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Brad Blog March 12, 2008 Print E-mail
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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spitzer.jpgPosted by Brad in reaction to New York Governor Eliot Spitzers prostitution troubles
 
-What is it that allows the sheriff to stumble? What allows you to think you won’t get caught? The same hubris which leads you to think you deserve to be the chief executive of a state, country, or huge company is the same hubris that makes you think you can get away with these actions and not get caught.

-The source of your greatest achievements can also be the source of your greatest downfall. This can help us to understand and even forgive, without excuse making. Doesn’t have to be a bad man because he did a bad thing.

-What if the impulse to want a prostitute was the same impulse as to shut them down?
The roots of the thing that drives us to do good stuff maybe the same as to do bad stuff. Same energy, but misused. But without that mentality he might not have run for governor.

-Doesn’t mean that he is off the hook. Be cautious of people striding in their pursuits -- even to do good. Often contains the seeds of the opposite. Cautions us against all knights in shining armor.

-Why was the federal government following a prostitution ring when it is supposed to be following terrorism? The way our fight against terrorism is taking place affects us all--touching our sense of privacy and the boundary between public and private. This is not just alarmist, and it is not Al Quieda.

-What is the relationship between private acts and public life? Spitzer did break the law. Not just a private act. Not like Bill Clinton. It is more than hypocrisy. Fundamental conflict between job given and how he is functioning. Public officials have a right to a private life. This is in conflict with his job.

-This will be one of those moralizing moments when there will be endless pontificating from religious sector. This is a spiritual issue --why he did this with the prostitute, but it is the same spirit which led him to public life. Easy to moralize, but that serves no one. A real spiritual perspective on this sees the connection between the inner life and the outer actions for good and for bad.

-Jewish tradition celebrates flawed heroes, which doesn’t mean that Spitzer is Moses. Just means that good people do bad things, and bad people do good things. None of us should be judged by any single thing we have done. Don’t judge the totality of a person’s life by a single act. Which doesn’t mean he doesn’t have to go. Probably does.

-How this story ends has as much to do with the points made as with what Spitzer did in the hotel. The obligation of how this plays out has as much to do with our awareness of how the story gets covered (the back biting, moralizing, political playing, etc.) It is also about our reaction.
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