Timothy Stewart needs to offer a real apology
Former Mayor Timothy Stewart was at it again on Tuesday night. The New Britain Republican turned to Facebook to express his contempt for Democratic women members of Congress dressed in white as they listened to loathsome demagogue Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
Stewart posted a comment below the photo, calling the elected officials “Bitches in heat!” I knew when I put a screenshot of Stewart’s comment on my website early Wednesday morning that the comment would not be ignored. Stewart is notorious in New Britain and political circles for his vulgar abuse of people he disagrees with.
Stewart’s notoriety did not keep the Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce from hiring him as president and keeping him on after an ugly 2017 Facebook incident. The reaction to a derogatory comment Stewart posted about a city neighborhood caused the chamber embarrassment and prompted him to swear off social media. He resisted calls to resign then and kept his job.
Stewart could not stay away from social media. As reaction to Stewart’s most recent ugly comment grew on Wednesday, the chamber put him on leave, and the former mayor issued a statement that suggested he does not understand why he caused offense. Stewart apologized to his wife and his daughter, New Britain’s current mayor, Erin Stewart.
But Timothy Stewart’s state- ment, intended as an apology, sounds some loud notes of victimhood. “Let me say that first we are living in a culture where social media has become the public justice system for many who choose to utilize it daily,” he wrote. That may be true for Stew- art and other loudmouth boors, but most people are able to use it responsibly and without incident. The vast majority of Facebook users are happy to keep in touch with friends and family, send some birthday greetings and share the normal events of life. Most users do not see it as a bludgeon to magnify their endless war with the world.
“I along with many other people should know better to not say things that might enflame (sic) the public,” Stewart continued. There are plenty of others who use the internet in the manner Stewart did, but only one head of the New Britain business association claimed he was triggered by some unknown moment in the State of the Union address that caused him to unleash one of his vulgarities at women who appeared on the screen.
It’s unlikely Stewart is ever going to point the way to a sunny high spot in public discourse, but he ought to be able to issue a straightforward apology. It is not the internet’s fault that his contempt for successful Democratic women in politics came tumbling off his fingertips and onto screens
for the world to witness. It’s from him.
State Republican Party Chairman J.R. Romano provided an eyebrow-raising moment as political figures reacted to the Stewart story. Romano said he was terribly disappointed in the former New Britain mayor. This is the same Romano who, early in his tenure as party chairman, was part of a trio starring in a video program called “Whiskey Patriots.”
The duo appearing with Romano was Carl Higbie, a malicious figure known for spewing his racist, homophobic, antiimmigrant and anti-Muslim views, and Kyle Reyes, who created a video in 2017 advancing the theory that the vicious and violent Charlottesville, Va., far-right march was a left-wing production aimed at discrediting the right.
Bizarre, I know, but these are the people with whom the head of the Connecticut Republican Party exulted in appearing in what was intended as a regular program. Events have brought the production to an end, but the stink of it continues, as does Romano’s tenure in office.
Our modern world is having some trouble creating a civil penal code to offenses against acceptable behavior. Events in Virginia’s government continue to emphasize our collective uncertainty. Two of the top state officials, the governor and attorney general, have admitted to using blackface in the 1980s. The lieutenant governor has been accused of sexual assault in 2004. He denies the accusation.
Virginia’s government is in turmoil as each of those three officials strains to save himself.
Stewart should spare us a similar agony. Offer a real apology and, please, stay off social media.