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Thanks, Governor Sanford!
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Thanks, Governor Sanford! I didn't realize it at the time, but I had a rather unusual childhood. I grew up in Washington, DC, and I was fortunate enough to have some well-connected friends and neighbors. I went to school with the sons and daughters of congressmen and senators, and went to church with some of the most powerful and influential people in the world. I attended social events with presidential candidates... and all of this seemed strangely normal to me. I was a little surprised that not every had those kinds of experiences. I was unusual in another respect, too... I was a news hound... even in elementary school. When my brothers would want to watch cartoons in the morning, I would watch the "Today Show." The Vietnam War, political protests, Woodstock, Kent State, Watergate, Richard Nixon, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King... these were the people and events of my youth. I bounced between Bugs Bunny and Walter Kronkite seamlessly. When you're a , and one minute you're visiting a friend's house, and you say hello to his parents, and then you go home and see the parent on television being interviewed about a congressional spending bill, there is a certain combined awe and familiarity that is bred. I realized at a young age that the political leaders of the 60's and 70's were, for the most part, people called to serve their country, and that their calling was honorable. And because they were real people to me, people that lived down the street, people I saw at the swimming pool, and not distant caricatures of real people, I could envision myself being called to public service, and wanting to make a difference in people's lives. But once I reached high school and college, and my teenage slacker tendencies came to the fore, I realized that I had already made life decisions that pretty much excluded me from the rarified air that the political leaders of my early youth lived and breathed every day. I was destined to be something, but a congressmen or governor were not among my potential callings anymore. There's a certain freedom that comes with not having that kind of pressure anymore. You can try smoking pot, and not worry about the scandal twenty years down the road. You can experiment with things, make mistakes, and as long as you were able to keep your job, pay your bills, raise your family, those private things pretty much didn't matter. But one of the things about life choices is that they usually close more doors than they open. You're born with infinite possibilities, and when you decide that you hate violin lessons, your chances of playing in the symphony are greatly reduced. When you flunk out of college in your freshman year, well, there goes medical school. A 2.57 GPA in high school? Sorry, Harvard doesn't want you (Yale, either, but it makes you wonder how George W. Bush got in...) I moved away from Washington DC in my twenties, and being out of that environment allowed the political world to change without my notice. I lived at the opposite end of the continent, and the day-to-day workings of Washington seemed very disconnected from my personal life. Washington, and politics, changed. So now, here I am, in my mid-forties, in an open, polyamorous relationship. When I look back at that fleeting dream of public service that flickered in my youth, I see thirty-five years of disqualifying events... not the least of which is my extensive blog here on FriendFinder-x and my many 'friends' that I've met. So early this week, I happened to be watching the news, and I heard about the governor of South Carolina disappearing for four days. Hiking on the Appalachian Trail? Hmmm, sounds like an FriendFinder-x road trip to me. And as the truth trickled out, and I realized how seedy it really was, I came to a realization. Governor Sanford is just one of a long line of political man-sluts: Larry Craig, Jim McGreevy, Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Gary Hart, Eliot Spitzer, Wilbur Mills... the list goes on and on. They're from both sides of the aisle, gay, straight, bi, pros, sweethearts, mistresses... you name the flavor, and you can find it in every capitol in this country. ... and all this time, I thought I had no political future. In fact, I probably still don't. The call to public service isn't as strong as it once was. I was an idealistic , when I was an idealistic . Now that I am a middle-aged pervert... I am still idealistic, but not stupid enough to get into politics. But it is refreshing to know that doors that were once closed to me, have now reopened. If I decided that I wanted to run for public office, I probably could. FriendFinder-x road trips are no longer disqualifying events. ... and all of this was made possible by bold man-slut pioneers like Governor Mark Sanford. Thank you, Governor! Finally, a personal note to the governor: FriendFinder-x has a "Carolinas" chatroom. You could have found someone in Myrtle Beach, and saved yourself the airfare to Buenos Aires. The lengths we go to to get laid... |
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There has to be more here, then the surface. He has his affair with privacy, then draws attention! Maybe she or someone threatened to reveal all to the public. There was a quiet way to handle this. The understanding from the republican fateful was he admitted it. And at least he did not accept stimulus money to aid South Carolina. Those two statements pave the road to healing? As a former supporter of a young ward at University of South Carolina, today is a sad day for the Gamecock State.
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