Christmas Musing #2 Something New

 

19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

I like new things. You like new things. The automotive, clothing, and technology industries depend upon our love of the new. The truck sitting in my drive works well. It is a bit worn. I purchased it new in 2004 after I returned from Iraq and have driven it for over 150,000 miles, and it still works the way it used to…with the exception of the heater and defroster. But I still look over the new trucks and want; until I look at the price tag that is. I find it hard to plunk down over $50,000 for a vehicle I’m going to throw things in. But, I still look. I like shiny new things. 

    This morning we festooned our house with Christmas decorations. We have some decorations that I made as a child. There is no lack of decorations for our house; however, every year we browse the isles of local stores looking for some new thing to put up in our house. Driving past the mall, I noted a full parking lot. Retailers build their business model counting on our desire for new things every year. To satiate that desire, we flock to the stores, cash in hand, ready to purchase the newest thing. In many ways, we’ve transformed the meaning of Christmas into an orgy of new things; yet, God still yearns to do new things in us.

    I do not know about you, but even at the age of sixty-two, I need new things, and I’m not speaking of my hairline. I still find areas of my life that need renewing. Ask Christy or my kids, and they will tell you that I still get unreasonably angry at times. I need renewal. Christmas comes with the promise of new things. In Isaiah 42, the prophet tells us about the coming savior and what kind of king he will be. He will be different. “The bruised reed he will not break, and the faintly burning wick he will not quench, he will faithfully bring forth justice,” Isaiah 42:3 Later on in the chapter he speaks of “new things.”

    That is the true hope of Christmas, this “new thing” God desires to bring about. Christmas reminds me that God is the master renewer. He longs to change me, to rebuild me, to renew my spirit. When I approach the manger, the light of the king shines on me, revealing those things that do not conform to His plan, those things I truly find shameful. But, I can trust Him. The bruised reed He will not break. Even though I may feel bruised and battered by this world, stained by my own failure, I can trust Him to renew me. The babe in the manger is the great new thing, the something different, the thing that I really down deep need. The new truck, the new technology, the new Christmas ornaments do not meet my true need for renewal. Jesus, the promised one, He meets my need for new. Bethlehem reminds me that the old has passed away and the truly new has come. 

Christmas Musing #1 Why I Need the Season

19 Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19

I limit my news intake. I do not listen to podcasts. I do not watch broadcast news of any sort. I do not read blogs. I do not frequent radio talk-shows. I read one newspaper that I trust to provide a intelligently balanced viewpoint, though I do not always agree with it. I find that one source provides me enough information to be a reasonably informed individual. Normally, I can engage in an adult conversation with others without embarrassing myself. But even with that limited amount of news, I find myself pessimistic about the state of the world, which is why I need the holiday season and most especially Christmas.

I enjoy Thanksgiving, the season opener. Yesterday we gathered with family and shared the experience of a home-cooked feast. We all chipped in with our favorite family recipes and a new one or two. We engaged in pleasant conversation, catching up and reminiscing. Fortunately for me, we all know how to avoid baiting one another with vicious small-talk. This does not mean we always agree; however, we manage to enjoy each other without demanding conformity. We talk about the good things we are thankful for and share our blessings. All in all, it is a good time, a time that binds us more closely together. Today we started unpacking Christmas decorations and trimming the tree.

Decorating the house launches phase two of the Christmas operation. Last year we made the leap to an artificial tree; but, there still are certain cherished ornaments that we carefully unwrap and place in their traditional place. Years ago, Christy and I made our first tree-topper, a simple gold foil covered star. We’ve used it since then, moving it around the world with us. I cannot imagine a Christmas tree without that unimposing star. Tomorrow, we will trim the tree, drink eggnog, while we listen to favorite Christmas music. Afterwards, we will sit down and watch one of our favorite Christmas movies. But all these things mask a certain reality, in some ways it’s been a tough year for me.

