Why No Beer for Lucia Whalen

Thursday evening, President Obama is having Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates over for a cold beer and picnic at the White House. He wants to bring the men together to mend fences, to get to know each other better, and to get past an incident that has become a media firestorm.

But Obama has left out another person who was deeply affected by this issue...Lucia Whalen. A recent Associate Press article shows how she has been hurt by simply making that 911 call. People vilified her and made assumptions about how she reported that call. Fortunately for her, the subsequent release of transcripts and audio of the call show differently.

She was very careful NOT to ad a racial tone to her report. In fact, one could say she handled the situation better than even the President himself.

If this is a "teachable moment" why wouldn't there be an invitation for the one person who kept her cool in this incident?

Where's the cold beer for Lucia Whalen???

- Mary-Lynn

Photo Credit: Sofijab