By Ernie McCray
It makes perfect sense to me that the House Republicans tried to secretly curtail the powers of the Office of Congressional Ethics because, if you have no ethics, you damn sure don’t want some nosy person poking around documenting it.
And these GOP characters are as to ethical behavior as a sea turtle is to Death Valley. They’ve demonstrated for decades, which anyone can google, that they are not, by any means, on speaking terms with anything anywhere near synonymous with “ethics.” They are, in a word, ethic-less, if you will.
And their leader – The Donald – twittered some jive that supposedly caused these alleged “representatives” to back away from their devious deportment.
But it wasn’t the president-elect, arguably “The Most Ethically Challenged Human Being Alive,” a man who has written who knows how many checks, of millions of dollars, to cover his lack of ethics, who convinced his party’s elite to clean up their act.
No. These sneaky people put an end to their quest for “raw” power because “We the People, the “Average Joes and Janes” set their office phones on fire, according to the New York Times, “with angry missives from constituents amid a national uproar.”
Glory be, I think the real revolution has begun with more and more people realizing at their core, that these unsavory politicians are so caught up in their power, in the magnificence of themselves, only looking out for themselves, that they simply don’t care that so many of our collective hopes and dreams are fading away.
Oh, the beauty of it all is this kind of focused civic action illustrates just how much power we have when we roar, when we let ourselves soar, and do the right thing. This is how we have to be from here on out.
It’s so great that we’ve, apparently, finally had enough of a party’s political whims and are starting to let them know that there is no mandate whatsoever for their shenanigans.
This is a nice beginning and they should hear from us loudly and clearly, very soon, if they don’t start spending a great amount of their time creating jobs and making school costs reasonable and set about creating with what’s already there, better national health care, as we need improvement, not dismantling…
We need to be in their faces if they continue their cavalier attitudes towards science and the environment, towards global warming and climate change, literally toying with our survival as a species…
They need to see us with our picket signs and megaphones at the ready if they do nothing to keep an eye on all the emboldened white supremacists out and about, “Yee-Ha-ing” about making “America Great Again” like way back when people such as them had the upper hand over folks who were dark skinned…
They have to feel us coming their way if they don’t devote some energy to making life better in communities where so many people of color live; if they don’t acknowledge that “All Lives ‘Should’ Matter”…
They need to know that we won’t sit back doing nothing if they are going to make life miserable for Muslims and not recognize that their presence has enhanced our nation for hundreds of years; if they’re going to continue talking of building walls as though undocumented immigrants, our friends, and neighbors, haven’t contributed significantly, via a range of enterprises, some intellectual and some back breaking, to our economy and to our way of life, enriching us with the cultures they bring from their native countries…
And they have to feel the full brunt of our disdain regarding their plans to destroy Planned Parenthood. They have to be made to understand that we see such an evil act for what it is: an out and out attack against women as this organization represents everything the women’s movement has been about: Equality. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Nobody tells men what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. Women should be treated and respected likewise.
It’s a new day. And it seems that direct action is the only way we citizens can be heard considering that the republicans, people who have no discernible ethics or civic-minded consciences, have the power in Washington D.C.
And it looks like we’re up for the struggle and the democrats in the House and Senate, and independents, who are pretty much reduced to raising their hands just to be heard, will have to join us, their constituents, in the streets.
Since we’re all facing some of the most pressing moral issues of our times, this is the most ethical thing for them to do. This is a struggle for good over evil, for being principled as opposed to being without moral values.
A better world can’t be created without people trusting each other enough to work together for the wellbeing of us all. That’s what ethics is all about.
In honor of Michelle Obama, when these poor excuses for congressmen and women go low we go high. Please know we will win by and by.
Anyone who is looking to get in on the fun should join the people of all ages at the Women’s March on January 21, at 10 a.m. at the Civic Center Plaza – in solidarity with the Women’s March on Washington. Our democracy is alive and well.
Photo courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/
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