My take on Anthony Weiner's folly

I've seen a bunch of tweets roll by recently about Anthony Weiner's shenanigans. Since my opinions on this can't be described well in 140 characters, I figured I'd start a blog and put my thoughts together here.

First, I think America needs more self-awareness when it comes to issues of sexual ethics. It's very easy to lambaste someone else for their misconduct (especially when they are a public figure). But I think being a little more honest with ourselves about our current condition in America, we'd be able to approach these media frenzies with a bit more grace. Let me explain:

As a society, we aren't doing an incredibly great job at maintaining marital fidelity. Approximately 40-76% of marriages experience an instance of adultery at some point. Not only that, but pornography addiction is a growing problem among both men and women (click here for stats on porn use). It's easy for us to criticize Spitzer for paying a woman to have sex. But the truth is, for those of us that have viewed pornography, we've done the same thing. The only difference is, that for porn a camera was turned on to record the act.

Spitzer and Weiner stand in a long line of leaders throughout history who have committed adultery. Though his assassination elicited a sense of national unity (resulting in most folks looking back positively on his presidency), John F. Kennedy had a series of extramarital relationships. Martin Luther King Jr., a crucial contributor to the civil rights movement, has faced allegations of adultery (at the very least, his close friend Ralph Abernathy stated that King had a "weakness for women"). And let's not forget that revered leader who slept with a married woman and had her husband killed to cover up his adultery.

Granted, a key distinction would be whether people like Spitzer and Weiner have actually experienced remorse and turned away from their error. This is something that I don't feel is easy for me to discern, given that I don't know either of these people personally.

Weiner seems to have a continuing sexual addiction, which has continued even after he resigned from congress. It deeply concerns me that he blatantly lied to the American public about his "cyber-affair." It would be difficult for me to entrust such a person again as a government leader, unless I knew that they've truly reformed from their former ways.

At this point I do think it would be appropriate for Anthony Weiner to step down and stop trying to become the mayor of NYC. The tri-state area needs trustworthy leaders, and we simply don't have time for this drama.