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OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 6/26/11

ANTHONY WEINER'S SHAME AND OURS

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Message John Pagoda
Title: ANTHONY WEINER'S SHAME AND OURS

The latest American crisis that dominated what passes for news in this self-absorbed society distracted attention away from the real issues e.g. the lack of well-paying jobs, opportunity for quality education and affordable health care that affect most Americans ended when Anthony Weiner resigned from the House due to what basically amounted to his predilection for engaging in sexual fantasy.

 

For nearly three weeks the corporate owned media fed raw meat with a side order of sex providing the public with an opportunity to vent their anger, their indignation and their moral outrage against Anthony Weiner and away from the political system that permits jobs to be shipped overseas, puts education on the budget chopping block, and remains the only industrialized nation without a universal health care system.

 

There is enough shame to go around for the recent Anthony Weiner sexting scandal first and foremost former Representative Weiner who most certainly felt the brunt of that shame, humiliation and embarrassment. This is supposed to be a Christian nation yet what happened to "judge not least ye shall be judged? Put yourself in Weiner's place and you took a picture of Mr. Johnson then sent it off to cyberspace and through the magic of modern technology the picture went viral.

 

One possible way to minimize the absolute embarrassment and humiliation one can expect if found out is to claim someone was out to get you. I mean really what man needs to go through that aggravation with his wife, girlfriend or lover?  

 

Anthony Weiner acted like most other men would in varying degrees in such similar straits. He lied.   So did George Bush when he lied about the basis for waging war in Iraq.   Weiner's lie didn't result in the death of over 4 thousand Americans as W's did but no one was calling on Bush to resign.  Only in America could one be forced to resign because of sex while the one that lies to wage war gets reelected.

 

Thus plausible deniability is an option albeit not a very good one since the event sent the press in our puritanical society on a feeding frenzy as such the press deserves the next highest amount of shame by covering Weiner's shame claiming it was a distraction to his party's attempt to focus on more important political issues which this press isn't covering anyway at least not with any journalistic investigation. In fact it was the press that was manufacturing and perpetuating that "distraction" all while appealing to the public's prurient interest. The press could have exercised its constitutional freedom in a more responsible way by reporting that no crimes were committed. End of story.

 

In addition the Democratic Party deserves a good amount of shame for the way they responded to the Weiner story by not responding the press that Representative Weiner's personal indiscretions were a private matter for him and his wife to resolve and not a reflection of his role as a fighter for the same middle class that the Democratic Party consistently sells out after every election.

      

Rather than remind the press that Paul Ryan's budget will cut taxes for the wealthy at the expense of social programs for the many and increase taxes on the middle class while incidentally creating a financial windfall for the Ryan family itself the Democratic leadership choose to publically call for Weiner to resign and lost another opportunity to clarify what does and does not affect economic reality for most Americans.

 

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"tomorrow is guaranteed to no one" compells this fellow traveler to describe the way of life that requires a new way of living where something is left behind which decreases the suffering of all forms of life that follow.
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