Amanda Griffin: The Rhetorical Forgiveness of Wendell Potter

On Sunday March 28th, 2010 Wendell Potter gave a captivating speech at Central Presbyterian Church in Denver. He spoke about his experience as the head of Communications for Cigna Health Insurance. He focused his speech on the “tricks” he employed to generate a falsified spin on the insurance company; portraying them in a positive light. He gave a specific example of a young girl who was denied a liver transplant because it was deemed “experimental.” This young girl received considerable media attention making the insurance companies seem like “the bad guys.” Potter’s job was to cover up the story and make the young girl, whose ultimate fate was death, appear to be not the fault of the insurance company. Potter felt unbelievable guilt about his role in the tragedy, which ultimately caused him the leave the industry.

The roll that Potter played in the schemes of the insurance company upset the scales of justice for both his life and the life of many other people. His speech was a means of asking for forgiveness for his immorality. This allows the audience to serve as the ‘judge’ who determines his fate as resented or forgiven by tipping the scales in one direction or the other. His rhetoric forgiveness did not exemplify any misperception or tactics he had previously used. He painted a story of truth and honesty by providing details of events, taking responsibility for his actions, and even testifying against those who he allied with. This leaves the audience in charge of being sympathetic or opposed.

My three-dimensional representation is the scales of justice; depicting the impartial deliberation or “weighting” of two sides. The scale represents justice for the individual and portrays the right of society to decide the outcome based upon the unlawful wrongdoings of that person. One side of my scale represents the appalling actions of Wendell Potter by using the symbolic image of cards. As mentioned above Potter acted as the one who manipulated peoples perspective’s by leading them in a a false understanding - he was the “poker face” of the insurance companies who bluffed the truth. The other side of the scale represents forgiveness with a white dove. The white dove is a symbol of peace, as I believe Potter is trying to make peace with his actions while asking other people to do the same. Ultimately the audience is the judge of his actions and will be the determinant of whether the scales are balanced or not. Wrapped up along the base of the scale is text quoted from Potter's speech. The text focuses on the various arguments he made while explaining his actions. Some of the text includes a quote from Dante Alighieri, thoughts about the "system" of health insurance, and his actions to relieve the guilt he felt.