Posted on 05/02/2006 1:10:54 PM PDT by meandog
New York, N.Y. – In her new memoir, NOW IT'S MY TURN(Simon & Schuster/Threshold Editions, 2006), Mary Cheney writes that when she told her parents she was gay, the first words out of her father’s mouth “were exactly the ones that I wanted to hear: ‘You’re my daughter, and I love you, and I just want you to be happy.’”
VANITY FAIR editor Todd Purdum reports that Mary Cheney tells her story in a voice very much like her father’s, and that she came out to her parents when she was a junior in high school, on a day when, after breaking up with her first girlfriend, she skipped school, ran a red light, and crashed the family car. Cheney writes that her mother hugged her, but then burst into tears, worried that she would face a life of pain and prejudice.
When Purdum asks the vice president whether he thinks gay people are born that way, Cheney scrunches up his mouth, fixes him with a look that says “Nice try,” then says: “I’m not going to get into that. Those are deeply personal questions. You can ask.”
Mary Cheney tells Purdum that her father “has very little tolerance for bullshit, pardon my French.” She also says that one common reaction from people who have read the manuscript of her book is “‘Wow, you guys really have this close-knit, loving family,’ and it always strikes me as ‘Yeah, of course we do.’ It was very surprising to me that people would think we didn’t.”
When Purdum asks Cheney if he is fatalistic about his heart disease, Cheney says, “I am. I don’t even think about it most of the time. You do those things a prudent man would do, and I live with it.” Asked what he would have for breakfast at Nora’s Fish Creek Inn, his favorite pre-fishing spot in Wilson, Wyoming, Cheney responds without missing a beat: “I’d probably have two eggs over easy, sausage and hash browns,” then hastens to add that that is not his normal breakfast. “The day I go fishing, I get off my diet,” he says.” At a roundtable lunch with reporters a couple of years ago, two who were present tell Purdum that Cheney cut his buffalo steak in bite-size pieces the moment it arrived, then proceeded to salt each side of each piece.
Cheney tells Purdum that he has not changed over the years, but perhaps many of his contemporaries think he has “because of my associations over the years, or because I came across as a reasonable guy, people have one view of me that was not necessarily an accurate reflection of my philosophy or my view of the world.”
Purdum asks Cheney if, during his “darkest night,” he has even “a little doubt” about the administration’s course. “No,” he tells Purdum. “I think we’ve done what needed to be done.” Of the debate over whether or not the administration hyped the pre-war intelligence, Cheney says, “In the end, you can argue about the quality of the intelligence and so forth, but ... I look at that whole spectrum of possibilities and options, and I think we did the right thing.”
Cheney rejects the caricature of him as the power behind the throne, insisting, “I think we have created a system that works for this president and for me, in terms of my ability to be able to contribute and participate in the process.” When Purdum says that the cartoon characterization of him must not be accurate, Cheney says, “My image might be better out there, this caricature you talk about might be avoided, if I spent more time as a public figure trying to improve my image, but that’s not why I’m here.”
Purdum reports that Cheney travels with a chemical-biological suit at all times. When he gave his friend Robin West and his twin children a ride to the White House a couple of years ago, West commented on the fact that Cheney’s motorcade varied its daily path. “And he said, ‘Yeah, we take different routes so that “The Jackal” can’t get me,’” West tells Purdum. “And then there was this big duffel bag in the middle of the backseat, and I said, ‘What’s that? It’s not very roomy in here.’ And [Cheney] said, ‘No, because it’s a chemical-biological suit,’ and he looked at it and said, ‘Robin, there’s only one. You lose.’”
Purdum talks with former New York Times reporter and former executive editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer, James Naughton, who asks of Cheney: “Does he acknowledge that he is not as pleasant as he used to be?” Naughton knew Cheney as a fellow prankster during the 1976 campaign, and all but sighs in search of an explanation as to why he is so different now. “I guess I would like to believe,” he says, “without any evidence to support it, that coming very close to death has somehow compelled him to act as though he only has so much breath and so much life, that he’s only got so much time to accomplish what he has to do. But the public figure is nothing like the private one that I remember.”
