I appreciate Andrew’s point of view, but I don’t believe it applies here. And kudos, Andrew, for revisiting your past even if you were surprised by the apology. I’ve never gone to a high school reunion and I never will.

Many years ago, at the start of a dear friendship the topic of bullying came up. I told her of my experiences and that made an impression. She said she’d bullied and not thought much about it, but was obviously alarmed by my pain. She expressed a desire to apologize and make sure all was well with those she bullied. I didn’t get even a smidgen of that from Romney. If he truly doesn’t remember, all that means to me is that he had so many instances of bullying people that the details have grown fuzzy.

If Romney had come clean and acknowledged what he had done and said “I’m sorry for doing that” I might agree with you but the issue is his response to it now, not who he was then. The other participants in the incident remember it vividly and were haunted by the wrongness of what they had done. This was a highly significant event and for Romney to claim he doesn’t remember isn’t at all believable especially considering he then went on to say “I know we didn’t think about his orientation.” – how could he know that if he didn’t remember the incident? He couldn’t, he is lying. Particularly troubling is that he laughed about the incident when first asked about it. Instead of saying “I’m sorry for what I did.”, he gave a notpology of “If anyone was hurt I apologize.” intentionally implying its questionable whether or not this happened or he was responsible.

No, Romney hasn’t changed and that’s the issue today. He’s still the same person he was then, entitled, thinking himself superior, getting pleasure out of bullying those he sees as weaker and different, and taking no responsibility for the harm he caused to innocent people.

Direct oppression of minorities is a pet peeve of mine. I can’t stand it. And it’s all to frequent in Republicans. Lots of rationalization is employed to gain acceptance of their views, but it’s like wrapping evil in a nice delicious honey bun. I’ll take unrealistic economic Democratic plans over that any day.

I know very well what a non-apology type of “apology” from someone who thinks they’re better than you, or “right” in doing whatever wrong they did, or thinks their religion justifies it looks like. I dealt with such things for years. This looks like such a thing.

Late as it is, and even though the victim is no longer with us, bad behavior should still be called out and if he can’t see that he did something wrong…well aren’t these the people who say politicians are supposed to have good morals??

Romney doesn’t have those, at least not by any definition of “good morals” that I ever heard.

I don’t believe that I’m willing to hold this against Romney the candidate. Better if he had done some penance in the past under his own steam, but none the less, people grow up. They change. I’ve many times defended teens in these columns (and have been chastised for it), but honestly, it’s going on 50 years ago.

At my 10th year high school reunion, one of the METCO (inner-city students bussed to the suburbs) approached me. I barely recognized him, but he knew me right away. He double-checked that I was who he thought he was, said “Hey, I remember you… “.

Then he said something totally unexpected. “I used to terrorize the shit out of you in high school. I’m really sorry about that. Can I buy you a beer and introduce you to my girlfriend?”

It was utterly unexpected – I didn’t show up looking for any of those who were SOBs in high school to apologize for anything — I didn’t think I cared anymore. But it made a lasting impression on me. In a way, it made up for anyone else who was horrible during those teenage years and I found myself able to put resentments I didn’t realize I still had behind me.

And it taught me a valuable lesson – even as I had grown up and survived, the bullies had, too. None of us were who we had been, and the most we could do was reconnect and acknowledge that. I don’t know if he knew that his apology mattered much. I didn’t think much of it that night. But 15 years later, it’s one of my most vivid memories of that night, and it frankly anchors my faith in people to grow past their Lord of the Flies years.

People grow up.

This is a non-story. Move on to his present day failings as a man and a politician, and his bad (and discriminatory) policy positions — those actually matter.

At age 18, he was cruel, uncaring, and unreflective about his own life and actions. He had a sense of entitlement. As the son of a prominent man (governor, CEO), he believed he could physically assault another student and suffer no consequences. He was only helping the other student conform to commonly held standards.

Other students and faculty regarded him as charming and pleasant to be around, perhaps even as a leader. Some were just a little afraid of him. They knew he didn’t much like it when he didn’t get his way. He had a mean streak then and he has a mean streak now.

Just like he is today.