The Illusory Light in the Window
A few months into my job at an Eastern Navajo Agency boarding school in New Mexico, my closest co-worker, Bea, was boldly evicted from her office, mid-day, so everyone could see. Her belongings were carted away on hand trucks and she was banished to a campus 50 miles away. I, like all her colleagues, watched—silently. It was killing me inside, my morality in turmoil. I could plainly see the boss was merely exercising her muscle—because she could. Bea’s crime was speaking out for students who were unable to speak for themselves.
I did nothing. Said nothing. A violation of the ethical foundation upon which I thought I stood firm. But I was new and scared I would lose my job. Still, 25 years later, I shudder a little at my lack of backbone then.
No matter your political leanings, you’ve got to have some inkling of respect for Liz Cheney, Republican Congresswoman from Wyoming. Anyone who can stick to their ethics in the face of such extreme—and public— adversity has mine.
She’s been demoted from her high-ranking position in the GOP for refusing to kowtow to an ex-president she firmly believes started a big lie, or to the Republican politicians who are so intent on not biting the hand that appears to feed them, they can’t see they’ve traded their principles to promote the big lie. These are the people who have lost their way.
Having witnessed miracles that happen in 12-step programs—not miracles in the sense we like to think but, rather, the result of hard emotional labor on the parts of those working the steps—I think these lost lawmakers need their own program to get them back on track. So, I’ve created a rough draft of the 12 steps our poor prostrated politicians might need to be able to stand on their own again:
- Admitted we had forsaken our ethics in seeking to become all powerful.
- Came to believe an ethical groundwork would allow us to better serve our constituents, our nation. and ourselves.
- Made a decision to do our jobs.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of our actions while in elected office.
- Admitted to the people and to ourselves the exact nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have the people vote us out of office if we displayed disregard for the public good.
- Humbly asked voters to support the most suitable candidate, whether or not we like the outcome.
- Made a list of all constituents and fellow officeholders we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to these people whenever possible, even if it upset our relationship with our preferred political party.
- Continued to take personal inventory, and whenever we found ourselves engaging in politics for personal gain, took our hat out of the ring.
- Sought to improve our conscious contact with our sense of ethics, seeking only the will to adhere to these morals, come what may.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, tried to demonstrate these principals to other politicians by example, and to practice decency and clear sightedness in all our affairs.
I don’t expect to win a Nobel Prize for my efforts here, but wouldn’t it be nice if my leaving a lantern in the window for the lost could inspire someone to do what is ethical rather than what is expedient? Ah, dream on…