Gerald Ford tells Purdum: “He may have changed a bit, but that was required for the change of circumstances.” Ford, who will turn 93 in July, adds, “Times change, and people change as a result of that.”
“If you’re looking for a change from one point to another, being vice president is sui generis,” Lynne Cheney tells Purdum. “It’s not quite like any other job.”
The June issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and L.A. on May 3 and nationally on May 9.
Man was created in Gods image. Wallabies were not.
"Why would a loving Christian "rebuke" anyone or anything?
"
A loving Christian would not do that. Most Christians leave the "rebuking" to their deity. A small percentage of Christians, however, misunderstand their role, in my opinion, and take great pleasure in "rebuking" all and sundry, including other Christians.
It is a sad thing.
I believe that people don't have a choice...it is, IMHO, like being right or left handed. However, being gay does not mean that one should engage in homosexual acts. (analogy: I had a stepfather who had a propensity for alcohol but did not drink because he was a stalwart member of alcoholics anonymous.)
"When I was growing up, I don't remember making a conscious choice to be attracted to boys. It just happened; I'm heterosexual by nature. Could I commit homosexual acts with a female? It would be physically possible, but it wouldn't be driven by sexual interest, which I only feel for men."
I assume you'd feel the same way about a child who committed adultery? Or lied? Or failed to honor their mother and father?
Oh yeah, those are all part of the 10 commandments. I guess I missed the 11th commandment: "Thou shalt not be homosexual."
I suppose if he was blind.
Really, what business is it of anyone else how someone feels about their children's sins? That should be between parent, child and God.
The 10 Commandments are the only valid Scripture?
So, you're saying Mary Cheney is gay because her parents loved her too much?
That is, of course, a perfectly reasonable position to adopt by most people's standards.
I myself keep running up against the passage that claims God does things that look foolish on purpose to frustrate the "wisdom" of men.
Rest assured, if I had not been beneficiary to instruction that demonstrated to my satisfaction the Scriptures had been designed as a whole, as opposed to organic accretion, I'd probably share your viewpoint.
Then you should be well disgusted with yourself. If you don't know the meaning of disgust, please get a dictionary. If you want silly word games, play with Bill Clinton. I know there are other children such as yourself playing games on Yahooligans. Perhaps you would fit in there.
Please show the post where any Freeper stated the Cheneys should show disgust.
What I read was that Christian parents should not show approval for a childs sin.
The church teaches that the writers of the Bible were guided by the Holy Spirit, thus the scriptures become the very word of God. Of course, if you discount the veracity of scripture, I'm sure you view the church with a even more jaundiced eye.
By tradition and REASON, as God gave me a mind to think...ahd I think NOT that God's entire universe was created in six 24-hour days.
You substitute the darkened wits of man for the eternal God. God gave you a mind so that you could learn His ways and worship Him, not so that you could deny Him and worship at the altar of Reason and Knowledge, but that is what sinful man is apt to do. Yet the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man.
I also think that God allows for persons believe as they believe...
Indeed He does, but his longsuffering with unbelief should not be construed as approval. He holds those who do not believe accountable.
The Bible is neither completely true, nor is it completely [false]
Then it is meaningless as a guide to God and suspect as a guide to life. If scripture is nothing more than a hint book-with false leads thrown in to boot-we are left to conclude that God (or more likely his self-appointed acolytes) are nothing more than jokesters.
If I believed as you do I would not call myself a Christian. But then again, I don't know if you have either, so I might be presuming upon our conversation.
As much as I appreciate your keen intellect and "devil's advocate" function on these types of threads, in this area you are in direct contradiction to the writings of St. Paul.
As for the "pleasure" they derive from such rebukes, I submit such pleasure is the direct analog to the "self-righteousness" the truly "wicked" are continually harping about. One wonders if such people have any notion the term "righteous" is even possible to separate from the "self" qualifier.
The answer to all of your questions is that they don't think it will happen to them. That, by the way, is the answer to many, many questions.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.