Not in the face!

If you were to tell someone from another country that the vice-president of your nation had just shot someone in the face and then asked them to guess where you were from, they would probably pick Haiti, Central America, or somewhere in Western Africa. They would probably never guess the USA, but they would be wrong. Does Hallmark make a "sorry for shooting you in the face" card? Dick Cheney might want to grab one at the drug store the next time he's waiting for his various heart prescriptions.

It doesn't really bother me that Cheney shot someone in the face. The victim seems to be handling it pretty well. If he believes it was an accident and holds no grudges, then I'm okay with it. Besides, hunting is a pretty dangerous activity. It's not like the vice-president has any formal military training. He couldn't go to Vietnam because he was too busy going to Casper Community College part-time. Despite his years of hunting experience, I can't fault Cheney for a hunting mishap. If you spend more of your time hunting birds than hunting Osama, this is bound to happen. However, I can fault Cheney and his press camp for the way that they've handled this situation since the shooting.

First of all, Cheney's camp didn't even admit this whole thing had happened until they were outed in the local Corpus Christi newspaper. Once it became clear that everyone would eventually find out, Cheney's office grudgingly gave over the details. Surely I'm not the only one who finds this to be deplorable behavior. I know he's a weasel, but he's also our vice-president. Charles Barkley might be able to get away with claiming that he isn't a role model, but not the vice-president. Cheney missed a golden opportunity to turn this negative into a positive. He could have used this unfortunate circumstance to show some leadership. I'm no public relations wizard, but I know an opportunity for spin when I see it. How about coming out and admitting what you did and using it as a way to show the need for increased gun safety and education. How about being a man instead of just killing defenseless animals to feel like one.

If his attempt to bury this story wasn't bad enough, Cheney also tried to pin the blame on his hunting buddy. Every account of the accident that I've read, claims that the victim was 30 yards away and behind the vice-president when he got blasted. I don't have too much experience with guns, but I do know that the first rule of gun safety is to stay a safe distance behind the shooter. 30 yards seems like a pretty safe distance to me. According to Cheney's office, the victim still should have notified the hunting party of his location. I'm sure there's some truth in that, but they were trying to sneak up on little birds. From what I've seen on ESPN Outdoors, that kind of hunting seems to require silence. Regardless of the victim's role in the accident, Dick Cheney is the one who broke the cardinal rule of hunting.

The vice-president shot a man in the face and then tried to put the blame on someone else. That fact alone should have everyone worried. This incident has been getting a great deal of coverage in the American news media, but most of it superficially focuses on the act of violence itself. As I said before, this wasn't a malicious act. Hunting is dangerous and Dick Cheney made a mistake, but it wasn't a huge mistake. However, if he's willing to go to these lengths to cover up and distort a relatively small and honest mistake, imagine what he is capable of when the circumstances are infinitely more critical. We all know people who would do whatever it takes to deny their mistakes and blame other people. Do we like those people? Do we allow those people to make decisions for us? The little events like these can be a good barometer of someone's general behavior and the true test of their character.