Mistakes

Short post today (partly because I just don’t want to talk about this). There has been yet another scandal in Washington. I’m responding as a nurturer of civilization.

When a person takes photos of his naked private parts and sends them to a young woman he has known only a brief time, that is not an “oops”; that is an “on purpose.” In theory, perhaps it is possible to take an accidental photo. I occasional take photos of the inside of my pocket—those are accidents. And I suppose it is possible to accidentally send a photo—my toddler granddaughter has been known to make calls on her mom’s phone, but I don’t think she has accomplished sending a photo yet. These would be mistakes.

But in Congressman Anthony Wiener’s case, the mistake was believing he could commit lewd acts, using electronics devices that can record and retransmit, and believing he could do this without any negative consequences. That was a mistake. Doing the purposeful lewd acts is not a mistake; that is an abomination. Only a savage at heart would behave in such a way, whether inebriated or sober. That we would elect any public official who would engage in such base, uncivilized behavior ought to be shocking. But after Clinton it is difficult to still be shocked.

Very disturbing is the response of the sinner: 1. deny, 2. hedge, 3. admit, 4. apologize, 5. refuse to resign. If such a perpetrator has no shame, refuses to accept consequences for his behavior, and pretends that his personal purposeful sins have no effect on the job of sacred trust granted him by the voters—then we need a way to respond to such a person. The response should be, when the sin or crime is known, to impeach and oust. This can be done quickly and immediately, either by the perpetrator stepping down and retreating to anonymity, or by the colleagues refusing to accept him as a member of their legislature. If these fail, then public outcry followed by special or on time election must be the remedy. If even these fail, then we are trapped into being led by people who live their lives in the savage hemisphere, without hope of rising to civilization.

I’m disturbed that an entire party (Democrats) seems content to accept despicable behavior. I can only guess that their reason is that they see their elected officials as the person they assign to get them the government giveaways they seek, and as long as that happens, nothing else matters. I don’t like feeling this judgment against such a large portion of the population. Maybe someone out there can give me a better motivation for their choices. But I can’t visualize any motivation for such choices that qualify as civilizing.