Now Playing: Me on the guitar
Topic: Mysteries of Life
You can't help but be struck by the theme of the news lately. No, I'm not talking about the obsessive breathless reporting about every mass of swirling clouds near Africa that might or might not turn into the “Ultimate Hurricane” capable of destroying the eastern seaboard or a wide swath of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi or Florida that is hoped for and dreamed of by every cable news network ready to turn their studio into an emergency command post where empty headed teleprompter readers get to practice their faces of grim expectancy as they prattle on bravely in the face of doomsday and every once in a while throwing it to some expendable dolt wearing a logo laden slicker and standing in the path of death and destruction. No not that trend, as abominable as that particular aspect of yellow journalism is and evidence of the continued decline of civilization as we dream it might have been in the halcyon days of our imagined past. No not that trend. I'm thinking about the parade of disgraced and fallen public officials, entertainers and sports figures. Your basic Senator Craig, Michael Vick and NBA referee Tim Donaghy just to name three convicted fallen folk.
Senator Craig, by all the evidence is a religious, conservative Republican who by the evidence, is a fellow with homosexual tendencies. Well you know, if you have to have a chart of this sort of thing you'd pull out the New Jersey former Governor McGreevey who was a closeted gay and who wasn't trying to suppress it and in fact was getting himself in trouble by using his position as Governor to get a job for a lover and allegedly sexually harassing males. Pretty far on the heinous side there I'd say. He was run out of office and is now humorously enough studying to become an Episcopal priest. After him I'd put the Colorado Pastor and former leader of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs who also didn't suppress his homosexual tendencies to include a long term affair with a Denver male escort. He was pretty bad as a human being since he was preaching about the evils of those evil homosexual types while he was one. That would be hypocritical indeed on many levels. He of course went to some sort of 'Christian' camp to have the gay demons removed from himself, he proclaimed his miraculous deliverance from the evil gayness and is busy asking his former church for money as he and his wife go to school to learn something else to cheat people doing. At least McGreevey raised his hands when he was caught and said 'yup, I'm as gay as the day is long' and he is now living out of the closet, divorced his long suffering wife and is getting on with it. Now I'm looking at soon to be former Senator Craig and hearing him proclaim himself to be not gay. Well, okay. The evidence is of him trolling around bathrooms looking for that gay sex. So far no gay escorts are stepping forward to say they've been his longtime squeeze so perhaps this fellow is that type who has lied and denied to himself while still living that secret life he has compartmentalized and separated from the part of him that denounces gays and gay marriage and the like. Perhaps. All very interesting. Sad and interesting. All these folks, according to the reaction of the society in general, have committed unforgivable sins. More or less, no rehabilitation will be sufficient for any of them to reach the levels they were at. This is a given, this is fact. Forgiveness and a chance to make amends is not available to these folks. Of the three, McGreevey is the liberal fellow and has a book out about his life and the community he came from will accept him back after a fashion. Not so for the folks of the moral center and the religious Christians of the right. These guys eat their wounded and both are expected to crawl under rocks and die quietly.
The referee who found himself having committed the unforgivable crimes of gambling and perhaps game fixing is the most normal of the three and quickly and fairly quietly he's given up the fight with the authorities. He has said he is guilty and he will give over evidence and cooperate in the search of others who are up the food chain in game fixing of NBA games. Well, he is the least of the public public figures and while he has committed considerable damage to the NBA, there is no question of him being forgiven Indeed, that isn't even part of any discussion. What will he do when he has gone to jail and come out the other end? Nobody knows and nobody cares. It just doesn't matter as a point of interest. Society expects him to crawl off and die as well.
Now Michael Vick is another matter. The questions of forgiveness and redemption for him are ones that burn up the airways and discussion boards and conversation. His crime of the three is the crime that has had the biggest emotional reaction from the public. It's fair to say that Michael Vick is the most hated man in the United States outside of the President of the United States. His crimes of gambling and running a dog fighting enterprise have struck a chord with the public and have roused anger and calls for his punishment. Of the three people discussed who have admitted to some portion of their crimes, his crime is the one that cries out the loudest for lack of forgiveness. Curiously enough, the future of Michael Vick is the one most worried about. The discussion has revolved around how he could possibly plead guilty, get sent to prison, do his time, do his suspension and get back to the NFL. I've heard folks characterize their concern as being worried about the future of a young man who has done nothing wrong otherwise and who now realizes the errors of his ways and will be a good fellow from now on. All three have lost their positions, their dignity and position in society like many many other people who have gone through the criminal system. Redemption, forgiveness - these are just words that don't apply to people who have in some fashion gone through the criminal justice system. Unless somebody else can make money off of you as in the case of Michael Vick, nobody cares and it's of no consequence that your life is over.
Senator Craig in the end had no friends and nobody stood up with him or for him. Obviously a flawed fellow who doesn't garner much sympathy from folks but I wonder what he's thinking. A few days ago he had all sorts of friends and people who were happy to see him and to talk to him. Now nobody calls him, nobody takes his calls and there is no forgiveness for him. Everyone who has ever known him would be most happy if he faded away, crawled up under a rock and was never heard from again. The NBA official of course has no friends now, and probably has nobody saying he is a good person. Michael Vick of course still has friends as long as his money holds out and as long as he has the chance of returning to the NFL after his time is served. It's funny in a sad way. I wonder what all the friends and acquaintances who have abandoned their friends in trouble think of themselves now.
