Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! - Jesse Ventura [100]
Tyrel will not live in Minnesota anymore. Ty feels that he’d always be looking over his shoulder, for fear he might do something that the media would then go after his father about. He’s the only kid who went to Hollywood to become anonymous, instead of famous, to be able to live and work in peace. If something drove one of your children from living in a state, wouldn’t any parent hate whoever was responsible?
Not only did the media go after my children, they went after my dog. At the time I had an English bulldog named Franklin. There was an instance when Terry and I were staying on for the weekend at the governor’s residence, instead of going back to our house. And, of course, the dog can’t stay home alone. So a state trooper who was going off-duty told me, “It’s not out of my way; I’ll be happy to bring the dog down to the mansion.” The Minnesota media then came out with a story that my dog was being chauffeured around by state troopers. It was ludicrous.
I won’t put myself in front of them again. I will talk to any other media in America, but not the ones from Minnesota. When I go on tour for this book, it won’t happen in my home state. I’m not going to put them in a position to make money off me anymore. When I give a quote, they’re going to have to give credit to someone else that I said it to. It’s the only way I can strike back at them.
I’d made my definitive decision not to seek reelection before I went on the trade mission to China that summer of 2002. But I wasn’t going to go over there as a lame duck—then why would the Chinese bother to listen to me? So the timing of my announcement, right after I returned, happened to coincide with the Minnesota media breaking the story about my son’s alleged “abuse” of the governor’s mansion.
I went on Midday with Gary Eichten on Minnesota Public Radio, a show where I was a frequent guest, and made this statement on June 18: “I will always protect my family first. You have to have your heart and soul into these types of jobs. I feel that it is time to go back to the private sector.”
Beyond that, I felt it was nobody else’s business, and I didn’t want the media twisting it. But the foremost reason was Terry. She means more to me than holding any office does. And her health was deteriorating. It had been going on for my entire term. She’d contracted Epstein-Barr mono just as I was elected.
TERRY: I’d broken my ankle during the last phases of the campaign. I was cleaning barns and giving riding lessons with my leg in a cast. Then at the end, when I went along on that big trip, I kept feeling worse and worse. It seemed like a cold that never went away, and by March of his first year in office, I was really sick. I went in to see the doctor many times and said, “I have swollen glands, I’m so tired I can hardly move, what’s wrong with me?” He always said, “You’re stressed.” Finally, when a state trooper physically had to help me in and out of the car and into the doctor’s, I sat there and said, “If you don’t do a blood test and assure me that I’m not dying, I’m not leaving your office.” He did, came back, and said, “You have mono.” I said, “Whaaaat? Why didn’t you tell me that two months ago?” By then, I’d had the disease for a while and was still maintaining a grueling schedule every single day. The doctor told me if I didn’t stop doing anything for the next month, I’d end up in the hospital and in a bad way. So for all of March, I sat in the house and did nothing.
About a year went by, and I still felt like I constantly had the flu. I never seemed able to get enough sleep. I’d sleep in the car on the way to events, and again when I got back. I’d take naps. I was on huge doses of vitamins. I tried everything. It was just a horrible feeling like you’re constantly walking through deep water. And no one could tell me what was wrong with me. I thought I might have cancer.