London in New York

The only thing(s) molested last night on 60 Minutes and in his book “Against All Odds” was the truth, the intelligence of the American public and the otherwise sterling reputation of a family run Christian camp on Cape Cod founded by a World War II hero and his wife, still run by his salt of the earth descendants; all of whom serve as a pawns in the Massachusetts Senator’s political re-branding effort, and ‘pathetic plea for publicity’,  in the vein hope of gaining a seat on OPRAH’S COUCH to shore up the victim vote in his bid at re-election in 2012.

Senator Brown’s propensity for story telling (e.g., MEDIAite: “Rachel Brown Calls Scott Brown a Liar”)  was on full display in his 60 Minutes interview with Leslie Stahl.   Yet  it is hard to see how the shape-shifting, hyper sensitive act of this  former male model, who once made $1,000 per day working for Wilhelmina Models and posing nude for Cosmopolitan while being ushered into back rooms of Studio 54 partying with the elite in the world of celebrity, fashion, entertainment and publishing  and resisting the advances of Steve Rubell and the Caligula like Calvin Klein who “tried to rip off my shirt”, hanging with Rick James and some girls who were Super Freaking while Mr. James did his best Tony Montana in front of  ‘piles of cocaine‘  while you stood by fought them all off and got your energy from drinking Florida Orange Juice (Anita Bryant would be so proud),  will play to the audience targeted by this rather over the top PR Campaign. As stated by writer Matt Schneider on Mediaite, “it seems like his humanizing tale would only serve to ingratiate him in the eyes of the public.” There is nothing ‘Per Se’ wrong about telling Horatio Alger stories to the public, except that if the public becomes hip to the fact that the “stories” told with Julian Kay like swagger by an American Gigolo are  merely that,  they may realize that they are being played for suckers. Whether “Against All Odds” is in effect Brown’s political obituary is hard to know quite yet. Only time will tell whether this book is the beginning of Brown’s dialogue with a cynical and wary general public or the end of one.

UPDATE: The New York Times published my comment wherein I postulate that Scott Brown’s disclosure about his alleged molestation at Camp Good News, a Christian Summer Camp founded by a WW II Hero W. Wyeth Willard and his wife Grace Willard, which continues to be run under the leadership of his salt of the earth extended family is simply not credible.  I attended CGN for 6 summers,  my younger brother for 9 summers, and a life long personal friend attended for 13 summers, around and during the same time period of Scott Brown.  My contention is that this scenario truly never happened and Mr. Brown is a flat out LIAR.  And I have a very strong thesis to back it up.

Mr. Brown does not want to expose, name or prosecute his offender, did not tell his wife, mother or family first, nor did he run to authorities to help reign in a predator who may still be at large but instead ran to Harper Collins to tell his “story” on the eve of his re-election campaign. He nevertheless renders a vivid descriptio­n of “hippie” who resembles a Cheech and Chong character, Grateful Dead band member, a Deadhead, or an otherwise caricature of a radical liberal, circa the first Nixon Administra­tion. Only problem is that in my recollecti­on and the recollecti­on of most folks who attended the Camp the counselors were drawn from Midwestern and Southern Christian colleges and were relatively clean cut.  Let me be crystal clear, I am not attacking the notion that Scott Brown may have been the product of an unstable or broken home environment or that some where along the way his sexual innocence was lost.  But instead, I am  merely questioning aspects of the Horatio Alger story being packaged to sell this man at this time and for what reasons. My thesis is he conveniently tossed in the Christian Summer Camp because he knows that will gain the attention of victims advocates and victim’s advocacy groups and their focus on child abuse by priests in the Christian/Catholic community. He had to put a face on his abuser without putting a face on his abuser. This may in fact have been a tactical and strategic ploy. There are legitimate reasons why many feel that this man is simply being disingenuous.

