President Biden has fallen many times in his presidency, whether it was going up or down the steps of Air Force One, walking across a stage, or falling off his bike. The media pokes fun of him, mocking him for being clumsy and elderly. However, the public seems to be forgetting that most world leaders have had embarrassing moments, including many stumbles, tumbles, and falls.
President Gerald Ford seems to have set the modern-era clock running on embarrassing moments. While on a trip to Salzburg, Austria, he made a grand entrance by falling down the steps of Air Force One and landing at the bottom. We well remember how the comedians enjoyed that moment and kept the thought alive that we have a klutz for a president.
Others have had stumbles that went viral. Presidents Reagan and Obama both took some awkward stumbles. Vice-President Pence stumbled at the top of the stairs just before getting in Air Force Two. Hillary Clinton fell at a campaign rally. Bob Dole fell off a stage at a campaign event when he tried to defeat Bill Clinton. World leaders Xi Jinping, Robert Mugabe, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Boris Johnson, and even Margaret Thatcher all took spills. Even Vladmir Putin went down – ‘course, he was on ice skates at the time, but it was after a hockey game and he did it while taking a victory lap.
And, on today’s date in 2004, President George W. Bush found himself recovering from a mountain bike accident. While riding a 17-mile course on his ranch, he fell from his bike, suffering road rash on his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees. His next public appearance saw him sporting bandages.
This wasn’t his first mishap. In 2003, he fell off a motorized scooter. In 2005, he ran
into a police officer with his bike while waving at a crowd. And, in 2002, he choked on a pretzel, briefly blacking out.
Perhaps the most embarrassing Presidential moment would have to be held by President George H.W. Bush. “While attending a banquet hosted by Japanese prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa on January 8, 1992, American president George H. W. Bush fainted after vomiting into Miyazawa’s lap.”1 That’s pretty bad!
From childhood, weren’t we taught that you don’t make fun of someone who has fallen – or thrown up publicly, wet their pants, etc.? Weren’t we also taught that a clumsy moment happens to everyone and it’s cruel to mock someone’s misfortune? Such behavior is called bullying. It’s punishable in school. It will get you fired from work. In some cases, it can be considered a criminal offense. But it’s deemed acceptable for the media and comedians to viciously attack and mock a world leader who has stumbled or fallen? How can that be right? And how can it be allowed?
To say that it is wrong is an understatement. Publicly mocking President Biden or anyone who has tripped and fallen is worse behavior than what is seen on an elementary school playground, and it should be stopped immediately.
Consider the instructions given out of Proverbs:
Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
Proverbs 12:16 A fool’s wrath is presently known: but a prudent man covereth shame.
Proverbs 17:9 He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.
Proverbs 19:11 The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.
I’ve had my share of embarrassing moments. Sure, there are some that are funny that others will remind me of on occasion. I’m laughing about it. But nobody has questioned my abilities, age, or mental acuity just because I had an awkward moment.
I genuinely feel sorry for anyone – President, world leader, or otherwise – who is ridiculed for a clumsy moment. We all have them and being in a position of leadership doesn’t make them go away. Tripping, stumbling, vomiting, wetting yourself – these are humiliating enough without someone using the moment to make us feel even worse. They aren’t shameful events. They are just normal LIFE events.
Put yourself in someone else’s shoes and ask, “How would I like to be treated after doing something embarrassing?” Luke 6:31 puts it this way, “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”
Clumsiness shouldn’t equal caustic comedy. Instead, show some compassion.
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush_vomiting_incident
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