Vice President Cheney has been silent so far about his accidentally spraying his friend, attorney Harry Whittington, with buckshot during an afternoon while the two buddies were hunting.
If I were Whittington, I’m not sure I would still call Cheney my friend. Yesterday, Whittington was said to have suffered coronary damage due to some of the buckshot lodging in his heart. The man is seventy-eight years old; and, even if he had been in excellent health, this can only be described as a trauma.
Yet Cheney remains calm and uncommunicative, while Whittington remains in the hospital in what is called “stable” condition. Except that there is no such thing. I worked in a hospital for nine years, and the standard description of conditions was: good, fair, serious, and critical. The use of ‘Stable’ belies the situation.
Perhaps Cheney and Whittington have been in private communication. I hope so, because I would not want to think that our Vice-President was so unfeeling or so protective of his own reputation that he wouldn’t express concern for his friend’s health.
The media is having its field day with this event. I don’t criticize or condone it. What worries me most is this: What if Cheney ever has his finger on the theoretical red button that launches a nuclear attack somewhere on the globe? And what if he accidentally pulled the trigger and sprayed part of our world with nuclear buckshot?
It seems apologies, if there was time for them, would not be in the picture.
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