Truth is that lying under oath is a crime and it is awfully difficult to prosecute imaginary people.  Scott Brown, ever the Cosmopolitan figure, knows this but he has a book to sell so with Julian Kaye like swagger, the American Gigolo begins his  seduction of America’s victim class.  According to a recent poll 67% of Cape Cod Today readers say Scott Brown is a liar about his sexual abuse claim. The comment in full is referenced below:

The Caucus: In Memoir, Scott Brown Says He Was Molested As a Child

#42:  ”There is something so American Gigolo about the Julian Kay like swagger of the Massachusetts Senator. Excuse me if I disbelieve his incredibly dark fairy tale is anything but an effort at political re-branding to get America’s victim vote. The Boston Globe quoted Senator Scott Brown saying he will never forget his abuser and “his long sandy, light brown hair; his long, full mustache; the beads he wore; the tie-dyed T-shirts and the cutoff jeans, which gave him the look of a hippie.” I will leave it to journalists to question the authenticity of Scott Brown’s timely proclamation. But if you were to ask me this almost sounds like some made up fantasy profile or caricature of a conservative’s view of a rather liberal looking predator; that is circa the first Nixon Administration. I am left only to wonder when Scott Brown actually began ‘turning tricks’.  Brown is merely laying the groundwork for further bombshell disclosures about his life experience, perhaps during his days as a male underwear model, and any other activities that may have occurred in the backrooms of Studio 54. Then after the full on Oprahfication, any other things that come to light will be viewed in the context of or as a result of a previously traumatized individual behaving in a manner consistent with that of other survivors of male sexual abuse. Truly Machiavellian indeed; Brown doing his own vetting in his own time.Brown did not run to authorities but instead to publisher Harper Collins. But in that case let us be clear that it was the truth & the sterling reputation of a Christian Summer Camp that were molested, not Brown.”

This blog has been also been published by permission at Cape Cod Today and also appears on Cummings and Goings.

SEE ALSO

-Providence Journal: Chris London: Senator Brown Expose Your Abuser
-Daily Kos: MA-Sen: Scott Brown’s revelations
-Plymouth Daily News:  Scott Brown’s Fairy Tales
-Cape Cod Today: The Flies in Scott Brown’s Fairy Dust
-The Boston Globe, Joan Vennochi: For Brown, a perplexing connection
-Kansas City Star: Senator Scott Brown breaks silence on sexual abuse
-Wakefield Patch:  Sen. Scott Brown Says He Was Abused As A Child Growing Up in Wakefield
-Plymouth Daily News:  Scott Brown’s Trauma
-Cape Cod Today: It’s time for Scott to let them take his inner child by the hand and lead him to safety.
-CBS News Boston: Cape Cod Camp Reaches Out to Sen. Brown About Sex Abuse Allegations.
-Cape Cod Times: Sandwich camp reaches out to Brown
-Cape Cod Today: Camp Good News Sexual Abuse Hotline
-Boston Herald: Scott Brown blasts critics over his support for Perry
-Boston Globe: Sen. Brown defends decision not to pursue abuser
-Boston Herald:  Scott Brown Played Down Claims of Victim
-Lynnrockets’ Blast-Off: Scott Brown Enables A Child Molester to Roam Freely.
-The Wichita Eagle:  Mary Sanchez: Brown breaks silence on male sexual abuse
-Black & Right: Scott Brown ‘Abuse’ – Fake?
-The Providence Journal: Walter Brooks: Scott Brown’s Falling Star
-Politico: DSCC attacks Brown on abuse revelation
-Blue Mass. Group:  Scott Brown Committee Book Bulk Buy A Go, Fundraisers Not So Much
-Gothamist: Is Brown The New Reagan? (or The New Pinocchio)
-Cape Cod Times: Gonsalves: Scott Brown’s book lacks insight
-The Wakefield Daily Item: Sen. Scott Brown book called “lies”…”pure fiction”
-Cape Cod Today: Sen. Scott Brown book called “lies”…”pure fiction”

Camp Good News, a non-denominational, independent, non-profit Christian summer camp for boys and girls ages 6-15, is in the news for reasons which make me and some of my close personal friends who were former campers there sad, uncomfortable and perhaps even a little angry.  And it is not because the legendary camp recently celebrated its 75th anniversary.  U.S. Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts and former male model, publicly proclaimed on the eve of the release of his memoir, “Against All Odds: My Life of Hardship, Fast Breaks, and Second Chances”, that he was molested as a child at a camp on Cape Cod, while officials at Camp Good News on Snake Pond in Forestdale (a village within the oldest town in Massachusetts,  Sandwich in Barnstable County)  confirmed that Senator Brown was a camper there.

