A Photo Speaks Of Ethics, Sounds A Call To Action

The Photo began making the social media channels about 3pm on a rather ordinary Wednesday after Thanksgiving. 

Stripped of the polemics of the Tweeting politicians, it is stark, unavoidably sad, and compelling.

The actual Senate Committee hearing on President Trump’s, Speaker Ryan’s,  and Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s latest “Make America Great Again” disaster of a legislative abortion.

This is real. 

Every GOP member save the Chairperson was AWOL …

….on THE tax bill. 

Look at each empty chair.

Empty chairs left by GOP Senators at the Committee meeting about the Tax Bill, a clear sign of abdication of duty.
Each represents a GOP Senator unwilling THIS day to go on record in THIS session to:

  • Defend even higher taxes on the middle class,
  • Defend thousands of brutal cuts to kids, elderly, poor, and Veterans, 
  • Defend giving exhorbitant tax cuts to the 1%, super-wealthy corporate executives, shareholders, & Wall Street hacks.

Look at those empty seats.

Empty chairs left by GOP Senators at the Committee meeting about the Tax Bill, a clear sign of abdication of duty.

This is gross abdication of duty. 

The very least, the absolute minimum, of a US Senator’s job is to

  • Show up for work. Promptly. 
  • Stay until the meeting is over. 
  • Verbally state on the Congressional Record, on the CSPAN video, basic facts and opinions, including:
  1. The Senator has read the bill in question.
  2. The Senator’s  explanation to American voters and other Human US Citizens WHY they have accepted it from the House of Representatives and formed this Committee, called this meeting.
  3. (In this case) The Senator’s explanation of WHY they support or do not support this creation of the political party they BELONG to.

Ask yourself: 

“If my group at work put me on a committee for a project…”

“and that committee called a meeting about this project our group had spent MONTHS and MONEY working on….”

“And all of us on the committee, me included, decided to just NOT SHOW UP for WORK….”

“What would the company OWNERS who hired me do?”

This event, this abdication of duty, is important for two reasons.

  1. This tax bill is rightly called a legislative abortion because the primary end result of it passing into law is Human Death. Not cytoblast balls of cells, real living American Human Beings. Don’t take my word on this. You can ask any CPA how this tax bill would affect you personally. I bet it will be bad. You can ask any intern at a local Senator’s office how it affects a Veteran Elder who is Low Income, and relies on Commodity Food and Food Stamps to survive.  Or a child with Disabilities. Or a Poor Woman working a full time minimum wage job. Insurance professionals can tell you about “Actuarial Tables” and how they can predict how many will die, but that is the stuff of nightmares not seen since Rwanda & Nazi Germany.
  2. This is a sign of a large group of GOP Senators abdicating even the most basic of the job responsibilities they were hired to do. This is grounds for termination in virtually every other profession in the US. This is grounds for Impeachment. Censure. This is a scandal of Watergate proportions. This is WRONG. Professionally, Morally, Ethically, and Legally.

Call your Senators. 

The numbers are right here.

Logo of US Senate on a background hinting at the immense Cosmos that we are part of

No matter what party the are, on this committee or not. Call Your Senators.

Remind them it is also a Senator’s job to speak up and take action when they see ethical or legal malfeasance – and this smells so rank with it any Senator who does not take action is as guilty as the getaway driver at a gas station robbery.

Look at the photo. 

Empty chairs left by GOP Senators at the Committee meeting about the Tax Bill, a clear sign of abdication of duty.

Every empty chair represents an employee who intentionally walked off the job. 

Would you be allowed at your work to do the same? Of course not.

If you see a crime, know details of a crime, and yet stay silent about it, aren’t you also morally and ethically complicit? Do I judge you? No…

However as an Independent Old Catholic Christian, as a Ecumenical Lay Fransiscan Religious, as an American Patriot –  I do have the right to evangelize on morals and faith in politics. It is up to you to stop, listen, do your own moral inventory, and decide if my words ring true as a call to take action for these United States of America. 

In reality? 

It doesn’t matter if you are an Athiest, a Pastaraffarian, or a member of any other religion or philosophical school. 

All that matters is that you are an American. 

It doesn’t even matter if you are one of  the lucky few who stand to gain from this tax bill.

Why?

Ask yourself:

Is it worth all the blood on YOUR hands?

Is it something YOU can live with, having that large a stain on YOUR soul as those who are young, elderly, poor, sick, or disabled freeze, starve, and die because you remained silent?

Make that call to your Senator. 

Here’s where to find the numbers.

Put your foot down and say that gross negligence, abdication of duty as a Senator is wrong, and you know it. 

Insist that those who left empty chairs are justly punished for the moral, ethical, legal, and professional crime they committed. 

Speak up and make clear to your Senator that you do not believe that this tax bill is in any way worthy of being considered by any committee for one second longer than it takes to have said committee vote “No Action”.

Make that call to your Senators now. 

You might sleep better. You WILL be able to take comfort that your action might involve a difficult decision, but it is the Ethical, Moral, Right, American thing to do, and you love America too much to stay silent.

God Bless America.

Victoran Woman with quizzical look on her face
BrendaTheWriter

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