I will not detail the issues that have come my way. They are not unusual; they are the things that everyone faces from time to time. In fact, compared to many others my problems are quite small and my life unfolds with a measured, predictable, and comfortable pace. We do not need to look far to find immense suffering and hardship. Our world creaks along with wars and rumors of wars. In the Middle East the Israelis and Palestinians are at it once again, and that conflict has roused passions, ill-will, divisions, and violence in our country. The Ukraine and Russia remain at war, slaughtering each other with reckless abandon. The earth itself seems out of control with glaciers melting, forests burning, oceans rising, and water-tables dropping. Some might even question why engage in Christmas celebrations.

I need Christmas. I need the annual journey to Bethlehem. The ancient prophet, speaking for God, wrote of a new thing. Read the entire passage and you will find that God repeatedly speaks of springs and rivers in the desert. In some ways, my soul seems stuck in a parched land. I see desolation, spiritual and physical, everywhere. Many close friends struggle with intractable problems. In my own life there are things that defy easy solutions. So, God speaks to me, reminding me that He does new things. Each Christmas as I make the journey to the small stable in a Judean hamlet, God reminds me; he does new things. He makes springs to rise up in the desert of my heart. I encourage you to join me in this reflective season. Let us think on the new things that God has done and continues to do.

Truthful Politicians

  Hot tears rolled down my cheeks, splattering on my hands and the toy cradled there. I sat alone in my parents’ bedroom, wishing things were different. I’d just spoken with my father, listened really since it was a one-way conversation. He’d discovered that I’d lied to him concerning a toy several times over a few days. A friend had given it to me and I, fearing that he would require me to return it, had insisted that I’d paid for it. He, knowing that I had very little cash, persisted in questioning and ultimately the truth came out. I expected serious punishment. Instead, he sat me down and talked about the importance of truth to all relationships and how disappointed he was. He left me sitting on his bed, holding the toy, and wishing he’d spanked me. It would be nice to be able to say that I never prevaricated again; however, that would not be true. Once destroyed, the habit of fidelity to the truth is hard to rebuild. That easy habit of shifting our story to suit our needs is pernicious and stubborn. Over time, I did rebuild the habit of truth-telling, but it was a long and personally painful process. I never forgot the “talk” and ensuing process. Later during my military career, I witnessed the importance of the truth.

I watched as subordinates, peers, and superiors shipwrecked their careers by falling into the habit of telling lies. My work required access to highly sensitive programs. On several occasions various coworkers would lie about personal matters, hoping to avoid embarrassment, only to find out that in the realm of military secrecy once breached faith and trust cannot be restored. Their careers in tatters, their only hope was that they had enough time in service to either retire or serve out their career in some inconsequential assignment, forever branded as untrustworthy. Fidelity to the truth is the foundation upon which all successful relationships, familial and professional, are built. An inability to tell the truth destroys faith and trust. Which is why I find our current political landscape dismaying. 

It is not the politicians that most disappoint me, though they do dishearten me. I find many friends and acquaintances willing to embrace the concept of a flexible truth. When engaged in a difficult conversation in which differences come up, I often hear, “Well, that is your truth,” or something similar. Sadly, we’ve allowed and enabled our leaders to adopt a similarly flexible approach to the truth. We allow adherence to known falsehoods to become a litmus test for party fidelity. In some groups, on the right and the left, unwillingness to embrace a falsehood leads to expulsion. This culture of toleration of falsehood leads to empowering the most radical and reactionary sectors of our society. The recent chaos in our House of Representative came about due to the embrace of well-established lie. Belief in, support of, and continually retelling the same lie does not make it any truer. When we embolden our leaders by supporting and encouraging such behavior, we hobble our government and culture. When we support and elect individuals given to prevarication and constructing legislation based on falsehood and manipulation of facts, we get shoddy government that does not truly address the pernicious issues we face. Ceding control of the levers of government to those untethered to the truth sets the stage for governmental and societal turmoil, and we the electorate are to blame.

