I take another look at the swift-boating of a seventh grader in this story. It includes the following from an e-mail that I received from his father regarding the ordeal that began with a posting on a conservative website by an anonymous blogger:
My son Graeme has helped put on a human face, that of a young boy, representing the needs of children and families across this nation. We are a hard working family that has stepped forward to support SCHIP. Mudslinging from the fringe has now been directed at the messenger. To be smeared all over the Internet and receive nasty e-mail — my family does not deserve this retribution. It is both shameful and pathetic.
Driven by a most dubious agenda, shortsighted cut-and-paste bloggers, lacking all the facts, have made a feeble attempt at being crack reporters. This is an aberrant attempt to distract the American people from what the real issues are. Hard working American families need affordable health insurance.
I find it morally reprehensible, and the act of a true coward, to publicly (world wide) smear a man and his family and not sign one’s own real name to what they have written.
I sign my name to what I write.
-Halsey Frost”
Sadly, as a family friend writes in the story, this isn’t the worst the Frost family has suffered. But it’s pretty bad.