No good deed goes unpunished
Posted in News by RB on August 30th, 2007 Just over eleven years ago I was in Florida running away from the Olympics. By the time the opening ceremonies arrived I’d already had enough - living in the Olympic village in the years leading up to the arrival of the athletes meant that one day you’d wake up and find your normal path blocked by a fence that appeared to be either electrified or linked to a security center; either way, it was frustrating and spoiled my excitement for what should have been a shining moment for my city.
I woke up in my cousin’s house to the news that a bomb had gone off in the park. I was driving home that morning and had the entire drive from Tallahassee to Atlanta to contemplate the previous evening’s events. Little did I know that a girl who would later become my wife was at the Budweiser stage at the time and got hit by a rock thrown from that blast. I don’t think Richard Jewel saved her life, but he certainly saved a few lives that night. It’s easy to see why the media treated him the way they did; he wasn’t very photogenic, and he didn’t seem to be a lovable person. After the dust settled and the real culprit was caught, the Governor made things right, but the damage was done. The shame of it all is that anyone who’s ever professionally run a camera knows how to take an image of a hero and how to take an image of a suspect. Despite knowing that he was a hero, my mental image of the man will always be of him as a suspect.
August 30th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I worked for ACOG in its early days and was at that park that night, too. Wasn’t it sad to read about Richard Jewell yesterday? I wonder if he ever felt he got the justice he deserved?