PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

The headline in this blog appeared first in various newspapers around the country last week to herald a column by Leonard Pitts, a very credible national journalist.

The words say volumes about what has happened in this country as rage and resentment have taken over, not just in politics, but in society overall.

Unfortunately, political figures have led the way in denying the importance of integrity and ethical conduct.

Donald Trump is the leader in this travesty – if leading is a word that belongs in such an issue.  But, it also is true that many on the left have followed him into rage and resentment.  Think of Democrat candidate Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist who yells to drown out disagreement.  Add U.S. Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and to the mix and you get a toxic brew.

More from Pitts:

“…it is often said that we are living now in Post-Fact America — but truth is, we are also living in Post-Integrity America.  That’s not breaking news. But it’s been brought into painfully clear focus these last few days.

“One watched – not with surprise anymore, the capacity for that being long lost, but surely with dread and fascination – as Donald Trump launched his post-impeachment purge of aides deemed insufficiently sycophantic.  But that was just a prelude.

“Last week, he pardoned or commuted the sentences of 11 people, most of them guilty of lying, fraud, corruption, tax evasion and similar crimes.  In other words, the kinds of things of which Trump has often been accused.

“But it is worth noting that every person Trump pardoned or gave clemency came to his attention not through the normal machinery of government, but through inside connections or else, as The New York Times noted, ‘were promoted on Fox News.’  Some were championed by aides and allies.  Some had donated big money to his campaign.  And again, most had breached the public trust.

“Like former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who had served eight years of a 14-year sentence for trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.  Trump, who has opined how unfair it is that U.S. companies are not allowed to pay bribes to do business overseas, had called that sentence ‘ridiculous.’

“If granting clemency and pardons opens a window upon a president’s moral priorities – and it does – the view offered here suggests an unfortunate affinity for scammers and grifters, an empathy for those on the make, cutting deals, cutting corners, living the dream, until they got caught up by pesky rules designed to enforce integrity.  And if those same people happened to give him money or had their names whispered into his ear by a friend, so much the better.

“That’s not how this is supposed to work. And that it is working this way right out in the open, before our very eyes, suggests — no, screams — Trump’s imperviousness to any sense of ethical affront.”

There’s that word again – ethics.

It’s an important word to me, for at least two reasons.  First, I am privileged to serve as one of nine members of the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, which is assigned to enforce statutory ethics laws – and Oregon had a solid list of ethics laws that apply to appointed officials, elected officials, and members of state boards and commissions (including, to put a point on it, me and my colleagues in our roles on the Ethics Commission).

Second, I am a volunteer on an Ethics Committee formed at the behest of Oregon Common Cause to propose ways to reinforce the importance of ethical behavior and conduct in public life.  We are working, (a) to create ethics pledges for appointed and elected officials to sign on an annual basis (much like what now occurs at Intel Corporation); and (b) injecting improved ethics education into Oregon school curricula.

Both assignments are important to me and, it is with this background, that I read and applaud the column by Leonard Pitts.