psychology of Middle School Kids, June 21, 2012). I would also suggest, thinking of her comment that it is social norms that get lost during such incidents, that it also seems as though instinct takes over, which seems a bit like the ‘nature vs nurture’ debate, though in this case, it is probably a little of both, with a temporary leaning towards the ‘nature’ side.
In 2011, Ruth Rosen wrote ‘Stop Scapegoating Baby Boomers—Remember We Helped Forge American Prosperity,’ in response to Thomas Friedman’s ‘Clash of Generations’ (2011). Although both pieces focus on the economy, with different perspectives, these examples of what people read in our society demonstrate how attitudes are formed. There have been other articles in the news that have focused on perceived intergenerational problems, minimizing class differences, and I have also written about this. Allowing things to go on the way they have been isn’t going to help our society adapt to having an increasing population of old people.
Many of the articles listed here have something to offer in the way of enlightening readers to what happened on the bus, how to think about it and what to do about it, from looking at the way people parent to recognizing the factors that lead to such incidents, and reading up on such topics as ageism and elder abuse. There is still a great more that could be said, but this review with brief analysis has been bounded by issues raised here through these articles.
1 riot, 68 suspects, 175 charges — a $500K tab. Was it worth it?
By Scott Taylor
London Free Press
July 6, 2012
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2012/07/06/19960451.html
Ageism
Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (CNPEA) -- Réseau canadien pour la prévention des mauvais traitements envers les aîné(e)s
http://www.cnpea.ca/ageism.htm
accessed July 8, 2012
Anti-bullying campaigns should build up victims
By Andrea DeMeer, QMI Agency
London Free Press
June 25, 2012
http://www.lfpress.com/comment/editorial/2012/06/25/19916921.html
Are the Bus Bullies Monsters?
By Amy Weber
Huffington Post
June 22, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-weber/karen-klein-video-bullying_b_1619084.html
Bullied bus monitor Karen Klein on her huge windfall “I don’t feel like I deserve it”
By Celebitchy
Celebrities Lives
June 26, 2012
http://celebritieslives.com/2012/06/bullied-bus-monitor-karen-klein-on-her-huge-windfall-%E2%80%9Ci-don%E2%80%99t-feel-like-i-deserve-it%E2%80%9D/
http://www.celebitchy.com/235910/bullied_bus_monitor_karen_klein_on_her_huge_windfall_i_dont_feel_like_i_deserve_it/
Bullied bus monitor rallies hometown crowd
By Niamh Scallan Staff Reporter
The Star
June 23, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1216273--bullied-bus-monitor-rallies-hometown-crowd
Bullies on the Bus
By Charles M Blow, Op-Ed Columnist
The New York Times
June 22, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/opinion/blow-bullies-on-the-bus.html
The Bus Monitor Bullies: How to Prevent Your Kids From Acting This Way
By Lesley Kennedy
iVillage
Jun 12, 2012
http://www.ivillage.ca/parenting/child/the-bus-monitor-bullies-how-to-prevent-your-kids-acting-way
The bus tormenters are cruel, but not bullies
By Barbara Kay
National Post Full Comment
Jun 27, 2012
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/06/27/barbara-kay-the-bus-tormenters-are-cruel-but-not-bullies/#more-83107
The Clash of Generations
By Thomas L Friedman, Op-Ed Columnist
NY Times
July 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/opinion/sunday/17friedman.html?_r=2
Elder Abuse and Neglect
By Lawrence Robinson, Tina de Benedictis, Ph.D., and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D.
Helpguide.org
June 2012
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/elder_abuse_physical_emotional_sexual_neglect.htm
Emotional reactions pour in for bullied bus monitor
By Lisa Lagace
50Plus.com
Jun 22, 2012
http://www.50plus.com/lifestyle/emotional-reactions-pour-in-for-bullied-bus-monitor/175369/
Financial Advice for Bullied Bus Monitor Karen Klein
By Kate Rogers
FOXBusiness
June 22, 2012
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/06/22/financial-advice-for-bullied-bus-monitor-karen-klein/
The fourth of July and the bus monitor
By Rick Salutin Columnist
July 05, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1222251--the-fourth-of-july-and-the-bus-monitor
Guy behind bus monitor mania gets cash too as love and money flow
By Deborah Netburn
LA Times – Business
June 21, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-bus-monitor-mania-20120621,0,7764398.story
Karen Klein Bus Monitor Bullied By Students FULL UNEDITED VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n9teSP2P_U"
Accessed July 4, 2012
Love for Max Sidorov too
Indiegogo website
http://www.indiegogo.com/love-for-max-too
accessed July 5, 2012
The Psychology of Middle School Kids Bullying a Bus Monitor
By John M. Grohol, PsyD. Founder & Editor-in-Chief
PsychCentral.com
June 21, 2012
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/06/21/the-psychology-of-middle-school-kids-bullying-a-bus-monitor/
Scapegoating and Othering (pdf file)
By Jeff Gagnon, Media Awareness Network
Department of Justice, Canada
2012
http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/lesson-plan/Lesson_Scapegoating_Othering.pdf
The School-Bus Bullies: Are Adults to Blame Too?
By Erika Christakis
Time - Ideas
June 26, 2012
http://ideas.time.com/2012/06/26/the-school-bus-bullies-are-adults-to-blame-too /
Stop Scapegoating Baby Boomers—Remember We Helped Forge American Prosperity (response, Friedman’s ‘Clash of Generations’ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/opinion/sunday/17friedman.html?_r=2
By Ruth Rosen
CityWatch, Vol 9 Issue 78
Sept 29, 2011
http://209.17.170.70/archive/2297-stop-scapegoating-baby-boomersremember-we-helped-forge-american-prosperity
Students who bullied NY school bus monitor suspended for one year
Global News
June 29, 2012
http://www.globalnews.ca/students+who+bullied+ny+school+bus+monitor+suspended+for+one+year/6442671225/story.html
Views on bullying lack real understanding
By Donald D’Haene, Special to QMI Agency
Response to ‘Anti-bullying campaigns,’ June 25, 2012
London Free Press
June 25, 2012
http://www.lfpress.com/comment/editorial/2012/06/25/19916921.html
Viral Universe More Dangerous For Bullies; A Haven for Victim-Bus Monitor Karen Klein
By Carole Di Tosti, Ph.D.
Technorati.com
June 25, 2012
http://technorati.com/women/article/viral-universe-more-dangerous-for-bullies/
We are true Americans, and we will not submit
By Doug Hagmann
Canada Free Press
July 4, 2012
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/47802
Why America Bleeds For Karen Klein, Bullied Bus Monitor
By Mark C. Crowley
Fast Company
June 26, 2012
http://www.fastcompany.com/1841276/why-america-bleeds-for-karen-klein-bullied-bus-monitor
Why Are Buses So Conducive to Bullying?
By Jeremy Stahl
Slate
June 22, 2012
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2012/06/the_karen_klein_school_bus_bullying_incident_demonstrates_how_rampant_the_problem_is_.html
Why are people giving money to bullied bus monitor?
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post – The Style Blog
June 21, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/karent-klein-why-are-people-giving-money-to-bullied-bus-monitor/2012/06/21/gJQAPoTAtV_blog.html
Why we should like older people
By Lillian Zimmerman
Globe and Mail
Sept 16, 2011
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/why-we-should-like-older-people/article627325/?service=mobile
On Monday June 18, while accompanying students on a school bus, Klein was harassed, through verbal demeaning and rude language, by four 13 year old Grade 7 boys (Bullied bus monitor rallies, June 23, 2012) Another student on the bus recorded the incident in a video lasting ten minutes, which was uploaded to You Tube, going viral.
Explanations
The incident raises many questions, about society, teenagers, bus monitors, not to mention the use of it in US politics to attempt to sway readers over to the Republican party, which questions why America’s citizens won’t stand up for themselves (We are true Americans, July 4, 2012). Another politically-oriented article, but with a different aim, suggests that bullying in politics, and between groups vying for power, is the same kind of bullying that Karen Klein experienced (Bullies on the Bus, June 22, 2012). If one did agree with Charles Blow’s ideas, one would also have to admit that the tendency to ‘bully,’ to ‘harass,’ or to ‘scapegoat’, did not start on the bus, or with 13 year-old boys. It started somewhere else, by more knowledgeable people, with more power.
The term ‘bullying’ is used frequently in various articles, supporting the idea that this was ‘bullying.’ But few address the kind of bullying it entailed, or question this description of the harassment Klein underwent. More detail about the events as they happened on the bus, and Klein’s own views, are explained in ‘Bus Monitor Bullies,’ Jun 12, 2012. One failing, however, is that there is no further discussion on the kind of bullying it was – the groups Klein was a member of, that were targeted.
I’m not convinced this was a typical case of ‘bullying,’ as news reports tend to call it. Neither was Barbara Kay, when she wrote ‘The bus tormenters are cruel, but not bullies,’ June 27, 2012, although we don’t share the same idea about what it was exactly that happened to Karen Klein. But this was no typical case of schoolyard bullying, one child bullying another. This was young teens harassing an adult woman - 68 years of age – an employee placed there to ‘monitor’ them. Calling it bullying is a misnomer! The comments following Kay’s piece offer a sampling of perspectives. But just how many of the articles about the harassment see it as a form of ageism?
Could it be that this incident was an instinctual response by young teenagers against a group most of society seems to be expressing hostility towards, these days. Even if older people were loved and not seen as a burden, stupid, or sexually unattractive by their standards, it is fairly normal for the next generation coming up to want to take over the world and confine most of the older ones, where they can be controlled.
This makes it hard to understand Rick Salutin’s views, and his insight that “What you can eventually learn is that those impulses are inside you, but don’t have to control you” (The fourth of July and the bus monitor, July 05, 2012). Other than that, he tries to make what happened sound ‘normal’ – normal behaviour for rebellious teens.
