I think many of you missed the point of this article and the underlying message that Pope represents. I've known Pope for over 10 years and am convinced that he is as honest, hard-working, humble, and socially conscious as they come. Our capitalist, materialistic, individualistic American socialization has taught us (especially men) that we must conform to the so-called "American dream" by being what society expects us to be and have/own what we are expected to acquire in life, that somehow quantifies our social being rather than qualifying our moral consciousness.
I may be defending him at this point and actually don't feel bad about that fact, but I realize we need to balance these rapidly increasing "skewed" perceptions of a man that is based on one measly article. Pope is not an idiot, who lives as a hermit, fleeing from women or society. He graduated from a very good university (Ole Miss) and has dedicated his life to being who HE wants to be, rather than succumbing to critic's opinions of who he's supposed to be. I admit, for most people who have come in contact with Pope, he does tend to rub them the wrong way, as he is (self-reportedly correct!) and enigma to mainstream Americans. We've actually had some pretty interesting conversations about race and human relations, and I found his response to be very opposite to the traditional white, rural, middle-aged man in Mississippi. It was quite inclusively complex, leaning towards an idealistic way of viewing human relations. We joked around about the section of that Forrest Gump movie when the University of Alabama was being integrated and many people, including the governor of Alabama, objected to letting "coons get in the school". We were able to engage in a very serious conversation while referencing to a very funny (but thought-provoking) film. Hence, my earlier post about "coons":).
I don't want people to get the wrong idea about this man, as he is a friend of mine and I'd do whatever I could for him. I was once in the Oxford Regional Hospital having an emergency surgery for a kind of freak accident that occurred during a serious tropical storm (I was a fool for running during hurricane force winds in the trails and got whacked all up by sticks and falling debris). He actually came to visit me, offered some major support, and stayed there until my family was able to arrive. This does not sound like the guy that many of you are making him out to be. Stop bashing the guy and picking out two lines of an article to rip his character to pieces. For once, let's not engage in the typical insensitive letsrun talk.