Too many greedy people

As reflected in this newspaper’s name, USU’s mission is to produce statesmen. Richard H. Lee once wrote: “The happiness of the people at large must be the great object with every honest statesman, and he will direct every movement to this point.” We unfortunately have seen few statesmen here at USU, in Utah or in America. There are too many greedy and irresponsible people in America.
    On Jan. 31 I had the pleasure of attending the Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration performed by the American Festival Chorus. The program celebrated the life and fortitude of one of America’s greatest presidents. Lincoln’s strength and singular focus struck me as a more appropriate example for this economic downturn than FDR and the Depression. He not only guided America through a civil war, but did so as the North suffered its own economic depression. Our own “crisis,” so called, pales in comparison to the difficulties Lincoln faced.
    The performance reminded me of something Lincoln said as the war that took more than 600,000 lives was ending. He closed his Second Inaugural Address with a reminder that we should act “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
    It has been insinuated my argument against USU’s lobbying effort is more of a moral argument than an economic one and fails as such because the lobbying effort is a matter of politics, not morals. I must caution those that believe that politics is somehow divorced from morality, “Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right” (Isaac Asimov). Of course it is a moral argument, but it is also an economic one. It is a moral issue we answered incorrectly.
    We declare moral people to be those whose character is kind, upright, virtuous and principled. Among others, the Oxford English Dictionary defines “moral” as “designating the body of requirements to which an action must conform in order to be right or virtuous.” If a person does not comport himself or herself to these principles of right and wrong, we say they are morally bankrupt. Were our actions morally bankrupt?
    An article printed by The Statesman on Feb. 2 reported the budget cuts have forced the closure of a children’s clinic. This clinic helped kids with “cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, autism and other conditions.” Was it according to correct moral principles to lobby for the state funds going to this clinic? One student went as far as arguing that we have a right and an obligation to lobby to avoid budget cuts.
    Yes we have the right, but rights are the power to do moral and immoral actions. The existence of political rights does not mean every action performed under that right is necessarily moral.
    Let us act like Lincoln encouraged, “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right.” It is time we bind up those wounds irresponsibility has caused. I admit I wish USU and its students would practice the morals they preach. We have an obligation with a promise to “remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted” and “He that gives to the poor shall not lack.” We are warned, “He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall surely come to want.”
    We all want the economy to improve. There are those that say that education is the solution as though it were an unmitigated good. What value is an education without lessons in morality? I wish to remind those that believe this of all the educated crooks on Wall Street that caused this crisis. Maybe if they had learned morals and ethics along with the practice of business this might not have happened.
    Let us not fool ourselves, “There is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.” So said Washington, the quintessential statesman.

This editorial is the third installment of a four-part series and was written by Micah N. Strait, a graduate student studying political science. Comments can be sent to m.n.strait@aggiemail.usu.edu.