In my response online to Salutin’s opinion, I referred to the St Patrick’s Day riot in London, Ontario, in 2012, as an example of kids exerting power over authority (1 riot, 68 suspects, 175 charges, July 6, 2012). It wouldn’t be my choice of theories to explain Karen Klein's experience, though it is probably part of what happened.
Neither does this remark by one of the teens’ parents add anything useful: "One of the boys’ dads said he was stunned by the video because it’s not how he raised his kids." (The fourth of July and the bus monitor, July 05, 2012). So if it wasn’t home attitudes, gained from banter around the family dinner table, perhaps the teens picked up these attitudes about baby boomers at school – or from online newspapers on the internet! Lillian Zimmerman, in her piece on older people, thinks it is a strong possibility, saying,
“Take a look at some of the reports we’re regularly exposed to in the media and elsewhere. Aging boomers – also known as the “grey tsunami” or the “ticking time bombs” – are seen as signs of the coming gloom and doom. We’re seduced into feeling that longevity – which simply means we live longer thanks to advances in biological and medical sciences – is a looming threat, poised to reduce our system of social welfare, including medicare – our whole economy, in fact – to penury” (Zimmerman, ‘Why we should like older people,’ Sept 16, 2011).
This bus situation, as captured by the video, involved a “confluence of factors which provided an opportunity for the 10 minutes of bullying to occur” (Psychology of Middle School Kids, June 21, 2012). John Grohol explains six contributing factors, while also mentioning the psychological factor of one the boys’ incredible capacity to be “a pro at identifying Klein’s weaknesses.”
More than once, I saw explanations for the escalation of the verbal abuse suggest that the boys seemed to waiting for, or ‘asking’ for, the adults to take charge. “When there was no reaction, they revved up further” (School-Bus Bullies: Are Adults to Blame Too?, June 26, 2012); or this one - “I think you can hear them testing the limits of what they can get away with” (Fourth of July and the bus monitor, July 5, 2012). Both of these views are simply another version of the ‘boys will be boys’ syndrome, making excuses for their bad behaviour and blaming it on their victims.
On the other hand, John Grohol writes on the subject of teens crying out for authority only that “These teens will then sometimes take advantage of such a situation when the moment presents itself” (Psychology of Middle School Kids, June 21, 2012), not that they are waiting for someone to stop them. Furthermore, in Lagace’s article, the perception is that “it is clear from that video that these students are doing everything in their power to break Klein and make her snap,” (Emotional reactions pour in, Jun 22, 2012).
Solutions
Carol Di Tosti writes,
“Bullies exist because they know the system offers them impunity and the chance to ‘look strong’. If victims try to fight back, punishment usually falls on the victim along with the shame and humiliation of being labeled the provocateur” (Viral Universe More Dangerous, June 25, 2012).
Di Tosti expands on this thought in the article, explaining how our system promotes this upside-down mentality, while also delving more into the effects of social media on such boasting and getting caught.
Was the harassment a symptom of a larger problem? Most definitely. But how does one address such ganging up of like-minded individuals or groups against individuals they seem to despise? Is love and healing the answer (Are the Bus Bullies Monsters, June 22, 2012), or separation from peers, learning through informative sessions and community service? In the end, it was decided that the four boys would undergo some form of alternative program away from their regular school for a year, and do community service – with seniors (Students who bullied NY, June 29, 2012).
50Plus.com refers to the harassment as ‘elder abuse,’ Lisa Lagace saying that “The issue of elder abuse is a big one, but most people mistake it for something that happens privately between family members or at nursing homes” (Emotional reactions pour in, Jun 22, 2012). Lagace also claims that “the idea that children no longer respect their elders comes in full force when watching such a video.” The video definitely illustrates that idea, to an extent probably most people wouldn’t want to think about. But the disrespect and abuse by children is only part of it.
Abuse by families and caregivers, including organizations meant to provide care of various kinds, are another huge area. These and other forms of elder abuse committed by outsiders to the person’s own network are described in the article on the website Helpguide.org, under the headings Signs, Risk Factors, Prevention, and Help (see Elder Abuse and Neglect, June 2012).
Another suggestion to prevent such occurrences as Klein experienced was to build up the self-esteem of potential victims (Anti-bullying campaigns should build, June 25, 2012). On its own, this piece by Andrea DeMeer seems coldhearted and blaming the victim. But taken along with other suggestions, it also should be seen as being part of the solution – though not the only one as bullying is one of those things that can happen to anyone. Until it happens to you, you may not realize that.
Other responses to the event offer helpful advice, such as what she should do with her good fortune, (Financial Advice for Bullied, June 22, 2012) due to the more than half million dollars donated to her cause (Greece students who harassed, June 29, 2012).
Why give donations?
Many articles focused on the money that was donated to Mrs Klein, an amount that surpassed expectations. Here is where Canada became involved, Max Sidorov from Toronto placing Klein’s story on his fundraising website where the amount rose to over $600,000 (Guy behind bus monitor mania, June 21, 2012). Latching onto an idea expressed in a film, someone decided to ‘pay it forward’ and reward Sidorov for his effort by collecting donations for him, so far, $7,254 (Love for Max Sidorov too, 2012).
Why are people giving money to bullied bus monitor, Paul Farhi asks? (Why are people giving, June 21, 2012). He concludes that “perhaps the Internet, and a few political fundraising cycles, have taught Americans to transform sympathy, support and revulsion into transferable dollars.”
But another article suggests that people identify with Karen Klein because they feel undervalued at work (Why America Bleeds For Karen, June 26, 2012), - have empathy for her, perhaps, due to being bullied on the job, or worse yet, feel the need to make up for some past indiscretion as a bully. Perhaps, for the same reasons people donate to causes abroad rather than look at what’s going on in North America, it is easier to use donations to appease a sense of guilt, of turning away having witnessed harassing behaviour.
It appears as though Mrs Klein may have gone from being a scapegoat to a token. And yet, if she had not represented that aspect of America that exemplifies family and all that matters about the country, such as grandparenting, working and paying taxes, and just being the stereotypical older woman, perhaps all this wouldn’t have happened to her.
More on ageism, elder abuse, and scapegoating
According to Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse “Ageism can involve stereotypes and myths, or outright disdain and dislike” (Ageism, CNPEA, 2012). But does this explain the severity of the hostility shown in the video of Karen Klein? The concept of scapegoating seems apt for this incident as it involved singling out one person (although it can also be about a particular group), and the heaping of verbal insults and contempt upon the target.
‘Scapegoating and Othering’ is the title of a lesson plan for teaching purposes for Grades 8 to 10 (2012). While the information is valuable, unless readers and students change their attitudes, or are able to empathize, I don’t know how scapegoated (or bullied) individuals can come out of it any better. Such bullying or scapegoating can be directed to many groups, on the basis of age, body type, marital status, sexual preference, type of disability, class, etc.
The idea of mob mentality is part of scapegoating, as more individuals are likely to join in once one person starts by singling out one person. Tamara Avant, Psychology Department director, explains the idea of mob mentality, without naming it scapegoating or bullying, but focusing on the temporary loss of individual identity and the emotional component of joining with others to harass someone who is not one of them (Psychology of Middle School Kids, June 21, 2012). I would also suggest, thinking of her comment that it is social norms that get lost during such incidents, that it also seems as though instinct takes over, which seems a bit like the ‘nature vs nurture’ debate, though in this case, it is probably a little of both, with a temporary leaning towards the ‘nature’ side.
In 2011, Ruth Rosen wrote ‘Stop Scapegoating Baby Boomers—Remember We Helped Forge American Prosperity,’ in response to Thomas Friedman’s ‘Clash of Generations’ (2011). Although both pieces focus on the economy, with different perspectives, these examples of what people read in our society demonstrate how attitudes are formed. There have been other articles in the news that have focused on perceived intergenerational problems, minimizing class differences, and I have also written about this. Allowing things to go on the way they have been isn’t going to help our society adapt to having an increasing population of old people.
Many of the articles listed here have something to offer in the way of enlightening readers to what happened on the bus, how to think about it and what to do about it, from looking at the way people parent to recognizing the factors that lead to such incidents, and reading up on such topics as ageism and elder abuse. There is still a great more that could be said, but this review with brief analysis has been bounded by issues raised here through these articles.
1 riot, 68 suspects, 175 charges — a $500K tab. Was it worth it?
By Scott Taylor
London Free Press
July 6, 2012
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2012/07/06/19960451.html
Ageism
Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (CNPEA) -- Réseau canadien pour la prévention des mauvais traitements envers les aîné(e)s
http://www.cnpea.ca/ageism.htm
accessed July 8, 2012
Anti-bullying campaigns should build up victims
By Andrea DeMeer, QMI Agency
London Free Press
June 25, 2012
http://www.lfpress.com/comment/editorial/2012/06/25/19916921.html
Are the Bus Bullies Monsters?
