During the State of the Union Address earlier this week, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert heckled President Biden when he talked about not wanting to see more flag-draped coffins of U.S. service members. More particularly, Biden was talking about U.S. personnel being exposed to carcinogens from open burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan (noting that his own son had died of brain cancer). She shouted out that the President was responsible for the thirteen American soldiers who had died in Afghanistan - that he was responsible for thirteen of those flag-draped coffins.
Whatever one thinks about the President's culpability in those deaths, we should all be willing to acknowledge that Boebert's remarks were inappropriate in this setting. While we might expect hecklers at concerts and sporting events, a joint session of Congress requires a little more decorum! Moreover, one would think that the standards of common human decency and empathy would dictate the inappropriateness of heckling a parent who was discussing the death of his son!
Nevertheless, when she was later challenged about her behavior, she expressed no regret and said that she would gladly do it again if given the same opportunity! For those of us who were astonished by her behavior, we are left to wonder: What would cause someone to act in such a way, and NOT feel any shame about having done so?
First, we should state that Mrs. Boebert is an avid supporter of the bully-in-chief and principal architect of the destruction of all forms of civility in the public square in America, Donald Trump. In addition to this, it should be pointed out that Boebert never completed high school because of a teen pregnancy, and she married a man who did time in jail for exposing himself at a bowling alley. Hence, while some folks would characterize the Boeberts as a certain kind of waste material, it should be noted that they are not poor! Can we all see that it's just not nice, when we are not nice to each other?
