Himes’ flub is forgivable, silence is not
Somewhere, there’s a parallel universe where the Twitterverse existed in 1939, dooming President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s political future after he served hot dogs to the king of England. Social media would surely have been similarly cruel to President Abraham Lincoln’s lack of formal education, to President Gerald Ford locking himself out of the White House while walking his pregnant dog, to President Ronald Reagan outlawing Russia during what he thought was a sound check.
We are on the eve of a season of political operatives exploiting every gaffe tweeted or uttered by President Donald Trump and his Democratic nemesis, Joe Biden, both masters of the malapropism. The president’s camp has already reportedly compiled a “greatest hits” of Biden’s miscues, and Trump-haters will surely amplify every mistake he makes, such as misspelling his wife’s name in Tweets. Brace for an orgy of “gotchas” in the months to come.
It’s all misdirection. Votes should be based on a candidate’s record, vision and moral fiber. On what they stand for, as well as issues that summon their silence.
A letter to the editor from Greenwich resident Georgia Grellier raises the question of how to draw the line on political stumbles. Grellier noted that our story about a June 6 Greenwich rally, reported by Ken Borsuk, declined to note that U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Greenwich, referred to George Floyd as “George Taylor,” apparently conflating his name with that of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police officers in Kentucky.
“Himes’ error is an inexcusable one, and Borsuk’s failure to report on it is an example of faulty journalism fueled by unchecked white privilege. In the fight against systemic racism, both Himes and Borsuk have proven themselves to be part of the problem, not the solution,” Grellier writes.
When he was corrected by audience members after making the mistake a second time, Himes lost his fiery momentum. Borsuk, meanwhile, made the news judgment that the purpose of the rally needed to be his focus.
But Grellier gave me something to think about. Would I have given Himes the same pass? If Trump or Biden were making campaign stops in Greenwich and made the same mistake, could I resist calling them out?
When I was city editor, I mandated that reporters correct quotes using slang such as “gonna,” “wanna,” “ain’t,” etc. A novelist might use such words to season characters, but they can be perceived as insulting if documented by a journalist.
Our mission is to get the message across clearly. Otherwise, we wouldn’t bother correcting the many creative spellings of prominent names submitted in letters to the editor.
I happened to unexpectedly encounter a different rally while taking a long drive with my 8year-old son. We passed through the modest center of Bridgewater, which has a population of 1,727 according to the 2010 Census, 13 of whom are Black.
“What’s going on?” my son asked.
I explained it was a Black Lives Matter protest. He reflexively reached out the window and alternately waved to people hoisting signs while pointing to his own brown skin.
It was the equivalent of a mic drop. He was the only person of color I could see, which clearly did not escape the notice of participants who reacted as though he had pressed a mute button.
I hope they, and others, keep turning up the volume. But they also need to listen. In recent days, my Latina wife has been grumbling about white males mansplaining racism and sexism on social media.
“Just shushie-shush,” she growls at her computer. “Just say ‘I support you.’ You are not the authority.”
Yes, privileged white men are encouraged to join the queue, but they have no place near the front of this line.
Himes recognized himself in that mirror.
“I don’t stand here comfortably,” he said on the steps of Greenwich Town Hall to several hundred people. “The systemic racism of this country is largely about people like me speaking and others not speaking.”
He offered a bit of a history lesson, tracing American slavery to its roots hundreds of years ago, referencing the lynching of Black U.S. soldiers in uniform a mere century ago and noting that FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s excluded Black citizens.
Himes also considered the horizon in his own Fourth District.
“And yet a child who is born in Darien is going to succeed and a child that is born poor in South Norwalk probably won’t. And that is not OK.”
He also deferred to the wisdom of Black heroes such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his congressional colleague John Lewis of Georgia.
So I believe Himes’ mistakes are excusable, if only because he showed up. So did First Selectman Fred Camillo, one of the only Republican leaders to take a knee with the rest of the crowd for 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence in memory of Floyd, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for that harrowing length of time.
Himes’ flub was exposed because he was there to make it. It’s not hard to imagine a political rival trying to exploit the moment with a tacky campaign ad featuring the gaffe on a loop.
But the real story is in the silence. Not by the people on their knees, but by those who steadfastly remain hushed as our nation yearns to be defined.