By Amy Weber
Huffington Post
June 22, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amy-weber/karen-klein-video-bullying_b_1619084.html
Bullied bus monitor Karen Klein on her huge windfall “I don’t feel like I deserve it”
By Celebitchy
Celebrities Lives
June 26, 2012
http://celebritieslives.com/2012/06/bullied-bus-monitor-karen-klein-on-her-huge-windfall-%E2%80%9Ci-don%E2%80%99t-feel-like-i-deserve-it%E2%80%9D/
http://www.celebitchy.com/235910/bullied_bus_monitor_karen_klein_on_her_huge_windfall_i_dont_feel_like_i_deserve_it/
Bullied bus monitor rallies hometown crowd
By Niamh Scallan Staff Reporter
The Star
June 23, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1216273--bullied-bus-monitor-rallies-hometown-crowd
Bullies on the Bus
By Charles M Blow, Op-Ed Columnist
The New York Times
June 22, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/opinion/blow-bullies-on-the-bus.html
The Bus Monitor Bullies: How to Prevent Your Kids From Acting This Way
By Lesley Kennedy
iVillage
Jun 12, 2012
http://www.ivillage.ca/parenting/child/the-bus-monitor-bullies-how-to-prevent-your-kids-acting-way
The bus tormenters are cruel, but not bullies
By Barbara Kay
National Post Full Comment
Jun 27, 2012
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/06/27/barbara-kay-the-bus-tormenters-are-cruel-but-not-bullies/#more-83107
The Clash of Generations
By Thomas L Friedman, Op-Ed Columnist
NY Times
July 16, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/opinion/sunday/17friedman.html?_r=2
Elder Abuse and Neglect
By Lawrence Robinson, Tina de Benedictis, Ph.D., and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D.
Helpguide.org
June 2012
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/elder_abuse_physical_emotional_sexual_neglect.htm
Emotional reactions pour in for bullied bus monitor
By Lisa Lagace
50Plus.com
Jun 22, 2012
http://www.50plus.com/lifestyle/emotional-reactions-pour-in-for-bullied-bus-monitor/175369/
Financial Advice for Bullied Bus Monitor Karen Klein
By Kate Rogers
FOXBusiness
June 22, 2012
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/06/22/financial-advice-for-bullied-bus-monitor-karen-klein/
The fourth of July and the bus monitor
By Rick Salutin Columnist
July 05, 2012
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1222251--the-fourth-of-july-and-the-bus-monitor
Guy behind bus monitor mania gets cash too as love and money flow
By Deborah Netburn
LA Times – Business
June 21, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-bus-monitor-mania-20120621,0,7764398.story
Karen Klein Bus Monitor Bullied By Students FULL UNEDITED VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n9teSP2P_U"
Accessed July 4, 2012
Love for Max Sidorov too
Indiegogo website
http://www.indiegogo.com/love-for-max-too
accessed July 5, 2012
The Psychology of Middle School Kids Bullying a Bus Monitor
By John M. Grohol, PsyD. Founder & Editor-in-Chief
PsychCentral.com
June 21, 2012
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/06/21/the-psychology-of-middle-school-kids-bullying-a-bus-monitor/
Scapegoating and Othering (pdf file)
By Jeff Gagnon, Media Awareness Network
Department of Justice, Canada
2012
http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/default/files/pdfs/lesson-plan/Lesson_Scapegoating_Othering.pdf
The School-Bus Bullies: Are Adults to Blame Too?
By Erika Christakis
Time - Ideas
June 26, 2012
http://ideas.time.com/2012/06/26/the-school-bus-bullies-are-adults-to-blame-too /
Stop Scapegoating Baby Boomers—Remember We Helped Forge American Prosperity (response, Friedman’s ‘Clash of Generations’ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/17/opinion/sunday/17friedman.html?_r=2
By Ruth Rosen
CityWatch, Vol 9 Issue 78
Sept 29, 2011
http://209.17.170.70/archive/2297-stop-scapegoating-baby-boomersremember-we-helped-forge-american-prosperity
Students who bullied NY school bus monitor suspended for one year
Global News
June 29, 2012
http://www.globalnews.ca/students+who+bullied+ny+school+bus+monitor+suspended+for+one+year/6442671225/story.html
Views on bullying lack real understanding
By Donald D’Haene, Special to QMI Agency
Response to ‘Anti-bullying campaigns,’ June 25, 2012
London Free Press
June 25, 2012
http://www.lfpress.com/comment/editorial/2012/06/25/19916921.html
Viral Universe More Dangerous For Bullies; A Haven for Victim-Bus Monitor Karen Klein
By Carole Di Tosti, Ph.D.
Technorati.com
June 25, 2012
http://technorati.com/women/article/viral-universe-more-dangerous-for-bullies/
We are true Americans, and we will not submit
By Doug Hagmann
Canada Free Press
July 4, 2012
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/47802
Why America Bleeds For Karen Klein, Bullied Bus Monitor
By Mark C. Crowley
Fast Company
June 26, 2012
http://www.fastcompany.com/1841276/why-america-bleeds-for-karen-klein-bullied-bus-monitor
Why Are Buses So Conducive to Bullying?
By Jeremy Stahl
Slate
June 22, 2012
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2012/06/the_karen_klein_school_bus_bullying_incident_demonstrates_how_rampant_the_problem_is_.html
Why are people giving money to bullied bus monitor?
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post – The Style Blog
June 21, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/karent-klein-why-are-people-giving-money-to-bullied-bus-monitor/2012/06/21/gJQAPoTAtV_blog.html
Why we should like older people
By Lillian Zimmerman
Globe and Mail
Sept 16, 2011
http://m.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/why-we-should-like-older-people/article627325/?service=mobile
21 May 2012
Meaning in life following adversity: Melanie Phillips on star-gazing
Introduction
Searching for meaning in life is what humans do. How we are able to have that happen depends on the experiences life sends our way, how we process those experiences, what we attempt to do with them, and the resources and support we bring to the effort or that come our way. Journalist Melanie Phillips has written an article about the lessons that life gives us and how we can make meaning out of adversity if we are only determined enough to overcome it and rebuild our lives. She includes the stories of two Brits, Claire Lomas and Tina Nash, but I suggest that she has done so in a manner that is demeaning towards many other survivors of adversity, and perhaps towards the two couples she is writing about, as their circumstances are so very different.
Claire Lomas was paralyzed from the chest down after being thrown from her horse in 2007. Tina Nash was beaten and blinded in an attack by her boyfriend in 2011.
Ex-boyfriends and motherhood
In ‘The lesson we can all learn,’ about Claire Lomas and Tina Nash, Melanie Phillips seems to be drawing a comparison between their boyfriends. Her telling of the stories of the two women, both of whom were let down by the man in their life, implies that the men’s intentions were similar, and that the consequences of their actions were the same for both – devastation followed by a much-deserved new life without them. About Claire’s former boyfriend she writes:
“After enduring the devastating impact of a boyfriend who had failed to support her when she needed him most after her accident, she married a man who did care for her — as a result of which she managed to gave birth to a baby daughter " (The lesson we can all learn, 2012).
Phillips writes more on the subject of Claire and motherhood:
“Ms Lomas says her life is better in so many ways than before her accident because she now has her husband and child. This ability to find something positive even in such personal catastrophe is nothing less than a profound affirmation of life itself” (The lesson we can all learn, 2012).
Yet clearly Claire and her previous boyfriend had a certain kind of life in mind when they moved into the farmhouse three years before the accident, one that didn’t involve motherhood. From another article in the Mail (The REAL reason, 2012) , it sounds as though Claire wasn’t ready to settle down and become a mother at the time the accident occurred. On the contrary, she was deeply involved in living her independent life, working as a chiropractor and following her horse pursuits. Sadie Nicholas writes:
“She began riding as a toddler, eventually qualifying as a four-star equestrian eventer; the highest status possible and the same level as Zara Phillips. Only the most accomplished riders achieve this. So devoted was Claire to her horses that she spent the majority of her chiropractor’s salary on them, sacrificing holidays to do so” (Real reason, 2012).
Thus, Melanie Phillips’s article goes beyond the pale in criticizing the live-in boyfriend Claire had before the accident, for leaving her at this most vulnerable time in her life when she was thrown from her horse and paralyzed. Going back to the farmhouse afterwards wouldn't have been an option for Claire, as she needed care and support he couldn't provide. Instead, she went to her parents’ home. Five years later, Claire demonstrated the ‘bionic’ robot suit in the London Marathon, 2012, over a period of 16 days.
What Phillips doesn’t seem to recognize is that it wasn't only Claire’s life that was thrown into turmoil – her ex’s was too. I assume he had a job he had to go to, and not as a research scientist with access to resources, and knowledge about what to expect and how to cope. Claire was no longer able to fulfil the expectations (unspoken or otherwise) of the relationship, and neither could he. When something like that happens it is devastating to all concerned, as life has to begin anew, with different goals, often with different friends and relationships.
Tina’s story is horrific, though nothing about her life before that day has been told, except that she had two children, one a teenager, the other a toddler. The attack was committed by her boyfriend, leaving her with injuries and worse yet, blind.
Sometimes women experience such immense tragedies that they are held up as examples to the world of the suffering women endure at the hands of men. Likewise, men capable of such deeds are held up as examples also. Tina Nash is one such woman, while her now ex-boyfriend, Shane Jenkin, is one such man (see Blinded woman, 2012). Their story is entirely different than Claire Lomas’s and her ex-boyfriend, Claire’s paralysis being the result of an accident, not a physical attack.
Tina’s experience of having to endure the emotional scars of a physical attack by someone she was in a relationship with, as well as the resulting blindness, places her experience well within the categories of domestic violence and ‘violence against women.’ This makes her an ideal advocate for these causes (Blinded woman, 2012), and the ex-boyfriend, Shane Jenkins, a perfect example of the kind of violence that concerns feminists most – the kind that is directed by the man towards someone with whom he was in an intimate relationship. Moreover, the violence was not vaguely directed towards women in general, and Jenkins was not distanced from it by using a rifle.
In Canada, the man feminists most love to hate for his violence is Marc Lépine, remembered for having shot and killed 14 women at the Polytechnique in Montreal on Dec 6, 1989, though his passion had been over feminists taking over careers and places in education traditionally held for men, not a relationship gone sour (see ‘Montreal Massacre 1989 – 2009’, 2009.) Lépine died at the scene of the killings, but Shane Jenkins, at his trial, admitted to the crime of ‘grievous bodily harm with intent,’ was given a life sentence, and sent to a secure psychiatric unit for treatment (see Blinded woman, 2012).
