Thank you. I have always felt that those in high position, and that certainly includes FLOTUS especially when fund raising and working political groups, should give every citizen a chance. If someone is hurting enough to come out and do something as difficult as putting themselves out there like this then they should not be shut down and bullied away. A short pause to determine if the person is a crank or not is called for. A kind word if this person is not a crank and a promise of a short listen after the speech would have been a kind way of letting the country know that she cares about this issue and all people who are hurting because of it. This is just horrible PR to anyone who is not so enamored as to make all kinds of excuses for the behavior.
Giving speeches is hard but at this point (and I think she was probably already great at it before she became FLOTUS) she should be able to stop and gather herself and be generous. I have always thought she was a kind woman, intelligent and probably one of the coolest first ladies we have had. I still do think those things but the way this was handled was pretty awful, hopefully just an error in judgement.
You have enumerated many of the things that were bothering me yesterday and I had not figured it all out yet. Wasn't Medea last week or two weeks ago also called a heckler? Wow, such a change in terms for a tax paying citizen doing their duty as all citizens are called to do, even encouraged to do.
**one other thing** Why is is always assumed that these people are looking for personal notoriety? I have put myself in similar positions, mostly not in any sense that the coverage would be national, and I have always been terrified. I did it because I believed in something but I was terrified. I can't imagine that even someone like Medea Benjamin, who has done this for years, is ever quite comfortable when doing it.
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