“Make Believe” is an American tradition. As children, we “make believe” Santa Claus exists, or that the Tooth Fairy comes in the middle of the night to leave a quarter under our pillow when we lose a tooth. But then we grow up and “make believe” that our politicians are perfect. Except they’re not. And that’s when our little game of “make believe” becomes both sad and pathetic.
Last week, former Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York was forced to resign from congress, after almost 2 weeks of near 24-hour media coverage revealed he sent semi-nude photos of himself to various women over the Internet. Was it dumb? YES. Was it a crime? NO. Was it punishable by jail time? NO. Was it enough for him to resign over? HELL NO!
Why do us Americans “make believe” in some unwritten rule of morality, then “make believe” everyone around us is following it? Everyday, we fool ourselves into thinking that our ministers, our children’s teachers, our politicians, all follow a line of morality we’ve created in our own head, when in reality, the very idea is a joke. In fact, if we only knew how many of our politicians are gay, are cheating on their spouse, are playing sexual bondage games with their significant other, or frequently enjoy a night of cross-dressing, the halls of congress would likely go empty if we forced the resignation of anyone who didn’t conform to our own concept of morality.
People can be very talented and intelligent without being perfect human beings. That doctor who is working at this very moment on a cure for AIDS, could also be having an extra-marital affair with his lab assistant. That Grandmotherly English teacher at our kid’s school could go home every night to her female life partner of 40 years. That Executive Vice-President at our job could wear some amazing tailor-made business suits by day, but go home and change into a skirt and high heels by night. Are any of these things personal? YES. Are any of these things criminal? NO. Should any of these leaders be forced out of their position if their private behavior is suddenly made public? HELL NO!
When will we stop holding everyone to our own minute concept of morality, our own individual idea of what is right and what is wrong, and wake up to the reality that people are people — that sometimes, people make choices different from us, but that doesn’t make them bad or incapable of being our doctor, or teacher, our boss, or our congressman?
If this guy flirting with women on his personal time is enough to get him kicked out of congress, then congress is about to be empty because there's a whole lot doing the same thing and worse! We do have some crazy ideas about morals plus the media made this story out to be more than it is. So sad.