by Jim Wood

Created on: March 18, 2009   Last Updated: March 21, 2009

The topic was should our politicians be held to a higher moral standard? Presumably meaning the rest of us can have a lower moral standard. I am a retired attorney at law so I have some very deep feelings about this. If you ever get to read the California monthly Bar Journal you will see that many lawyers are suspended or disbarred for stealing client's money, compromising a trust fund or for other misconduct that warrants punishment. So what is a higher standard? Stealing is at the bottom of the pit. "Thou shalt not steal". It is so blatant it slaps me in the face. Nobody should steal. Not lawyers nor congressmen or senators or trustees, or CEO's, bank tellers, etc. That is not a high standard, that is foundational. The list is almost endless. There is such a thing as a fiduciary position that denotes a higher level of care being required as a matter of law. In many ways you're elected officials, any one to whom you trust your money or your property, may have that greater responsibility. They are expected to exercise more than normal care to protect and preserve your assets.

How about your family doctor, his nurse or the hospital where he sends you, what is their responsibility? In my opinion it is unlimited. The school teacher to whom you entrust you child has any where from four to six hours of the most demanding responsibility that you would not likely accept if you gave it much thought. The most disgusting line I have heard over my many years is "It is not personal, it's just business." This means no one has responsibility for anything because it is out of our hands, it is just business.

Today we send people that seem to be upright citizens to public office and learn that they are taking kickbacks for favors, getting involved with money laundering, fooling around with prostitutes when they are married with children and, the most obvious selling votes and taking bribes. We do not need a higher standard of conduct for those politicians that do these things; we need a higher level of punishment. Many are lawyers so they know the rules. The others are from the countries most famous schools, they had all the best we offer and they decided to shame themselves, their families, their country, and us. These people have no standards so trying to raise the standard means we accomplish nothing. I want to see the criminal law changed to provide a special level of punishment for elected officials and other members of society that are convicted of crimes against the public. I think a jail term of say, 3 years for an embezzling bank teller will be set at 12 years or more for any one in a fiduciary position convicted of a crime.

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