21 January 2009

So this is not my promised blog on Bryan Adams (which, by the way, has now been upstaged by Qwanty's response anyhow), but it is, rather, an open letter to newly-installed Portland mayor Sam Adams. I don't usually get political, but this situation is upsetting and confounding. If you don't already know about Adams and the recent scandal, check out the Willie article that led to Adams's recent media confessions.

Dear Sam Adams:

I am very, very, very disappointed in you. It's not that you did something creepy by sleeping with an 18 year old (although I would argue that you knew it was creepy. If you didn't know that, you wouldn't have lied about it). It's that you lied--over and over--until you got yourself into the mayor's office. And your lie most hurts those who have supported you. It makes the people of Portland, who love and are proud of this town, look like fools for believing you when you claimed that you were just a "mentor" to this young man. You had to have known that Portland would get national attention for electing the first gay mayor of a major American city, and that your administration would be under some heightened scrutiny. I'm not saying that it is fair that you should be more closely watched than a heterosexual mayor may be--but I would think that you would be 1) sensitive to the very real possibility that you would be and would 2) take appropriate steps to conduct yourself in a way that would reflect well on the city that you claim to care about and the community that has been so supportive of you.

Not only have you made Portlanders look bad, you have actually further damaged perceptions that too many in the straight world have of gay men. Instead of contributing to gay history in a positive way, you have helped set back gay public relations. Well done. Right wing talk show hosts are probably positively gleeful. (And, if for no other reason, you are dead to me because you have made that ass Lars Larson happy. That is unforgivable.)

There are two aspects of this situation I find especially galling. First, that you thought--even for a second--that you could get away with this. What the hell is wrong with you politicians? In what world does this young man, or his friends NOT TALK? You were bound to be found out. But you lied anyway. People might have forgiven the bad judgement (because sleeping with a barely legal intern less than half your age IS bad judgement--whether that intern is the same sex or not) , but you don't deserve to be forgiven by the very people who believed enough in you to take your word over the word of those who tried to tell the truth in the first place. You clearly think that you are very smart and the rest of us are very stupid.

Second, I cannot, for the life of me, understand why you would risk your reputation, the reputation of the city (that, again, you claim to love), and the perception of the gay community for an 18 year old piece of ass. I mean, it isn't like you were in love. Or thought that this was going to be a long term relationship. You literally just wanted to have a fling with a twink. Well, good for you. I hope that you DO get yanked out of City Hall. I hope that this ruins any other political aspirations that you have. Because you could have had all the tail you wanted after you were done with your public life. Your lack of self-control (and it IS reported that your staffers warned you away from this "relationship" so you can't very well claim that you didn't know better) has been visited on all of us. I hope it was worth it.

You know, I was willing to look past your ridiculous "leaf tax" and that terrible fur hat you wore during the December snow storms because I thought you were an ok guy. You are not an ok guy. You are a guy who has repeatedly shown bad judgement, arrogance, a propensity to lie (even when you are sure to be caught) and supreme selfishness. You don't deserve to be the mayor of the greatest town in America.

A truly disgusted,

Kristin R. Dorsey

5 comments:

fsk said...

What is this leaf tax?

And are you going to submit this letter to WW? You should!

qwanty said...

Comment deleted! Please share the Bryan Adams post! Your music posts are particularly delightful.

I agree with fsk. You should send this in.

Leaf tax. Hee hee hee.

Marcus said...

Wait, Sam Adams is gay?

I couldn't agree more with what you wrote, except that I am surprised you thought a high-level politician was a "good guy". The political process sifts out the good guys as the stakes rise.

qwanty said...

Question: Why are several of my friends from high school joining facebook groups in support of Sam Adams? I do not want to have to read or think about this, and would like you to supply me with an answer. Thank you.

KRD said...

Qwanty: I can't understand the support for Sam Adams. Really. Adams apologized for the whole mess by saying that it was a regrettable "mistake". Um. No. It really wasn't. It was a series of REALLY bad decisions. And it wasn't like he didn't know they were bad decisions. As I wrote in the original letter, he was warned away from this kid by staffers. And he CLEARLY knew that he shouldn't lie about it. And that he also shouldn't ruin the reputation of others in service to his lie. Oh yeah, and then there was the fact that he coached Breedlove about how to lie if he was asked about their relationship.

That's one mistake?

How anyone (including, seemingly, the entire Portland City Council and Thomas Lauderdale) could continue to support the guy after his horrible judgment, arrogance, and smug refusal to concede to all of us who think that he should step down, I just don't understand.