Honesty

One of the things I learned when I was teaching was that if you are honest and respectful people tend to understand each other. You will not always agree but you know where each other stands and makes the conflicts manageable.

As I watch the news about the US attorneys scandal and I wonder where the honesty and respect went. Politics is not a clean business but it does not have to be this dirty. There was a day when honesty and accountability were more the norm. There was a day when you were more concerned about doing what is right for the country and not watching your back. This whole business disappoints me a great deal.

The justice system is supposed to be free of bias. There should be no firing of people because of the way are affecting your political plans. It may be well within the constitutional rights of the President but I am not sure that is the spirit in which it was written. What happened to the respect for this system?

If you have nothing to hide, why hide? I understand that the President does not want to get pulled in front of a panel for every whim. But to give conditions to have it be informal and not on the record and not negotiate, what does that say. The President said at the beginning of this Congressional Session that he wanted to work with them, but I have yet to see it.

Leaders do not need to be absolute. In fact, in this country they are supposed to be balanced and work with others. For some reason, that is completely lacking in this President. And all this looks like is a man desperately trying to hang on to something that may not have ever been there. And I am afraid he has lost any respect he had ever earned. Which is evident in the fact that people can question his honesty frequently and with cause.

Please use the next couple of years to figure out what means a lot to you and find the candidate that represents it. I do not care if we agree on that person but I care that you participate in the process. And the process in the next presidential election is going to be very important. We have a chance for something big. Let us make sure that it is a big positive for our country.