All the major networks, here and around the world, and the internet are inflamed by the story of 18 year-old Robert “Sandy” Vietze, of Warren, Vt. who had just made the U.S. Ski Team’s development team, and who is now accused of getting drunk and then urinating on a 12-year-old girl aboard a JetBlue flight.
I happen to be very friendly with the Mad River Glen crowd where Sandy grew up and know him well. They are shocked that he would jeopardize his skiing career by doing something so stupid. But the refrain I’ve been hearing from those who know him is, “but he is an 18 year-old kid.” What’s the stupidest thing you did when you were an 18 year-0ld kid? Did your drunken escapades end up as the butt of late night comedians’ jokes?
Okay, no excuses. The poor girl was terrorized no doubt by some big drunk guy mistakenly thinking she was a urinal. It was wrong and he should be punished. Whether or not he should be ban from the sport is a question for those who dealt with the likes of Bode Miller to figure out.
My question is why do we care? Is it because he was an almost sports star? Does it have something to do with his supposed wealth (every article that I can find is pretty much identical and quotes the $42k per year cost of his ski school training)? From what I can tell from his friends, Sandy’s parents met at Mad River. They had tiny A frame there for years and when Sandy got serious they moved to Vermont so he could ski full-time. His dad sells sports equipment. They are hardly billionaires.
To me this is just a further perversion of the belief that men–in this case a boy–behaving badly is something worth pushing to the top of the news, specially if he has even a whiff of celebrity. We all should be ashamed of ourselves. And get back to talking about pretty much anything else. It’s not like there isn’t any real news to report on as children starve by the tens of thousands in a famine in Africa, economies melt down across the first world, and we are still trying to figure out the role of the U.S. military in the middle east.
Yeah, an 18 year-year taking a drunken leak is way more important than any of that.
–photo via Guardian
Jeez. What a mess of privilege. That is, the rich, white, entitled jock privilege. Hmm. If the girl had been black, would that have made a difference? Suppose she’d been twenty-two, say, and a stripper and black.
He pissed on a person, not a rosebush. Make a difference? Thought not.
Most of us wouldn’t piss on a twelve-year-old girl Can we say that about those who excuse pissing on a twelve-year-old girl? Probably not. Anyway, excusing this and complaining about fraternity pledge antics is not congruent with sense, common or any other.
He got drunk and did something stupid. I’m all for punishing him but do it and move on (FYI there are folks at Jezebel arguing he should be put on a sex offender registry, which I think is bull). There’s no need for this to be front page news.
When it’s “your kind”, the Other isn’t a real person. He pissed on a twelve-year-old girl. If he weren’t one of Your Kind, this would be an issue that all Good Men should be concerned with.
Give away the game, why don’t you.
Last report, he didn’t apologize.
I understand that the Dekes, not being your kind, are rotten because of their pledge antics.
Visualize transparency.
First, I hadn’t heard the story because I don’t care much about sports, the Olympics, and especially not skiing. Second, it isn’t because he’s a man. That contention is pretty silly. If Mia Hamm urinated on a little girl on a plane, it would be news, too. Third, it isn’t just a drunken escapade. He urinated on a person and on a child at that! Stop playing the enabler here by minimizing what he did. What if it was your twelve-year-old daughter? I did a lot of stupid things when I was young – I used to have a picture… Read more »
We should be talking about the people who paid to watch.
I have to say that if he didn’t realize he was pissing on a 12-year-old girl, it sounds like a blackout to me. In situations like this, it’s all about what happens next….And now, let’s move on, as you suggest.