I have been reading through the reader comments on The Joplin Globe's website to the confrontation between Sen. Gary Nodler, R-Joplin, and caregiver Angela Richardson. (You can read more about it on some of yesterday's posts.)
Nearly all of the people are against Nodler on this and I am amazed at the ones who are not. Even if you believe Nodler's version of what happened, we are talking about an incredibly immature attitude by a man in his 50s and an elected official at that.
And again, I will point out that it appears to be Nodler who is pushing to have a 20-year-0ld girl either dismissed from her job or disciplined. This definitely meets my definition of abuse of power.
Check out the comments at the bottom of the page at:
http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=200419&c=
This comment from Nodler is anything but surprising. For those of us who work in the local media, this is par for the course when Nodler's involved. He has made numerous callous comments about people, their safety, well being, etc. I'm glad The Globe printed the article...it finally lets the constituents see his true colors. He's a piece of work.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Gary wants to buy a new pair of binoculars for his kid. Talk about the head of a dysfunctional family touting family values.
ReplyDeleteNodler made the comment to a news outlet a few months back regarding caregivers like the one he argued with. He said that caregivers and those fighting to prevent medicaid cuts were only out for their own selfish reasons. He said those criticizing him were doing it to secure their own jobs and pocketbooks and for no other reason. Seems as though the tendancy to be biased against the disabled and their caregivers was there long before the recent confrontation. Asking someone to take a polygraph also smacks of the ideology "if you have nothing to hide then why not?" I'm quite sure our 4th and 5th Amendments protect us from that type of activity. Good for the caregiver who didn't take the test. Shame on Nodler for asking in the first place.
ReplyDeleteOne point that is not being attacked that Nodler is trying to make: How many 20 year-old's have a political agenda? This girl swears up and down she didn't know who Nodler was prior to their confrontation and I doubt very seriously she singled him out and created this conflict.
ReplyDeleteThose of us who have dealt with Nodler know that he is a horse's A$% and deserves all the bad press he recieves on this story. The lie detector test should have included the question: "Gary, are you in politics for the power...or because you truly want to help people?"
My family and I were at the movie. We were driven from the movie by the noise. Why is there no concern about the rights of all of the rest of us who are not politicians who had our rights denied by this group? If they are not responsible for there actions because they could not control themselves, they should not have been brought. If they could control themselves and just didn't , they should have been removed.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you and your family come forward and talk to the media? If that was in fact the case than everyone should know.
ReplyDeleteThere 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.
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