Written by Nick Caraway

It is amazing that in the era of 24 hour news, the internet, and social media we are nowhere closer to a world with fuller context than we were before. Andrew Cuomo is only the latest politician to be embroiled in scandal. We all know he won’t be the last. His story and our story has so many layers and so many sides that one can scarcely tell where to start.

There is the obvious question of whether he is guilty of harassment or worse. As usually happens in situations like this, the vultures are circling. More and more people are coming forward with their own stories to tell. This obviously cuts both ways. Sometimes it is because you have a horrible person and people finally have the courage to report incidents that also happened to them. Sometimes it is merely blood in the water and the sharks are circling.

From there, there is the question of where to go from here. There is the simple question of what would be appropriate in a perfect world with the knowledge that there is a huge double standard. Democrats guilty of bad behavior fall on their sword. Republicans guilty of bad behavior get a seat on the Supreme Court and a seat in the oval office. Should that even matter?

I’m definitely not a tit for tat kind of person. It’s one thing to point out a double standard, but it is quite something else to allow that to govern our actual day to day activities. Either we advise someone in Cuomo’s position to resign or we don’t. If we think there is a path forward for him then there is a path forward for people in situations like him to move forward. If there isn’t one for him then there isn’t one for anyone in a similar situation.

What makes it harder is that we all know of situations where people were falsely accused. When it becomes multiple accusers then you could easily have both simultaneously. It’s difficult to strike the balance between presuming innocence while also giving the accuser the benefit of the doubt. Both sides deserve consideration. I know people have strong opinions on this topic and I invite all thoughts. Having a strong opinion doesn’t necessarily mean we know the wisest course of action.”

Nick