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News / Opinion / Letters to the Editor

Letter: Conduct must be ethical

The Columbian
Published: December 4, 2011, 4:00pm

Elected servants must be exempt from some laws. Public servants must be free to make decisions in the best interest of their constituents that would be interpreted as a personal conflict of interest. I accept this.

Some congressmen are confused by this liberty making private decisions based on information gleaned from their public decisions. This is a matter of ethics. Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality — that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.

Some congressmen are enriching themselves unethically. Blatantly obvious are trades and deals made after acquiring privileged information. Subtle instances are where small investments outperform all odds and expectations. The point being that via the ethics committee Congress as a self-policing entity is a failure.

The control of our government belongs to the individuals. Elected servants must act in a manner that is self-sacrificing erring on the side of personal loss rather than gain. Spinning and twisting laws through interpretation will end. I hope it doesn’t end this great experiment, the United States of America. All congressional business should be conducted from the congressman’s home office.

Rob Drew

Vancouver

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