Harry And Sprio

The website www.dictionary.com defines the word “virtue” as the ability to conform one’s life and conduct to moral and ethical principles. With this definition in mind, I can say that many of our elected representatives in Anne Arundel County could by no means be considered virtuous.

This raises the following question: Is it unrealistic to expect our elected officials to live up to certain standards? How hard is it to pay your taxes? How smart do you have to be to know that it’s not a good idea to drive drunk? How much wisdom is required to avoid conducting your personal affairs in the parking lot of Annapolis mall?

All these questions bring me to a point made by Harry Truman; I have referred to this story before, but it’s worth telling again. Truman’s life before coming to Washington was relatively unremarkable. The only accomplishment he could point to was his army service during World War I.

After the war, Truman opened a haberdashery that promptly went broke. Needing a job, he was (with the help of the local Democratic machine) able to win election to a county commissioner post. One of his first duties was to modernize the county’s road system.

However, soon after his election, Truman learned that a judgment for $8,944.78 had been filed against him by his former creditors. In addition, his finances were so bleak that he had to take a second mortgage on the family farm.

Luckily for Harry, because of the rerouting of one of the roads on the project, 11 acres of the Truman farm had been acquired by the county. According to the rules, he was legally entitled to $1000 an acre, or $11,000, more than enough to pay his debts.

Truman, however, refused to take the money because it was his belief that, as the manager of the road construction, he must refuse the reimbursement lest he be perceived as benefiting from the project. Can you think of any politician today who would refuse such money?

Contrast this with the values of Sprio Agnew, the former governor of Maryland who would go on to serve as Richard Nixon’s vice president. Early in his political career, his future looked bright, but as governor, Agnew got into the bad habit of accepting financial kickbacks from developers. One would expect that his acceptance of bribes would cease once he ascended to the vice presidency. It did not. Agnew continued to accept the bribes, sometimes personally accepting the money in brown paper bags in the basement of the Old Executive Office Building. Like most crooks, political or otherwise, he was eventually caught and forced to resign.

The upshot is this: We need more politicians like Truman and fewer like Agnew in Anne Arundel County. Values do matter, and I refuse to accept the current view that all politicians are crooks. They are not. We have some despicable politicians here, but we have some good ones as well.

I don’t always agree with Cathy Vitale, but there is no doubt that, in her public life, she has the best interest of people at heart. I don’t know Ms. Vitale personally and I am sure she, being human, has some faults. However, to my knowledge she has never driven a car or boat while intoxicated, been disbarred from her profession or asked any members of her staff to empty a catheter bag. We need more elected leaders like her. We should never forget that it lies within our power to appoint leaders who see elected office as a high calling and not as a way to feather their own nests.