RICK SANTORUM.....JUST A REGULAR GUY

There is quite a bit being written lately about Rick Santorum. I have certainly been writing my fair share for a good while...because as a gay man in a 30 year relationship. people who say things that are hurtful to me or to others like me are going to get a response. As Mr Santorum has suddenly forced Newt out of the spotlight, he has also been much more scrutinized by the media than he was when he was at the bottom of the heap...where Michelle Bachmann eventually landed. I hate his views on gay people, contraception, his "jobs" plans etc etc etc, but his experience and actions after the still birth of a child just...seem first of all sad and tragic, and then just strange and unhealthy. He recently spoke about his deceased grandfather and in addition to how long and hard he worked, he spoke of seeing him in his casket. Mr Santorum was a young child....says he was only tall enough to see his grandfathers large hands, but it certainly seems to be a vivid memory for him.

My German-Irish family traditions almost always include a "viewing" of the deceased, and I also have a vivid memory of seeing my grandmother in her casket when I was about eight years old. Since then I've probably been to hundreds of funeral homes and seen an equal number of both young and old corpses lying in repose, but you know I still remember that very first time....seeing my grandmother. I can "feel" some of what that experience was for me...people crying whom I'd never seen cry before, the hushed voices, the smell of all those flowers, and the odd beautiful woman whom I'd loved very much...looking at peace finally after an awful and painfully long death from gangrene.

Bringing the body of a dead baby home might certainly be an "acceptable" expression of grief for the mother and father...albeit unusual, but what about the kids? There is very little doubt in my mind that everyone of them has a vivid memory of that experience. I of course have no idea of what went on in that household that tragic night, but it is certainly beyond my experience, and the experience of anyone I know...including relatives who also suffered from a still born birth of a child.

Rick Santorum is UNUSUAL. While he rails against those who are different from him (ie ME! ) and almost screeches about abortion....(wasn't his awful experience with all of the above actually a procedure to save his wife's life? )...He's so extreme in his views...saying today that " Jesus" should be a part of the presidency...(sorry atheists and jews)...or that comment about black people that he's trying to retract...oh well.

This is not a normal guy.