Thursday, August 11, 2005

In his behalf, Nodler didn't request refund

As you remember, Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin left a comment on The Turner Report earlier this week and he has left a comment on The Joplin Globe's website, concerning his meltdown after an incident in which he was offended by noise made by developmentally disabled adults attending the movie "Fantastic Four," and got into an argument with their caregiver. You can find more information about this on earlier Turner Report posts.
This story appears to be on the verge of receiving more comments from the Globe readers than the story about the police officers handcuffing the 11-year-old boy.
Since this is a public official's comment, I will print it in its entirety:
Gary Nodler writes: "There are several inaccuracies in Max McCoy’s recent article about the incident at Northstar Cinema. McCoy failed to report that when we were leaving the theater after a brief encounter with this young woman that lasted only a few seconds, we found the theater manager at the ticket taker’s stand surrounded by a large group requesting refunds. We confirmed to the theater manager that the noise was too loud to hear the film. I never “fetched the manager” anywhere. I told him that one person was using foul language and he asked me to point that person out. After doing so I left the theater. I also never contacted the employer about this incident until after the news media called me telling me that this employee had made these false allegations about my conduct. I then contacted the employer and requested an apology from them because of the false allegations to the press, not because of her misconduct at the theater. I have never asked anyone to have any disabled person removed from a theater, and I have never asked this young woman’s employer to fire her. I did request an apology for the attempt to circulate lies to the news media and public and expect to receive it. I took the polygraph exam because reporters persisted in demanding that I answer them about things that never occurred. The questions on the exam were formulated by the examiner not by me and Skills Unlimited reviewed the questions before they were used. Skills Unlimited was invited to have the young woman also participate in reviewing the questions. The employee refused the test and the chance to review the questions before she took the exam. All of these facts were known to Mr. McCoy when he wrote his story."
It should be pointed out in his behalf that Sen. Nodler was not among the customers who asked the theater manager for a refund. Maybe next time instead of accepting the freebies that the theaters give to state senators, he will pay his money, so he can demand that it be returned.
However, I did hear one thing said with which I totally agree. "You need someone to take care of that kind of people when they are out in public." Darned right. It may be politically incorrect for me to say this, but it is embarrassing when they behave like that. This should never be allowed to happen again.
It's time we had a caregiver for state senators.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Randy, perhaps the movie house would give the disabled a free pass and take away the ones for the congressmen.

Anonymous said...

Randy, Matt Blunt might consider helping privilaged congressman in place of the disabled.