Go Young, West Man A hearty congratulations is in order for the Spokesman-Review, the newspaper of record for the city of Spokane, Washington. They have shown the world just what it means to be a member of the Fourth Estate in their investigative report detailing the trampy dalliances of Mayor Jim West as he used the trappings of his office in order to lure young men into gay relationships. His tool of choice was the Internet. He extended his feelers via a website called "Gay.com". The newspaper also trotted out a dirty laundry list accusing West of much more than political or social improprieties. Two convicted felons have alleged that West molested them in the 1970s, when he was a sheriff's deputy who was also involved in the Boy Scouts. That stuff needs to be hashed out in a court of law, whether it means West being prosecuted for serious criminal offenses, or West suing the two fellows who are saying such slanderous things about him. Until this story broke, Jim West seemed like a fairly regular public servant who had outgrown his uniforms and put on a suit, a conservative politician well on his way up the ladder. He didn't seem to be too much different from thousands of good Americans, but it turns out he may not be that far removed from someone like BTK. Whatever the scope of his own behavior, he has been linked to two other men accused of molestation (by these same two convicts), men whose lives ended in suicide. A fellow lawman and Boy Scouts leader, David Hahn, killed himself with his service revolver in 1981. Yet another Scout leader, George Robey, followed suit eight months later "amid allegations he sexually abused boys", according to the Spokesman-Review. The authorities in Spokane closed both cases as routine suicides. Jim West squirted out of that mess like a watermelon seed, unscathed. Until due process is considered, questions over whether he molested his two accusers (or anybody else) are irrelevant. Jim West deserves to lose his job, and as of now is on an official leave of absence. An absolute hypocrite, typical of his ideological ilk, he built his career on such political foibles as the Defense of Marriage Act, officially exuding an overall anti-gay agenda. In other words, he wasn't exactly a Log Cabin Republican. Now he says he wouldn't "characterize" himself as gay. He's not sure how he found himself on Gay.com ("curiousity, confused, whatever... I don't know") with someone he thought was an 18-year old homosexual male. In reality, it was the cyber-snoop hired by the newspaper as it conducted what West and his people are now calling "a brutal outing." Got that? The mayor fancies himself a victim. The poor man. As Bill Clinton can attest, it's no fun getting caught. I'm not faulting him for his orientation, by the way. I don't have time to care about that kind of thing. If the man had been caught in a rendezvous with an 18-year old girl, he'd still have to go. West pitched all kinds of woo at the target of his affections. Sports memorabilia, an internship at City Hall and trips to Washington D.C. were all on the menu. So what am I to make of all these Republican blowhards like Bill Frist and Tom DeLay as they jump on their moral Clydesdales and go trotting about the national landscape, making themselves out to be holier than any liberal who dares breathe the same air as they? How can I take our president seriously when he does much the same thing, stubbornly avowing that his actions (even those that result in killing) are guided by the wisdom he receives from God? While we're at it, why do these same types so vociferously support the Boy Scouts? You can hear just as much pious damnation in the timber of their voices as they brought to the offensive side of the game when it was time to ridicule and demean the Catholic Church for its leaders committing the same sins. In the wrong hands, power can become a bad thing. How long have we known this? It happens all over the country, this thing with the Boy Scouts. It has happened in Indiana, South Dakota, New York, Oklahoma, and more. In Massachusetts, a Scout leader pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year old boy, and was spared jail time by State Superior Court Judge Carol Ball. Last year, in Missouri, a former church minister and Scout leader pleaded guilty to cutting off another man's genitals. Just last month, in Forth Worth, Texas, a Scout leader pleaded guilty in a child pornography case. I guess we shouldn't focus on the bad apples. We can't blame all conservatives, all Scout leaders, or all priests when this sort of thing hits the news, nor can we blame all Republicans for using the power of elected office to further their own personal desires. Can't we just trust them? I don't know; did anyone trust hippies after Charlie Manson? So they'd much prefer that we continue to have blind faith in them, these conservatives that claim to be so good for the country. We should just shut up and believe everything they tell us. Take them at their word, that's all they ask. They're especially believable when they say they have nothing to hide. And when they say they've done nothing wrong. Paul Heller 05/13/05 << back to the archives
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