The following is my latest OP-Ed which will appear in the Tuesday edition of The Collegian:
It appears that David Letterman has a top ten list like no other. Its the top ten notches in his bedpost.
Those notches were made public last week as Letterman revealed himself part of an extortion attempt. In turn he also revealed himself as a creepy old late-night talk show host who sleeps with his staff members. The scene is the classic boss sleeps with employees scenario. Only this time someone found out, and threatened to release the information on Letterman’s infidelities if he didn’t pay up.
Letterman didn’t have to pay up but he did have to fess up. His extortionist will be locked up.
Beneath the awkwardness and bawdy humor though, there are a couple of lessons to be learned from Letterman’s antics and his subsequent confession, which he chose to do on air, behind the desk that he inherited from Johnny Carson.
In a world where the Ensigns, Spitzers and Edwards’ can preach family values to their constituents and do something completely different behind closed doors, Letterman’s airing of his own dirty laundry is quite refreshing. Not because what he did is remotely right but because I never heard David Letterman preach family values and as far as I can see he never made himself out to be something he wasn’t to his audience.
David Letterman does his job night in and night out. He makes us laugh. When he made a mistake, though it took possible extortion to convince him to do so, he came clean. He didn’t play the victim and he certainly didn’t deny the charges. If Mark Sanford had been as straightforward about his South American rendezvous as Letterman was about his affairs it might have all turned out better for the South Carolina governor.
The truth is that every embattled politician should take a page out of Letterman’s book here. They should do their job, be our leaders, legislate, veto and when you make a mistake—be honest about it.
The unfortunate reality here is that politicians don’t know what honesty is when it comes to their bedfellows. It seems like almost a daily news event that another politician’s affair is rolled out, initially denied, and then finally admitted to. This isn’t why we elect our politicians, but it has become so common place that its almost swept under the rug.
It appears that North Carolina’s very own John Edwards, after vehemently denying the allegations, really is the father of Rielle Hunter’s baby. It was also released this week that he may have promised her a rooftop wedding upon his wife’s death. All of this is speculation at the time but could have been completely avoided had he displayed the honesty and openness that Letterman did last week.
Maybe Letterman should run for office and Edwards should be the clown behind the Late Show desk.
There is another lesson to be learned from the barrage of extra-marital affairs that clog our airwaves and newscasts. Right on the heels of John Edwards’ infidelity and David Letterman’s bombshell is a love, marriage, horse and carriage of a totally different color.
Here in our own backyard a billboard featuring the faces of same-sex couples and how long they have been committed to one another has become the topic of heated debate. “Haven’t we waited long enough?” the billboard states, referring to the wait for equal rights and marriage laws for same-sex couples.
Triad Equality Alliance is responsible for the billboard.
The debate over the billboard is obviously going to be a tumultuous one here in what is no doubt the buckle of the Bible-belt. The obvious answer to the question is “yes.” Same sex couples have had to wait long enough. The better question is how many more of our elected officials do homosexuals have to watch defile an institution they are not even allowed to be a part of?
How many more Senators will deny affairs before the couple on the billboard together for 21 years can finally exchange their vows? How many more late night talk show hosts will come clean about their infidelity before two people, who have never known the benefits of marriage much less its “sanctity”, can receive the same benefits as heterosexual couples.
The sanctity of marriage argument is nothing short of a straw man and one need simply to look at David Letterman and John Edwards to prove that point. These are two married men; both with children, who forsook their own “sanctified” institution to have an affair. It is so common place that we greet their stories on the news now with a wink and a nod, yet when same-sex couples tastefully are tastefully portrayed on a billboard asking for the rights of every other married couple, a dark cloud of judgment moves over our city.
The extra-marital affairs that run rampant in American politics and pop culture have done far more to hurt the proverbial sanctity of marriage than equal rights for homosexual couples would.
So while our politicians would do well to learn from David Letterman’s handling of his affairs we would all do better as a people to stand up, tell our entertainers to shut-up and sing, our politicians to shut-up and be honest and worry less about the rights deserved by two loving committed individuals.
I dare say marriage would mean the most to those who have had it denied them the longest. Its time we were all on equal ground; that everyone share the right and ability to be married and enjoy the benefits of it.
Ellen Gerber, one of the faces which appear with her partner on the billboard in Greensboro said, “I would really like to stand before our community and family and get married.” Maybe if Gerber and her partner are given the chance they could be a little better at marriage than John Edwards and David Letterman.
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