Frustration

Things are looking pretty dark – Photo: L. Weikel

I’ve been bouncing around a couple of ideas of what I could or might want to write about tonight. It’s #200 – so it seems appropriate that I should redouble my efforts to bring something of value to the table, especially for those of you who’ve been my faithful companions through this 1111 Devotion.

So I decided to scrap my follow up on the abysmal weather pattern we’ve been enduring here in eastern Pennsylvania (and obviously elsewhere, with even more devastating effects), even though the National Weather Service has confirmed that yesterday our area experienced the third tornado in ten days.

That’s some intense stuff.

Devoted to Ideals

Or I could riff on the scary state of our government and our country. But I don’t even like writing that sentence, to be honest. I am fundamentally devoted to the ideals I was taught are the foundation upon which our country was established. And what I’m seeing play out before our eyes is smothering my spirit.

I’m astonished that the principles of integrity and impartiality are such foreign concepts to so many people that they cannot fathom what is happening when others act with those two principles firmly ensconced in their core. That’s really what we’re seeing here with respect to the Mueller report.

Attorney General William Barr came out today in an interview and said that Mueller “could have” drawn a conclusion as to whether crimes have been committed by the President. By saying that, he is being completely disingenuous, because I would bet a million dollars they already had their propaganda campaign in place to completely smear Mueller had he chosen to do that. Why? Because of that obnoxious Department of Justice opinion that states a sitting president can’t be indicted.

Ethics and Integrity

Barr et al. were expecting (hoping) Mueller would adhere to the technicality of that opinion and choose not to indict. But they figured (perhaps because the evidence is so overwhelming?) he would feel compelled to out Trump by stating conclusions based upon the mountains of evidence they gathered.

The thing is, Mueller wasn’t going to allow himself to be cornered like that. He actually has integrity. He honors not only the letter of the law, but also the spirit of the law: which is essentially that it would be unfair to lodge a ‘conclusion’ against Trump if he was not able to refute it. As tempting as it would be to castigate Donald Trump and draw conclusions from those mountains of evidence, as a member of the Department of Justice, he refused to do so.

Barr and the Administration were astounded at Mueller’s integrity. Of course, they also viewed it as a weakness, because it gave Barr the chance to come out with this absurd argument that he’s now touting, which is basically, “Well, Mueller could have drawn a conclusion!”

The Difference Between Can and Should

Even though when Barr says that, he does not mean that Mueller could have ethically drawn a conclusion. Barr just means that Mueller ‘could have’ drawn it. Similar to me arguing that if I accidentally cause damage to someone’s car in a parking lot and no one sees me, I could just choose to drive away.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

That’s when ethics come in. When integrity is the value that saves us from becoming a country that’s based on what we can get away with.

And that’s pretty much where we are right now.

What can we get away with? What can those who hold astounding amounts of power do when no one is looking? Good Goddess, what do they do when everyone is watching and no one in their own party (which is in the majority) holds them accountable?

If We Don’t Value and Demand Integrity – Who Will?

These are the fundamental questions we’re faced with. I’m incredibly frustrated that the concept of having impeccable integrity was so inconceivable to Barr and the Trump Administration that they just decided to exploit it as weakness, misrepresent it completely, and continue exploiting all of us for their own greedy ends.

Tell us how you really feel, Lisa.

(T-911)