At 65 is Dick Cheney still fit to shoot?

This week’s news included Vice President Cheney taking full responsibility for shooting Harry Whittington. As a psychologist who lives in a world where individuals are expected to take personal responsibility for events such as shooting a friend, I am still puzzled as to why this announcement merited coverage? Baring instability due to drugs, alcohol, physical impairment or temporary insanity, who else could have been responsible? Cheney said, “I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend.” Unless the American public wants to believe that elected officials live in a rarified atmosphere where they are not responsible for their own acts, why did we need this announcement in the first place?

Did the VP dump obvious information on willing ears seeking nationwide absolution? What if Whittington had died? Does the public confession make Dick Cheney more human and thus his acts are more easily accepted and forgiven? That is, he's just another guy who made a very understandable mistake? Under the same circumstances, what if it had been you or me? My guess is that legal charges would have ensued. Or, are we confronted with the truth that the very rich and powerful are different from you and me? It seems akin to a popular and loosely accurate definition of “crazy. If one is poor and acts in a bizarre fashion, he or she gets labeled insane, is put on medication and/or is institutionalized. If one has finances and/or power such as Howard Hughes (see the film Aviator) one is merely labeled eccentric. One more time I am reminded that news headlines by themselves rarely tell us much. It’s the unwritten about and too often unexplored meaning behind the headlines that remains of psychological interest to me.

P.S. As an expert about those FiftyandFurthermore, I recommend the VP consider his physical and mental agility. At 65 is he still fit to shoot?