Film helps clarify our expectations of decency

Watching the innocuous film with Annette Bening and Michael Douglass "The American President," brought some relevance and sanity to what is transpiring in today's tumultuous White House. And while it is completely noted that the fictional characterization in the presidential life of a widower and a single woman dating within the confines of his presidency may not resonate true reality, somehow the understanding that one of them is not a philandering adulterer and the other is not a brazen porn star, brings some clarity to the dignity we expect our president to uphold each and every day.

I'm not asking for our president to be completely virtuous (see Clinton). All I'm asking is that the onus of hush payments does not constantly invade my daily news and that someone tell the truth about this distracting incident of shame. Do our children really need to view the scandalous realities of this political fiasco as though it is a portent to their own future?

In the movie, the fictional president, Andrew Shepherd, had a consensual relationship with a single woman, Sydney Ellen Wade, that is as natural as Adam and Eve. The reality star president running our country these days had a wanton back-alley tryst with a porn star while his wife was pregnant.

Anyone see the parallels of decency?

Gary Lukens