An old friend is finally called out. This summer I tried to start a dialogue with Leo Pusateri and the results were, well, not what I had hoped (see here, here, and here for details; he was also kind enough to contact me via e-mail through my profile, and continue to harangue me. I wish I had kept those). Now, Gavin over at Sadly,No! has asked the Minnesota one-handed keyboardist to shut up, revealing personal pain in the process. The comments section of the above post need to be read to be believed, but Pusateri actually dives in and attempts to justify himself. It is one of the most incredibly unfeeling things I have ever seen. Pusateri has shown he has no feelings for the dead; now he demonstrates that he has little for the living as well.
The worst part comes in his first comment when he claims he is only attempting to prevent future pain such as that revealed by Gavin. The point, apparently lost on Pusateri, is such false bravado is the source of Gavin's rage. It demeans the deaths of people like Wayne to be used as rhetorical points by cowardly war-bloggers who offer little as hostages to fortune, but ask that many risk everything. It demeans the losses that they simply become part of some insane calculus where dead bodies serve as marks on a chalkboard, seeking to balance the tally. It excuses as irrelevant the views of those who refuse to succumb to mindless fear and hate in the face of grief and loss. Pusateri seems absolutely incapable of understanding that he actually made things worse by showing up. He was asked to please be quiet (actually, he was told to shut the fuck up; I was trying to be polite), and out of respect, he should have. Sensitivity and respect have no place in a world where Leo Pusateri crouches shaking in his boots, afraid some crazed Muslim might, at any moment, attack the Metrodome, or something.
I will just repeat Gavin's question toward the end of his post: What about us produces something like him?
Virtual Tin Cup
