Destruction and Sympathy

The admission of an affair with some Latin-lover-Argentinian woman from Gov. Sanford (R-SC) yesterday first made me angry and annoyed. And then I felt bad for the guy.

The media, as always, has no mercy on those they hate. This is no different than any other time. They are a pack of ravenous wolves, waiting to feed on the carcass after the animal makes a fatal mistake.

Sanford's shoddy excuse in the first place for why he was MIA for about five days seemed weird to me when I first saw the snippet on to Reuters board in the office where I work. I thought, "It would kind of suck if everyone went hay-wire if they couldn't get a hold of me just because I am on vacation, but then again, he's in the kind of job where you need to be accessible at all times and in all cases." But the fact that he took time to "clear his head" and "unwind" away from his wife and kids on Father's Day was certainly suspect for a high-profile politician. I just wrote it off as some people are weird like that. (I've known plenty of people on Mother's Day and Father's Day who choose to spend it alone going to the spa or taking a day fishing because they see it as their day off where they can pamper themselves and not worry about the kids... whatever.)

Though I had some suspicions up to that point about why the South Carolinian would act so erratically, I was still surprised to hear the confession yesterday that he was having an affair with an Argentinian. I mean, it sounds like a plot out of a book. Needless to say as the head of the Republican Governors Association and just being a Republican governor in general, what he did was extremely detrimental to a party that is already been in such decline recently. Not to mention the disgusting way that he has treated his wife and four sons. It's truly awful and I grieve for the way that all have been tricked and treated in this situation.

And now the media has made it that I feel bad for the governor too... a reaction I was not planning on. This family, all the people involved have been hurt enough by the publicity of the situation. Now they have to heap more shame onto all involved, including the wife and boys, by publishing the personal romantic correspondence between the lovers. It's awful. And I feel so sorry for the man. His boys--can you imagine being subjected to the contents of your father's affair notes? They will be feeling the repercussions of this for years to come, perhaps even the rest of their lives as many children do caught in the middle of this sort of a situation, public or not.

The media does not only wish to dismantle those they dislike; the work swiftly to devour them within hours when the opportunity arises. And that is what they have done here.

For those of us who are disgusted by the situation, I urge you to stop reading the correspondences and the articles and watching the broadcasts that outline the gory details of the affair... don't give them the ratings they are looking for and don't disrespect the privacy of this man.