-Aristotle
The other day, I was reading more about Bill and Hillary Clinton's "Clinton Foundation" which is nothing more than a protected conduit for bribery. Rather than go into all of the criminality that is a way of life for the Clintons'- I've selected this item summary for your perusal. (It only relates to her scandals as Secretary of State) http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2566193?utm_content=buffer87642
It begs the question- how can an entire country seemingly look the other way? How does this translate to us?
Everywhere in America tomorrow, people will have opportunities to do great things. Most people will hardly recognize those opportunities, much less act on them.
No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.
-Calvin Coolidge
Throughout my life I have seen people who have acted with honor. I've found them in strange places. Often you will be alerted to an act of honor when suddenly someone deviates from our usual expectations because it will take some measure of courage to do so. You cannot predict when or where it will happen.
My all time favorite act of honor and courage came about during a very rare meeting between our district's judges, prosecutors, court clerks, and head law enforcement officials. Probably 20 of us. We had been called together to discuss problems we were having mostly as they related to the elimination of a burgeoning amount of arrest warrants and the transportation of prisoners within the state. The problem was that our local Sheriff refused to spend the time and money to transport prisoners arrested in remote parts of the state and return them to our jurisdiction. By refusing to pick them up- people with warrants were habitually released because the arrest warrant had mileage limits on it. Thus people with outstanding arrest warrants never took care of them and the amount of warrants increased. I opened discussions that day with, "If we at the very least arrested these people and made them post bond- it could be forfeited and sent to the appropriate jurisdiction whether we picked them up or not." The Sheriff said no to this because some of the prisoners could not post bond therefore he and his men would have to go pick them up. He said it was not "cost effective" to spend 300 dollars in gas and mileage to pick up a prisoner with a 100 dollar warrant.
I had heard this line of reasoning before. I expected the usual silent agreement and nodding of heads every time this logic was offered up when suddenly a judge, clearly departing from Robert's Rules of Order blurted out- "Since when and who was it that decided that the criminal justice system must be cost effective?" "We are not a business. We administer justice in the state of Idaho. If we wanted to operate in a cost effective manner such as that- we should simply shut down the state prison and release the prisoners. That would be cost effective."
I nearly choked when I heard that. It took great courage to say that given the like mindedness of the people in attendance.
People will act selflessly with honor rarely or most usually- they will act selfishly with cowardice. Which simply means that people will usually do what is in their own self interests. They no longer care about honor or courage. They see those virtues as items which might kill their careers and paychecks. When an opportunity to act with honor and courage presents itself- cowards always remain silent. They secretly rationalize that what they are doing is the intelligent choice.
In a vacuum where honor and courage no longer matter- Bill and Hillary Clinton have found a place to call home. Apparently no amount of corruption, bribery, destruction of evidence or loss of life with it's associated lies about Islamic video graphers- will be enough to investigate or actually charge Hillary Clinton with a crime. All of those Federal prosecutors, state prosecutors, and local law enforcement officials with jurisdiction in the Clinton affairs are cowards and that of course includes the President. Void of any sense of honor, integrity, or courage in our leadership- our society is disintegrating in front of our eyes.
I know this sounds crazy- but I have actually considered making a citizen's arrest of Hillary Clinton having read a few statutes that I believe she has violated. Is that what it is going to take? Does a citizen have to get the ball rolling and if so, can you imagine how they would try to dissuade and smear you? It would be painful indeed. That's how nuts this country is becoming. We accept all of this piss poor performance just like the cowards in Washington who actually get paid to enforce the rule of law.
There will come a day when honor and courage are valued again. Call me a pessimist but I'm just not seeing it anytime soon.
I shall leave you then with this.
One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
-Maya Angelou
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
-Aristotle