In our representative form of government, we choose the individuals that represent us, and we have allowed party affiliation to overwhelm the truth. Contrary to what many would say, there is objective truth out there. We must exert some effort in finding it, but given access to the internet, it is relatively easy to find. Unfortunately, many of us settle for propaganda designed to reinforce our preexisting convictions instead of providing actual facts. Increasingly we choose to live in echo-chambers rather than summoning the mental fortitude required to sort through data and draw an informed opinion. Our elected officials understand this and increasingly offer up speeches and comments designed to stir up the base and provide very little in the way of valuable information. Due to the paucity of repercussions for prevarication, they repeat the lies crafted to shore up support among their perceived base. We should hold them to a higher standard, and not accept such corrupt behavior. Not only must we take the time and effort to inform ourselves, but we must also hold our elected officials accountable for their behaviors in the issue of veracity. When we elevate truthfulness over party platform, we will enjoy a higher quality of government. As long as we continue to disdain truthfulness, we will suffer under second-rate government.

As one who eschews party affiliation, I understand, and embrace, the need for strong vigorous parties on the left and on the right; however, parties, untethered to the truth do not serve the country well. When they jettison veracity, they cease to function well, primarily because they subordinate good governance to securing and maintaining power. In his unusually prescient final essay, George Washington warned against party politics, and though I do not know the complete answer to this problem, requiring elected officials to speak truthfully would be a good place to start. With truth as a base and verifiable facts as a starting point, politicians can work to develop policy and law that truly addresses the needs of the nation. But if we continue to allow and enable politicians to lie, we will suffer under government that does not serve the electorate. 

As the next election cycle unfolds, we must do our best to hold those seeking office to truthful statements, rejecting those candidates unwilling to speak truthfully. Those candidates that refuse to embrace the truth and continually lie do not serve the needs of the republic at large and will ultimately fail their own party. As I learned from my father and twenty-seven years of service in the military, truth is the coin of the realm, and we cannot discard it and expect good results. As painful as it might be, we must reinvigorate a corporate fidelity to the truth. It will not serve to look across the aisle and say, “Well they do it.” We must be intellectually honest enough to look inward first and hold our candidates, representatives, and party accountable first. When we make truth telling a priority, then we can expect profitable debate and the resultant good governance. As long as we tolerate falsehood in the name of party conformity, we will endure failed policies.

The Horror of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict

 

Like everyone else, I watched in horror as events unfolded in Israel and Gaza. As a veteran of multiple tours in Baghdad, Iraq, I know firsthand the frightening chaos of armed conflict and the visceral anguish of the resultant aftermath. Once, we came upon a mound of fresh corpses; Suni men and boys gunned down by Shia extremists. Their sole fault was living in a neighborhood primarily peopled by Shia. I’ll never forget the coppery stench of freshly spilled blood or the wailing of wives, and other kin, as they policed up the mortal remains of loved ones. We must never forget that all the political posturing and nationalistic chest-thumping results in very real death and anguish, in this case for thousands.

The Hamas terrorists that carried out this attack, the behind-the-scenes planners and financiers who conceived of and funded it, and the long-term short-sighted Israeli political policies that stirred up such hatred all bear some share of the blame. Force will not solve this problem. Neither will trying to get back to whose fault it really is. Too much blood has been shed over the centuries for a profitable reassignment of guilt. Each side must come together to build a new order that eschews violence as a means to bring about political and cultural change. They must learn to live alongside each other in peace. I’m reminded of a passage in Ezekiel 47.

22 You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe a foreigner resides, there you are to give them their inheritance,” declares the Sovereign Lord. Ezekiel 47:22 English Standard Version

Ezekiel, speaking for the Lord, gave instructions on how to reenter the Promised Land. While the Jews were in captivity, foreigners came and settled in the land. God wanted Israel to treat them as native-born Israelites, with the same rights and privileges. In many other places He, the Lord, reminds Israel to treat the sojourner well. For example, “You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 24:22 

Somehow, these two warring parties must come together, setting aside their differences, and forgetting past abuses to build a future together. Penning in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the squalor that is the Gaza Strip serves only to strengthen hatred and spawn violence. Attacks that leave over a thousand Israeli civilians lying dead in the streets and venues of their cities does not forward the cause of peace. The Israeli government has the right, indeed the responsibility, to secure its citizenry; however, indiscriminate shelling and bombing only adds fuel an already blazing inferno. Somehow, leaders on both sides must step back from the chasm and start rebuilding already threadbare trust. 

