Harry's Gang: Skeletons can rattle for a while

I plan to keep working until I can collect my full Social Security benefits. Or, at least until something I did 20 years ago comes back to ruin my career.

I know most of us are focused on quarantines, about catching the virus, or how to handle a house full of kids who are not in school. But I can’t help thinking that we have started to put an enormous importance on things that happened many, many years ago that most people would rather forget.

As the Democrats have been selecting their nominee for president, the opposition has dug up some pretty old footage of people like Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden saying some pretty outrageous things. I’ve seen old news clips of President Trump doing the same. His infamous “Grab ’em by the ...” video was from 2005 — not ancient, of course, but still pretty old. Everything is fair game, it seems, no matter how old it is.

Garrison Keillor, who entertained many Minnesotans of Scandinavian descent (and others) with his low-key performances and mildly racy humor, is suddenly shunned because, it turns out, his mildly racy humor extended into his personal life. Keillor was scheduled to perform at the NorShor Theater in Duluth next month, but low ticket sales (and a protest by a group inspired by the #MeToo movement) caused the show to be canceled. Keillor’s career as a performer is over if he can’t even muster ticket sales in Duluth, his backyard.

Same with Al Franken — the guy’s a comedian, for crying out loud. His ouster as our U.S. Senator was based on an 11-year-old photo of him acting silly, sophomoric, and sexist. I thought the photo itself was kinda funny and kinda inappropriate. But it was taken at a time when Franken was a comedian, entertaining the troops overseas. And the woman in the picture was a willing participant in ribald humor who seemingly waited to publish the photo until it was helpful to her career. It may sound like I’m excusing Franken’s behavior, and maybe I am. But I will admit I am trying to put it in context: If everything we do can surface years from now and ruin our career, we’re all in trouble.

I’ve spent a little time thinking about my past. While I’m not always proud of everything I’ve ever said and done, and while some of my jokes have fallen flatter than lefse, I’m pretty sure there’s nothing that is career wrecking. But I bet those others mentioned here didn’t think so, either. Let’s just hope I am not destined for greater things. I’m not sure I can withstand the scrutiny.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News community newspaper and an attorney in Esko who hosts the talk show Harry’s Gang on CAT-7. He can be reached at [email protected].