WORLD According to Mark By Mark Tobola There is an old, suggested guideline that one should never discuss politics or religion in the public. Many times, this is a wise choice. On the other hand, the …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in, using the login form, below, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free website account and connect your subscription to it by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
WORLD According to Mark
By Mark Tobola
There is an old, suggested guideline that one should never discuss politics or religion in the public. Many times, this is a wise choice. On the other hand, the founders of this nation built this country on the idea that people could do exactly that without worry of some form of repercussion for doing so. But here we are, and for most of our adult lives, the reality is to be careful about what and how you say things.
So, the reason I lead off with this is because of a few things that are trends in the news the last few months. And some of these trends focus on people involved in political or religious positions, and how they spent money in ways that are seen as not being the most ethical of choices. And then, the trend has been in the articles that… Well, the writers, all being different, all seem to suggest that everyone who fits into the category of these particular people acts the same way.
So, forget about their political, religious and or any other label that is put on them, the whole point is about their habits and tendencies and the costs of them. I don’t understand why so many people want to take isolated situations and use them as a blanket idea of how everyone conducts themselves. Some people have a tendency towards the lavish, towards dramatic flair, towards all sorts of things. And sometimes that ends up showing itself in ways and places that one doesn’t expect. And that is often OK. And people who are public servants, be they political, religious, business or otherwise, should also understand that being asked about how they spend the money they are entrusted with will be required to justify their spending of it.
But to stereotype groups of people because one person does something that appears unusual? I learned the lesson about that long ago, and that is called stereotyping and or discrimination. Each individual person must show their merit, or lack of merit, by their own actions and choices. Each individual person has a right to show how good they can be, or how not so good they can be. That is life. And life is full of hard realities, no matter what. I hope that those in the news who are being asked about their spending of money have answers that are satisfactory for all. And if not, I hope they show that they have character and integrity and do the right thing to make things right.