U.S. Senator John Fetterman
***NOTE*** I want to make it clear, that I do not know this guy, I do not know anything about his politics and most importantly I am not endorsing this guy. This post is about how people are giving him shit for the way he speaks.
I don’t know the guy, I haven’t learned anything political about the guy, except what he stands for and that was only for this post. I didn’t vote for the guy, I’m in Virginia, so he wasn’t on my ballot. I don’t care if you voted for him or not (that’s your choice, period), but making fun of the man because he talks funny, is just wrong. And this comes from the political party that tries to make things like LGBTQ, being dark-skinned, and homeless all acceptable, but you have a hard time not making fun of this guy, go figure.
I promise that if you were face to face with this 6’8″ behemoth of a man in a dark alley, I bet you wouldn’t pick on him. But his size isn’t the topic for this post.
I want to talk about making fun of people with handicaps. This guy is stumbling and tripping over words, at times being lost, looking for words. This is due to the ischemic stroke that he suffered on May 13, 2022. John owes his wife, Gisele, who noticed that he was having a stroke as he exited the public restroom at a Sheetz gas station. He also was implanted with a pacemaker with a defibrillator to help with atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm), which was the cause of the blood clot that caused the stroke. Sure he ignored his health for 5-years, but let’s be honest for a second, most men do that very thing, I did at one time.
So this guy, stumbles and trips over words, is that really a big deal? I mean how many times do you interface with a Senator? Never to almost never for the majority of us. I stumble over words all the time, due to one or more of the handful of autoimmune diseases that I have. I too often stumble over words, often being totally lost when looking for the words to say. It is extremely annoying, as I used to actually be an instructor in the Marine Corps, speaking all day long to my students. I had a strong, loud, deep voice, being able to speak in large rooms without a microphone. But today, that is replaced with stumbling and searching for words. The tone of my voice is all over the place as the costochondritis has attacked my vocal cords, and I can’t talk as loud as I once did and I often lose my voice throughout the day. But this isn’t about me, back to Fetterman.
People make fun of how he dresses, which is often in a black hoodie and shorts. I honestly don’t have a problem with that. I think the whole wearing a suit to work every day is just BS. There is no reason for it, period. This guy however is 6’8″ and 400 pounds, so it’s not like he can go to Walmart and pick out his clothing from the rack. Hell, I have size 12.5 shoes and I have a difficult time finding them in my size. Why is that, simple, they don’t sell a ton of shoes in those large sizes, so they are not going to stock the shelves with things that don’t sell that well. I actually find it refreshing that him not wearing a suit. Imagine being an NBA player where the average shoe size is 14.5, with Shaquille O’Neal having the biggest in the league at size 22.
This guy must not be all bad, I mean he has been a Mayor (Braddock, PA for 15 years), he is currently the 34th Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, and just won a seat on the U.S. Senate against former television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz (Yep, the guy on the Dr. Oz talk show), so there is something to say about being able to accomplish so much in his life. If John is like those of us who suffer from some type of debilitating disorder/disease or sickness, we will find a way to overcome and move forward. Unless he has another stroke, I’m sure that in the next few months, we will see his speech becoming stronger every day.
This man seems to really care about the causes he supports, which is really odd as most politicians flip/flop all the time. But in the case of Fetterman, he has two tattoos on his arms. One arm has the number 15104 inked into his skin. Those numbers are the zip code of Braddock, PA, where he was Mayor and still resides. The other arm has nine dates, that represent those who were murdered while he was Mayor. They have been called fake by many. Tucker Carlson stated “All your stupid little fake tattoos — it’s a costume. Duh. It’s not real.” They can believe what they want, and if they are just a “costume”, then John wins the prize for most believable. You ask him what the first date of 01.16.06 stands for and he will tell you that’s the date on which Christopher Williams was shot dead while delivering pizzas,” “This was a man about my age at the time. He had a 12-year-old daughter. I just couldn’t get over the fact that he was never going home to her.” And when questioned about the other dates, he said his proudest moment as Mayor of Braddock was when our community went 5 ½ years without the loss of life due to gun violence.
We are talking just 5 months in the time since he had a stroke, so we expect him to be “normal” again. If you have never had to experience anything like this, there are months and months of physical therapy and months of learning how to speak properly again.
If you watch a video (below) of John Fetterman prior to the stroke.
It is also very clear that when free speaking, John does well but reading a queue card gives him problems. The two below videos show that.
This video is post-stroke (May 2022) – taken 11/9/2022
Speaking with little time to formulate a reply isn’t his strong point either.
And during the debate with Dr. Oz, really showed off John’s inability to formulate words quickly.
