In the spring of 1954, Senator Joe McCarthy picked a fight with the U.S. Army, charging lax security at a top-secret army facility. The army responded that the senator had sought preferential treatment for a recently drafted subcommittee aide. Amidst this controversy, McCarthy temporarily stepped down as chairman for the duration of the three-month nationally televised spectacle known to history as the Army-McCarthy hearings.
The army hired Boston lawyer Joseph Welch to make its case. At a session on June 9, 1954, McCarthy charged that one of Welch's attorneys had ties to a Communist organization. As an amazed television audience looked on, Welch responded with the immortal lines that ultimately ended McCarthy's career: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness." When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?”(United States Senate Archives)
Over time, decency has referred to manners, but today decency is mainly a strong sense of right and wrong, and a high standard of honesty. When a criminal or dictator does horrible things, people assume they have no sense of decency.
Somehow, we the American public are supposed to pretend that both the office of President and the current man with that title, Trump are to be treated with equal respect. We have witnessed the demise of decency, let alone respect for standards, morals, values, and ethics, and have watched as one man with the protection of the Republican Party diminish the quality and expectations of President of the United States. Trump can do and say and act any way he wishes, even when most of his actions ONLY serve his insecure inept narcissistic personality, but when citizens of this country criticize this despot, suddenly we are considered as Un-American as taking a knee when the National Anthem is played. Sesame Street used to have a cute little game in which three objects were displayed and a little jungle ran in the background with the words: ”one of these things is not like the other, one of these things is not the same.”
I salute Jim Acosta of CNN for finally being the first to call out the lies, the deliberate confusion, the delay and denial of a man who at his best was hacked into office and at his worst assumes he will be President for life. I sadly, also have learned that many people of this nation refuse to learn any lesson from history and presume that nothing from the past is relevant for today. When will each an every person who has the opportunity to speak one on one to Trump finally ask the man “HAVE YOU NO SENSE OF DECENCY”