Star-gazing
Phillips writes, "For those of us immersed in the raucous arena of politics and public affairs, these two stories [Claire and Tina] surely provided a most salutary counterpoint. It was like looking at the world through the other end of a telescope. Suddenly, that shallow and venal public world shrank into relative insignificance, and the people in it and all their activities seemed puny and irrelevant.”
On the other hand, Claire and Tina had themselves suddenly been cast into the world of politics and public affairs - not necessarily a bad thing, as public support was what they needed if their favourite charities and their lives were to move forward. Being in the public eye and rewarded by it was no less a concern for them at this time than it would have been for Phillips, in her job as journalist.
It’s an error of perspective to view Tina and Claire as somehow being in the ‘real world’ of ordinary life and its practical problems (although at the same time, unique in their ability to deal with adversity), whereas Ms Phillips’s life was only about politics, policies, and theory. It’s hardly an accurate depiction of the way these stories have affected England and the world. Claire and Tina being struck by adversity had an effect on the public, but not due to their being more real, or down-to-earth than most others, or their facing practical problems in an exceptional manner due to personal attributes. For the most part, that has been an image of their lives constructed by their supporters and the media.
Although the women are unique in some ways they aren’t the only people in the world who have had to seek ways of dealing with adversity and find new meaning in their lives. It’s an everyday phenomenon, despite the way Phillips talks about it. There’s no real reason to raise the two to such an elevated status.
Inspirational role models or celebrity-gazing?
“This, instead, is surely what really matters — how we all live our lives, how we cope with the bad times as well as the good, whether we can all similarly find within ourselves such strength of character to overcome the most shattering adversity” (Phillips, The lesson we can all learn, 2012).
I question whether holding up such examples of adversity is the way to give such advice to the general public. In fact, I question whether most people need it (see comments on ‘A life with purpose lasts longer,' 2009).
Phillips writes that “Claire Lomas and Tina Nash . . . are determined instead to be not life’s losers but its winners. Their example is inspiring because they tell us what human nature is capable of achieving — and, therefore, what we, too, might achieve.”
I’m not certain that the stories of these two women can inform us of the heights to which “human nature” can be elevated. Surely, the right circumstances are necessary if this is to happen – the right social, economic, and political environment, as well as the strength of character and commitment of the women. Phillips is making these scenarios appear individualistic – as though the women achieved what they have through their own effort alone.
The conclusion Phillips makes, “therefore, what we, too, might achieve” doesn’t apply unless the person is able to access resources the same way these women could. Sometimes, circumstances fall into place – the right time, the right place, the support one needs. At other times, it’s not there, making it more a matter of luck than individual effort.
One can see how Tina Nash could herself become a valuable resource in the fight against domestic violence, and why she would want this as a goal in her life. Furthermore, one can see why Claire Lomas was just the right person to promote the robot suit and the charity for spinal cord research, and why she would want to work towards raising money for spinal cord research. They are assets for the cause, and their involvement provides them with purpose in their lives, and gives meaning to the adversity they endured. While that is to be applauded, suggesting that the women represent the highest form of human nature, as Phillips does, is an exaggeration or even a misapplication of the term.
But is their example inspiring to most other people, as Ms Phillips suggests? Speaking for myself, I’m not inspired by them in the way that Phillips suggests – “because they tell us what human nature is capable of achieving — and, therefore, what we, too, might achieve.” Of course, just as Phillips herself has been inspired to write about the two women, so have I been inspired to write this in response. Inspiration works in strange ways.
For some readers and onlookers, hearing about either of these two women may have emphasized their own struggles and provided inspiration because of that feeling of shared connection. In fact, Claire herself has said that the person who has impressed her most of all the celebrities who have given their support has been Matt Hampson, paralyzed on the rugby field (Claire Lomas: Matt Hampson, 2012). The mutual interest in sports and helping other young people injured at sports, and the injury itself, would be things they have in common.
For other readers, celebrity-gazing may have been the main aim. If admirers of Claire and Tina are looking only at how each has dealt with adversity, yet have no personal understanding of it, or empathy, then it comes across more as hero worship or celebrity-gazing than any real source of inspiration for themselves, in dealing with adversity in their own lives.
Being close to or feeling a connection to a star where there is none may still provide them with a sense of meaning, being able to show support in some way. We don’t all get the opportunity to engage in activities that shower us with rewards, but providing support to those who already have a great deal can make us feel a part of the total effort – a social connection, and more than that – a connection to someone who has power and whose capabilities knows no bounds.
Sentimentality
There is more that I feel inspired to respond to in this piece by Melanie Phillips, who makes a point of announcing the two women’s achievements by admonishing the experience of ordinary people, saying, “In our sentimentalised culture where so many rush to label themselves victims in order to gain some advantage . . .” .
Phillips isn’t clear about who or what groups in society she is complaining about in this sentence, but it appears to be about other people who have suffered adversity, or perhaps those who have not suffered adversity but simply claim they have, “in order to gain some advantage.”
It’s out of necessity that some people in society have to declare themselves as unable to work, or unable to walk, or name some other disease so that they may claim state benefits so they can survive, though placing a label on their condition is not the same as being a victim. But if they don’t manage to acquire enough to enable them to move forward in their lives, then are they victims? (see Tanni Grey-Thompson warns, 2012)
Some may even claim benefits for what appears to be no good reason, but surely, that’s not who I’m writing about here. And of those who do have purpose, not all of them will have the right capabilities or get the opportunity to learn to use a robot suit or buy one for their own use. Nor will all women’s bad experiences in their marriages be severe enough to lead them to be welcomed as spokespersons for the cause.
Phillips appears to be taking the viewpoint that possibly, some people don’t need the state’s help, but are simply lazy (or as others have labeled them, ‘couch potatoes’), and if they only tried harder, or looked for appropriate work, or ran a marathon, they too would receive favourable publicity enabling them and their charity to celebrate their changed fortune.
In almost every article written about Claire Lomas, someone has commented on her determination and bravery, whereby the social support she has received has been seen as a result of her determination – as ‘deserved’ – not as a cause of it. More likely, the determination and social support are an evolving process, each leading to the other, resulting in the cause growing larger and stronger, and her determination also growing. Social support is known to have that effect. Claire used the bionic suit in to participate in the London marathon, setting her apart from others in the marathon and those who had previously tried it out (see Britain’s bionic man, 2012; Robot Suit Helps Paraplegic, 2011).
Others may be left to struggle with their illness or following tragedy of some sort, with no social support. So who is it really, that are the “sentimentalised” in our culture – people who are left struggling to survive adversity, or the ordinary people and the media, such as Melanie Phillips, who make a point of idealizing people in the public eye? Claire has found purpose in her life, in part at least, wearing the robotic suit, with more support than most people can only imagine in their own lives.
Epiphany or gradual realization: living life with a different purpose
Perhaps Claire experienced an epiphany, discovering through the accident that it was family that mattered most – a loving husband and especially, having a child of her own – affirmation of life itself. Or could it have been the chance to have a robotic suit that was the epiphany?
Rather than always look towards others for inspiration, it makes as much sense or even more for people to look inwardly, towards their own bodies and lives for the inspiration that comes from that. For both Claire Lomas and Tina Nash, their own lives are the source of their inspiration, though granted, each had experienced a crisis situation.
When I read about Claire and Tina, I don’t feel inspired by what they have gone through or how they are reinventing themselves. The reality for me is that, those times I have been inspired by someone’s actions, by how they found purpose in their own life, I have ended up feeling only disappointment. No matter how hard I try, or how much of myself I put into it, the fact is that it’s virtually impossible to achieve as much as the original achievement, or the person behind it that I had admired.
Conclusion
Ms Phillips tells us how we can make meaning out of adversity if we are only determined enough to overcome it and rebuild our lives. This kind of psychologizing can leave people with a sense of defeat if their efforts show few or no good results. An epiphany is an epiphany only in retrospect. Otherwise, it’s just a dream. Not taking no for an answer only works if someone else is there to say yes. No one lives completely alone and independently in society.
It is generous of Melanie Phillips to devote her skills and time to honour these women, but is this the best response to their circumstances, raising them up to the level of celebrities, examples of humanity extraordinaire? Can women who are abused to a lesser extent see themselves in Tina’s place, or was her experience so horrendous that others can only marvel at her fortitude and be thankful it didn’t happen to them? Is Claire just an ordinary mom, or was she an expert horsewoman destined for an esteemed future, and now selected especially to demonstrate the robot suit.
Claire Lomas’s accidental, unintentional fall from a horse and the physical attack on Tina Nash by her boyfriend are part of what make their circumstances clearly distinct from one another. To say they are both examples of adversity to be overcome takes away from the different path each one will take, and from the effort of so many others with what some might see as lesser forms of adversity.
