by Jack Lee
A good friend of mine, Michael Wacker once said, “When we elect politicians they go off to Sacramento or Washington and that means most of what they will do is out of your sight; that’s why you have to vote for their character as much as their issues.” It’s interesting to note that his father, George Wacker, was a popular and long serving County Supervisor that was the first to promote the “State of Jefferson” that would use part of Oregon and part of Northern California to form a new state founded in home rule. They abandoned their efforts when WWII broke out, but the concept was a good one.
There is no way even the most informed of us can stay up with every action or inaction, all those bills, the proposals, the earmarks, the alliances, etc., that politicians craft while they are away from their districts….so voting for character really does matter!
Today, Michael Josephson, is perhaps the worlds best known orator calling for good character. He’s held seminar’s in Washington, at many universities (even grammar schools) as well as for many of America’s best
Fortune 500 companies. One of his star student’s, John Forenti, is now an instructor at the Josephson’s Institute. He is also the California 2008 teacher if the year from Tulare, Ca.
Forenti said, “I stress that education is not to make smarter people but better people. There are a lot of smart people who are in prison or under indictment. Ken Lay, the late CEO of Enron, had a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Houston. Schools and teachers who only prepare students intellectually while ignoring character are preparing their students for possible indictment. Dr. Martin Luther King said, Intellect is not enough. Intelligence plus character, thats the goal of true education.
Martin Luther King recognized the value of character when he said, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
John Adams showed reverence for character in this now famous speech, “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. … If we suffer [the minds of young people] to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives. … We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. … We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.”
Samuel Adams remarked, “Nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust must be men of unexceptionable characters. … ”
And this, “It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution. … If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. … The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. … An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.” Thomas Jefferson.
So I ask, what has become of our character when so many people are quick to vote for what their country can do for them, not what they can do for their country as JFK asked at his inaugural address?
In a few more weeks we will elect a new President and you must ask yourself which candidate reflects the highest standards of character? Is it Barrack Obama who sat through years of anti-white sermon’s in his church, who has authored two books…about himself, who has failed to protest the immorality of his associates and has walked virtually lock step with his party whether he believed in the issue or not and has merely voted “present” 10% of the time just to avoid controversy? Or is the other candidate, John McCain, a man who served his country in war, unlike Obama who was experimenting with drugs while McCain was being released from a POW camp. McCain has a reputation of going against his party when it conflicts with his beliefs. Obama goes along to get along.
We have a long history to judge McCain’s standards and actions. Obama we know very little about.
Which man are you going to trust when most of what they do will be out of your sight?
PS Thank you Nick for the idea for this story.