A topic hotly discussed with regards to politicians is ethics.  Unethical and immoral behavior by elected officials is the mainstay of late-night comedy and we never see a long period of time elapse before a scandal breaks involving national, state or local politicians.  Thankfully, we haven’t heard too much of that here on the local level, but does it mean our elected officials are behaving in an ethical way?  Are the small breaches of ethics really that important to the electorate?  If a person is capable of minor infractions, does it indicate a propensity for more major violations?

I differentiate between ethics and morals  in this way:  an ethical person knows the rules and lives by them where a moral person lives by the rules without necessarily knowing what they are, but because they intuitively know the right thing to do.  Many believe you must be a religious person to be moral, but I don’t believe that is the case.  Religious instruction plays a large role in the development of morals and ethics because it gives us codes to live by, but not belonging to an organized religion does not preclude one from morality.  Most people are generally ethical, but engage in periodic lapses of judgment because we are human.

Elected officials are held to a higher standard of ethics, and rightfully so.  As a keeper of public dollars and the public trust, we must understand our obligation to behave in an ethical, honest way even when nobody is watching.  Many a politician has been lulled into a false sense of security and privacy, then behaved in a way that raises eyebrows, red flags, news stories and personal regret when the jig is up.  Is it arrogance, a sense of entitlement or ignorance that causes people to believe they are invincible or above the law?  Probably a combination of all three, but arrogance seems to play the biggest role, while ignorance is the most common excuse for bad behavior.

Sex scandals, financial scandals and other immoral, unethical behavior on a large scale are the things that get media time and our attention.  I believe, however, that it’s the little things that count.  Recently, my daughter asked me if she could use my district-issued  athletic pass to enter a football game.  I don’t fault her for asking and I don’t think she understood the implications of her request.  I used it as a “teachable moment” to explain the pass was issued to me so that I could show support of schools as a board member, not as a “get into the game free” card for anyone who wanted it.  After the fairly predictable “who’s going to know?” questions and answers, she understood and I had the opportunity to impart what I believed to be a valuable lesson. The question of “who’s going to know?” was the whole point…it didn’t matter that anyone other than I would know.

The responsibility of elected officials and others in positions of authority is to tell the truth, act in an ethical way and not abuse their authority and power regardless of who knows about it.  If we are to expect our tax dollars to be spent in a responsible way, we must be able to trust those charged with that responsibility.  We must believe they work for the common good and not for select members of the public.  Is the devil really in the details?  In this case, yes, I believe it is.

Advertisement