Argentina and Appalachian Trail Significantly Different Destinations
You may have heard that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford went “missing” on Thursday. Rest assured, he is safe, and we now know his whereabouts. So what happened to the Governor? The facts are these:
- The Governor left the governor’s mansion on Thursday in a black SUV. Apparently he skillfully evaded the watchful eyes of his gubernatorial security agents.
- According to cell phone records, his last identifiable whereabouts were somewhere outside the Atlanta area. He then turned off his cell phone and disappeared completely from radar.
- Friday came and went. So did Saturday. Then Sunday. On Monday, the Governor’s wife told the Associated Press that she wasn’t worried and that the Governor needed some time away from the family to write something.
- On Tuesday, the Governor’s spokesman cleared things up: the Governor in fact had not disappeared. He was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. Except that he wasn’t – he was in Argentina!!
Argentina
For the geographically challenged, the Appalachian Trail is a footpath stretching alongside the east coast of the United States. Argentina is a country in southern South America. Different place, different country, different continent!
Curiously, the Governor’s original claim of hitting the Appalachian Trail would have been on Naked Hiking Day. The day is a big tradition with pagan hikers, who hike au naturel in celebration of the summer solstice. 1
Appalachian Trail
In all seriousness, the Governor’s conduct raises some serious ethical questions about public service. Should the head of a well-populated U.S. state be permitted to ditch his security detail, his constituents, his job and disappear for days at a time? The answer is a pretty easy “no” for this author – if Governor Sanford wanted the freedom of anonymity and no responsibility, he shouldn’t have taken the oath. But the debate is a fun one, particular with the curious facts of this case. So give the topic a spin at your next dinner. Just make sure to do so with clothing.
Read on:
Yahoo!News – SC gov resurfaces after mystery trip to Argentina
- See Sunday’s Dinner Topic post for more on solstices: http://www.dinnertopics.com/geography/whats-a-solstice/ ↩
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
This is huge. He’s on-line now announcing an extramarital affair and resigning his GOP post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2005/04/12/VI2005041201139.html