Just being a kid or something more deep seated?
brianlux
Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 42,427
What do think? Boys being boys or something more deeply disturbing?
(See link for full article)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ ... print.html
"Mitt Romney’s prep school classmates recall pranks, but also troubling incidents.
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. — Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenage son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be identified. The men have differing political affiliations, although they mostly lean Democratic. Buford volunteered for Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Seed, a registered independent, has served as a Republican county chairman in Michigan. All of them said that politics in no way colored their recollections.
“It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber. Buford subsequently apologized to Lauber, who was “terrified,” he said. “What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.”
“It was a hack job,” recalled Maxwell, a childhood friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred. “It was vicious.”
“He was just easy pickin’s,” said Friedemann, then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall, expressing remorse about his failure to stop it.
The incident transpired in a flash, and Friedemann said Romney then led his cheering schoolmates back to his bay-windowed room in Stevens Hall.
Friedemann, guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the famously strict institution. Nothing happened.
(See link for full article)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ ... print.html
"Mitt Romney’s prep school classmates recall pranks, but also troubling incidents.
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. — Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.
“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” an incensed Romney told Matthew Friedemann, his close friend in the Stevens Hall dorm, according to Friedemann’s recollection. Mitt, the teenage son of Michigan Gov. George Romney, kept complaining about Lauber’s look, Friedemann recalled.
A few days later, Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair. Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.
The incident was recalled similarly by five students, who gave their accounts independently of one another. Four of them — Friedemann, now a dentist; Phillip Maxwell, a lawyer; Thomas Buford, a retired prosecutor; and David Seed, a retired principal — spoke on the record. Another former student who witnessed the incident asked not to be identified. The men have differing political affiliations, although they mostly lean Democratic. Buford volunteered for Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008. Seed, a registered independent, has served as a Republican county chairman in Michigan. All of them said that politics in no way colored their recollections.
“It happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me,” said Buford, the school’s wrestling champion, who said he joined Romney in restraining Lauber. Buford subsequently apologized to Lauber, who was “terrified,” he said. “What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.”
“It was a hack job,” recalled Maxwell, a childhood friend of Romney who was in the dorm room when the incident occurred. “It was vicious.”
“He was just easy pickin’s,” said Friedemann, then the student prefect, or student authority leader of Stevens Hall, expressing remorse about his failure to stop it.
The incident transpired in a flash, and Friedemann said Romney then led his cheering schoolmates back to his bay-windowed room in Stevens Hall.
Friedemann, guilt ridden, made a point of not talking about it with his friend and waited to see what form of discipline would befall Romney at the famously strict institution. Nothing happened.
"Pretty cookies, heart squares all around, yeah!"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
"Try to not spook the horse."
-Neil Young
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
I would not call that "just being a kid," as a high school senior.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
That said, I have to say this story seems like grasping at straws.
Bringing this up in an election 47 years later is stupid, so is claiming that you don't remember the incident.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
I agree. It's stupid on all levels. However, this election is going to be one of the dirtiest in history with more of these personal, character attacks to come between now and November.
Gibson Amphitheatre (Los Angeles): 10/7/09
I can relate to this post, at least so much as being on the receiving end etc.
With that being said, I hope people don't judge me on the decisions I made when I was a teenager, that's for sure. Does it sound like Romney was a dick back then? Absolutely, but to me it's not an issue.
Not trying to pry or instigate, but...
..aren't you kind of doing the same thing they did to you? Re-read the underlined part.
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Why don't we focus on the candidates platforms and ideas instead of dumb stuff like birth certificates and highschool bullying?
This is exactly what's wrong with politics. This nonsense.
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Distractions.
As Bama said above, this is gonna take some of the nastiest (and, I predict, irrelevant) turns yet.
The Super PACs out there on both sides of the aisle are going to make the 'Swift Boat' ads from 2004 look like child's play. Historic amounts of money are being poured into these entities and the gloves have come off.
Gibson Amphitheatre (Los Angeles): 10/7/09
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
The saddest thing about Romney’s comments is that Romney couldn’t even acknowledge the person hurt by his actions. Romney’s feeble comment was: "I did some dumb things and if anybody was hurt by that or offended ... obviously, I apologize,"
This only tells me that Romney’s acts of cruelty were common place and he has no regrets or remorse. You don’t forget committing that type of act upon another person, yet that is who Mitt Romney is and will always be - A person who gets ahead on the pain of others – in this case it was physical – in our case, if elected – it’ll be financial.
But .... I do recall my friends and I doing crap like this to each other. Clippers, sharpies, bb-guns, M-80 firecrackers, you name it.
OK, fair enough. I can see where it reads that way. Yes, I have issues with bullies.
But that said, no, it's not the same because I didn't name, or confront them and never would. I wouldn't bother to tell them to their face what fucks they were because I'm speaking about a general personality trait here. I haven't done anything to these people as individuals- they probably don't even know I exist. So no, I've done nothing to hurt them.
What I'm saying is, these people don't act so tough today and they don't look so good either. I never voted for them for class president, class clown or class prick and I wouldn't today. Bullying is bullshit. That's my stance and I'm sticking to it.
To me the article indicates that Romney has some bullying issues. By the time most people are in their teens their basic personality is pretty much intact. Maybe he's changed, maybe not. But to me this is a red flag.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
in teens and young adults are still compromised.
Even well beyond that people are growing and learning. I wouldn't want to be judged
by what I did decades ago. Well I don't want to be judged at all
way too much of that going on.
We have gone to every class reunion, I am witness to much change in people...
even the bullies grow a heart.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
just sayin
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
I totally agree. This is more than just a minor prank or one of those dumb things we do as kids. Sure we all did dumb things as kids but, like puremagic said, this is more than a prank gone to far. It's a personality trait. It's about hatred and bullying. And teenagers have developed their brains enough to know the difference between right and wrong. I don't understand why anyone would try to brush this off or ignore it as being meaningless... unless you like the idea of having a bully for a leader. That's happened often enough. That's not the kind of person I want to see in office.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Lo these many years later, I consider myself a decent person, albeit one who's made mistakes and learned from them.
Surely I'm not the only one...?
I never knew anyone who actually did that either, Chadwick. But thank you for reminding me of something (I'd have mentioned it earlier but, hey, aging brain, what can I say)- I did know a kid who had it happen to him. While on vacation, a high school friend of mine was held down by some bullies and had his long hair cut off. I remember him describing the incident to me and and some friends and I remember that it was very traumatizing for him. I knew another kid in high school who was an avowed pacifist. I bully went up to him and said, "If I hit you, will you hot me back?" The pacifist said, "No, I'm a pacifist." The bully punched him in the face and laughed. I'm not making this up. This shit happens and I for one don't make light of it. People who do this sort of thing are not the kind of people I want as a leader.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Times were a lot different back then as well. You have to put everything in context.
I stand by my statement.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
the bigger issue is that today Romney still doesn't seem to get that what he did was wrong and being a bully. he still think's it was 'kid's play'. well mitt you are wrong. i'd have more respect if he came out and admitted that it was bullying and that he was sorry for it. i don't really see him being sorry for his actions though. most of us as we become adults realize we did stupid shit as teenagers and most of us come to regret those actions.
We all did dumb things, Hedonist, and I don't picture you as a bully. I have not doubt you are a decent person.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people who are cruel in nature do change. I personally haven't known anyone who was cruel who later became kind but I suppose it's possible. On the other hand, when someone has a history of cruelty, I think that needs to be looked at closely before we elect that person to be our president. I still don't understand just brushing it off.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
It wasn't ok to be a bully back then.
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"
Exactly!
-Eddie Vedder, "Smile"