I read something today that Mitt said that I believe. Well, not outside of a reasonable doubt, but I'm willing to take his words at face value.
He said he doesn't remember being a bully.
I was bullied a lot in junior high and high school. I remember it, very well, even though I'm passing into my late 40's.
I recently ran across somebody who was a leader of the "in" crowd in those days long ago, one whose taunts and insults, while not physically painful, contributed memorably to the miasma I lived in. She was excited to reconnect with her high school classmates to relive those "Glory Days." It seemed to come as a shock to her that I didn't have the same happy experience that she did, and when I enlightened her of my memories of school, she asked, in all sincerity, "Oh no! I wasn't one of the ones who made your life hard, was I?"
Remembering happens on the receiving end.
I remember the times my papers were grabbed, torn, thrown on the floor, walked on. I remember trying to stay out of the halls almost until the bell rang because I was less likely to get punched or tripped if the halls were empty. I remember staying in the library when school ended because there were people I wanted to avoid. I remember the insults, the lack of friends.
I remember one time -- hindsight is 20/20 -- in junior high when I was reading The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time, and some stranger came up to me to try to strike up a conversation about the book. I rebuffed him, because I didn't trust him, because I had been mocked and ridiculed for reading for years before by people I didn't even know. To this day I don't know who he was; today I believe he was sincere, and I wonder what my life would have been like -- what I would have been like -- if I'd had a friend like that in school. It wasn't until college that I learned what it was like to have friends.
But back to the girl (now woman) who didn't remember. It was completely news to her. I didn't fill her in on all the details -- what would be the point now? -- but it's clear that people who behave that way don't consider it unusual or affective enough to be memorable. Somebody who goes to math class every day will only remember a couple of events about it after a few years... Mitt Romney is 65.
I believe it's quite possible Mitt Romney doesn't remember the events described in today's articles. But that is not only not a defense, it makes it worse. It makes it a pattern of behavior that's considered normal, unremarkable, regular. Long-term bullying behavior, trivial to the bully, is hugely affective of the target. I don't have to remind anybody here about the recent rash of suicides attributed to bullying.
(Me? Well... I never considered suicide. I did think about running away a lot. It strongly colored how I perceived the world for decades, and as recently as my 30's, if I'd met any of a number of people on the street, I might have been arrested for assault. While that stage may be past, forgiveness is a step I haven't entirely taken yet.)
So all I'm trying to say is that it may well be that Mitt Romney doesn't remember bullying anybody. It may be. But an apology more than forty years later?
Go to hell.