Blinded woman Tina Nash makes domestic violence appeal
By Rob Williams
May 11, 2012
Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/blinded-woman-tina-nash-makes-domestic-violence-appeal-7737380.html
Britain's bionic man: Robot suit allows Olympic torch bearer, 22, to walk again five years after seafront car smash: David Follett
By Daily Mail Reporter
Daily Mail
Apr 19, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2132059/Britains-bionic-man-Robot-suit-allows-Olympic-torch-bearer-22-walk-again.html
Claire Lomas: Matt Hampson impressed me more than any star
Leicester Mercury
May 19, 2012
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Claire-Lomas-Matt-Hampson-impressed-star/story-16127816-detail/story.html
The lesson we can all learn from the quiet heroism of these two women
By Melanie Phillips
Daily Mail
May 13, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2143945/Claire-Lomas-Tina-Nash-The-lesson-learn-quiet-heroism-women.html
A life with purpose lasts longer, researchers find
By Carla Wintersgill
Globe and Mail
Jun 18, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/a-life-with-purpose-lasts-longer-researchers-find/article1184477/
Montreal Massacre 1989 - 2009
By Sue McPherson
Sue’s Views on the News
Dec 6, 2009
http://suemcpherson.blogspot.com/2009/12/montreal-massacre-1989-2009-selection.html
The REAL reason marathon woman deserves a medal: Let down by her ex when she needed him most... and how she found happiness with her husband
By Sadie Nicholas
Daily Mail
May 13, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2143641/The-REAL-reason-marathon-woman-deserves-medal-Let-ex-needed--happiness-husband.html#ixzz1uklPGlIf
Robot Suit Helps Paraplegic Walk Again: Amanda Boxtel
Thomas Moore, science correspondent
Sky News
Oct 21, 2011
http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16093536
Tanni Grey-Thompson warns that Paralympic legacy is threatened by cuts
By Patrick Butler, social policy editor
guardian.co.uk
May 20, 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/20/tanni-grey-thompson-paralympics-legacy?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
Searching for meaning in life is what humans do. How we are able to have that happen depends on the experiences life sends our way, how we process those experiences, what we attempt to do with them, and the resources and support we bring to the effort or that come our way. Journalist Melanie Phillips has written an article about the lessons that life gives us and how we can make meaning out of adversity if we are only determined enough to overcome it and rebuild our lives. She includes the stories of two Brits, Claire Lomas and Tina Nash, but I suggest that she has done so in a manner that is demeaning towards many other survivors of adversity, and perhaps towards the two couples she is writing about, as their circumstances are so very different.
Claire Lomas was paralyzed from the chest down after being thrown from her horse in 2007. Tina Nash was beaten and blinded in an attack by her boyfriend in 2011.
Ex-boyfriends and motherhood
In ‘The lesson we can all learn,’ about Claire Lomas and Tina Nash, Melanie Phillips seems to be drawing a comparison between their boyfriends. Her telling of the stories of the two women, both of whom were let down by the man in their life, implies that the men’s intentions were similar, and that the consequences of their actions were the same for both – devastation followed by a much-deserved new life without them. About Claire’s former boyfriend she writes:
“After enduring the devastating impact of a boyfriend who had failed to support her when she needed him most after her accident, she married a man who did care for her — as a result of which she managed to gave birth to a baby daughter " (The lesson we can all learn, 2012).
Phillips writes more on the subject of Claire and motherhood:
“Ms Lomas says her life is better in so many ways than before her accident because she now has her husband and child. This ability to find something positive even in such personal catastrophe is nothing less than a profound affirmation of life itself” (The lesson we can all learn, 2012).
Yet clearly Claire and her previous boyfriend had a certain kind of life in mind when they moved into the farmhouse three years before the accident, one that didn’t involve motherhood. From another article in the Mail (The REAL reason, 2012) , it sounds as though Claire wasn’t ready to settle down and become a mother at the time the accident occurred. On the contrary, she was deeply involved in living her independent life, working as a chiropractor and following her horse pursuits. Sadie Nicholas writes:
“She began riding as a toddler, eventually qualifying as a four-star equestrian eventer; the highest status possible and the same level as Zara Phillips. Only the most accomplished riders achieve this. So devoted was Claire to her horses that she spent the majority of her chiropractor’s salary on them, sacrificing holidays to do so” (Real reason, 2012).
Thus, Melanie Phillips’s article goes beyond the pale in criticizing the live-in boyfriend Claire had before the accident, for leaving her at this most vulnerable time in her life when she was thrown from her horse and paralyzed. Going back to the farmhouse afterwards wouldn't have been an option for Claire, as she needed care and support he couldn't provide. Instead, she went to her parents’ home. Five years later, Claire demonstrated the ‘bionic’ robot suit in the London Marathon, 2012, over a period of 16 days.
What Phillips doesn’t seem to recognize is that it wasn't only Claire’s life that was thrown into turmoil – her ex’s was too. I assume he had a job he had to go to, and not as a research scientist with access to resources, and knowledge about what to expect and how to cope. Claire was no longer able to fulfil the expectations (unspoken or otherwise) of the relationship, and neither could he. When something like that happens it is devastating to all concerned, as life has to begin anew, with different goals, often with different friends and relationships.
Tina’s story is horrific, though nothing about her life before that day has been told, except that she had two children, one a teenager, the other a toddler. The attack was committed by her boyfriend, leaving her with injuries and worse yet, blind.
Sometimes women experience such immense tragedies that they are held up as examples to the world of the suffering women endure at the hands of men. Likewise, men capable of such deeds are held up as examples also. Tina Nash is one such woman, while her now ex-boyfriend, Shane Jenkin, is one such man (see Blinded woman, 2012). Their story is entirely different than Claire Lomas’s and her ex-boyfriend, Claire’s paralysis being the result of an accident, not a physical attack.
Tina’s experience of having to endure the emotional scars of a physical attack by someone she was in a relationship with, as well as the resulting blindness, places her experience well within the categories of domestic violence and ‘violence against women.’ This makes her an ideal advocate for these causes (Blinded woman, 2012), and the ex-boyfriend, Shane Jenkins, a perfect example of the kind of violence that concerns feminists most – the kind that is directed by the man towards someone with whom he was in an intimate relationship. Moreover, the violence was not vaguely directed towards women in general, and Jenkins was not distanced from it by using a rifle.
In Canada, the man feminists most love to hate for his violence is Marc Lépine, remembered for having shot and killed 14 women at the Polytechnique in Montreal on Dec 6, 1989, though his passion had been over feminists taking over careers and places in education traditionally held for men, not a relationship gone sour (see ‘Montreal Massacre 1989 – 2009’, 2009.) Lépine died at the scene of the killings, but Shane Jenkins, at his trial, admitted to the crime of ‘grievous bodily harm with intent,’ was given a life sentence, and sent to a secure psychiatric unit for treatment (see Blinded woman, 2012).
Star-gazing
Phillips writes, "For those of us immersed in the raucous arena of politics and public affairs, these two stories [Claire and Tina] surely provided a most salutary counterpoint. It was like looking at the world through the other end of a telescope. Suddenly, that shallow and venal public world shrank into relative insignificance, and the people in it and all their activities seemed puny and irrelevant.”
On the other hand, Claire and Tina had themselves suddenly been cast into the world of politics and public affairs - not necessarily a bad thing, as public support was what they needed if their favourite charities and their lives were to move forward. Being in the public eye and rewarded by it was no less a concern for them at this time than it would have been for Phillips, in her job as journalist.
It’s an error of perspective to view Tina and Claire as somehow being in the ‘real world’ of ordinary life and its practical problems (although at the same time, unique in their ability to deal with adversity), whereas Ms Phillips’s life was only about politics, policies, and theory. It’s hardly an accurate depiction of the way these stories have affected England and the world. Claire and Tina being struck by adversity had an effect on the public, but not due to their being more real, or down-to-earth than most others, or their facing practical problems in an exceptional manner due to personal attributes. For the most part, that has been an image of their lives constructed by their supporters and the media.
Although the women are unique in some ways they aren’t the only people in the world who have had to seek ways of dealing with adversity and find new meaning in their lives. It’s an everyday phenomenon, despite the way Phillips talks about it. There’s no real reason to raise the two to such an elevated status.
Inspirational role models or celebrity-gazing?
“This, instead, is surely what really matters — how we all live our lives, how we cope with the bad times as well as the good, whether we can all similarly find within ourselves such strength of character to overcome the most shattering adversity” (Phillips, The lesson we can all learn, 2012).
I question whether holding up such examples of adversity is the way to give such advice to the general public. In fact, I question whether most people need it (see comments on ‘A life with purpose lasts longer,' 2009).
Phillips writes that “Claire Lomas and Tina Nash . . . are determined instead to be not life’s losers but its winners. Their example is inspiring because they tell us what human nature is capable of achieving — and, therefore, what we, too, might achieve.”
I’m not certain that the stories of these two women can inform us of the heights to which “human nature” can be elevated. Surely, the right circumstances are necessary if this is to happen – the right social, economic, and political environment, as well as the strength of character and commitment of the women. Phillips is making these scenarios appear individualistic – as though the women achieved what they have through their own effort alone.
The conclusion Phillips makes, “therefore, what we, too, might achieve” doesn’t apply unless the person is able to access resources the same way these women could. Sometimes, circumstances fall into place – the right time, the right place, the support one needs. At other times, it’s not there, making it more a matter of luck than individual effort.
One can see how Tina Nash could herself become a valuable resource in the fight against domestic violence, and why she would want this as a goal in her life. Furthermore, one can see why Claire Lomas was just the right person to promote the robot suit and the charity for spinal cord research, and why she would want to work towards raising money for spinal cord research. They are assets for the cause, and their involvement provides them with purpose in their lives, and gives meaning to the adversity they endured. While that is to be applauded, suggesting that the women represent the highest form of human nature, as Phillips does, is an exaggeration or even a misapplication of the term.
But is their example inspiring to most other people, as Ms Phillips suggests? Speaking for myself, I’m not inspired by them in the way that Phillips suggests – “because they tell us what human nature is capable of achieving — and, therefore, what we, too, might achieve.” Of course, just as Phillips herself has been inspired to write about the two women, so have I been inspired to write this in response. Inspiration works in strange ways.
For some readers and onlookers, hearing about either of these two women may have emphasized their own struggles and provided inspiration because of that feeling of shared connection. In fact, Claire herself has said that the person who has impressed her most of all the celebrities who have given their support has been Matt Hampson, paralyzed on the rugby field (Claire Lomas: Matt Hampson, 2012). The mutual interest in sports and helping other young people injured at sports, and the injury itself, would be things they have in common.