In an interview with Leslie Stahl on 60 minutes to air this evening, Brown told Lesley Stahl of CBS News he was sexually abused at age 10 by a camp counselor on Cape Cod. “Fortunately, nothing was ever fully consummated, so to speak,” Brown says in the preview for the show airing this evening, the day before his memoir “Against All Odds” is released.

The Boston Globe quoted Senator Scott Brown saying he will never forget his abuser and “his long sandy, light brown hair; his long, full mustache; the beads he wore; the tie-dyed T-shirts and the cutoff jeans, which gave him the look of a hippie.”   I will leave it to journalists to question the authenticity of Scott Brown’s timely proclamation, and whether his coming forward was anything more than ‘pathetic plea for publicity.’ To be clear Scott Brown did not run to authorities to unmask an alleged sexual predator, he and his handlers ran to Harper Collins in a political re-branding effort.  Furthermore, if you ask me, his rather vivid description of his assailant almost sounds like some made up fantasy profile or caricature of a conservative’s view of a rather liberal looking predator; that is circa the first Nixon Administration. Is this perhaps maybe an attempt by a RINO Senator in Democrat lands to shore up votes on the left by ‘emancipating his [inner] Oprah’, well  in advance of his re-election effort or the launch of a Presidential campaign?  Was the hippie abuser/counselor holding a copy of the Koran and smoking a joint as well? Inquiring minds want to know especially since in my entire time period at the camp,  counselors came from mid-western Christian Colleges and were relatively clean cut and not at all the caricature of a hippie described by Scott Brown. On the other hand perhaps Ben & Jerry, after a bout of the munchies and creating Cherry Garcia, came down from their place in Vermont while they were ‘riding that train’ in their tie died t-shirts, long hair and beads to administer the assault and threatened ‘to kill him’ if he ever said anything.” A friend who can trace their lineage at he CGN to a few years before mine, to the years during and before Scott Brown’s attendance at the camp, and who continues to send his/her own kids there, has a similar recollection. As this friend reminded me, the  camp has been run by the same core of Willard/Brooks family members and a steady core of counselors who tend to return year after year.  Many former campers now send their own kids to the camp.

Despite the sensational allegations, the response of Camp officials has been exemplary. Camp Good News representatives have handled the fallout with remarkable candor and grace. Officials at a the Cape Cod camp attended by U.S. Sen. Scott Brown reached out to Senator Brown.  Rather than contesting or questioning the allegations, stated instead that they applauded his coming forward with revelations that he was abused as a child by a summer camp counselor.  Jane Brooks, who serves as director at Camp Good News acknowledged that the Wrentham based Republican Senator, attended the family run Christian camp but could not confirm whether the incident happened there. Ms. Brooks, nevertheless expressed that they are “sick about” Brown’s description of the abuse and further that “We’re crushed.” Dr. Stephen W. Brooks, a Hyannis surgeon and assistant president at Camp Good News stated “I think what he did was courageous.”

According to the Associated Press Brown told Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe he doesn’t want to seek criminal charges against his alleged assailant. Brown would  thus not identify him, despite stating (see above) that ‘he could never forget his abuser.’ Camp officials stated also that they do not know the alleged attacker’s identity. Brown said he didn’t write about what happened to him “to settle any scores” but to prove to people that they can overcome adversities and move on from the past.  So let me see he leaves a family run Christian camp established by an American hero,  W. Wyeth Willard,  a Naval Chaplain with the Marines in WW II, and his wife Grace Willard, an institution that has never had any such allegations against it in its storied history, forced to accept the truth of such allegations without the ability to verify or substantiate them, while the DA is asked to refrain from investigating and the alleged or shall we say “imaginary” abuser perhaps created to help Brown sell his legend and a few more books, remains free at large? Does this not strike one as fascinatingly convenient for Senator Brown?