What does this look like? I’m not sure. I do know that you cannot treat each other with so much hatred and build a meaningful peace. For a start, any political scheme that supports the warehousing of Palestinians in such degrading conditions or denies Israel the right to exist as a nation must be discarded. The injured parties, and they are legion, must learn to salve their pain through the building of a just equitable society and not retribution. Perhaps, that is the toughest part. So much blood has been spilt over the years, so many wrongs by both sides accumulated, that asking for the aggrieved to extend forgiveness and forebear furth reprisals seems shallow; however, to build an enduring, just, peace requires great sacrifice by all parties. Those of us who enjoy the safety of home and hearth should avoid joining in rabble-rousing for either side. There is enough radical and reactionary rhetoric from the wounded parties. We must not join in censorious practices that only discourage meaningful conversation but also aid those forces calling for violence. We cannot condone the slaughter of innocents by either party, but we must encourage listening and support rebuilding, physically and emotionally. We must take up the role of healing and binding up the wounded on both sides. The carnage must stop. 

Political Maturity

 Political Maturity

Bemused, I watched as our congress went through another paroxysm on the way to some semblance of budgetary progress. Hobbled by a handful of extreme conservative Members of the House, Speaker McCarthy struggled to develop a proposal that reflected reality and had some hope of wending its way through the congressional maze past extreme members of his and the opposition party. And that’s the true problem he, and by extension the rest of us, face. When he managed to work up a compromise and secure short-term budget relief, reactionaries from his own party turned on him, historically ousting their own choice for speaker. In a spasmodic reaction to not getting everything they wanted, these representatives hobbled our government reducing any chance of thoughtful leadership and legislation to near zero. To them, the idea of successful compromise is anathema. They have thoughtlessly discarded one of the most important tools of democracy in order to placate their most extreme constituents and their overweening thirst for power and recognition. 

    We’ve forgotten how democracy in a representative republic works. The extreme wings of each party demand their way now and supported by their more extreme and vocal voters at home continuously work to stop any progress. In our soundbite-driven media cycle, our representatives believe that saying the right things suffices for actual work. Properly delivered soundbites inflame the base and develop the impression of standing up against their foes without the real labor required to make a democracy work.

In our current political culture, compromise has become a sign of failure instead of wisdom. Long ago we embraced the concept of a pluralistic society, one in which members of various groups with differing viewpoints work together to form policies that best suit the body politic. This makes legislative progress in our country slow and halting; however, it does help make sure that we do not veer too far to one extreme or another; but, in recent years we seem to have discarded this concept. Politicians, and more importantly the electorate, seem to revel in posturing, neglecting the hard work of governance, and that is the problem.

Good governance requires diligence and hard work. We reward our elected officials more for their pronouncements than for their progress. We’d rather “own” the other guy than stand shoulder to shoulder as we labor to solve some of the pernicious problems we face in our nation. Elected officials want to remain in office and take the actions they think will keep them there. Instead of holding our representatives accountable for progress or lack thereof, we laud them for sticking it to the other guy. We’ve forgotten that in a democracy we seldom, if ever, get all that we want. Most of the time, we must satisfy ourselves with incremental progress toward an often ill-defined and constantly moving goal. Sadly, most of us seem to be unsatisfied with the compromise and the resultant good governance. We’ve allowed ourselves to become politically and culturally myopic, forgetting that others have pressing needs, wants, and desires that must be addressed in a pluralistic democracy. Sometimes I’m just not going to get my way, and a politically mature outlook requires that I not only recognize that fact, but that I also do not game the system. Sadly in many quarters, we’ve abandoned political maturity, accepting gamesmanship over progress, however incremental. 