For other readers, celebrity-gazing may have been the main aim. If admirers of Claire and Tina are looking only at how each has dealt with adversity, yet have no personal understanding of it, or empathy, then it comes across more as hero worship or celebrity-gazing than any real source of inspiration for themselves, in dealing with adversity in their own lives.
Being close to or feeling a connection to a star where there is none may still provide them with a sense of meaning, being able to show support in some way. We don’t all get the opportunity to engage in activities that shower us with rewards, but providing support to those who already have a great deal can make us feel a part of the total effort – a social connection, and more than that – a connection to someone who has power and whose capabilities knows no bounds.
Sentimentality
There is more that I feel inspired to respond to in this piece by Melanie Phillips, who makes a point of announcing the two women’s achievements by admonishing the experience of ordinary people, saying, “In our sentimentalised culture where so many rush to label themselves victims in order to gain some advantage . . .” .
Phillips isn’t clear about who or what groups in society she is complaining about in this sentence, but it appears to be about other people who have suffered adversity, or perhaps those who have not suffered adversity but simply claim they have, “in order to gain some advantage.”
It’s out of necessity that some people in society have to declare themselves as unable to work, or unable to walk, or name some other disease so that they may claim state benefits so they can survive, though placing a label on their condition is not the same as being a victim. But if they don’t manage to acquire enough to enable them to move forward in their lives, then are they victims? (see Tanni Grey-Thompson warns, 2012)
Some may even claim benefits for what appears to be no good reason, but surely, that’s not who I’m writing about here. And of those who do have purpose, not all of them will have the right capabilities or get the opportunity to learn to use a robot suit or buy one for their own use. Nor will all women’s bad experiences in their marriages be severe enough to lead them to be welcomed as spokespersons for the cause.
Phillips appears to be taking the viewpoint that possibly, some people don’t need the state’s help, but are simply lazy (or as others have labeled them, ‘couch potatoes’), and if they only tried harder, or looked for appropriate work, or ran a marathon, they too would receive favourable publicity enabling them and their charity to celebrate their changed fortune.
In almost every article written about Claire Lomas, someone has commented on her determination and bravery, whereby the social support she has received has been seen as a result of her determination – as ‘deserved’ – not as a cause of it. More likely, the determination and social support are an evolving process, each leading to the other, resulting in the cause growing larger and stronger, and her determination also growing. Social support is known to have that effect. Claire used the bionic suit in to participate in the London marathon, setting her apart from others in the marathon and those who had previously tried it out (see Britain’s bionic man, 2012; Robot Suit Helps Paraplegic, 2011).
Others may be left to struggle with their illness or following tragedy of some sort, with no social support. So who is it really, that are the “sentimentalised” in our culture – people who are left struggling to survive adversity, or the ordinary people and the media, such as Melanie Phillips, who make a point of idealizing people in the public eye? Claire has found purpose in her life, in part at least, wearing the robotic suit, with more support than most people can only imagine in their own lives.
Epiphany or gradual realization: living life with a different purpose
Perhaps Claire experienced an epiphany, discovering through the accident that it was family that mattered most – a loving husband and especially, having a child of her own – affirmation of life itself. Or could it have been the chance to have a robotic suit that was the epiphany?
Rather than always look towards others for inspiration, it makes as much sense or even more for people to look inwardly, towards their own bodies and lives for the inspiration that comes from that. For both Claire Lomas and Tina Nash, their own lives are the source of their inspiration, though granted, each had experienced a crisis situation.
When I read about Claire and Tina, I don’t feel inspired by what they have gone through or how they are reinventing themselves. The reality for me is that, those times I have been inspired by someone’s actions, by how they found purpose in their own life, I have ended up feeling only disappointment. No matter how hard I try, or how much of myself I put into it, the fact is that it’s virtually impossible to achieve as much as the original achievement, or the person behind it that I had admired.
Conclusion
Ms Phillips tells us how we can make meaning out of adversity if we are only determined enough to overcome it and rebuild our lives. This kind of psychologizing can leave people with a sense of defeat if their efforts show few or no good results. An epiphany is an epiphany only in retrospect. Otherwise, it’s just a dream. Not taking no for an answer only works if someone else is there to say yes. No one lives completely alone and independently in society.
It is generous of Melanie Phillips to devote her skills and time to honour these women, but is this the best response to their circumstances, raising them up to the level of celebrities, examples of humanity extraordinaire? Can women who are abused to a lesser extent see themselves in Tina’s place, or was her experience so horrendous that others can only marvel at her fortitude and be thankful it didn’t happen to them? Is Claire just an ordinary mom, or was she an expert horsewoman destined for an esteemed future, and now selected especially to demonstrate the robot suit.
Claire Lomas’s accidental, unintentional fall from a horse and the physical attack on Tina Nash by her boyfriend are part of what make their circumstances clearly distinct from one another. To say they are both examples of adversity to be overcome takes away from the different path each one will take, and from the effort of so many others with what some might see as lesser forms of adversity.
Blinded woman Tina Nash makes domestic violence appeal
By Rob Williams
May 11, 2012
Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/blinded-woman-tina-nash-makes-domestic-violence-appeal-7737380.html
Britain's bionic man: Robot suit allows Olympic torch bearer, 22, to walk again five years after seafront car smash: David Follett
By Daily Mail Reporter
Daily Mail
Apr 19, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2132059/Britains-bionic-man-Robot-suit-allows-Olympic-torch-bearer-22-walk-again.html
Claire Lomas: Matt Hampson impressed me more than any star
Leicester Mercury
May 19, 2012
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Claire-Lomas-Matt-Hampson-impressed-star/story-16127816-detail/story.html
The lesson we can all learn from the quiet heroism of these two women
By Melanie Phillips
Daily Mail
May 13, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2143945/Claire-Lomas-Tina-Nash-The-lesson-learn-quiet-heroism-women.html
A life with purpose lasts longer, researchers find
By Carla Wintersgill
Globe and Mail
Jun 18, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/a-life-with-purpose-lasts-longer-researchers-find/article1184477/
Montreal Massacre 1989 - 2009
By Sue McPherson
Sue’s Views on the News
Dec 6, 2009
http://suemcpherson.blogspot.com/2009/12/montreal-massacre-1989-2009-selection.html
The REAL reason marathon woman deserves a medal: Let down by her ex when she needed him most... and how she found happiness with her husband
By Sadie Nicholas
Daily Mail
May 13, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2143641/The-REAL-reason-marathon-woman-deserves-medal-Let-ex-needed--happiness-husband.html#ixzz1uklPGlIf
Robot Suit Helps Paraplegic Walk Again: Amanda Boxtel
Thomas Moore, science correspondent
Sky News
Oct 21, 2011
http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16093536
Tanni Grey-Thompson warns that Paralympic legacy is threatened by cuts
By Patrick Butler, social policy editor
guardian.co.uk
May 20, 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/20/tanni-grey-thompson-paralympics-legacy?CMP=EMCNEWEML1355
2 May 2012
Marathon athletes - the bravery of Claire Lomas, Terry Fox, and others
A few days ago I happened to come across an article about the bravery of one of the participants in the London marathon, in Britain. The history of this event, and its structure, can be found online using a search engine. Almost from the beginning, I found I was in the wrong place. This wasn't an objective article about someone running in the marathon. This was a support sytem, an update log, for supporters of Clarie Lomas.
The article itself was biased to the extreme, and the comments were no better. I have not seen comments before - well maybe I have - that distorted the truth so astoundingly, without hesitance, with no apparent sense of integrity or need to say anything more except to pretend. The falsehoods that were being spoken were beyond belief, the absolute loyalty of most of the commenters (and as it turned out, the moderators as well) was appalling, though it has to be taken into consideration that they were coming at this from the persoective of the well-off in Britain.
There seemed to be no qualms at distorting the truth in an attempt to persuade readers to donate to Claire's cause - spinal research - and apparently to the cost of her robot suit and her pysiotherapist, 5 star hotels, etc, as well as continuing medical care that in most likelihood would never be available to anyone but the most popular people in the country.
One of the first questions I asked was whether Claire required a physiotherapist to stand behind her every step of the way, in her marathon attempt which should take about 2 or 3 weeks. The abrupt answer was Of course, as though it was not a subject to be discussed further and no more information need to be given out. I wasn't the only person to wonder about the sense of letting Claire do this, as what was obvious was that she was totally dependent on her physiotherapist, her medical team, her family, and all those who supported her "independence." Yes, did you catch that.
Is this what is now considered to be independence - walking in a $70,000 bionic suit, unable to travel alone, do many of the typical things a person does for oneself, unable to care for one's child, or cook meals for hubby, or many other things I haven't mentioned here. Yet, people in the article discussion were claiming just that - that Claire was independent.
How anyone can think that a person who comes to this mainly because she comes from money, has money, had a career, and is youthful and lovely to look at, can represent the idea of 'bravery' is beyond me. There are so many others out there - marathon participants included - who must have to struggle to walk, or get into their wheelchair, and have to deal with doing their daily tasks alone without help, with far less assistance from the medical community, than Claire has. I doubt that a day ever went by that she didn't know that she would be taken care of, would be given the best care that money could buy, the best treatment. Has she ever experienced doubt, that her family and friends - and the medical community - would care for her?
Even her marriage seems like something out of a fairy tale, not the kind of experience most women would have if they went on an online dating service, paralyzed from the chest down. How lucky would a girl have to be to attract a research scientist? Claire went on to marry her internet date, got pregnant, and had a child. But out of human interest, isn't it normal to be curious about how she cares for the child, or is it like the question about the physiotherapist. One should not ask such things.
