Rob and Justin

"Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

 It's been a bad week for fans of Rob Ford and Justin Bieber.  The latest videotapes of our mayor behaving badly surfaced on YouTube in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.  The mayor was in The Steak Queen Restaurant engaged in a mostly undecipherable rant using a Jamaican accent and cursing in both English and Patois.  I could understand little of it though I was pretty disgusted by the parts I did understand.  Apparently, our sworn to stay sober mayor, fell off the wagon.  While that in and of itself is unremarkable, that he continues to behave the way he does in a public space and with "friends" that somehow think it's acceptable to videotape and then publicly reveal his behavior is nothing less than astounding.  By the time the second tape from that same late night visit to a local hangout surfaced, I wasn't even one bit surprised to see that he was there with his old friend Sandro Lisi.  Perhaps the most intriguing part of it all is how little outrage his behavior seemed to cultivate in the population of our city.  By the time a day had passed, people had moved on, the common consensus being that everyone is entitled to a private life and this is his.

I'm sure the mayor was happy to step out of the spotlight today when the news shifted to the arrest of Justin Bieber for street racing and driving under the influence.  Poor Justin.  Like so many who have gone before him, we are watching another young star implode.  I listened with interest to the comments made by some of the residents of his hometown Stratford.  While they could empathize with his youth, they believed he must be held to a higher standard than other people his age.  He is after all, a role model.  I didn't hear a single person suggest Justin is entitled to a private life.

So there is the disconnect.  Our mayor, a fully grown man, elected official, creator and keeper of the law is entitled to his private life.  Never mind that he smokes crack and marijuana, drinks to excess and then gets in his car and drives.  So what if he associates with gangsters, drug dealers and even murderers.  He's not as bad as Justin Bieber, nineteen year old singer, wannabe actor and teen heartthrob.  Justin drove under the influence of alcohol and marijuana.  He's associating with the wrong crowd.  I guess I'm crazy to think the higher standard that Justin is being held to, should apply to real public figures like our mayor.  My bad.