“The appearance of a conflict of interest” was the reason I was given 30 years ago. I had recently been elected to the Wayland Union Schools Board of Education, and as a newbie I didn’t know much of any of the ropes.
The “rope” that prompted that explanation was that, since my husband and I owned a business in town that frequently did business with the school district, I would have to abstain from any votes to pay the bills to Wayland Carpet.
It didn’t make sense to me that I should have to abstain from voting to pay a vendor to whom the school district owed money for products or services already rendered. But it was no skin off my nose to conform with convention and abstain. The bills would all be paid anyway, and no one could accuse me or the District of a perceived conflict of interest, or a perception of impropriety.
Perception is of significant importance in issues of government, whether great or small.
Certain actions can be perceived as sloppy money management (that might lead to crimes like embezzlement).
Certain actions can be perceived as currying favor (that might lead to crimes of kickbacks or bribery).
Certain actions can be perceived as sexual harassment or as creating a hostile work environment where none existed.
And certain actions can be perceived as undermining the rule of law, such as when a president opines that a sentence, handed down by what should be an independent arm of the law, is unfair and unnecessarily severe.
Though that president may be within his rights to speak his mind, his unsolicited opinion, about said sentence, there is no mistaking the perception of impropriety and a personal conflict of interest in that case.
But whereas my little abstention from paying a bill for vacuum cleaner bags to Wayland Carpet may have little to no impact on the Wayland Schools community, the president’s inability to keep his mouth shut about a federal case of felony conviction has enormous consequences for the country of the United States.
This particular appearance of interference with the federal judicial system holds great significance for a presidency that has been liberally peppered with accusations, indictments, convictions, and sentences of administration members committing felonies over the last three years.
Now the president has exhibited his lack of impulse control to keep silent about the sentence handed down to his old buddy Roger Stone, convicted of seven felony counts, who already has received a sentence far lighter than was originally proffered.
Under ordinary circumstances, a president would understand the importance of maintaining all appearances of propriety in order that he not bring upon his administration an air of illegality, much less sloppiness.
But this man/child lacks that understanding. He also lacks the impulse control to hold his tongue when he perceives personal injustices have been committed against him or his friends.
The recent acquittal of the impeached president, whether warranted or not, has emboldened this man to act in an increasingly brazen manner which we should all consider an attack on our own freedoms.
A president out of control, hell-bent on leading us down the road to autocracy without any checks by Congress or the Supreme Court, is a president to be feared.
He has been rather successful in scaring the stuffing out of me.
You might ought to be scared, too.
