By now you've heard that John A. Keith, local realtor, blogger, and Media 2.0 pioneer, has cryptically called it quits on his blog.
But another interesting debacle occurred over there recently. In this post, John rails against "drug addicts," "homeless people," "nutjobs," and "those rotten kids on their skateboards" who defile his sacred Copley Square. (Didn't Barneys already deflower any good left in that area of town weeks ago?) Several people took him to task in his comments, but today our favorite "Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Board-Certified Music Therapist"/blogger, Eeka, regulated the situation:

Mr. Keith responded with a sort of apology, as any good business person would. He stuck his foot in his mouth though when he clarified that he wasn't talking about people with disabilities, but rather about "nutjobs," and assured me that he had plenty of sympathy for people with mental illness. He ignored the whole issue of the assumptions and of the fact that the vast majority of people who are chronically homeless have disabilities. When I asked him to clarify how exactly these people were standing out as "nutjobs" if they weren't presenting with outward signs of mental illness, he told me he had been perfectly clear, and said I was trying to pick a fight.
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People with disabilities also hire real estate agents. If anyone is looking for a real estate agent who doesn't make disparaging comments about people with disabilities, I'd be glad to recommend the one I used. Let me know.

And while we appreciate the mental imagery that comes with anyone saying "those rotten kids" (we're imagining an villain from Scooby-Doo: "and if it weren't for those rotten kids I would have gotten away with it!"), and support most acts of curmudgeonry, we can't support picking on people that don't, at least in a cursory manner, deserve it.

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