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June 27, 2006
The congressional travel ban...the baby with the bathwater
In Washington, the Congress is considering ethics legislation, including a ban on nonprofit organizations sponosring trips for members of Congress.
Now, you could argue that trips like the ones Jack Abramoff arranged should be banned. Abramoff, the disgraced D.C. lobbyist who will spend a stretch behind bars for his maneuvers, funneled client money into phony-baloney nonprofits, which paid for congressmen to take golf trips to Scotland.
But there are nonprofit organizations that do extraordinary work. I’ve been associated with one, the Faith & Politics Institute, for many years. And I’ve been on two trips in which members of Congress attended. One trip was a civl rights pilgrimmage to Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma, Alabama. The other was a trip to South Africa, where we studied the work of the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission.
The F&P doesn’t support or oppose legislation. It does seek to promote civility and understanding among people who come from different backgrounds.
I hate to report it to my clients, but I didn’t do any lobbying on either F&P trip. Didn’t have time. Didn’t think it would be very effective. In fact, it would have been perceived as downright rude by members of Congress or their staffs. They might remember me from the trip if I were to call on them now, but I doubt it.
But the trips did change my life. I still marvel at the stories Congressman John Lewis told as we toured the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham. Pointing to a photo of him at a lunchcounter, being yelled at by a young white man, Lewis said, “What you don’t see is right after this picture was taken, this guy punched me in the nose.”
Incredulous, I asked congressman Lewis, “What did you do?”
He responded, “Nothing. That was the challenge of nonviolent resistence. I could not fight back.”
That was the most powerful personal tesimony I’d ever heard about from the Civil Rights movement.
In South Africa, I heard story after story of grace and forgivenss, beyond any capacity of mercy that I had ever imagined. The Truth and Reconcilliation Commission gave black South Africans the opportunity to face their former white oppressors…and forgive those who admitted to their indecent actions.
How are people able to forgive the hatefulness emobodied by apartheid, I wondered? I was told that forgiveness was not a feeling; it is a decision. And it frees those who forgive from the burden of resentment.
If those aren’t lessons that our members of Congress need to hear, what are?
I favor complete, detailed disclosure of congressional travel — where, why, what, how, the daily intineraries, which corporations sponsor the trip, which lobbyists or corporate executives attend. Even whether members steal away to play a round of golf or a set of tennis.
I’m persuaded that members of Congress benefit by getting out of Washington and being exposed to the real world. And in the vast, vast majority of times, their constituents benefit, too.
Posted Jun 27 2006 @ 06:32 AM