Statement : In Defense and Explanation

             With what little time I likely have, my desire is to protect my family and family name by helping others to understand my story, our story...  to better understand the truth regarding the personal and the political...  not to deny my own personal fall, but to remind the people that you asked me to be a truth-teller: I told some truths the world wasn't ready for, that were politically unpalateable, and there was far too fast a reaction to brand me as, well, anything

            It has never been my public practice to really play politics.  I have long been a liberal because A.) I believe in a more liberal society: a society that makes room for the true freedom both of the strong and wealthy, and for the disabled, the ailing, for children and children's authors.  I believe in a society that is strong and fearless enough to allow racial mixing, homosexuality, cannabis use etc. B.) Frankly, I have personal weakness and poverty and am willing to politically identify with them as opposed to a fantasy version of my future self

            Yet I would no longer be a voice for myself or my generation if I then said: I'm liberal so I will depose my own capacity for reason, and tow endless party lines.  Take Trump's border wall...  There is a widespread desire to embrace the immigrants we have and even to give them paths to citizenship etc..  This becomes more possible if conservative citizens have reason to believe there won't be an endless flow of new migrants.  Everything has its balance...  our lives are full of walls and boundaries, moral ideals and property lines...  What's so fascist about a Mexican border wall? No se; No creo   Deportations are inhumane: mass deportations prohibitively so.  A wall of prevention is an acceptable idea.  I do, however, believe in the controversial sanctuary movement.

           On this and other examples, I may or may not be wrong...  but I was elected as a voice of independent truth, not as a rubber stamp, and I carried out that duty to the best of my ability.  If my service in that role is expired, then we just need a civilized process to resolve that: Believe me, my love and concern for my family ultimately outweigh my attatchment to my ego or self.  God bless