"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Friday 14 June 2013

Code of Ethics

It seems we have Councillors Gaertner ,Gallo and Ballard on the record  expressing  regret for the loss of authority to administer  punishment  under A Code of Ethics  Bylaw as opposed to  Bylaw for a Code of Conduct.

.On the one hand , we have Councillr Gertner's clearly and publicly acknowledged lack of understanding of the significance of the Oath  of Office. 

On the other, the lust for power to punish....retaliate, mete out the lash, take revenge  while claiming to be functioning at  "a gold standard of  behaviour"in keeping with the privilege of holding public office. 

It's an odd paradox. 

In the Middle Ages, Spain had the  Inquisition . . Priests  high and low  spent time devising  instruments  of torture, never heard of before ,to punish real or imagined  heretics to the one true faith. 

Power  corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

In recent history, Americans had McCarthyism  and the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. 

Citizen's  lives were ruined by a  national paranoia sparked by a single individual. Normally fair-minded individuals were silenced  for  a time by fear of being named by the lunatic Senator from Maine.  Others gave up the names of their friends to save their own skin. 

The enemy was not without.It was within. 

There will always be a special place in history for Hitler's  Nazism and that idea of order in the universe.

Few countries were without sin. Including Canada. Ships wre not allowed to dock and disembark thousands of refugees desperately  seeking safe haven. 

Here in Aurora, in the  year 2013, three puny politicians  publicly express regret over  loss of power to punish  or retaliate against whoever might disagree with their doctrine  and interpretation of Rights guaranteed  by a Charter enfolded in our Nation's Constitution and signed into law as recently as 1984. 

All it needs for them to succeed is for the rest of us to bow our heads in acquiescence and pretend it isn't happening. 

Not here. Not in Aurora. 

Yes here. Yes in Aurora. 

They did it.

 Most  of them  paid a  price. 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know the specifics yet but Hazel seems to have dodged the bullet!

Anonymous said...


Joseph McCarthy was actually a Senator from Wisconsin.

He died at age 48 from acute hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver caused by alcoholism.

It's too bad he didn't drink twice as much and die at age 38.

A lot of people would have been spared much grief.

Anonymous said...


It seems there is a trio of troglodytes on Aurora council.

They are perfectly defined below.

According to one source they seem "to have emerged from the mists of time untouched by human evolution. They are devoid of a single progressive idea and lack the slightest awareness of social and cultural advances."

Their incoherent political philosophy most accurately can be described as "bigoted narcissism."

They are aggressive in their posturing which often frightens off weaker, more timid creatures. But they easily lose control and the attack quickly degenerates into a rant.

Sound familiar?

Anonymous said...

11:41... Why should the details get in the way? Especially wrong ones?

Anonymous said...

Under your stream for Code of Ethics, I think we should add Senator Wallin's reasoning for her current mess, " It was all a mistake ". That dratted paper work got ahead of her for a few years.
Awesome!

Anonymous said...

12:54 PM
It is a lovely day & here you are with your perpetual nagging. Could you please, just once, contribute something positive consisting of more than a line or two of bile?

Anonymous said...

Perpetual nagging, 3:14 PM? "Physician, heal thyself."

Alva said...

This is cool!