<br clear="all"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="800"><tbody><tr><td align="left"><a href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/"><img src="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/images/small-logo.gif" border="0" height="20" width="200">
</a></td><td align="right"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="2">Saturday, November 3, 2007</font></td></tr></tbody></table><br>
<h2>Pia Hansen: Hypocrisy worse than transgressions</h2><p class="byline"><span class="name"><a href="http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news/bylines.asp?bylinename=Pia%20K.%20Hansen">Pia K. Hansen </a></span><br>The Spokesman-Review
<br>November 3, 2007</p>
<p><span>W</span>hat a week we've had. On Tuesday, when stories of
cross-dressing state Rep. Richard Curtis and toe-manipulating Christian
recording artist Nate Schierman, with his fondness for middle-school
girls, both ran I put down the paper with a strong desire to take a
shower.</p><p>It's been some time since I've seen that much perversion in one day. I'm sure we almost qualified for an X-rating. </p><p>Such
an eruption of sexual deviance is usually followed by a groundswell of
self-righteousness: The Washington state GOP erased all traces of
Curtis from Web sites, while his family packed up and left town – poof,
the sparkly legislator was gone.</p><p><table align="left"><tbody><tr><td><br></td></tr></tbody></table>Our
blogs and letters talked about lost moral compasses and held many
suggestions as to what elected officials in Curtis' situation should do
or not do to avoid situations like this. Among the more unusual
suggestions was that politicians should submit to a mandatory annual
lie detector test. </p><p>What specifically should we ask our
politicians: Have you had any impure thoughts lately? Do you desire red
stockings? Do you own any sparkly lingerie? </p><p>I fail to see how
that would help anyone – including the politician being questioned –
not to mention that lie detectors aren't as accurate as we would like
for them to be.</p><p>I think we'd be much better off trying to wrap
our minds around the fact that elected officials are, mostly, human
like the rest of us, complete with Playboy subscriptions, the
occasional four-martini dinner and associated odd desires followed by
bad decision-making.</p><p>When you run for office – Democrat,
Libertarian, Republican, confused, undecided, a little of both –
whatever your label is, you don't sign a plea of normalcy, promising to
stick to the straight and narrow as long as you serve.</p><p>One could
hope that you strive to be a good role model, follow the law, limit the
hurt you inflict on others and make ethical decisions, but everyone is
human and as such fallible – at least that's what I learned in Bible
school.</p><p>I also remember my pastor talking a lot about
forgiveness, but I'm not seeing a lot of forgiveness here, especially
not from the Christian crowd.</p><p>The one thing I do know is that
there is no way Curtis is the last legislator whose proudly held public
morals will collide with a colorful private life in an embarrassing way.</p><p>When
that happens, let's hope the next wide-standing individual involved has
the guts to tell the truth: "Yes, that was me, that's what I did,
that's who I am. It was not my brightest moment, I have some explaining
to do, and I'm sorry if I hurt someone as I was busy indulging myself."</p><p>The
trouble Curtis found himself in is not about being gay or closeted –
who knows, he could be both, he could be neither, to me it doesn't
matter – what matters to me is the underlying hypocrisy.</p><p>I can't stand hypocrites just like I can't stand people who lie to me.</p><p>Unfortunately,
we still live in a culture where people can't always live their lives
freely in accordance with who they are, because they fear being judged
and ostracized. Maybe it's about time we start applying a little
tolerance instead. </p><br>-- <br>Gray Tree Crab aka "Big Bertha"