bnapoli.com

My Story

In all honesty I really don’t know where to begin; I guess all the spotlight and media coverage of my father began about a year and a half ago. It all started when my dad John G. Rowland, who at the time was Governor, publicly came out and said that he had lied to the state of Connecticut about the infamous "hot tub." In an earlier interview he claimed to have purchased it himself when only days later he came out in a second interview and said that he had lied to the state and that his secretary and her husband had bought it for him as a birthday present. Now that I look back at that day, after all my father, myself and my family has been through, if you were to tell me that that day was the day which would spark a domino effect of events which lead to the current federal investigation of my father, I would not have believed you in a million years.

Sometimes when I read articles in the newspaper about what is going on with my father and see the possibility of jail time, I put the paper down and think to myself, “Is this really happening?” It has come to the point where some nights I just lie in bed awake and think about life and the irony of it all; to think that a once respectable and prestigious man like my father used to pardon people from jail and now he might need a pardon for himself, it just doesn’t seem real. At first I thought my sleeping problem was just a phase, now it has become something I have accepted, I mean sometimes I find myself awake at three in the morning just looking into the mirror and saying to myself "Is this just a bad dream?" It's funny because as I am writing this article it is 4:30 in the morning and I feel as though it's just another one of those countless, sleepless nights… for me it is at least.

I don't mean to bore you as I write about my sleeping problem, that's not what this article is about. I am just trying to explain the effect this whole ordeal has had on my family, myself and most importantly my dad. So I guess I'll just cut to the chase. My dad isn’t perfect, nobody is, but if you ever have the chance to get to know him outside of the political world he is a truly down to earth guy with a big heart. People always asked me if it was weird and awkward to see my dad on TV, but personally I really don’t see the person on TV as my dad, I see him as the Governor. That truly is how different of a person he is off the camera; it’s like the difference between night and day. Anyway let’s get to the point, my dad accepted some gifts he probably shouldn’t have. I know that, you know that and everyone who has picked up a copy of the Hartford Courant in the past year knows that. Despite what anyone believes, over the past ten years my dad was in office he has definitely done some good for the state, no one can deny that. Let's get serious, my dad isn't the first politician that accepted some gifts. Even though he lied to the taxpayers of Connecticut about that stupid hot tub, he was still man enough to publicly apologize for it, admit he was wrong and take full responsibility for his actions. Along with accepting the responsibility, he's faced nonstop attention from the media on top of it.

I could literally go on for ten more pages about my dad and my family’s situation but I bet you don’t really want to read it and personally I am getting tired of writing. So I will just lay down how I feel, plain and simple. My dad is sincerely a nice, down to earth guy who was just looking out for his family; you can ask anyone of my friends who have enjoyed his company (Brett Napoli, Drew Verno, and Megan Milburn). All I can say on behalf of my father is that for someone who for the majority of his career was making $78,000 a year and paying roughly $40,000 of that to my mom for child support etc, he doesn’t exactly have money to be throwing around. I mean seriously, I would bet a million dollars that anyone else in his position wouldn't do the same exact thing, it’s not like he was doing it to purposely screw over the people of Connecticut. And now to see the possibility of him going to jail, it is like someone stuck a knife in my chest because I never really had a great relationship with my dad, partly due to the fact that I didn’t see him that much. But now that he did what the people wanted him to do and resign from office, all he wants to be is out of the spotlight and to be a normal father. And to be completely honest with everyone reading this article, the relationship between me and my dad has never been better. I think it is because now that I am getting to the point in my life where I am growing up and becoming a man, I can relate to him a lot better and I am making decisions in my life in which I really need his advice and guidance, but now that I read the papers and see a possible prison sentence of 14-24 months, the only words that can express my feelings about the whole situation is that it sucks, plain and simple it sucks! But I have learned that life is unfair and I have to "bite the bullet" and just deal with it. I didn’t write this article for sympathy I just did it because this is my way of dealing with it, and I wanted to let people see the situation from a different point of view, my point of view.

Sincerely,
Robert John Rowland - RJ