8 Hank Johnson
On April 1, 2010, a video clip of Georgia Democratic senator Hank Johnson circulated around the Internet. In it, Johnson expressed a strange fear about Guam:
“Yeah, my fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.”
This statement was no April Fools’ joke; Johnson actually said this at a House committee hearing back on March 25. Specifically, he speculated that the addition of 8,000 US Marines and their families would cause the small island to capsize.
Guam, like an overwhelming majority of islands, is the top of a submerged mountain. It is fixed to the ocean floor and is in no danger of tipping over or capsizing.
Johnson later clarified that he was trying to use a humorous metaphor to express concerns that adding thousands more people to Guam’s population will negatively affect the island’s environment. Critics, however, point out that neither his voice nor body language indicated a joke. They also note that when US Navy admiral Robert Willard, whom Johnson was questioning, reacted to the capsizing remark as though it were literal, the Congressman made no attempt to correct him.
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