THE COMEBACK KID WHO CAN’T COME BACK
Poking fun at Anthony Weiner is almost too easy. His name is the most obvious jumping off point. The way one can spin the jokes is endless – but the truth is Anthony Weiner is a sick man. Anthony Weiner is an addict.
He is exactly the kind of person we are writing the book for.
In fact if it were published I would send him a copy. Paul is on a boat somewhere in the Caribbean so I don’t know if he would too. But my guess is he would inscribe it and send him his number and tell him to call him the next time he wanted to do something that would destroy his life.
Addicts are people who continue with behaviors that have negative effects on their life. It’s a very simple description in the absolute.
One can make it more complicated and it’s certainly not as easy to fix as it is to diagnose, as any addict will tell you
It seems like Anthony is quite advanced in his disease.
As we all watched a year ago he detonated his own career as a Congressman who had high hopes for higher positions with his sexting scandal.
And then like many do, his wife took him back. OK. When you love someone you do take them back. You believe in the good that you know is inside them. You know they are not the sum of their poor actions. When you love an addict you try and hang in there.
The Weiners also had a new baby. His wife worked for the Secretary of State. This was a high stakes game of wreck you life he was playing.
And the amazing thing is it’s not like he was in love. This guy is having sex in 140 characters. I’ve heard of wham bam thank you mamn, but after saying that you are only left with 52 letters. How much fun can you have in 140 letters? I can’t imagine enough to ruin your entire world. But that is an addict in full tilt addiction mode.
No he’s not snorting, free-basing or going on six day benders. He’s just typing in 140 characters over and over again. Though like many addicts he said it was behind him. No -don’t make me go there. He said it was over. New leaf.
And to prove it he was running for mayor of the biggest city in the country. And he knew, yes, he knew, he had to know, when he threw his hat in the ring, that he was still at it.
He said he had stopped a few months before. But with an addict one never knows. Was he so stupid that he didn’t think it would leak? I know the jokes can be endless. How sick must he be?
He goes by the name Carlos Danger. There is a lot of information there. He likes danger? But hey Weiner ~ why not skydiving? It would make you look macho and you would still get to hold a public office.
I think many people do not feel they deserve good things in life. I think when the going gets good they get self- sabotaging. There is a self-loathing so deep they do something to hurt not only themselves but also all the people who love them, believe in them and that they have made allegiances to. They do something so damn stupid that it can’t be anything other than pure I don’t really care and I am going to prove to everyone who does care I’m not worth caring about.
At least that is what I think about this case. I don’t think that is true of all addicts. Addicts as we all know come in all shapes and addictions.
But I really don’t believe one can be that attached to disconnected, 140 character, never met the person, exchanging dirty words to get off sex. I just have a hard time – sorry – going there.
I get falling in love. Sometimes people wake up and they love someone else. It happens. And I don’t think those people are addicts. I think that is life being life and life being inconsistent and life throwing you some temptation that is either worth the cost or not.
But I think Anthony Weiner is an out and out irresponsible addict. I know addicts by their very nature often can’t control the behavior thus attaching the word irresponsible is not fair. But in this case he had gone away, he should have stayed away in light of the fact he was back it within a few months of the last public humiliation.
It’s hard to be an addict. It is a sickness, but If they know they can’t control themselves then they owe it to society to stay out of the public eye and especially if they want to be mayor of the biggest city in America. You can’t go forth knowing your behavior is totally out of control.
Anthony Weiner needs serious help. I hope for his sake and the sake of his family he goes and gets that help right away.
Tracey Jackson is a screenwriter and blogger at traceyjacksononline.com. Her book Gratitude and Trust is now available.