stuckinstuff

Eliot Spitzer - Private Lies

The reactions are many to former New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s implication in a prostitution ring.  Thankfully, everyone is outraged regardless of political persuasion.  I’ve gotten most of my information from National Public Radio and The New York Times, which (bite your tongues my conservative friends) have seemed to me objective and right in much of their analysis and commentary.

What seems most troubling to me is that Spitzer has repeatedly called his actions a “private” matter and a “private” failing.  While he has admitted that his actions have damaged his public career, he has not been willing to admit that his actions are a public wrong.  That sentiment, at least in my limited view, seems as troubling as all that he did to victimize many prostitutes.

For years Spitizer worked as a public defender as the District Attorney.  You know where I’m going here.  Why is a District Attorney called a “public defender”?  It is because crimes are wrongs that offend the public.  Soliciting a prostitute is not a “private” matter, as if it were an immoral but legal extramarital affair.  (Arguments can be made that immoral but legal affairs also offend the public, and I hold that view.  But it is not the point here.)  Literally nothing Spitzer did was private.  He used money he received as a public official to break public laws with another human being in public hotels.  He also had to involve people other than himself and the woman he victimized.  He had to book his affair through others.  Surely he became aware of this opportunity through others.  And quite simply it is impossible to imagine that there were not other people involved in covering up his wrongdoing.

A terribly sad outcome of this mess is that a champion of fighting crime, Spitzer, is now aping the best of political spin artists.  “Immorality is a private matter.”  But public crime flourishes amongst private lies.

Veterans Day

Yesterday afternoon at church the worship leader put together a medley of the military service anthems.  As the song progressed the plan was for those who served or are serving to stand when the anthem for their branch of the military was placed.  I'm not a huge fan of overlapping military and church in this way.  And yet respectful appreciation for those who serve is understandable.  And I did not mind.

One observation I had as all this unfolded was to contrast the WWII veterans who stood with the present-day veterans who stood.  No one said so, and thus it was my own feeling, but I could not help feeling as if the present mess in Iraq has taken some dignity away from American soldiers.  Iraq is a huge war.  Well over a hundred thousand soldiers serving.  While it is regional, the consequences of the Iraq war stretches across the globe.  In WWII a terrible dictator attempted to literally take over the world.  If the Allies did not choose to fight and sacrifice so much, the world today would be a horrible place.  Those WWII veterans who stood up at this church service literally participated in saving America and much of the world.  Without their sacrifice it is likely our freedoms would not exist.  Nothing like that can be said of the Iraq war.  But the sacrifice being asked of our soldiers is similar to that asked during WWII.

War is horrible.  Despite how terrible war always is, I cannot be a pacifist.  There are times when fighting and killing - and all the wrong that goes along with it - are necessary.  WWII is certainly the most real example we know of.  Many people would argue with me and perhaps even be offended by my comment, but WWII might be the only necessary war America has fought.  Perhaps - only perhaps - other wars were not needed or could have been avoided.  Some of us certainly have the opinion that the Iraq war, at least, is such a case.