It reminds me of the story, the Emperor with No Clothes, how everyone ignored the reality of the sitution and simply pretended, because they had to, because those with power said they should. And yet, I can't think of any situation so artificial, so pretentious, so unreal, so false, as this situation - this girl's life. Even our own Kate and William, who some may criticize because of their Royal connections, come across as real, as like us in so many ways. They walk and talk and work and look after the house and go on trips. They are independent, in mind and body, and in the way they live their lives.
This new tale brings the story of the Emperor up-to-date, as it is based on techonology, re-invention, the concept of relativity (there is no one truth, it's all perspective), and, I would add, the idea that a young woman can do it all, and have it all - the marriage and children, a home, earning a living, participating athletically, contributing meaningfully, etc. So if a slight distortion of the truth surrounding the facts of the situation is required in order that the masses believe in Claire and her life, and that it really does relate to our own, well so be it.
I don't like to think of people donating to her cause because they have been encouraged to see her as someone special - as independent, giving her all to a cause which will supposedly help all spinal injuries sufferers, because the truth is, in any medical innovation or expensive treatment, it's not the ordinary person who benefits. It's ordinary people who often give from their meagre resources, looking up to someone whose image is being projected as saintlike, determined, brave to the extreme, but the reality is that it is more likely to be the unheralded ordinary person who shows bravery, suffering in silence and without the steady support from family, community and the medical system, as they particpate in the marathon, or just try to survive, from day to day.
To me, newpapers are places where one reads the news and gets to hear the well-informed opinions of journalists and others, not a place to provide support, and persuade readers to give money, for a cause which is suspect in the first place in its integrity, worth, and usefulness. I hold the author of the article, Cole Moreton, responsible for instigating such a farce, and the ready and willing supporters in the comments section of the article for their narrow-mindedness and general bad attitude towards anyone who questioned the worth of supporting Claire's cause and the statements that were being said about her.
On one level, I pondered the question of how many people would benefit from additional funds put into money for spinal research, and how many patients would actually be able to walk afterwards due to the inspiration of Clair Lomas. I wonder how many other patients would have welcomed the opportunity to try out the bionic legs and participate in the marathon, and how many are simply left to watch from their beds.
On another level, I questioned the idea of 'progress' itself, commenting that
"It always feels good to 'progress,' even though we know that progress isn't always the best route to take. I know, I'm not perfect either. I had virtually abandoned old posts on my blog, Sue's Views on the News, in favour of writing on new and current topics. Having to maintain the old, update the links, etc, is never as inspiring or as much fun. But underneath it all, it is as important as writing new posts. It is the foundation on which we build - our blog, or in the case of healthcare, our country. Letting the old drop away, mistreated, without attention, is not the sign of a healthy society.
There's a fine line between stagnation and progress, one being too much remaining stuck in present circumstances, the other being too intent on moving forward, continuously. We already know how badly our health systems are suffering, financially, with physiotherapists, doctors, and adequate health care not available to all people equally. So why heap so much on this one girl, and this single health condition, to benefit the ones who can afford it, when people all over the 'civilized' world are suffering." End of comment
I encourage readers to read the Comments section of the article 'Is this the bravest,' which I saved in a separate document (see below) as I came to realize that comments were being interfered with by the moderators. Also in the comments section of that article I mention Terry Fox, the one-legged Canadian whose determination, with virtually no financial backing, took on the task of crossing Canada to raise money for cancer research, until the cancer took his life a few months later, at age 22. He was just an ordinary person, a true sportsman, back then in 1980 when he ran his Marathon of Hope.
Added May 5, 2012
It look as though even more posts have been tampered with, in the comments section following the Cole Moreton article. Personal comments made about me, to me, by some of the commenters, have been removed. Many of my comments have been labeled ‘edited’ although most haven’t been changed, just the ones that say things they don’t want to hear, about class, mainly, meaning money.
See ‘Richard Branson’ for the latest on the medal controversy. He and the Virgin group will be honouring Claire with a trophy for her effort.
This is Eddie Kidd’s website: http://www.eddiekidd.com/#/home/4548358397 . He was a stunt rider injured in a motorcycle show who received brain injuries as well as damaging his spinal cord (mentioned by a commenter in the Leicester Mercury).
For those interested in more stories of determination, see the website of marine engineer Alex T Smith, at http://alexwillwalkagain.com/2008/09/ , for his story of spinal injury, his successes in rehabilitation, and the continuing struggle for the treatment he needs.
Hairdresser Claire Squires (see Claire Squires Samaritans) pushed herself beyond the limits of normal endurance, as so many do while running the marathon; sadly, she lost her life before reaching the finishing line, resulting in an outpouring of grief and generosity.
Added May 10, 2012
In the newspaper's comments in the Apr 28 Telegraph article, 'Is this the bravest...', the subject of independence had come up. Claire was described as independent, despite surely having almost every aspect of her life dependent on the good will of others (or money paid, since selflessness is not a desirable trait, according to some readers). I doubt that she cooked or cleaned, or drove a car. She was followed at every step of the marathon by her physiotherapist, although I noticed by the end of the walk news article were saying it was her husband who walked behind her. She married and had a child some time after the accident, but I don't see how it would have been possible for her to help with the practical care of the infant.
In the Telegraph article of the day of completion for Claire - May 8 - there were still many staunch supporters, why, I don't know, when what she did was something many others would have been capable of, given the chance. This is hard to prove of course, because they didn't get that opportunity. It's what enables the middle classes to continue the pretence that they are more worthy than others, as suggested by the article in today's Telegraph (Privately educated MPs, actors and sports stars ... May 10, 2012).
Claire being a woman might have influenced readers and supporters even though they may not have been aware of that aspect of it. A comment I left today on the Telegraph's May 8th 'Paralysed Claire Lomas completes ... ' asks that question.
List of comments: Is this the bravest marathon athlete of all?
By the readers of Cole Moreton's article in Telegraph, Apr 28, 2012
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/Miscellaneous/2012_May_ListOfCommentsBraveryOfMarathon.doc
How Terry Fox changed Canada
Toronto Star
Apr 11, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/793452--how-terry-fox-changed-canada
Is this the bravest marathon athlete of all?
By Cole Moreton
Telegraph
Apr 28, 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/9233873/Is-this-the-bravest-marathon-athlete-of-all.html
Additional articles and sites:
Alex T Smith
'Alex will walk again' website
Dec 2006 - present
http://alexwillwalkagain.com/2008/09/
Claire Squires Samaritans fundraising page raises more than £1m
By Patrick Butler and Helen Carter
guardian.co.uk
Apr 27, 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/27/claire-squires-samaritans-site-raises-1m?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Diving suit man Lloyd Scott denied London Marathon farewell
By Andy Dangerfield
Mar 22, 2012
BBC News, London
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17465047
Give her a medal! Olympic hero issues plea over Claire's marathon effort
Leicester Mercury
May 04, 2012
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/medal-Olympic-hero-issues-plea-Claire-s-marathon/story-16001121-detail/story.html
It's heartbreaking when Eddie's kids ring ... but can't understand him
By David Lowe
The Sun
Mar 4, 2009
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article2294572.ece
London Marathon: Thousands take part in 32nd race
BBC News
Apr 22, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17785660
Nine days after the London Marathon finished, paralysed mother is still out there taking one step at a time... thanks to a £43,000 bionic suit
By Harry Mount
Daily Mail
May 1, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137651/Awesome-courage-bionic-woman-Nine-days-race-finished-paralysed-mother-doing-London-marathon-heroic-step-time--thanks-43-000-space-age-suit.html
No race medal for London Marathon fund-raiser Claire Lomas
Merc_Reporter
Leicestershire Mercury
May 03, 2012
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/race-medal-London-Marathon-fund-raiser-Claire/story-15992429-detail/story.html
Paralysed Claire Lomas completes London Marathon
Telegraph
May 8, 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/9252205/Paralysed-Claire-Lomas-completes-London-Marathon.html#disqus_thread
Paralysed rider aims for London marathon with 'Wrong Trousers' robot legs
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
Telegraph
Feb 12, 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9076329/Paralysed-rider-aims-for-London-marathon-with-Wrong-Trousers-robot-legs.html
Paralyzed woman completes London Marathon wearing bionic suit
Emily Jackson Staff Reporter
Star online
May 8 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1175081--paralyzed-woman-completes-london-marathon-wearing-bionic-suit?bn=1#article
Privately educated MPs, actors and sports stars dominate society, says Gove
Telegraph
May 10, 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9257078/Privately-educated-MPs-actors-and-sports-stars-dominate-society-says-Gove.html
Richard Branson will give 'bionic' woman medal for London Marathon
BBC News
May 5, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17967948
The article itself was biased to the extreme, and the comments were no better. I have not seen comments before - well maybe I have - that distorted the truth so astoundingly, without hesitance, with no apparent sense of integrity or need to say anything more except to pretend. The falsehoods that were being spoken were beyond belief, the absolute loyalty of most of the commenters (and as it turned out, the moderators as well) was appalling, though it has to be taken into consideration that they were coming at this from the persoective of the well-off in Britain.
There seemed to be no qualms at distorting the truth in an attempt to persuade readers to donate to Claire's cause - spinal research - and apparently to the cost of her robot suit and her pysiotherapist, 5 star hotels, etc, as well as continuing medical care that in most likelihood would never be available to anyone but the most popular people in the country.
One of the first questions I asked was whether Claire required a physiotherapist to stand behind her every step of the way, in her marathon attempt which should take about 2 or 3 weeks. The abrupt answer was Of course, as though it was not a subject to be discussed further and no more information need to be given out. I wasn't the only person to wonder about the sense of letting Claire do this, as what was obvious was that she was totally dependent on her physiotherapist, her medical team, her family, and all those who supported her "independence." Yes, did you catch that.
