Thanks to all who took time today to comment on my last posting. It was a bit overwhelming. I believe 15 comments in a 12-hour period is a record for this blog.
Since there is so much interest in the subject, you might want to click on this link to see the rather lengthy story WIS did, apparently prompted by our op-ed piece this morning.
If that link doesn’t work (it doesn’t seem to function as smoothly as most URLs), just go to the WIS home page and click on "Kara Gormley interviews Will Folks on CDV charge," under "Featured videos," just to the right of the center of the page.
Ms. Gormley interviewed me about this Wednesday afternoon via phone. Apparently I didn’t say anything interesting enough to make the report, which is probably a good thing, I suppose. By the way, I found her quite professional and intelligent, so once again, John Graham Altman and I disagree.
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Can you believe this guy?! He’s going to plead guilty so no one else will get to tell their side of the events, comment on his history, etc. But he gets to make the case that he’s the victim.
When you plead guilty you have to testify under oath that you are pleading so because you are in fact guilty, if you maintain your innocence, the judge can’t accept your guilty plea.
Also, I thought we had done away with pretrial intervention for CDV?
I admire any professional spokesperson who goes on camera with a three day old beard and a CAT hat, though.
What an attention whore. Don’t you think you would just want people to move on to other things? The public attention span on something like this is about one day. Nobody outside government even knew who he was until this. I think he may have some problems with narcissism. I just think his ex ought to be able to make her case!
This episode is unfortunate. Perhaps Mr. Folks is handling it well and just sees himself as temporarily under the heel of the gods, but it may be something more serious.
I hope his friends and acquaintances check in with him periodically.
Mr. Folks has a history of verbally threatening legislators, state employees, chamber of commerce employees, etc. when they expressed opinions contrary to Sanford. There have been several stories in your paper in some of these instances. Sounds like a pattern that has escalated to physical abuse in his personal life to me.
Well, I’ll tell you what I think. I believe Ashley Smith is just an angel sent down to earth by God Himself so all of us lesser mortals can learn how to live peaceably with one another, and it’s a foolish man who would throw away an unmarried life with her.
In all likelihood, she was probably trying to have a calm, sane, very reasonable discussion with her chosen mate about how much she loved him and wanted to spend her life with him when all of a sudden he just lost his cool, as men will. Or maybe she straightened his tie. Or maybe she told him to have a nice day. Or maybe she kissed him on the cheek. You know how it is with men — any of the above could have caused a violent meltdown.
If Miss Smith is guilty of anything, it’s probably that she just plain loves too much. And I think it was probably love — sheer, selfless unabandoned love — that caused her to lock the door of the home she shared with Will so he couldn’t get back in. In his state, why, he could have seriously hurt someone with those golf clubs. Maybe he would have been stuck in traffic and gone all Jack Nicholson on some unfortunate soul, bringing further shame to the beloved state which Miss Smith has done so very much to improve.
It was love that led her to calmly and sensibly call the police while her front door was being reduced to splinters by the out-of-control Alpha Male she had devoted so much of her life to saving.
You know this has been such a terrible unfortunate incident for all of us — not just Will, not just Ashley, not just Brad and Angelina, and not just Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, but for you and me too, Mr. and Mrs. South Carolina, because it has left us all bewildered and confused.
More than that, it has shaken our faith in the godhood of Ashley Smith and the devotion of the man we all assumed was her Number One disciple. This sad event has caused a serious rupture — a schism — a fracture; it has shaken the foundations of our faith, and it has allowed that old demon of doubt to enter our lives, entering it much as Will Folks returned to his apartment, by kicking it in with his foot, as Doubt always will, especially when he leaves behind his golf clubs.
As a result we are forgetting something very important. Just as it is true that physical violence is against the law and humiliation isn’t, it is likewise so that Will Folks is mortal and Ashley Smith isn’t. To quote someone famous whose name escapes me, she lives forever not because she alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because she has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.
I’m going to stick by St. Ashley the Divine and just hope and pray that the next man she meets won’t be a murderer or a pedophile or a pornographer or a Bush appointee.
Because at the end of the day, as you and I both know, Ashley is Ashley, Will is Will, I am he as you are me and we are all together, so get back, jojo.
It is love that brought us together, love that tears us apart and love that will restore Ashley Smith to the place of honor and respect she deserves in the lives of everyone.
We need to get off our duff, return to the individual Ashley Clubs in our local communities, and resume the pursuit of Ashliness. We need to act, not speak. Our voice need not merely be the record of Ashley, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help her endure and prevail.
Buster, you are probably the only person on earth who is buying what Will Folks is selling.