I spent 6 summers at Camp Good News on Cape Cod between the ages of 9 ½ and 15 years of age followed by a summer at Chop Point in Maine, while my best friend and little brother Gregory spent 9 summers there.  I am a New Yorker born and raised, rather close in age to Scott Brown. And while I may not otherwise have had a reason to doubt his story, I also have no reason to question the sincerity, character or integrity of any members of the Willard/Brooks family, especially that of Jane Brooks or her brother Dr. Steve Brooks.  As I sit here and reflect, I consider myself fortunate that my parents had the wisdom to extract me from the urban turbulence of 1970’s New York City, during the summer months. The guidance, wisdom, perspective and genuine friendship I received from so many folks, too numerous to mention, remind me still how to live a more responsible and purposeful life.  Hence, I still believe that was one of the better decisions made by my parents during the critical and formative years of my life. While I have and continue to live a far from perfect life and do not consider myself deeply religious, the lessons I learned in terms of respect for my fellow human being, commitment to community service,  respect for our country,  self sacrifice, reverence for our maker and recognition of a higher purpose in this life beyond my own self indulgence is one that still serves me well. You may leave Camp Good News but Camp Good News truly never leaves you. The tears shed at the end of the summer when we were forced to say goodbye to our friends, new ones and old ones, before heading back home seem so fresh in my memory. I wish sometimes I could blink my eyes and be back there in my youth for a day, for a week for a summer frozen in time, sitting at the snack bar enjoying an ice cream sundae, losing a sprint on the A Field to Lisa Thursby, a childhood crush who was mostly a better athlete than me, or waking before dawn to run down to the flag pole a the shout of  “Odie Baloney Let’s Go” by Head Counselor Oakie during color war.

There is something so American Gigolo about the Julian Kay like swagger (i.e., hustle) of the Massachusetts Senator. Hence perhaps you will forgive me, if I simply do not buy Scott Brown’s fabulously dark fairy tale. Given my experience and that of many close to me during a similar time period,  Scott Brown’s tale does not resonate.  His story rings hollow. That  more mainstream media sources are accepting his allegations at face value despite his unwillingness to name or unmask and refusal to help prosecute his alleged abuser is troubling, especially if the Senator has any regard for other victims of abuse.  As mentioned above,  Scott Brown did not run to authorities to unmask an alleged sexual predator, he and his handlers ran to Harper Collins.  The natural question is  from where do political creatures like the Cosmopolitan Scott Brown derive their ethics and morality?

Let me see, it is acceptable to defame a family run Christian institution that has improved countless lives while you conveniently choose to forgo pursuit of the alleged (i.e., imaginary) abuser?  Senator Brown, need I remind you that you are hardly in a position of weakness at this time. You are a prominent, powerful and popular U.S. Senator, rumored to have Presidential ambitions.  Surely I can see how a protracted investigation and perhaps your own credibility being called into question might tarnish your political image, undermine sales of your book, reduce your chances of re-election and hamper your chance to secure the White House some day.  But what of  potentially other victims of sexual abuse at the hands of this alleged predator? Oh yeah and then there is that other thing about lying under oath that may be sort of problematic.  Victims networks such as the SNAP Network and The Innocence Mission should be hesitant to let  Scott Brown off the hook so easily.  They should not allow themselves to be duped into silence but should instead force disclosure  of the alleged abuser, assuming there even was one, if the goal is truly to protect all victims of sexual abuse and not simply to rubber stamp Brown’s PR Campaign.

I am left only to wonder when Scott Brown actually began ‘turning tricks’, politically speaking of course.  And secondarily, whether Brown and his handlers are merely laying the groundwork for further bombshell disclosures about his life experience, perhaps during his days as a male underwear model, and any other activities that may have occurred in the backrooms of Studio 54.  Then after the full on Oprahfication, any other things that come to light will be viewed in the context of or as a result of a previously traumatized individual behaving in a manner consistent with  that of other  survivors of male sexual abuse.  If so that is truly Machiavellian indeed; Brown doing his own vetting in his own time. But in that case let us be clear that it was the truth and the sterling reputation of a Christian Summer Camp founded by a WW II Hero that were molested in Massachusetts, not Scott Brown.

Please note:  This blog has been reprinted by permission on the websites Plymouth Daily News and  Cape Cod Today and was also run on Shatter our Silence Worldwide.

