There’s no body armor available that can protect us from our failing moral and ethical standards—we’ll have to grow up before we can fix those problems.
When SFR broke the news on Nov. 24 that generally beloved Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano had resigned in light of a state police investigation into property embezzlement, it hit county residents like a shrapnel shower from a hidden roadside bomb.
Solano had been war-profiteering on a personal level by selling old protective body armor—officially considered unsafe for use and meant to be destroyed—to be used by US soldiers as additional protection for navigating the dangerous wars initiated by George W Bush. Solano’s actions—admitted by him in a statement—were wrong in so many ways as to be genuinely stunning. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
As a nation, our moral compass is so wildly uncalibrated and our ethical standards so arbitrary, it’s no wonder we’re all behaving like contestants on a Lord of the Flies reality-TV show. From politicians at the top of the global heap down to local, elected officials, a good example is the last thing being set.
On the one hand, Solano chose to do something wrong and is solely accountable for it. On the other hand—whether consciously or not—he was emulating the example we’re all being given. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff’s transparent profiteering and abuse of his position to secure government contracts for company client Rapiscan—maker of the controversial airport full-body scanners—is only the latest in a long parade of cronyism and cash at the highest levels of government. Whether one considers no-bid contracts passed off to Halliburton and its subsidiaries, or big money bankers ripping off trillions of dollars and making record profits while the populace suffers, the lesson is that it’s every man for himself and playing fair will never deliver the American dream.
The myth that honesty and hard work build wealth and stability has given way to the reality that substantial riches only come at the expense of others. If you’re not part of the cabal at the top, you’re nobody.
Amazingly, rather than recoil in horror at this more-naked-than-ever truth, Americans have simply internalized it and reset our tolerance levels to believe that this kind of shocking behavior is benign, possibly even righteous. Witness the tea party and the popular support for politicians who blatantly support increasing the comfort of the wealthiest and swelling the military industrial complex while abolishing support and education for the poor and disenfranchised.
According to a recent report by the International Council on Security and Development, 92 percent of Afghans have zero knowledge of 9.11 and essentially no understanding of why American troops are frantically blowing their country apart. This should wake us to the fantastic illegitimacy of the wars we have been waging. It won’t. The notion of American moral high ground is so thoroughly entrenched in us—children who need to believe in our parents despite the evidence—that changing course seems decidedly inconceivable.
With such moral and ethical hypocrisy grafted to our actions, it’s natural that the trickle-down effect is similarly contorted: We are taught to use an egotistical righteousness to hide our most shameful acts. That Solano will face prosecution for his failings hardly fixes the problem nor bulwarks the criminal justice system as a protection from unethical and illegal behavior. Rather, Solano’s prosecution will reinforce that you have to be a big fish to escape the law. The double standard is practically codified at this point.
The problem is confounded because the US is not alone in this parent-child relationship between its government and financial structure, and its citizenry. Poor ethics, profiteering and double standards are the norm in global trade. Nations invited to play at the top of the heap have learned to use the same rules. Nations that push for more equitable systems are dismissed with the same anti-socialist rhetoric the American right uses against progressive politics. The final nail in the coffin is a corporate-owned media structure that effectively filters content to Orwellian degrees in the service of maximized profits.
Solano’s desperate crimes—perpetrated to avoid a debt spiral pushed on him by the same finance monster that concentrates wealth among a few—are a sad, local symptom of a global problem. Until we “children” are able to face the failings of our metaphorical parents, we will all continue to be punished.
Follow Zane’s World on Twitter: @Zanes_World
Gee, for a guy who postures himself as a hard-edged investigative journalist, you sure have fallen for Solano's excuses hook, line and sinker! To start with, before any investigation has even begun, you've repeated his "I only did it because of the economy!" whine as a fact. Solano makes more money than most county residents. If this (supposedly) educated man spent himself into a position that required grand theft to escape from, I'd say that is a greater indictment of his character than of this struggling economy, wouldn't you? And what's with this blather about how he sold these vests to American soldiers to protect them from (drumroll please...) GEORGE BUSH, now out of office for almost 2 full years! (Don't you socialists ever move on?) Obviously, the whole routine about selling to servicemen is a bare-faced lie meant to add a patina of patriotism to his "Solano Holiday Fund" idea - and you, "Mr. Investigative Journalist", have bought into it! When you sell something on Ebay, do you have any idea who the buyer actually is? Even if you knew that, you couldn't possibly know what the buyer was using the product for. Sure, he could send that vest it to his GI son in Afghanistan, OR, he could give it to his meth-dealing cousin, right? Even better, he could re-sell it to a Mexican drug cartel member, who would otherwise be woefully under-protected on the job. Face it - "Solano’s desperate crimes", as you so pathetically put it, are nothing but the result of his GREED, not his POVERTY. Drop the whiny leftist routine, and quit apologizing for him, like he's some kind of effin' Robin Hood. He's stealing from the "rich" of Santa Fe County, and giving (for a hefty personal profit) to the "poor" soldiers being brutalized by (the long-gone) George Bush? Solano didn't steal crusts of bread to feed his starving family - he stole equipment that you and I paid for, and peddled it to the highest bidder, to do with as they please. When some local cop next gets killed in a shootout with a meth dealer, don't feign surprise when it's found that the pusher's body armor is stamped PROPERTY OF SANTA FE COUNTY. I can't wait for your editorial then. It will be hard to make that George Bush's fault, but I'm sure you'll try!
Amazing what passes for journalism in this town. Get serious if you think you broke this story. You received a memo from the crook outlining his crimes and printed it with a nice tag line of "Holy Shit". Exactly, holy shit these idiots think they broke a story. Try breaking it before all the money is stolen next time and before the perp send you a notice of his actions.
And for someone who writes opinion pieces with little fact or real analysis and FOOD articles you really have some nerve pointing the finger at the big bad corporate media. It's especially ironic comming from someone who's paycheck comes from the massive amount of advertising that far outweighs any real news in this rag.
Solano was selling DEFECTIVE "officially considered unsafe for use and meant to be destroyed" body armor, that could end up being used by our troops. I believe the point of this article was not in defense of Solano, but condemnation of corruption (local, national, global) being an acceptable rout to success.
I wonder if the unruly children are going to be confused by this editorial message on the new corporate citizen and all his political virility. Where do their little minds wonder when they see the advertisements from hp, netflix, dish network and outback steakhouse? ...but back to the serious editorializing unruly children, don't focus on that hypocrisy, see tho other one over here.
...im not sure if I get it, but I hope you don't mind if I call you daddy.
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Wow! I am totally digging my spunky new fan club.
Maybe I shouldn't have focused on the lack of trickle-down ethics so much as the void of trickle-down reading comprehension.
Umm...I'm an opinion columnist, so thanks for imagining that I position mysellf as a "hard-edged investigative journalist" but I'm really more of a guy with a big mouth.
That being said, I don't dick around with facts. If you have some factual errors to point out, I'll be happy to entertain them or plead for corrections with my editor.
Oh, but Zebra and Sunfast aren't trafficking in facts, are they?
Umm, PS, Sunfast...you do realize that the ads you see on the sight are mostly driven by your own browser history, right? If you see hp, netflix, dish network and outback steakhouse....that's because those are things you've been looking at with your own isp address. Lucky for you that Viagra didn't turn up in your tirade.