I am Joanne Parrent’s sister. I only belatedly discovered her posting in this blog. If you’re reading this, Joanne, I want you to know that I am deeply hurt and angered that you took a private exchange and plastered it across the internet, only thinly veiling my identity –and without ever telling me about it! It is insulting to be characterized as uninformed, unthinking, failing to support my own interests, and spouting talking points like a robot — all because I don’t agree with you!
As it happens, today is the day Hillary Clinton has endorsed Barack Obama. I hope that you will be able to move forward as Hillary herself has, Joanne. The New York Times just reported that she said, “Today as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate [Obama] on the victory he has won and the extraordinary campaign he has won. I endorse him and throw my full support behind him and I ask of you to join me in working as hard for Barack Obama as you have for me.”
But this matter really isn’t about Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or the presidential race. It’s about failing to respect my right to my own opinion and then ridiculing me in public because I wouldn’t engage in an argument. So if you readers have gotten this far, I hope you will take another minute to consider my perceptions and my views – which were completely lacking from Joanne’s twisted account.
Since she has splattered our private spat all over the internet, preserving it for eternity, here’s what I’d like to say. I am a grownup, but I am the younger sister and Joanne, who is very vocal and sometimes volatile in her opinions, often expects me to follow her lead. When I followed my own head and heart and decided to support Barack Obama – with great enthusiasm, I might add – she expected me to account to her for my views. I’d made the wrong decision and she was going to set me straight! But we had already voted in our respective primaries and I didn’t see why either of us needed to justify our positions. I didn’t think either of us was likely to convert the other and arguing seemed pointless and unpleasant. On top of that, I had just started a new and very stressful job with which I was very preoccupied and having a tough time. I didn’t wish to come home to a barrage of angry emails every night. So I cut off the conversation – because we were at a draw and I wanted to keep peace in the family.
Tellingly, I told Joanne that I would vote for Hillary Clinton in the general election if she became the Democratic Party nominee, thinking that this certainly should be the last word on the matter. Knowing how Joanne felt about Bush, I thought she certainly would vote for Obama if he became the nominee. But for Joanne, it wasn’t good enough to hang in there and see how events unfolded and agree to disagree; she evidently wanted to extract a concession! So at some point I said, “Look, I HATE Hillary Clinton!” I admit that I said that. But I overstated the case as a way of telling Joanne to leave me alone! It is completely wrong-headed and distorted to turn that comment into an ugly and overblown thesis about Barack Obama “licensing hatred.”
Sometimes the personal is not a metaphor for a political theme that should be broadcast across the internet. Sometimes the personal is just personal and should remain private!
