As one friend of mine calls them, New York’s “sexed-up governors” have drawn a lot of attention in recent weeks, first with former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s resignation in the wake of revelations of his hiring prostitutes and then new Governor David Patterson’s admission upon inauguration that both he and his wife have had extramarital affairs. (Note to Mrs. Patterson: You go, girl! What’s good for the goose is good for the gander!)
But the real scandal about our new Governor passed with very little commentary and seemingly no public outrage at all. The Times reported last week that, according to his tax returns, our new Governor’s total charitable giving last year consisted of $150 in old clothes he donated to the Salvation Army, on income of well over $200,000. That represents less than 0.000005% of his income. Gov. Patterson made some vague murmurings about helping out needy relatives, but then moved on. So did the media. So did the public. Story over.
I personally am appalled. This, to me, is a far greater outrage that whatever the Governor did in his private life, which is between him and his wife. Every religion teaches that those with resources have an obligation to do their utmost to help those without them. In a state like ours, where some apartments now go for upwards of $70 million but 1 in 5 children lives in poverty, our leaders need to consistently uphold an example of doing this. Yet we have a Governor who gives less than 0.000005% of his income to the less fortunate and no one seems to mind.
I know, I know, people will say that charitable giving is a choice and that people are free to give or not give as they choose. And I am trying hard to remember the dictum “judge not, lest ye be judged.” But it amazes me that there is so little public outrage over this behavior, which every religion would say is sinful, and yet so much over sexual infidelity. We seem to be very selective as a state as to what sins we will allow our leaders to commit. Maybe that’s because, for all our talk of how generous we are as a people, the average American is just a big a sinner as our Governor: after all, the average American gives less than 2% of his or her income to charity, or less than one-fifth that outlined in the Christian Bible as the expected standard. Funny how people zero in on some verses of the Bible and not others. Just goes to show how easily we can focus on the mote in our neighbor’s eye and ignore the log in our own.