I’ve always tried to be open here, so I will come right out and say I have a crush on Kaci Hickox, the nurse who went to Africa to help Ebola victims and who is chewing up one governor after another right up and down the East Coast. She is compassionate, articulate, brave and charismatic.

My advice to these foolish governors is to not stand in the doorway if Kaci wants to come out, they will be lying on their butts in the dust. Today, facing yet another quarantine by yet another politician running for office in yet another state, this very strong and admirable woman took an hour long bicycle ride with her boy friend, as a convoy of state troopers followed along to make sure she didn’t exchange any bodily fluids with anyone up there on the border with Canada.

I read of this ride this morning – Kaci has gotten me back into the news this week. It is the most famous ride since Paul Revere took his and it was a fairly convincing effort to show she didn’t really need to be locked up until November 10, she is quite strong and healthy, despite the firm conviction of at least three governors and many private citizens that she is a grave threat to public health. On her ride, the supposedly quarantined Kaci avoided other people, stayed out of public places, and didn’t spit or bleed on anything. Her lawyers say they will go to court if the state insists she stay inside, despite the fact there is no evidence she is sick.

For me, she invoked a time in America where people who stood on principle were admired, not skewered on Facebook, where the free and the brave sit on their widening butts and send nasty messages out into the world to demean people who actually do things besides type.

I wrote about Nurse Hickox the other day and had the great pleasure of chasing some of the ill-tempered and mean-spirited off of my page. It felt great. They were calling Kaci names, I told them they were polluting my space, I was not running for mayor, this was not Fox News or MSNBC, they could be respectful or get lost. With much harrumphing, many did. I should say many good people remained to disagree with my admiration for Kaci Hickox in a respectful way.

They were very welcome to stay.

I confessed to Maria this afternoon that I was in love with Kaci Hickox, and I was a bit nervous telling her. Maria seems very sweet and quiet to people, but she is half Sicilian and at times, can be jealous.  She once accused me in a paranoic fever of having girlfriends online and e-mailing them. She was a bit wild-eyed, but this passed.

Maria has told me in graphic and chilling terms what she would do to me if I so much as looked admiringly at another woman, I told her I am an old man, I always behave myself, no one is exactly lining up to be with me,  but she is convinced I love women and sometimes wish to have secret and loving dialogues with them. I do not,  I am innocent, although I did e-mail Kaci this morning and invite her to come down and have lunch with me at the Round House Cafe. I told her we’ll make room for the troopers and the reporters and lawyers too.

Maria took it with grace. “I don’t blame you,” she said, “she’s pretty great. We’ll just have to work things out.”

I guess I was a bit surprised, I was expecting more of a reaction. I’m not sure this is sincere, she once told me she would stab me with a kitchen knife if I had an affair. And she just came into the house from her studio, muttering “you talked to your girlfriend yet? Somebody has to feed the dogs!”  So far, Kaci hasn’t exactly rushed to accept my offer, but she is very busy today, the governor of Maine has promised to bend her to his will using the “full weight and force of the law.” So far, Kaci Hickox has gone through the full weight and force of politicians like a bullet through cottage cheese. Bet on her. She says she is heading back to West Africa as soon as she can get there.

I do love strong woman, I married one, and perhaps because of my recent heart surgery, I have come to admire and respect health care workers as well. They are caring, hard-working and underpaid, they do amazing and difficult things, work hard and often risk their lives and well-being. The great hope of dealing with the Ebola outbreak according to anyone who knows anything about medicine (that excludes governors)  is for many people like Kaci Hickox to go there and help. How short-sighted and shabby to subject her to this, what an awful message to send to other nurses and doctors. If I were the governor of Maine, I would give Kacki Hickox a ticker tape parade right down the middle of the State Capitol, she did not have to go to Africa to risk her life to save others, she does not deserve to be castigated as a selfish whiner by people who think public service is typing on a computer.

I have to say I have surprisingly enjoyed my hopefully brief foray into the boiling cesspool that is politics. It has reaffirmed my respect for civility, reminded me that there are good and brave people in the world who will stand up for their principles, even in a world where being principled seems puzzling and shocking (“why,” asked an NBC News Anchor of Kaci, “are you so vehement about refusing to be quarantined?,” as if that were almost  incomprehensible. “Because,” she answered, “It’s wrong and not grounded in any science, and I will not submit to having my rights violated in this way.”

I think that’s where I fall in love.

Kaci, hang in there, you are about to hang another pompous governor out to dry. There are many people in the world who appreciate you, and even though I have a crush on you, I know that we will not happen. Your boyfriend seems nice, if he is smart he will hang onto you for dear life.  Call me or answer my e-mail anyway,  if you get a chance, the Round House makes the best soup. You’ve already beaten our governor senseless,  and I guarantee you that in my town nobody will run away from you or try and lock you up in a tent for a month.