I am aware that I write a humor column, but every once in awhile, I hear or read about some behavior which is so egregious, I can’t remain silent.
We all know that Vice President Joe Biden recently lost his son Beau to brain cancer. I cannot — nor do I want to — contemplate how painful such a loss must be. Apparently oblivious to the world around him, presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz at a GOP dinner last week took the occasion to ridicule the grieving father, “Vice President Joe Biden,” Cruz joked, “you know the nice thing. You don’t need a punch line. I promise you it works. The next party you’re at, just walk up to someone and say, ‘Vice President Joe Biden’ and just close your mouth. They will crack-up laughing.”
The Vice President’s son hadn’t even been buried yet and Senator Cruz was trash talking Joe Biden. Yes, Cruz did apologize later for the timing of his comments, but what planet is he on that he could be so entirely insensitive? In my life of following politics, I cannot recall any comment more devoid of human feeling because of its timing. Even the late Senator Joseph McCarthy at his vilest knew better than to mock a father who had just lost his son.
Polls show most Americans deplore the lack of civility which has come to characterize our national debate, but don’t think for one moment all politicians are equally to blame. Of course, people on both sides of the political aisle engage in partisan behavior and occasionally say things which are insensitive, but rarely do people running for our highest public office make comments as coarse and ugly as Ted Cruz did last week.
If we are ever to return to a time of civil discourse where public officials work together for the common good, we as a people need to repudiate loudly and clearly the likes of the junior senator from Texas. Have you no shame, Ted Cruz?
Burt Ross