May 2013

It’s true that Apple did nothing illegal. Neither had GE when we discovered how little taxes it had paid. And neither do any number of corporations who take advantage of tax loopholes. The disclosures open the door for serious discussion about the responsibilities of companies who use the advantages of the US to establish themselves and make healthy profits. It is troubling though that large corporations, especially when compared to what average citizens pay, can avoid their share of a tax burden. More troubling, at least to me, is the defiant and defensive attitude of Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, when he testified before Congress. Basically he said, we create jobs and that’s our social responsibility. Mr. Cook did not mention that Apple’s profit on each unit it sells is higher than that of its competitors, which to me adds to the issue of social responsibility. Social responsibility ought not to be something to shirk from, especially not for a company that is as wealthy as Apple. Taxes are part of meeting our social responsibility, an aspect of the social contract that exists between citizens and their government. It may not seem relevant to CEO’s like Tim Cook, but it should be.

Reading a recent piece by John Harwood about some of the current haggling between the White House and the Capitol, I couldn’t help a sense of déjà vu. “Much as Republicans may dislike Mr. Obama and his policies, a Democratic president can provide them a measure of political cover,” the article said. Ohio Republican senator Rob Portman is quoted with “if we wait until 2017, (referring to the 2014 and 2016 elections) which in essence is what they’re (referring to republicans in Congress) saying, I think we’re taking a huge risk.” What strikes me again and again when I read such articles is how contemporary politics determines the outcome of national issues. Today, politicians, like journalists, have to master the way politics is being used or else not be able to make their way in Washington. Immigration, the budget impasse, the affordable Care Act, the future of Medicare, tax reforms or whatever scandal is the talk of the town, all have to pass through the filters of politics. And the rest of us are asked to believe that if we don’t understand or accept the role of politics, we’re naifs and dreamers. Well then, let me be a naïf and a dreamer, because I believe that the public good ought to matter, and has to be factored in. As it has come to be practiced, politics so distorts what is good for the country, for citizens and for the world, that politicians steeped in the needed games and rhetoric too often no longer recognize the public good they are meant to uphold. They may give it lip service, but it does not seem to be foreground on their agenda. When are we going to say to those we elect, enough, enough of politics as usual.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a terrorist. Tamerlan Tsarnaev committed an evil act. Tamerlan Tsarnaev is finally buried—in a Muslim Cemetery in Virginia. But his burial does not undo the controversy about burying him. It took almost two weeks and the appeal of law enforcement before, as the police statement put it, “… a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to bury the deceased,” which his uncle later called a “faith coalition,” and which turned out to be Martha Mullen, a Methodist who tried to practice Jesus’ “love your enemy”, and who was able to act as intermediary. She emailed several interfaith groups and received a response from the cemetery where Tsarnaev is now buried. The anger, rage and loathing one may feel for what Tsarnaev did are justifiable, but once dead ought he not to receive a minimum of decency? The state of Texas, known for its high number of executions, buries those whose bodies are unclaimed in a cemetery on prison grounds with a service. One reason a Boston public official gave for not burying Tsarnaev in the area was so that his grave would not become a shrine. More likely it would have been desecrated. Still the position was understandable. Burying a terrorist’s body or ashes is not honoring him. It’s the least we owe someone who was once human. It’s a sign that we, unlike him, are capable of decency, charity, and in some cases even forgiveness. Martha Mullen understood that, and so did those who responded to her appeal.