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| Martin Harty, not my grandfather |
The old fart went on to say, "The world population has gotten to big and the world is being inherited by too many defective people." When asked what we should do with them, Harty said, "I believe if we had a Siberia we should send them to this and they would all freeze and die and we would be rid of them."
While New Hampshire House Speaker William O'Brien stated that he didn't endorse Harty's comments about defective people, he does respect the representative's "longstanding commitment to protect the values we cherish." (Concord Monitor, March 11, front page)
Harty then said, "I was kidding with her and it kind of got away from me. It was a girl that wanted more money for crazy people, the people ... a good percentage of the homeless are mentally disturbed. I said maybe they can rent a spot in Siberia off of Russia." The Republican State Committee quickly disavowed Harty's comments, but noted that "We respect Mr. Harty's service to our country."
To simply say this man (and I use the word loosely) is a few cans short of six-pack, or that the the light is on and nobody is home, would be very mild understatements. To say that his comments betray the humanity of people would be kind. Plain and simple, he's an idiot. Hopefully, the village which lost its idiot will soon come and reclaim him.
Of course there is a petition started to get the man off the political trail, please sign at: http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/RepHartyMustResign
Perhaps we should start one one to get him out of the human race?
Please note that I refrained from making comments on either Republicans or Tea Party folk...I thought that was rather big of me.
UPDATE: The Concord (N.H.) Monitor is today (3/14/2011) calling for his resignation. http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/245740/in-over-his-head-lawmaker-should-quit
UPDATE (Again): This whack-job of a human finally resigns citing "slightly unfavorable publicity" which has made him less effective. http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110315/GJNEWS_01/703159928/-1/FOSNEWS Thanks to all who contributed to the slightly unfavorable publicity!
And, he still refuses to apologize!
That was such a rude statement.
ReplyDeleteWhat an atrocious thing to say. And then, to add insult to injury, you've got other people saying, "well, we don't agree with him on the defectives, but we sure do like his values!" WHAT? If he said this shit about people of color, and someone noted that he otherwise has really fine thoughts, it would be obvious that the onlookers are aiding and abetting bigotry.
ReplyDeleteThis is ableist supremacy, right out in the open, for all to see. How disgusting. I live right down the road from the NH border, and I'm not spending a penny in NH until this guy is recalled.
First of all, assuming that this Rep. Martin Hardy fella said those horrible things (I have not heard nor seen tapes/recordings which we usually get with these outrageous "you have to hear it to believe it" verbal meltdowns), YES, he should RESIGN immediately as in yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI have worked for the Ma. Dept. of Mental Health for 23 years, and have served under many governors (mostly Republican) and their appointed commissioners, and they would have never, never tolerated anything remotedly resenbling this nonsense, especially from an elected official. Although the Ma Department of Mental Health depends on the state legislature along with Gov. for its funding and tends to jump when state reps speak, the people under whom I serve (d) would have somehow had this guy gone by now. Hopefully, he would have never been elected in the first place. Let's be careful not to bash him for his age (ageism), mental condition (? dementia), political party, ethnic background, religion, shoe size, etc. lest we go down to his level and become defective ourselves.
It is diffcult to get rid of elected officials,especially when no felony (other than ignorance and stupidity, and extremely offensive and hurtful speech) was committed. Hopefully, the people of NH, esp. its leaders, are chagrined and outraged enough to pressure this guy to resign. I heard that the Siberian tourist industry is offering summer deals, and he should more than qualify for any senior discount (I am a senior and old fart myself, so please allow me the senior discount dig).
I couldn't agree more Rachel, it's blatant ableist supremacy and I will also avoid N.H. where we usually stop with Adam on our trips to Montreal.
ReplyDeleteRichard, there is a lot of blame to go around beyond whatever condition the state representative may or may not have. I first blame him. Right and wrong are absolutes and not mitigated by by age, religion or shoe size. I blame the voters who elected this man. I blame the GOP who honors this person's lifetime commitment to their values while disavowing his recent comments. I blame everyone not loudly clamoring for his resignation, recall, etc. I blame the N.H. for not passing a resolution condemning this position. I would probably blame his shoe but I don't know what it is.
Yet, in our great state of MA., we practically eliminated dental care benefits for the developmentally disabled adults of the Commonwealth and are now considering reductions for family support in cases where parents take care of disabled adults and children at home.
Government's job is to protect the most vulnerable, first and foremost. All else is secondary.
I love that Rachel, this person "recalled" just fabulous.
ReplyDeleteFrom first reading this on your Networked blogs, I was stunned, and well I did shake my head with disbelief, I'm no fan of being 'PC' but this is just ridiculous, outrageous and disgusting. I stand by my original feeling, if anyone is "defective" it's him. He's taken Human out of Humanity.
How do people with "Nazi Style" belief's get elected in the first place? What I dislike about a lot of elected people with positions of authority, is that they get elected and then carry out their own agenda and not of the wishes of people who put them in power in the first place. This goes for any country has a "democracy".
Phil, I love how you turn adversity into humour, "To simply say this man (and I use the word loosely) is a few cans short of six-pack, or that the the light is on and nobody is home, would be very mild understatements." I'm sorry but you had me roaring out with laughter. I also loved the photo caption (he's not my Grandfather). Are you really sure that he wasn't born on 20th April 1889 then?
If anyone should go to his "Siberia" it should really be him. He's sold himself on the idea. I can't believe he hasn't apologised either!
Richard, I'm sorry but his Siberia isn't for you, and you're not an old fart... if you want some cold, come to Canada, however we have blue skies and sunshine and plenty of hugs, we won't let you freeze outside in the cold.
I wonder if anyone will "claim him" imagine being his family, or having to admit to someone that he IS your Granddad?
Phil, thank you for posting this,
Love Mel xxx
Well, Mel, thanks for comments as usual. Our wish was granted and old coot has resigned citing that "slightly unfavorable publicity" made him less effective.
ReplyDeleteThe thing which amazes me is that the man never acknowledged the hurtful stupidity of his position and comments. No acknowledgement or wrong and no real apology...and he dares call the most fragile segment of society "defective".
In reading more about the situation, I've found that Harty is hard-of-hearing, which makes his comments all the more troubling. There is clearly a great deal of denial going on here. After all, given his hearing disability, he is now one of US! (Bwahahaha....)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Mel mentioned "Nazi style". Perhaps Harty is a closet Hitler lover?
ReplyDeleteSiberia is so far away, why not build camps for the "defective people"?
UNBELIEVABLE!!
Hopefully he is history by now.
Thanks for this Phil.
Holy effin' cow.
ReplyDeleteYou are so good at finding these really outrageous articles. Is 'scumbaggery' one of the search-words in your Google alert?