SEE ALSO

-The Boston Globe, Joan Vennochi: For Brown, a perplexing connection
-Kansas City Star: Senator Scott Brown breaks silence on sexual abuse
-Wakefield Patch:  Sen. Scott Brown Says He Was Abused As A Child Growing Up in Wakefield
-Plymouth Daily News:  Scott Brown’s Trauma
-Cape Cod Today: It’s time for Scott to let them take his inner child by the hand and lead him to safety.
-CBS News Boston: Cape Cod Camp Reaches Out to Sen. Brown About Sex Abuse Allegations.
-Cape Cod Today: Camp Good News Sexual Abuse Hotline
-Boston Herald: Scott Brown blasts critics over his support for Perry
-Boston Globe: Sen. Brown defends decision not to pursue abuser
-Boston Herald:  Scott Brown Played Down Claims of Victim
-Lynnrockets’ Blast-Off: Scott Brown Enables A Child Molester to Roam Freely.
-The Wichita Eagle:  Mary Sanchez: Brown breaks silence on male sexual abuse
-Black & Right: Scott Brown ‘Abuse’ – Fake?
-The Wakefield Daily Item: Sen. Scott Brown book called “lies”…”pure fiction”
-Cape Cod Today: Sen. Scott Brown book called “lies”…”pure fiction”

“If I said my heart was beating loud. If we could escape the crowd somehow. If I said I want your body now. Would you hold it against me?”
-Ms. Britney Spears

I do not want my bubble gum complicated.  It just needs to be something I can chew on.  Ms. Spears simply gets how and why we have come to embrace her as a woman, her act and her status as simply the Queen of Pop.  Consider the lyrics in her latest song ‘Hold it Against Me’ referenced below, wherein she expresses rather succinctly perhaps how America feels about one of its own:

Hey you might think
That I’m crazy
But you know I’m just your type
I might be ‘little hazy
But you just cannot deny
There’s a spark in between us

Her formula is the oldest one in the book; “KISS”: Keep it Simple Stupid.   So to all of the Britney Spears critics, I say chew on this because  Ms. Spears simply gets it.   America needs a Britney Spears come back if only because the state of our republic and our national psyche was so much better when she was at the top of her game, than it is now.  Britney’s struggle to find herself mirrors what has transpired in America in many ways. Her decline and absence from the top echelon of the pop music scene has coincided with a decline in our nations playful sense of optimism. Pop artists do play a role in that regard.  While you may laugh, Ms. Spears seems to have an intuitive understanding of her artistic purpose, in a way that neither Madonna or even the uber talented Lady Gaga seem to.  Hence her timing could not be any better. One can only hope, however,  that the the return of Britney is a sign that we too are turning the same corner. Without question, I will enjoy this song and hope that there is a return of Britney Spears, even if only for the nostalgia of when I once believed that anything was possible, not just in love but in every facet of life.

In my continuing evolution of the masculine, embracing aspects of the enlightened feminine I have come to recognize the mutual dilemma’s faced by men and women in the proverbial mating game.  I am also now aware that 1 in 5 relationships begin online on dating sites like Match.com, JDate and PlentyOfFish.  As a result, when the Consigliere is engaged, pearls of wisdom will flow like shots being poured from a bottomless whiskey bottle in a New York Saloon. This is  to be distinguished from merely staring down at the bottom of a whiskey bottle looking for all or some of life’s answers; although in terms of full disclosure during my journey of the dark night of the soul on occasion I found myself doing that as well.

On Valentine’s Day, in a wide ranging philosophical discussion on what men and women want,  a potential romantic prospect with a fetish for Christian Louboutin (we’ll get to that later) stated “I run from men [even those who might cater to my special needs]  who are obviously in the end only after me for a piece of my three star ass, much in the same way that you might run from the soul less bitches who desire you solely to provide a means of financial support [as a Sugar Daddy].” The following was my response:

“You can always buy a three star ass but you cannot buy a four star soul.”

Important for owner-operators of ass awesomeness to know because as I have openly acknowledged in a prior blog, despite the lust in my heart and my profound appreciation for the lower half of a woman’s well toned and curved body from the contour of her lower back, her sticky buns and down to her calves and finely painted toes, all of that without intellect, charm or manners is truly a waste even if they are packing Jessica Biel, Ocean Bloom, Esther Baxter, Buffie the Body, Vida Guerra, Milani Rose or Kim Kardashian type booty; or onions that can literally bring a tear to your eye.  Likewise for my male readers, before you pay a bounty for the booty in your quest for an ass befitting a KING and your watering mouth writes a check that your own ass can’t cash, consider this when you contemplate ‘trading up or grow to have less of an appreciation for an otherwise special lady in your life.  In the world of romance, it is not always the road less traveled or the fresher trail or tail that leads to greater rewards. As a creature of habit, I have often had the experience that the road more frequently traveled still provides opportunity for charting new terrain; a  romance reinvigorated by a commitment to putting forth a greater degree of  ingenuity and creativity is one which may ultimately bring greater fulfillment and lasting reward.

