SELLING OUT YOUR FAMILY FOR POLITICAL GAIN

The title of today's blog says it all.

Who am I talking about? you're probably asking. I'm talking about any elected official who believes he/she has to distance themselves from the individuals who unconditionally loves and accepts their crusty behind just the way they are, and well before you became an elected official. I have to ask, "Do you really aspire to elected office that much? To the point where you publicly diss your relatives in the, ahem, "mainstream media" in order to position yourself favorably to the likes of others?"

To such elected officials, I say this: Be careful, because when you get knocked down, guess who's going to be there to pick you up when you crash? That playboy uncle, or that aunt with the substance abuse problem, that's who.

Or that father who may have made financial mistakes, but made damned sure you had the best of everything growing up, because you are his child.

Or that mother who may have only had a sixth-grade education, but loved you enough to stay on your ass about going to school, getting good grades and exhorting you to go further in life than she did.

Or those cousins, grandparents, who would be an embarrassment to anyone considered "haute" culture for you.

However, these are the same individuals who will come out swinging in your defense, when the public turns on you and begin taking potshots.

Come on, we all have members of our family who we would rather stick in the back room, or hide out until the "company" leaves, but the truth of the matter is, I believe God plants all of us into imperfect families in order to teach us the fundamental lesson of unconditional love and acceptance of our relatives. I confess freely, that my own estrangement from certain family members is as a result of my not being as "perfect" as they would wish, because I'm considered an "embarrassment" when I don't toe the line; when I am outspoken on the issues that matter; when I don't "go along to get along". And those traits are courtesy of both my parents, who didn't hesistate to speak up to right a wrong, or to protest injustice.

I grew up with drunks, drug addicts, shopaholics (where do you think I got the urge for shopping, LOL) - in other words, those whose lives have been carried on, and affected by the vicissitudes of life, and yet, there's nothing I aspire to publicly that would condone denying my relationship to them in any shape, form or fashion, period.

To the elected officials who are doing this; selling out your family for political gain, my prayer for you is that you simply stop, and appreciate the relative for who and what they are, no matter how much you consider them to be an embarrassment to you. Your own survival can and will depend on it, especially when they have your back when no one else does. If you don't believe me, ask Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. Trust me, Billy Carter, Miss Lillian, and Roger, didn't stop them from inhabiting the White House; in fact, we appreciated their family members as much as we did them, because they demonstrated to the American people how beautifully human they were.

As should you.