It seems clear that Will is trying to “flood the zone” by appearing on every concievable news outlet attempting to blame the victim, while Ashley is listening to her lawyer and keeping her mouth shut. Remeber, only one of the parties in this case has bruises all up and down her back.
If this is how Will Folks handles public relations during a crisis, why on earth would anybody want to hire him? Can you imagine how he would have handled the Graniteville train disaster?
1. A letter from the parents of the CSX CEO asking for privacy during this troubling time.
2. An op-ed in The State: “Sure, our trains have been know to drive aggressively from time to time. But unleash a cloud of poisonous gas on an unsuspecting town? That’s not my style.”
3. CSX CEO appears on television in a “No Fat Chicks” gimme cap and explains that its all a big conspiracy involving Norfolk Southern and Amtrak.
You are all hypocrits and childish fools. let them and the court deal with their issues and let us deal with our own demons.
I am going to say it. Buster sounds like the one who wrote the Will Folks op-ed remix.
Tell me i am right…
People, people, please — I swear by my WWAD bracelet you’ve got this all wrong. I love Ashley. I believe in Ashley. I worship Ashley. I think she was just protecting herself when she locked the door. Oh sure, she probably got a few good chuckles out of watching Willie Boy go all Three Mile Island on her, but who among us isn’t guilty of that, now tell me? The woman is innocent, I tell you, innocent, a sinless lamb, a dove, and — as Mr. Keddings points out, she knows how to keep her mouth shut. I think she did the right thing by taking the course of action she did. Obviously she’s been a punching bag for quite time and enough is enough, you know, she’s tired of being a slab of meat. It’s a tough role, you know, to pursue her path of heedless, unashamed masochism. A woman gets tired of wearing shades to work — just as we, Mr. and Mrs. South Carolina, are tired of that zone-flooding Will Folks. Your reign of terror is at at an end, Mister, Thank Ashley!
Folks: Public figure.
Ms. Smith: Not.
Buster: Bitter, baby . . .
It is amazing to me how the media,especially The State News has gone after Folks and how hush,hush they have been on the Sheriff of Chester County whom Sled went to arrest for the same thing and the magistrate refused to issue a warrant.
The problem here in SC is the same everywhere when it come to the Judicial System, different strokes for different folks and Will Folks is expendable and not really one of the folks I guess.
To Mr. Warthen’s BLAH-G, a few quick points for consideration:
“I don’t want to press charges!” yet I hire a former AG candidate and judge as my lawyer.
Do you think that this farce undermindes women in this state who are undergoing abuse and can’t get out. CDV should not be used as revenge, attention getter, or just to get people to know or care who the heck you are.
Some things to remember. First, both Will and Ashley are professional political operatives with axes to grind politically and, apparently, personally now.
Second, both are operatives who have had, shall we say interesting moments in the memories of their colleagues and observers. Don’t get me wrong, it is my understanding both are nice people, but they have just had their moments. Now, they have had one together.
Third, there was something that was at the root of the incident that no one in the press or the political world knows, and probably never will. Frankly, I don’t care to know, it is their business.
Fourth, none of this, absolutely none of this, can cover up the failure of Mark Sanford to work with the General Assembly. Both Ashley and Will had a hard time getting their jobs done as the Governor’s operatives, and now they will be remembered in our state’s inside political baseball for this.
Who knows, who cares. Their troubles don’t educate one child, give a unemployed guy a job, or give adequate health care to someone. Their troubles don’t fix our dangerous roads, don’t put more troopers on the streets, and don’t get the education bureaucracy under control.
Two political operatives are getting political with each other over their failed relationship. Yawn. When Carville breaks up with Mary, give me a call. That one would be worth watching. For now, give the two sc operatives their privacy and let’s move on to talking about the success or failure of the Governor they served.
Cal
Those were not present during the incident involving Mr. Folks and Ms. Smith can only speculate about the facts of the case, but if Ms. Smith felt enough fear of Mr. Folks’ return to chain the door shut and Mr. Folks was angry enough to kick the door in , it appears that fear was justified.
You were wrong and The State Newspaper was wrong to provide a forum for Mr. Folks. In many couples, the abuser speaks for both parties, explaining away the bruises, lost time from work, and tears. By allowing him to structure their private story for public consumption you have given him exactly what he wanted — control of both their lives. At the least, you should have cut the secondhand remarks attributed to Ms. Smith about his intentions.
Ask any woman who lives with an abuser about his public face and the one he only shows behind closed doors. You have told women once again that they won’t be believed, that only the abuser will be heard. Oh, if you could only be a fly on the wall when one of these upstanding young men is raging, cursing, threatening, and then physically punishing his trapped victim.
Again, why was she so afraid she chained the door……?