Nevertheless, every romantic gambler knows that in the words of Kenny Rogers: “You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away, know when to run.”

The club scene in New York City has been completely and utterly busted for so long; it is like an aphrodisiac for necrophilliacs. Yale grad, author of The Man Time Forgot and otherwise prolific commentator Isaiah Wilner, who was both revered and feared,  cogently wrote about its demise in a New York Magazine piece entitled “The Short Drunken Life of Club Row” way back in 2007 before skipping town. It is so horribly busted that the only way cultural dilettante’s like Indira Cesarine can get press for events at clubs, is if they ridicule, embarrass, frustrate and deny access to a percentage of the population that thrives on the insecurity of gaining acceptance by the utterly vacuous so that whatever whoring goes on inside somehow seems relevant, as they stand outside patiently waiting on line begging “please let me know I am worthy”  to spend $20 per watered down cocktail and should I seek the ever exclusive ‘bottle service’, $350 for a $40 bottle of vodka.

Hence my my surprise I read today that prolific blogger and social critic about town Christopher Koulouris of the blog Scallywag & Vagabond was left standing outside and denied entry to  Club Provocateur (according to NY Magazine:  the invite only club in the former Ono space created run by former Stereo partners Michael Satsky & Brian Gefter) at the Gaansevort Hotel to a party he was apparently invited to by fashion photographer, Indira Cesarine of  XXXX Magazine. Far too many members of the social media in this town spend their time vying for the spotlight and lens of the camera, interjecting themselves into a story which is not about them but about the so called fashionable elite, and the following morning while they review their own photos on Patrick McMullan, GuestofaGuest.com or Wireimage (if they are lucky), they publish large sections of a post event press release as their blog and dial it in as their own original report. So while it may be all favorable, frankly, I won’t be reading it.  Love him or hate him and as he well knows,  sometimes I am inclined to both perspectives, Chris is literally the opposite of Robert Evans who was  “The Kid [that] Stays in the Picture”; for the man from the land down under is a rare breed, a quirky cat who is not entirely predictable yet moves with a jazz like flow looking  for an angle that the more sophisticated reader may appreciate, not because there is so much money in it but because like a painter he is consumed with finding and perfecting the master stroke;  he forges on regardless of whether he may ultimately truly ever be appreciated for his craft.

Getting back to ‘culturites’ cum poseurs like Indira Cesarine (Creative Director of XXXX Magazine), she should be well aware that there is literally nothing of import happening in Club Land in the City anymore, not that there ever was and if she hopes to change that perception or of her own commercial fashion artistry (i.e.,  a Herb Ritts wannabe in the frame of a hot looking, horny female nightlife promoter), she might be well advised to allow folks like Koulouris inside to evaluate and report.   The best thing that scribes like Christopher K can do, however, is to let those over glorified ass-wipes who continue to pollute New York’s socio-cultural landscape with their own barren exploits (i.e., repetitive drivel),  in a veritable circle jerk where they cream all over themselves in bukkake like fashion and lick their own finger tips and mutter “how tasty” while holding their nose up, perhaps because it is even too tasty to share these creamy drippings with another except their fashionable elite insider friends, allow them to continue in their auto-fellatio and move on.  The infamous Al Goldstein of Midnight Blue fame would have said, “Indira Cesarine, F__k You, I have no desire to write about people masturbating and bathing in their own NARCISSISM.”

Much like I have  stated before with regards to the disintegration of New York’s socio-cultural landscape, including in inappropriately named Boom Boom Room, “The same fashionable elites who keep trying to hype the idea of ushering in a new Studio 54 era, with themselves at the forefront, are failing miserably. Andy Warhol is dead. Everyone’s 15 Minutes have been well over extended into a never ending fame game, while the same faces who perpetrate this artistic fraud, still have their hand in your wallet selling you a bad line of coke. Enough.”

Oh Ms. Cesarine, you are such a provocateur, please let me in.