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Quote of the Day
Friday, December 10th, 2010
Robert Wechsler
I have abstained because some unnamed person tried to question my integrity and silence my voice on this issue. So I was forced to ask the Ethics Officer for an opinion, and she gave me one. She told me I could participate in the debate and that I could actually vote on this issue. But because we're dealing with politics, and, as Jim Maddox always said, you can never take the p out of politics, I've got to think and calculate down the road to see if someone would try to use my vote against me. So to protect myself politically and betray my heart personally, I have had to abstain.… I leave you with this quote.… Benjamin Elijah Mays said, I would rather go to hell of my own volition than stumble into heaven behind the pack of fools. That's my reason for abstaining.
—A member of the Atlanta city council, showing how not to explain one's choice not to vote where there is an appearance of impropriety. His brother works at the city jail, and there was to be a vote regarding whether to sell the jail to the county (see my blog post on this matter from April 2010). This was a gray area matter, where the law did not require withdrawal (and the council member did participate in the matter before abstaining).
FYI, Jim Maddox was the longest-serving Atlanta council member when he retired in 2009. Benjamin Elijah Mays was president of Morehouse College from 1940 to 1967, and a mentor to Martin Luther King.
Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics
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