This holiday season ethics took a beating
By Ken Tingley
The question is one of character mixed with a touch of morality and the simple question of whether we’ve lost our ability to discern right from wrong.
It this past week is the new norm, it is obvious we have.
We learned the freshly elected Republican congressman from Long Island, George Santos, had lied on his resume. At first he said, he had embellished it a bit and argued “everyone does it.”
Santos admitted he lied about graduating from college.
Santos admitted he lied about his employment at Wall Street titans Citgroup and Goldman Sachs.
Santos admitted he lied about a family-owned real estate portfolio and admitted he had never been a landlord.
There are still questions to be answered about his religion, his income and whether he was ever prosecuted for fraud in another country.
But Santos still plans on being seated in Congress. And while it is disturbing a public official had lied so transparently to the people of his district, here is the worst part of all. A constituent who voted for Santos named Jackie Silver said she would vote for him again because he was being targeted for his political affiliation.
“When they don’t like someone, they really go after them,” Ms. Silver, a courier for Uber Eats and DoorDash, told the New York Times. “Everyone fabricates their résumé. I’m not saying it’s correct.”
“They” target you.
“Everyone” does it.
That’s where we are.
The revelations about Santos’ lies comes on the heels of a Jan. 6 committee report that indicts public officials for perpetrating false claims about the 2020 presidential election. New transcripts being released daily brought further clarity. Here is one that stood out for me.
It shows the dark side of politics and those that are in power.
During her interview, Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to President Trump in the West Wing was expressing concern about who was paying for her attorney. She was told not to worry about it. Consider this email exchange with her mother where she said she felt backed into a corner by using a Trump-allied attorney for no charge.
"(My mom) asked me, like, 'Aren't you really happy? Like, this is great. I'm so happy that, like, they connected you with someone.' And I remember saying to her, like, kind of snarly laughing, saying, 'No, I'm f-----.' I was like, 'No.. I am completely indebted to these people...And they will ruin my life, Mom, if I do anything that they don't want me to do."
https://news.yahoo.com/cassidy-hutchinsons-full-bombshell-testimony-220327441.html
Cross those people and they will ruin you.
For telling the truth.
While we were preparing for the holidays, New York lawmakers voted themselves a 30 percent pay raise.
“Personally, I believe that legislators need to be compensated for the hard work that they do,” Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said to Karen DeWitt on Dec. 9. “People don’t realize the sacrifice that they make, being away from their families.”
What I remember most is the long history of state corruption and sexual harassment by lawmakers.
Then, there is Trump’s taxes. Congress has been cutting funding to the Internal Revenue Service for a decade now to make it impossible to see if the ultra rich are cheating on their taxes. They didn’t even bother to audit Trump when he was president because it was too much work.
But this is the story that goes to the heart of local communities.
The Daily Beast reported earlier this year that Trump had listed the value of Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County at more than $50 million. But when it came time to pay the local taxes on that $50 million, the golf club negotiated to reduce its value one-third - from $15 million to $9.5 million.
With the new valuation, the club said it had overpaid in the past and sought a refund of approximately $850,000 from local governments. The majority of that repayment will be made by Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District. To make the payment, the school district had to raise taxes on regular home owners.
“My taxes are higher because his taxes are lower,” one official told The Daily Beast.
The lack of ethics, maybe even morality is trickling down to regular people, too.
“James will never know what Christmas is like,” the billboard reads. “Drive sober.”
The entire story was invented by a 10th grader at Shaker High School as part of a health class competition. The story about the 10-month old was made up, despite numerous other real drinking and driving tragedies all around the region.
The billboard space and the picture of the baby was provided by Lamar Advertising.
The parents of the students also approved of using a fake story.
Moore said Mike Flanagan, Vice President of Lamar Advertising, said he knew the story was fake too, but the message was too powerful to ignore. “I think the message is the main point,” Flanagan told Moore. “The power of the message overrides the concerns.”
Think about that for a second.
Even Mothers Against Drunk Driving were OK with the fake story.
“This billboard could save lives at the most urgent time of the year,” Jennifer Dunn, MADD's national chief development officer, told Moore. “The (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) estimates that 30 percent of all traffic deaths throughout the year happen during the holiday season. It’s especially important this time of year to create awareness on the dangers and implications of drunk driving. We appreciate young people getting involved and sharing this message in their community.”
Even if they make them up?
That is a slippery slope.
I suspect many politicians will be happy to here that. It will justify their own lies.
Many cable television hosts probably feel that way too.
Certainly, the new congressman from Long Island did not see anything wrong with a few embellishments to his resume.
The students at Shaker have learned a valuable lesson.
It’s OK to lie if the message is important enough.
I think we are all in trouble.
Correction
I had a bit of a flub in my column about the Washington Post profile. I said that the writer, Ruby Cramer, was just 22 years old. An alert reader pointed out that the talented young writer is actually closer to 32.
Amazing endorsement
Teri Podnorszki Rogers posted this endorsement for my latest book “The Last American Newspaper” on Wednesday:
“So, I couldn't wait to read this for myself to see what the buzz was all about. I am, to put it plainly, blown away by Ken Tingley's book about our own Post Star. The revelations and reflections herein of the hometown reporters and editors -- men and women of intellect, grit, and tenacity -- who regularly took the fiercest punches in order to bring news, facts, and perspective to our community -- are powerful. I loved reading each and every chapter -- filled with beautifully written accounts of the "behind the scenes" world of the newspaper upon which I have spent my lifetime relying--only to finish this book and want our Post Star and its outstanding staff --more than ever -- to keep going -- and to keep fighting for the bonds of connection that make our community so very special. Thank you, Ken, for perfectly making the case for small-town newspapers and their vital place in our society.”
Teri was the executive director of the Warren County Historical Society and a published author herself.
It's all so shameful. It makes me tired thinking about how we could ever possibly get back to a time when people gave their word and it meant something. I DO think that there is a greater divide between good and evil today. There are fewer people with integrity and sorting that out can sometimes be overwhelming. Stefanik and this fellow are a perfect pair representing the party.
I've been reading Robert Hubbell along with Heather Cox Richardson each morning. This morning he talked about a Long Island newspaper that broke the Santos story prior to the election. this is what he had to say.
"First, let’s give kudos to The North Shore Leader for breaking the essentials of the story in September. See WaPo, A tiny paper broke the George Santos scandal, but no one paid attention. The Leader followed the story for several weeks and reluctantly endorsed Santos’ opponent, writing:
This newspaper would like to endorse a Republican [but Santos] is so bizarre, unprincipled and sketchy that we cannot. … He boasts like an insecure child — but he’s most likely just a fabulist — a fake.
Here is the Leader’s story, which covered the essential facts, a month before the election: Endorsement: Robert Zimmerman for US Congress (NY3)."