Merla's Going Away Interview

Role models cannot be repeatedly tempted with the option of wrongdoing. Eventually they will have to do the wrong thing.

Such was the explaination offered by John Merla, the former mayor, to the citizens of Keyport, on why he took the money offered by a surrogate of the FBI in it's Bid Rig undercover operation.

We learned that valuable lesson from a going away interview with a local weekly newspaper.

The former mayor likened himself to a ten year old faced with cookies - and the uncertain moral certitude associated with that age group when faced with a delicious offering.

However, the adult version of this senario replaced the cookies with envelopes of cash (ironically referred to by those on the take as "doughnuts") and their ethical standards having been filtered through such processes as asking for the voters trust, taking an oath of office and repeatedly stating your innocence in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary that you knew to be true.

If we use the former mayor's definition of the term "role model", then all of those fine people who, along with him, were named to the Keyport Hall of Fame will also be found to have the moral certitude of ten year olds and will have to do the wrong thing when faced with temptation.

Fortunately for Keyport, wiser thinking pervails in the community. The Keyport Board of Education voted to remove the former mayor's photo from the ranks of true role models.

He says he will use his prison time constructively, looking to educate himself about a new business venture he intends to take up upon his release.

Perhaps during his stay in prison he will get the fact that what he has done is wrong.Then again maybe not. We'll know for sure if, in two years, the former mayor is seen in the early morning hours walking down the streets of Keyport muttering to himself "time to make (or take) the doughnuts..."