As the electorate, we incur the blame for this state of affairs. Oh, we like to heap blame on the other side or perhaps some amorphas behind-the-scenes cabal of big-money donors. After all, don’t they hold all the levers of power? My one vote does not matter. This is not the case. We go to the polling place. We enter the booth. We cast our ballots. As long as we continue to accept cool soundbites over the actual hard work of legislation that leads to good governance, our nation will suffer. We must elect men and women who are willing to roll up their sleeves and slog through the difficult negotiation process that results in legislation that leads to good governance. We need more statesmen and fewer politicians. Sam Rayburn, from Texas by the way, and one of the greatest Speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives, understood this well. He held the speakership for over twenty-one years, with two interruptions. The position of Speaker comes with a prime suite of offices. As the story goes, during one of his brief hiatuses, the outgoing speaker asked Representative Rayburn when he wanted to move into the Speaker-Suite. Rayburn responded that he did not need to move in. He wanted to devote himself to the business of governance. Representative Rayburn understood his responsibility, and we need more representatives like him.

We need to raise up and elect men and women who understand the art of a representative democratic republic. We also need to support them in this endeavor. We’ve allowed ourselves to drift into the political practice of punishing those who reach across the aisle and get things done. Selfishly, we demand our own way all the time, forgetting that in our pluralistic society, we will have to be satisfied when others get their way. As long as we reward representatives for meaningless posturing and promoting legislation that is doomed to failure, we will endure dysfunctional government. When we recover our political maturity, hold our representatives accountable for getting the real work of good governance done, and stop punishing them for necessary compromise, we will see a capital that starts to function again. 

9/11 Remembrance 2023

 Twenty-Two Years Later

Everyone who was alive and old enough to remember paused today, and so did I. I remember standing in the car-rental business in Wiesbaden, Germany staring at the CNN feed in disbelief as the smoke billowed from the first strike. I had just transferred to First Armored Division and was working on the various steps needed to move my family from Cleveland, Ohio. Bemused, I drove over to the division headquarters, heading up to the Judge Advocate General’s office, where I watched again in disbelief as the second plane crashed into the tower. Unable to continue with my in-processing, I stood there and stared in horror as the towers slowly collapsed. I remember the clouds of office paper drifting down, twisting in the bright sunlight. Heading down to the planners’ vault, I knew that my life as a soldier would change. I could not imagine how, but I knew that nothing would be the same for me.

Looking back over the intervening twenty-two years, years filled with toil, multiple combat-deployments, promotions, other assignments, eventual retirement, grad-school, and a second career in education, I wonder? I wonder what to make of it all. If they could, I wonder what those who perished that day would make of the world we now inhabit? Did we learn anything? Did we take actions that somehow redeemed their involuntary sacrifice? In some ways we did. We did bring the perpetrators to justice. Those responsible were held accountable, but did we take actions to make such an atrocity unthinkable, or as I suspect have things remained fundamentally the same?

You see, our socioeconomic-cultural system, with its attendant inequities, generated the rifts, or chasms, that separate us from each other. Of course, those inequities do not justify the actions of those desperate men on September 11th. But those inequities, years and years in the making, help me understand the why of September 11th, and understanding the why helps me to take actions that might make such evil unthinkable. So, what systemic changes will preclude, or inhibit such dark actions?

First of all, we could work to create a culture and society in which we evaluate a person based on the content of their character, not the size of their bank account, political party affiliation, religious convictions, race, or gender. Pigeon-holing people based on such arbitrary delineations, does not truly help us understand each other, and is quite lazy as getting to know someone requires listening and listening implies work. True listening also validates the humanity and worth of the person we are attending to. The better we know people, the better we treat them.

