QUID DE COGITATIONE
Glenn Rose
Last month my column was scheduled for the day after the election. Unfortunately, my deadline was Monday morning, so I couldn’t reflect on the following day’s election results. Now I can finally do so and offer some thoughts on other happenings last month.
It seems all six candidates spent most of their advertising money on running down their respective opponents. Much of their ammunition was from their opponent’s speeches and behavior taken out of context. Much was rewritten to use phrases and words that accentuated accusations of wrongdoing.
When a candidate actually made the effort to say why one such vote for her/him, it was usually the old bromide of “law and order” or “Mom and apple pie.”
I didn’t make any of the oft asked for “contributions” to any candidate, even the ones I decided to vote for. I was already receiving solicitations from as far away as Arizona! If I had given even one thin dime, I’m sure my name would have been sold across the country to other candidates I never heard of!
We voters deserve better than this. There were two praiseworthy actions taken last month by politicians. One was when our governor, Glenn Youngkin, made Virginia the first state to come up with a plan to meet the needs of SNAP recipients during the shutdown of the federal government.
It was a shame he had to politicize this effort by blaming the “Democrat senators” for the bipartisan failure to avoid the shutdown.
The Democrats had held back their vote to avoid the shutdown, wanting the Republicans to first ensure a continuation of the government subsidies to keep health insurance affordable. Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress, always opposed to “Obama Care,” refused, knowing that higher premiums would help make it hard for many people to continue to take advantage of the program and perhaps cripple its viability.
Both sides, Republicans and Democrats, were playing political hardball.
The reader can decide who had the high ground. The other action taken that week was King Charles III’s “defrocking” his brother, the erstwhile Prince Andrew, of all his royal trappings over his association with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and accusations of improper relations with underage girls.
This complete denouncing of the now “Andrew Windsor” stands in stark comparison with those who accept the denials of former associates and friends of Epstein who were visitors to his two Caribbean islands – known by the locals as “Epstein’s Pedophile Islands” – and flew in his private jet, nicknamed “The Lolita Express.” It questions the scruples and intelligence of those who accept Epstein’s great friends’ denials of complicity or knowledge of any wrongdoings.
Which brings us to our government’s handling of the cover-up of Epstein’s exploitation of underage girls for the pleasure of a select group of well-heeled men.
It took the outcry of the American people and our respect for the rights of these underage girls to pressure the wavering members of Congress to call for the disclosure of the “Epstein Files.”
The reader can decide which members of Congress needed that coercion.
Quite a contrast with what happened to officials at Penn State University when the child sexual abuse scandal of Jerry Sandusky became public.
Sandusky, a talented and valued assistant football coach, had been abusing young boys for over 15 years, frequently at Penn State facilities before his behavior was reported. He was convicted in 2012 “on 45 counts of child sexual abuse … and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years and a maximum of 60 years in prison” (Wikipedia).
An independent investigation by the Penn State board of trustees determined that the university’s celebrated “longtime head football coach, Joe Paterno, along with [school president Graham] Spanier, [athletic director Tim] Curley, and [vice president Gary] Schultz, had known about the allegations of child abuse by Sandusky as early as 1998, had shown ‘total and consistent disregard … for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims.” (Wikipedia) Spanier resigned shortly after the scandal broke in 2011. The board of trustees terminated the contracts of Paterno and Curley.
Paterno had 409 wins against 136 losses and three ties at Penn States, and was, at the time of his termination, the winningest coach in major college football. He had five undefeated seasons, won two national titles, and had 37 bowl appearances, winning 24.
And yet, when he left, his statue at Beaver State Stadium was unceremoniously removed.
Paterno was never accused or identified as a participant. His crime was doing nothing.
Fortunately, there are ethical people in positions of responsibility who have the morals, religious or secular, to protect the exploited and enforce standards of decency.
Should those who don’t be in positions of power?
