Building an “ethical self” takes a lifetime of work. It starts with the ability to know right from wrong, and includes learning from one’s mistakes, as well as from the mistakes of others. As ethical dilemmas confront us throughout our lives, the “ethical self” contains an increasing amount of “ethical experience” upon which to draw. If we err ethically along the way by making the wrong choice, that too goes into the “ethical self” and makes the decision making easier in the long run.
Those with little or no ethical self in their character do not bother with ethics or ethical dilemmas, as they have more selfish priorities.
In our elected officials, it is of paramount importance that they have a high degree of ethics and live by those ethics.
Based on their actions over the past few years, specifically since the Rendell administration came into office, you could put the entire body of ethics among all our elected officials in Harrisburg into a thimble and have plenty of room left over. Ed Rendell created an atmosphere of ethicless greed when he came into office. How else can you explain the massive budget cuts compared to the enormous pay raise passed after consultations with the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court, and very likely at the instigation of the Rendell administration. Rendell signed it into law.
Ed Rendell is a wheeler dealer. A little of this goes a long way. He’s a schmooze artist of the highest order. He can work a room like no one else, and everyone in that room will be smiling after having their pockets picked. As chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton Administration, Ed Rendell wooed, and allowed himself to be wooed in return by the gambling industry, collecting millions of dollars from them and shifting it to targeted Congressional elections around the country. He used these same resources to finance his run for governor. He is using those same resources, plus gambling interests within Pennsylvania to finance his run for reelection. In exchange for the first term, Ed Rendell brought us gambling, in the same unconstitutional stealth manner that was used to pass the pay raise last year. In exchange for the second term, he promises to expand gambling to include table games, and perhaps even outside the casinos and slots parlors, with electronic gambling and slot machines in various non-casino settings.
No one that deeply indebted to a single interest (gambling) can be free: free from ethical, moral, legal and personal conflicts. Ed Rendell has created an atmosphere of greed in Harrisburg that will only resolve with the removal of Rendell, the elected state judges, especially Ralph Cappy, the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and at the very least, the entire roster of leadership in the General Assembly.
No, Ed Rendell did not make them all greedy and full of hubris, they were already very much that way; but he has created an atmosphere that allows unfettered lobbying by the gambling industry, and developers. That in turn has created the crisis of government we face today.
Russ Diamond is a man with an excellent grounding in ethics. He recognized immediately that the General Assembly had exceeded their authority under the Constitution of Pennsylvania last July when they enacted the stealth pay raise that has since been repealed. Russ started an organization called Operation Clean Sweep Pennsylvania that now has fielded a list of candidates for the General Assembly that numbers over 100.
This ethical man has stepped down from his leadership position with the organization he founded, so he can run for governor as an Independent. Yet, faced with the Herculean task of gathering 67,000 signatures on petitions to get him on the ballot in November (a stacked deck created by the Republican and Democratic parties to keep third party challengers to a minimum), Diamond will be spending the next few months going around the state and helping the Clean Sweep candidates.
What we have seen about Russ Diamond has been a consistent package of high ethics, and good character. He makes good decisions, and has a clear agenda for stabilizing state government and eliminating the awful atmosphere of greed and hubris that pervades the administration, the courts, and the General Assembly thanks to Ed Rendell.
Today, Diamond fired his first shot in his run for Governor. He takes on Lynn Swann, and in the process, challenges the “pundits” that have cast him as a spoiler. We believe Russ Diamond is that rare candidate, a third party candidate with a legitimate chance to win. Both of his opponents are very vulnerable.
Visit this link and listen to Russ Diamond:
http://www.russdiamond.org/audio/swanjube.mp3
And one thing Diamond has that neither Swann nor Rendell posses: a clear vision for Pennsylvania, one unclouded by the influence of outside money.
And please visit both Operation Clean Sweep to find a candidate for your area, and Russ Diamond for Governor. Please lend all your support to the fine candidates. Give generously, sign Russ Diamond’s petition and support your Clean Sweep candidates.
That’s Russ Diamond for Governor of Pennsylvania!
Thank you.
THE CENTRIST
“Kick the hubris out of Harrisburg!” -- THE CENTRIST
"It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs." -- Albert Einstein
Copyright © 2006: “THE CENTRIST”. All Rights Reserved.
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