Comment E-mail Print

What is there about holding public office that seems to turn ordinarily sensible people into pigs feeding at the public trough? Is it just because of the access that money provides to those who are in a position to influence decisions that benefit or harm others? Is it the natural tendency that appears to be present in almost everyone to take advantage of their position? Is it just the fact that so much money flows in and around the political environment that it's bound to influence politicians to want some or a lot of it for themselves.

No doubt there are many reasons. But, if you start with weakness of character, add opportunity and the ready availability of large amounts of money, all operating in an environment that makes it easy for those who are looking for personal gain, it's not hard to see how it happens.

What does this tell us? That we are surrounded by dishonesty in our culture? That it's just human nature?

Perhaps. But, the problem goes much deeper. It's comes down to character, and there doesn't seem to be much of that around among most of today's politicians. There are always exceptions, of course, but it seems that we don't see many politicians these days who willingly subordinate their desire for wealth and power to serve those they are elected to represent.

One of the most notable examples of a political leader who did not take advantage of his position is Harry Truman, who retired after he left office, returned to his home in Missouri and lived out his days in the same house he and his wife occupied before they went to Washington. He had no savings but would not accept any special privileges. His only source of income was a small military pension of $112.56 per month. (Former presidents did not receive retirement benefits at that time.) Truman refused all offers of high-paying corporate positions, consulting fees or commercial endorsements, which he felt would diminish the integrity of the office of President. Can you imagine any retired politician doing that today?

Truman was confronted with some of the most difficult choices ever made by any leader. One such decision involved the use the A-Bomb against Japan, dropping it on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. At the time he took office after FDR's death, President Truman knew nothing about the development of the Bomb that had been underway for some time.

His evaluation of whether or not to use it involved a calculus that compared the potential loss of life, including Japanese civilians, that would have resulted from an air-sea-land invasion of Japan, vs the estimated loss of life that might be caused by the A-Bomb. That number, incidentally, has been estimated to be one million. It's easy to criticize Truman's decision over sixty years later, as some people now do, because more than 140,000 Japanese citizens are thought to have been killed or injured by the A-bombs, but there is no question that it did bring the war to an earlier close. It's hard to even imagine the personal toll that making such a choice must have taken on him.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2