APRIL FOOLS
(…using their political positions for illicit gains…)

The recent arrest and indictment of California’s State Senator Leland Yee, along with several dozen others involved with him as well, on Federal gun dealing, drugs, pay-for-political-favors, and other charges, including murder-for-hire deals, is another depressing example of how ethically and morally degraded our career-political class has become.

What’s so shocking about this particular case is how such a highly regarded and long serving legislator with an otherwise unblemished record was able to maintain that façade of integrity, while all the while acting like so many other April Fools using their political positions for illicit gains.

It just goes to show that our country is no more immune from the corruption virus than any other country in the world…such as China…or the Ukraine. Perhaps the only difference being that our brand of corruption is mostly aberrant rather than pervasively ingrained.

Or so we would like to think.

Of course, cases of corruption at various levels of our government…local…state…and even federal…are nothing new in our history. Almost from the start of our republic there have been such scandals, some relatively minor, others…exceedingly gross. Yet, our system has always sooner or later, exposed them, and brought those involved to account. Still, we can’t help but wonder if our long-held beliefs…that when it comes to such things, compared to so many others, our country is still relatively pure and untarnished…are probably naïve if not illusory.

And if these are illusory, then perhaps we may soon have to change that last phrase of our national anthem from …o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave…to…o’er the land of the under-table deal and the home of the sticky-fingered…instead.

CENTURION