Boy meets Congressman. Boy has inappropriate relations with Congressman. Congressman gets caught. Congressman looses everything. Boy fades into oblivion after fifteen minutes of fame. It's the oldest story in the book. Well, maybe not the oldest, but it's quickly becoming the most cliche story in the book. As I was reading the story about Republican Representative Phillip Hinkle referring to the mess he's gotten himself into as a "shakedown", it occurred to me that this story was only being covered from one angle. It was the typical angle. Hinkle is a public figure...queue the public outrage.
I try to approach my writing with fairness. Of course I have my opinions. I wouldn't be much of an aspiring opinion writer if I didn't. I think everyone should be taking a good long look at BOTH of these men. Since Rep. Hinkle will most certainly be publicly crucified, let's take a look at the person most people will not be talking about.
Kameryn Gibson -
Here, we have an 18 year old young man who has posted an ad on Craigslist. In the ad, he claimed he was 20(a lie) and looking for a "sugga daddy". First of all, I'm no legal expert but this is at the very least borderline prostitution. Let's get real for a moment. It's one thing to go online looking for sex. It's an entirely different thing to be looking for someone to pay you for sex. Where is the outrage about this young man's behavior?
Adding insult to injury, Kameryn took items from the Congressman as "hush money"...an iPad, Blackberry, and $100. He then decides to "do the right thing" and allow all this to go public. I'm confused. Wouldn't the right thing be to not post an ad that basically amounts to prostitution? Maybe the right thing would have been to not accept cash and other items to stay quiet. Perhaps the right thing would also be not allowing your sister to go to a newspaper with this story. It seems to me that this young man is desperately trying to get attention in any way possible. Maybe he has aspirations to be famous? Maybe he has a complete lack of aspiration, hence the "sugga daddy" mentality. Maybe he's just an attention addict and this whole situation is like crack to him. I just question the point of all of this in light of his own terrible decision making. At the end of the day, it doesn't make it more wrong that Congressman is involved in this. It's all wrong.
Kameryn lied. Kameryn wanted to trade sex for money. Kameryn took cash and gifts to keep quiet.
I have a hunch that we are hearing about all this because the Kameryn and his sister Megan started seeing dollar signs. I also think they knew there would be a certain level of notoriety that comes along with this sort of situation...something they were both unable to resist.
The Bottom Line:
In a world that values celebrity over all else, it's time we get real about things like character. Sure, public servants should be held accountable for their actions. After all, we are paying their salary. That, however, does not exclude the everyday person from being accountable as well. Our political figures are a real reflection of the people. That fact alone should scare us all into making better decisions and being the best people we can be. These two seemingly different people are really not all that different at all. When the sensationalism settles and the story is long over, we still have to look at ourselves in the mirror.
Who do you see staring back at you?
