Saturday, February 14, 2009

Confrontation in the streets of Palm Beach

Other than being confronted during an interview with Tim Malloy of Channel 5 with a berserk Palm Beacher accusing me of writing a “disgusting, despicable” article for Boston Magazine full of racism, it’s been an uneventful few days. I asked this gentleman on camera to say specifically what his complaints were but coward that he is, he continued walk away spitting out a few epithets as he left. If you want to read the “disgusting, despicable" article, you can find it at: Http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/dispatch_reversal_of_fortune/

If you find anything at all offensive about the article, please comment. And if you don’t, please weigh in too.

Here’s the link to the video of the confrontation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Sj_ToRqcE

If anyone knows who this man is, please let me know.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Laurence,

It does appear a bit overly dramatized and I'm afraid the book may be more of the same (I'm considering reading it but I haven't made up my mind).

As to the accusation of racism, I think what the guy means is that your article appears to make the point that... it's *the Jews* that made it possible! that it's *their* fault...

"In Palm Beach, Boston's Jewish elite created a glittering world that unwittingly helped make Bernie Madoff possible."

When in fact he just *happened* to be Jewish... and understandingly moved into predominantly Jewish circles.

On the other hand, Palm Beach may be unique but it's hard to believe that it could not have happened elsewhere... and I see this as another over dramatization in your article. I mean, Ponzi schemes pop up all over the world (Romania, for instance, has had a succession of them).

Delia

Anonymous said...

Your comment is a little bit intellectually dishonest. I didn't write the words: "In Palm Beach, Boston's Jewish elite created a glittering world that unwittingly helped make Bernie Madoff possible." That was a headline that I didn't even see until I received a copy of the magazine. But I don't see anything offensive about those words.

D. said...

Laurence,

I'm assuming the anonymous comment following my first comment was yours -- it certainly reads like it.

I have no idea what intellectual dishonesty you could be talking about. I simply pointed out what point the article, as a whole, *appears* to make, taking into consideration obvious issues brought to mind (things that you and others brought up and rightly took a stand on in the video you mentioned in the subsequent entry). There is a full explanation in my comments to that entry.

Also, the title and subtitle just make it more poignant. I believe that, as long as the content of your article remained the same, you would still have had to address those obvious and important issues if you wanted to make sure nobody was wondering why you didn't.

Delia

LAURENCE LEAMER said...

I agree that this Ponzi scheme could have happened to any ethnic group or society. It just so happened that Madoff was Jewish and most of his victims as well. People have pointed out with irritation that no one is calling the Stanford scam a Christian scam. That's true but he didn't target his co-religionists.