Secondly, we should seriously address the socioeconomic inequities that plague our nation, region, and globe. Far too many people labor in modern wage slavery. We must learn to care for the millions of faceless men and women who are born into, exist, and die in grinding poverty with no hope of escape. Spreading the wealth around a bit, and it would not take much, would alleviate much of the turmoil that vexes the modern world. People ought to enjoy adequate recompense for their labors.

Thirdly, we ought to better resource education everywhere. Good quality education ought not to be the domain of only the well-heeled portions of society. We waste so much human capital by scrimping on education. When we invest in our children, we invest in our future. Well-educated people normally make better life-decisions and who knows where the cure for cancer or a needed technology to combat global warming might spring from. Spending on helping young men and women across the globe enjoy good quality education better secures our corporate future. We also should provide an easy path for those who aspire to higher education. Though it is not a panacea, a well-educated citizenry does not as easily come under the sway of despotic leaders.

These are just three areas of emphasis we might consider. Though they do not guarantee a cessation of violence, they would help ameliorate some of the pernicious inequities that help generate such atrocities. Days of remembrance and monuments are proper and necessary; however, they do not meet all the need. If we wish to remember all the slain of that day, we must redouble our efforts to address the causes of their obliteration. We best honor them by working hard to bridge the crevasses that separate and heal the wounds that fester so. That is how we remember and honor. 

Guardrails and Guidelines

 Guardrails and Guidelines

“Gentlemen, if it costs more than a baseball cap, don’t accept it,” intoned the Lieutenant Colonel from the Fort Cavasos (formerly Fort Hood) Judge-Advocate-General office. 

Stifling a yawn, I glanced around the room at my fellow attendees, a bunch of bored looking lieutenants and captains. It was a hot fall day in Central-Texas and none of us thought this particular lecture important. The Army had designated Fourth Infantry Division, 4ID also known as the IV, or Ivey Division, the Army’s test division, and as such we expected a deluge of contractors to descend and descend, they did. Soon, each week brought a new toy or device for us to examine, play with, try to break, and evaluate. Along with the “cool-toys,” came contractors eager for positive comments by evaluators. The institutional Army well understood the moral battleground we were about to enter. Each contract dealt with millions of dollars and as junior officers; we were unprepared for the ethical quagmire we faced. So, we all had to attend a series of briefings designed to acquaint us with what was acceptable and ethical and what was not acceptable or ethical. We needed the briefings. Soon our lives were filled with contractors and offers of lunch, jackets, and yes hats. For the rest of my time in 4ID, we lived with contractors in our hip-pockets; but it would not end there.

As my career progressed, I found contractors and the associated inevitable ethical questions a regular part of my military experience. Coming back from my first tour in Iraq, I landed in Germany in V-Corps, where one of my major duties was to oversee the various automated platforms we used to construct a Common Operational Picture, known as the COP. On my first duty day, I walked into the office and was handed a copy of a new contract with a multi-million-dollar price tag. 

“We need to go and brief the two-star general and get him to sign the contract,” barked Toni, the civilian representative for the company (I’ll not mention the name of the company).

“So, is everything in order,” I asked, thumbing through the contract as we walked across the Kaserne in Heidelberg, Germany.

“Oh yes, of course,” replied Toni, “The general has already seen it and been briefed. We just need to get his final signature, “You don’t need to worry about anything.”

As usual, we arrived at the general’s office and had to wait for a while. I continued reading through the contract, making sure that I understood what was in it, when I came across a startling paragraph in the contract. The contract set aside a significant sum for the hiring of a person I knew was not qualified to hold the position. Additionally, they were the wife of a high-ranking person on the general’s staff. This was a clear case of conflict of interest and nepotism. They were to be paid over one-hundred thousand dollars to do a job for which they held no qualifications. I sat there in a quandary, wondering what to do and how to get out of this situation. Eventually we were called into the general’s office. We sat there at his conference table, he thumbing through the contract and me sweating bullets. 

“You know Matt, this contract is about one-hundred thousand more than I want to spend,” he mused, “Do you know of any way we could cut about one-hundred thousand out of it?”

