During President Obama’s health care reform speech Wednesday, Republican Senator Joe Wilson interrupted the proceedings a couple of times with angry outbursts.
The first came when Obama asserted that illegal aliens would be denied insurance. Wilson shouted out “You lie!” The second outburst followed the President’s claim that Federal funds would not pay for abortions; Wilson yelled “Not true!” While both instances did cause the President to pause his speech, he did not respond to the interruptions, nor did he openly censure Wilson for committing the gaffes.
Very shortly thereafter, Wilson apologized, saying that he was caught up in the emotion of the moment. Individuals on both sides of the party split have offered their opinions; some say that Wilson ought to be punished in some way, while others are more lenient, saying that what he did was wrong, but that we shouldn’t linger on further discussion.
It’s clear that this ongoing issue is a thorny one that breeds passion in the administrative body of our government. However, we rely upon our policymakers to be able to harness that passion in the name of reason; emotional ejaculations like the ones Senator Wilson committed serve only to divide the ruling body and taint the process. We can expect our children to react this way when confronted by issues they feel threatened by, but just as we need to teach them to measure their responses, as adults we shouldn’t require the lesson to be taught to us again.
Senator Wilson displayed a great deal of disrespect for President Obama by reacting the way he did, and it’s likely that this is indicative of an undercurrent of similar feelings in Washington, D.C. As I tell my own five year old son, it’s nice to hear “I’m sorry” when someone has trespassed against us, but it’s more important to prevent the mistake from occurring in the first place. May we all strive to control our emotions in the face of adversity.
