West Wing Episode: "Mr. Willis of Ohio”

When the universe shuts down and your sheltered in at home, it means one thing: time to binge watch everything you were too busy or too tired to watch the last 30 years. One TGBL indulgence has been West Wing, the marvelous series on day-to-day White House machinations that aired from 1999-2006.

But one episode rubbed raw. Called “Mr. Willis of Ohio”, the eponymous title source was a Congressman who replaced his late wife. He made apologies for his presence, talked of her brilliance, but humbled himself unmercifully. He was “just an 8th grade Social Studies teacher…why would his wife marry a dummy like me?”. There was no rebuttal, so his characterizations stood uncontested by the silence. While the portrayal was sympathetic, one was almost ready to call him Charlie, the 70 IQ protagonist in “Flowers for Algernon”—before his meds.

Sorry, Josh, Sam, Toby. We love the show, but this segment played to unfair stereotypes held by too many corp execs, private sector servants, politicians, disgruntled, smug parents and others who think, despite college degrees, graduate school, post grad, and often experience outside teaching, education professionals are stupid or socially defective; otherwise, they‘d be in “the real world”. Therefore, if Mr. Willis won’t stand up for himself, then we will: TGBL firmly plants a stinger in the condescending arses in President Bartlett’s White House.