Breathing a great sigh of relief, I replied, “Sure Sir, right here. We can cut this position out of the contract. We can shuffle its duties to other positions without much of a problem. If you’ll just line through it here and here and initial in both places. I’ll rewrite the contract and get it to you tomorrow or the next day.”

“Very good,” he replied, picking up a pen and lining through the offending position, “Get back with me as soon as you can.”

“Yessir,” I replied feeling much better.

Walking across the compound, I said, “Toni, don’t you ever lie to me again. I will be watching you like a hawk. I do not trust you.”

Toni never got better. He always worked on the edge of legality, and for the rest of my time in that position, I had to scrutinize his every move. In fact, years later in a different assignment, I would run across Toni again. His company was competing along with two others for a similar contract, and I was asked to provide a recommendation on which to hire. Of course, I did not recommend Toni or the company he worked for. When they did not get the contract, he accosted me in the hall.

“Sir, that was so long ago. Why do you still hold a grudge?”

“I don’t hold a grudge, Toni. You never changed and I do not want to have to work with you again. I know that you will still do the same things.” We never spoke again.

A debate regarding establishing a code of conduct, or ethics, regarding the Supreme Court has unfolded over the past few weeks. Recent information regarding multiple justices reveals a variety of questionable actions, actions which call into question the objectivity of the justices. In various venues Supreme Court justices, including Chief Justice Roberts, have demurred when asked about the need to establish a code of ethics for the Supreme Court. Justice Alito used the U.S. Constitution as his justification saying, “I know this is a controversial view, but I’m going to say it, no provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court – period.” 1

Whenever we enter into a realm inhabited by businesses competing for large sums of money, we must navigate an ethical quagmire. Businesses and their leaders seek to turn a profit, which is not a bad thing; however, when they seek to influence decisions through cultivating personal relationships with senior decision-makers they quite possibly cross an ethical line which may or may not be clearly delineated. This is why ethical guidelines are so important. As an Army officer, an official of the U.S. Government, I understood the limits. Living inside those limits allowed me to not only make morally defensible decisions, but they also helped me develop solid relationships with the various contractors I worked with. We all understood the rules, and for the most part, willingly lived by them. There were a few exceptions, such as Toni, but the majority of the contractors that I worked with did not seek to obfuscate the issues at hand. Apparently, the Supreme Court needs similar guidelines.

Members of the court have pushed back against calls for them to write such ethical guidelines, claiming that Congress has no authority to require such action. While I’m no constitutional scholar, the Constitution does make mention of the Supreme Court Justices holding their offices, “during good Behaviour.” Perhaps, a code of conduct, or ethical guidelines, might help Justices navigate the perilous waters of “good behaviour.” I understand the justices being charry of any encroachment upon their constitutionally outlined powers, but we have embraced the concept of checks and balances in order to ensure that the three branches of government not only work well, but also maintain public trust and confidence, a challenging task in today’s hyper-partisan environment. 

According to a recent Gallup Poll, public confidence in the Supreme Court is at a historic low. 2 While the same poll indicates the erosion of public confidence in many societal institutions, it remains quite troubling. It might behoove the court to take steps to shore up public confidence, and one of those steps could be penning ethical guidelines. Ethical guidelines lay out behaviors that are acceptable and behaviors we must avoid. They clarify relationships, making interpersonal interactions smoother, and when we know that the other party expresses genuine interest, unmotivated by nefarious gain, we find that the guidelines enrich our personal relationships. Instead of pushing back against such guidelines, the members of the Supreme Court ought to take the time to carefully construct their own. They intimately know the struggles and perils of holding such powerful positions. Taking such a step would help them pilot their institution through our hyper-partisan culture, and might restore some lost public confidence.  

1. https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-ethics-alito-d98b0edf1340ff3ed66b345c5ddcf0dc

2. https://news.gallup.com/poll/394103/confidence-supreme-court-sinks-historic-low.aspx