Wow!!
- Thread starter witness23
- Start date
My BS meter was ticking rather loudly while watching this one, for several reasons:
- The skeptic in me says why would the supposedly handicapped Parkinson's patient want to get involved in that mess at that location? It could be that the people in the crowd realized he was just another panhandler.
- Why are we supposed to believe this guy has Parkinson's just because his sign says so?
- Surely this wasn't a staged act for the media? Surely not!
witness23
Veteran Expediter
Here's the story behind the video.
Health-reform rally heckler says he's sorry and scared | The Columbus Dispatch
witness23
Veteran Expediter
I know it's difficult to search Columbus Dispatch and go to the website or google "man with parkinsons heckled" and find out for yourself but since you didn't I linked the full story for you above.
I saw that one on C-SPAN. He does indeed have Parkinson's, but it was absolutely staged insofar as a man with Parkinson's Disease deliberately dressed like a homeless man, deliberately placed himself in a spot that someone with Parkinson's would not likely be, and he did it specifically to invoke a very predictable socialistic response. He's a liberal, and did it to make a point. Staged, yes. Honest and upfront, no. Effective, yes.
Here's his own words, sort of.
Here's his own words, sort of.
OK, that gives us a more complete picture of the deal. And it's fair to say that the taunters weren't plants. However, I was still wondering why this guy would sit down right in front of the anti-healthcare crowd. Googling Robert Letcher gives us this article among many others:
Connie Schultz: With Parkinson?s, his voice for health care grows stronger
"...He has a doctorate from Cornell University and taught at three colleges, most recently Ohio State University’s John Glenn School of Public Affairs. He has been on the progressive side of causes his entire life but never more so than when he became the beneficiary of government health care.
After he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2005, Letcher went on Medicare, which paid for the brain surgery at the Cleveland Clinic that changed his life."
No doubt this wasn't the first protest he's been to, and the guy knew what he was doing. He baited those guys and they took it hook, line and sinker much to their subsequent regret.
My next thought after looking at the guy's resume begs the question "what happened to his health care?" I assume when he retired he took Social Security disability and that put him on Medicare. What percentage of the actual surgery cost did Medicare cover? I wonder if the media will look into Dr. Letcher's story as closely as they did that of Joe the Plumber. Sounds to me like this is a prime example of how well the current system actually works.
Although on the surface this story exposes video of some rednecks berating a poor cripple, there may be an equally interesting expose about the victim himself.
Connie Schultz: With Parkinson?s, his voice for health care grows stronger
"...He has a doctorate from Cornell University and taught at three colleges, most recently Ohio State University’s John Glenn School of Public Affairs. He has been on the progressive side of causes his entire life but never more so than when he became the beneficiary of government health care.
After he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2005, Letcher went on Medicare, which paid for the brain surgery at the Cleveland Clinic that changed his life."
No doubt this wasn't the first protest he's been to, and the guy knew what he was doing. He baited those guys and they took it hook, line and sinker much to their subsequent regret.
My next thought after looking at the guy's resume begs the question "what happened to his health care?" I assume when he retired he took Social Security disability and that put him on Medicare. What percentage of the actual surgery cost did Medicare cover? I wonder if the media will look into Dr. Letcher's story as closely as they did that of Joe the Plumber. Sounds to me like this is a prime example of how well the current system actually works.
Although on the surface this story exposes video of some rednecks berating a poor cripple, there may be an equally interesting expose about the victim himself.
witness23
Veteran Expediter
Are you serious.....who cares where he was sitting and if you had read the article Turtle submitted you would know. Who cares even if he was a (put your tin-foil hats on) "plant" that President Obama himself put there. There's this thing called common courtesy which evidently, from your responses you would know nothing of. Nevermind.
Yeah, I think both sides are equally culpable here. Like you said, he baited them (the wording on the sign was such that it directly challenged the anti-legislation people), and they bit hard. He knew what the reaction would be, or close to it, which is why he did it. Someone in a three-piece suit sitting on a lawn chair in the same place while reading the Wall Street Journal would have received essentially the same response from the other side. Human nature is in the end very predictable.
As for his health care, I think there's more to that story, as well. He was a nuclear physicist for Westinghouse and a college professor. Depending where and for how long, he should have a pretty good health care package from academia.
But he has him own agenda. I came across this article from him yesterday, and remember reading it shortly after he posted it when it was in a link of another story. Skim through the article, but more important is to click the "about us" page and see who runs it. Letcher is part and parcel of that crowd, which is why I think there's more to his story.
edit: Yes, Witness, he was treated deplorably. No one denies that, not even Pilgrim.
As for his health care, I think there's more to that story, as well. He was a nuclear physicist for Westinghouse and a college professor. Depending where and for how long, he should have a pretty good health care package from academia.
But he has him own agenda. I came across this article from him yesterday, and remember reading it shortly after he posted it when it was in a link of another story. Skim through the article, but more important is to click the "about us" page and see who runs it. Letcher is part and parcel of that crowd, which is why I think there's more to his story.
edit: Yes, Witness, he was treated deplorably. No one denies that, not even Pilgrim.
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To expand on Turtle's link to LAProgressive.com - this is featured in their Authors section:
Robert A. Letcher, Ph.D. is a political economist who describes himself as "an academic without portfolio, writer, political activist, and Qigong practitioner who tries to help people learn".
Dressed a little differently then he was the other day, wouldn't you say? Treated deplorably was he? How about the conservative guy whose finger was bitten off by a MoveOn.Org protester at a rally last year? Was that deplorable?
Funny how things are not the way they seem - now go back to the original video from the Columbus Dispatch and compare what we now know to impression given by the paper's video - that of a pitiful, destitute Parkinson's victim being harassed by conservative "Tea Baggers". Granted, he was treated badly but it appears that was exactly what he was after.
Robert A. Letcher, Ph.D. is a political economist who describes himself as "an academic without portfolio, writer, political activist, and Qigong practitioner who tries to help people learn".
Dressed a little differently then he was the other day, wouldn't you say? Treated deplorably was he? How about the conservative guy whose finger was bitten off by a MoveOn.Org protester at a rally last year? Was that deplorable?
Funny how things are not the way they seem - now go back to the original video from the Columbus Dispatch and compare what we now know to impression given by the paper's video - that of a pitiful, destitute Parkinson's victim being harassed by conservative "Tea Baggers". Granted, he was treated badly but it appears that was exactly what he was after.
greg334
Veteran Expediter
Maybe a hypocritical elitist?
I don't have a issue with calling out someone with a disease like others because there is a bit of an unethical issue here. Here he seems to be exploiting those who are in that exact position that he is depicting while having better care than most on both sides of the issue. Instead of demonstrating the problems with the system by refusing his high cost health care (assuming he is tenured in either job), he is nothing more than a hypocrite.
I don't have a issue with calling out someone with a disease like others because there is a bit of an unethical issue here. Here he seems to be exploiting those who are in that exact position that he is depicting while having better care than most on both sides of the issue. Instead of demonstrating the problems with the system by refusing his high cost health care (assuming he is tenured in either job), he is nothing more than a hypocrite.
Tennesseahawk
Veteran Expediter
*singing* Feelings... nothing more than feelings...