Is this what is now considered to be independence - walking in a $70,000 bionic suit, unable to travel alone, do many of the typical things a person does for oneself, unable to care for one's child, or cook meals for hubby, or many other things I haven't mentioned here. Yet, people in the article discussion were claiming just that - that Claire was independent.
How anyone can think that a person who comes to this mainly because she comes from money, has money, had a career, and is youthful and lovely to look at, can represent the idea of 'bravery' is beyond me. There are so many others out there - marathon participants included - who must have to struggle to walk, or get into their wheelchair, and have to deal with doing their daily tasks alone without help, with far less assistance from the medical community, than Claire has. I doubt that a day ever went by that she didn't know that she would be taken care of, would be given the best care that money could buy, the best treatment. Has she ever experienced doubt, that her family and friends - and the medical community - would care for her?
Even her marriage seems like something out of a fairy tale, not the kind of experience most women would have if they went on an online dating service, paralyzed from the chest down. How lucky would a girl have to be to attract a research scientist? Claire went on to marry her internet date, got pregnant, and had a child. But out of human interest, isn't it normal to be curious about how she cares for the child, or is it like the question about the physiotherapist. One should not ask such things.
It reminds me of the story, the Emperor with No Clothes, how everyone ignored the reality of the sitution and simply pretended, because they had to, because those with power said they should. And yet, I can't think of any situation so artificial, so pretentious, so unreal, so false, as this situation - this girl's life. Even our own Kate and William, who some may criticize because of their Royal connections, come across as real, as like us in so many ways. They walk and talk and work and look after the house and go on trips. They are independent, in mind and body, and in the way they live their lives.
This new tale brings the story of the Emperor up-to-date, as it is based on techonology, re-invention, the concept of relativity (there is no one truth, it's all perspective), and, I would add, the idea that a young woman can do it all, and have it all - the marriage and children, a home, earning a living, participating athletically, contributing meaningfully, etc. So if a slight distortion of the truth surrounding the facts of the situation is required in order that the masses believe in Claire and her life, and that it really does relate to our own, well so be it.
I don't like to think of people donating to her cause because they have been encouraged to see her as someone special - as independent, giving her all to a cause which will supposedly help all spinal injuries sufferers, because the truth is, in any medical innovation or expensive treatment, it's not the ordinary person who benefits. It's ordinary people who often give from their meagre resources, looking up to someone whose image is being projected as saintlike, determined, brave to the extreme, but the reality is that it is more likely to be the unheralded ordinary person who shows bravery, suffering in silence and without the steady support from family, community and the medical system, as they particpate in the marathon, or just try to survive, from day to day.
To me, newpapers are places where one reads the news and gets to hear the well-informed opinions of journalists and others, not a place to provide support, and persuade readers to give money, for a cause which is suspect in the first place in its integrity, worth, and usefulness. I hold the author of the article, Cole Moreton, responsible for instigating such a farce, and the ready and willing supporters in the comments section of the article for their narrow-mindedness and general bad attitude towards anyone who questioned the worth of supporting Claire's cause and the statements that were being said about her.
On one level, I pondered the question of how many people would benefit from additional funds put into money for spinal research, and how many patients would actually be able to walk afterwards due to the inspiration of Clair Lomas. I wonder how many other patients would have welcomed the opportunity to try out the bionic legs and participate in the marathon, and how many are simply left to watch from their beds.
On another level, I questioned the idea of 'progress' itself, commenting that
"It always feels good to 'progress,' even though we know that progress isn't always the best route to take. I know, I'm not perfect either. I had virtually abandoned old posts on my blog, Sue's Views on the News, in favour of writing on new and current topics. Having to maintain the old, update the links, etc, is never as inspiring or as much fun. But underneath it all, it is as important as writing new posts. It is the foundation on which we build - our blog, or in the case of healthcare, our country. Letting the old drop away, mistreated, without attention, is not the sign of a healthy society.
There's a fine line between stagnation and progress, one being too much remaining stuck in present circumstances, the other being too intent on moving forward, continuously. We already know how badly our health systems are suffering, financially, with physiotherapists, doctors, and adequate health care not available to all people equally. So why heap so much on this one girl, and this single health condition, to benefit the ones who can afford it, when people all over the 'civilized' world are suffering." End of comment
I encourage readers to read the Comments section of the article 'Is this the bravest,' which I saved in a separate document (see below) as I came to realize that comments were being interfered with by the moderators. Also in the comments section of that article I mention Terry Fox, the one-legged Canadian whose determination, with virtually no financial backing, took on the task of crossing Canada to raise money for cancer research, until the cancer took his life a few months later, at age 22. He was just an ordinary person, a true sportsman, back then in 1980 when he ran his Marathon of Hope.
Added May 5, 2012
It look as though even more posts have been tampered with, in the comments section following the Cole Moreton article. Personal comments made about me, to me, by some of the commenters, have been removed. Many of my comments have been labeled ‘edited’ although most haven’t been changed, just the ones that say things they don’t want to hear, about class, mainly, meaning money.
See ‘Richard Branson’ for the latest on the medal controversy. He and the Virgin group will be honouring Claire with a trophy for her effort.
This is Eddie Kidd’s website: http://www.eddiekidd.com/#/home/4548358397 . He was a stunt rider injured in a motorcycle show who received brain injuries as well as damaging his spinal cord (mentioned by a commenter in the Leicester Mercury).
For those interested in more stories of determination, see the website of marine engineer Alex T Smith, at http://alexwillwalkagain.com/2008/09/ , for his story of spinal injury, his successes in rehabilitation, and the continuing struggle for the treatment he needs.
Hairdresser Claire Squires (see Claire Squires Samaritans) pushed herself beyond the limits of normal endurance, as so many do while running the marathon; sadly, she lost her life before reaching the finishing line, resulting in an outpouring of grief and generosity.
Added May 10, 2012
In the newspaper's comments in the Apr 28 Telegraph article, 'Is this the bravest...', the subject of independence had come up. Claire was described as independent, despite surely having almost every aspect of her life dependent on the good will of others (or money paid, since selflessness is not a desirable trait, according to some readers). I doubt that she cooked or cleaned, or drove a car. She was followed at every step of the marathon by her physiotherapist, although I noticed by the end of the walk news article were saying it was her husband who walked behind her. She married and had a child some time after the accident, but I don't see how it would have been possible for her to help with the practical care of the infant.
In the Telegraph article of the day of completion for Claire - May 8 - there were still many staunch supporters, why, I don't know, when what she did was something many others would have been capable of, given the chance. This is hard to prove of course, because they didn't get that opportunity. It's what enables the middle classes to continue the pretence that they are more worthy than others, as suggested by the article in today's Telegraph (Privately educated MPs, actors and sports stars ... May 10, 2012).
Claire being a woman might have influenced readers and supporters even though they may not have been aware of that aspect of it. A comment I left today on the Telegraph's May 8th 'Paralysed Claire Lomas completes ... ' asks that question.
List of comments: Is this the bravest marathon athlete of all?
By the readers of Cole Moreton's article in Telegraph, Apr 28, 2012
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/Miscellaneous/2012_May_ListOfCommentsBraveryOfMarathon.doc
How Terry Fox changed Canada
Toronto Star
Apr 11, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/793452--how-terry-fox-changed-canada
Is this the bravest marathon athlete of all?
By Cole Moreton
Telegraph
Apr 28, 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/9233873/Is-this-the-bravest-marathon-athlete-of-all.html
Additional articles and sites:
Alex T Smith
'Alex will walk again' website
Dec 2006 - present
http://alexwillwalkagain.com/2008/09/
Claire Squires Samaritans fundraising page raises more than £1m
By Patrick Butler and Helen Carter
guardian.co.uk
Apr 27, 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/27/claire-squires-samaritans-site-raises-1m?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
Diving suit man Lloyd Scott denied London Marathon farewell
By Andy Dangerfield
Mar 22, 2012
BBC News, London
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17465047
Give her a medal! Olympic hero issues plea over Claire's marathon effort
Leicester Mercury
May 04, 2012
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/medal-Olympic-hero-issues-plea-Claire-s-marathon/story-16001121-detail/story.html
It's heartbreaking when Eddie's kids ring ... but can't understand him
By David Lowe
The Sun
Mar 4, 2009
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article2294572.ece
London Marathon: Thousands take part in 32nd race
BBC News
Apr 22, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17785660
Nine days after the London Marathon finished, paralysed mother is still out there taking one step at a time... thanks to a £43,000 bionic suit
By Harry Mount
Daily Mail
May 1, 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137651/Awesome-courage-bionic-woman-Nine-days-race-finished-paralysed-mother-doing-London-marathon-heroic-step-time--thanks-43-000-space-age-suit.html
No race medal for London Marathon fund-raiser Claire Lomas
Merc_Reporter
Leicestershire Mercury
May 03, 2012
http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/race-medal-London-Marathon-fund-raiser-Claire/story-15992429-detail/story.html
Paralysed Claire Lomas completes London Marathon
Telegraph
May 8, 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/9252205/Paralysed-Claire-Lomas-completes-London-Marathon.html#disqus_thread
Paralysed rider aims for London marathon with 'Wrong Trousers' robot legs
By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
Telegraph
Feb 12, 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9076329/Paralysed-rider-aims-for-London-marathon-with-Wrong-Trousers-robot-legs.html
Paralyzed woman completes London Marathon wearing bionic suit
Emily Jackson Staff Reporter
Star online
May 8 2012
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1175081--paralyzed-woman-completes-london-marathon-wearing-bionic-suit?bn=1#article
Privately educated MPs, actors and sports stars dominate society, says Gove
Telegraph
May 10, 2012
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9257078/Privately-educated-MPs-actors-and-sports-stars-dominate-society-says-Gove.html
Richard Branson will give 'bionic' woman medal for London Marathon
BBC News
May 5, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17967948
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