When I was young man, I ran for our local school board. I lost the first election, won the next three, and was eventually voted out of office after making progress on reducing taxes and spending.
In that time, I never got a single job for a friend or relative. It was clear that many board members, with relatives who had, or wanted, jobs in public education, were not as firm about never using their elected position to help relatives get preferential treatment in the hiring process. Those safe, high-paying jobs are often used as bribes by school administrators to get favorable votes from board members.
Another board member served six or seven terms before, during, and after my own terms. He pretended to be conservative, made many perfunctory statements about “keeping taxes down” but almost always voted to increase both taxes and spending. Such votes were always accompanied by the word “reluctantly.”, as in “I hate to raise taxes, but I am forced to do so, ‘reluctantly’. This is the last time I will do so.”
He, and others, said that several times a year.
Votes that increased spending always provided a good show. In that charade, obedient board members who said “We (I) have no other choice but to raise taxes.” always thought they were fooling others as well as they were fooling themselves. Needless to say, they were largely despised by the very administrators who used them so shamelessly.
Near the end of his last term, one of his dependents was given a job in the district. Such favoritism is frequently compounded by the oft-told lie: “So-and-so’s (wife, daughter, son, in-law, grandchild, old army buddy, creditor, next-door neighbor’s child, etc.) was the best-qualified person for the job.”
Complaints were often voiced by those passed over who were better qualified by experience, training, or intellectual ability. Then, another lie followed as surely as the night the day: “After all, it’s unfair to automatically disqualify the relatives of board members. They may be the best qualified.” The odds of such statements being true are, judging from the number of applicants for some public school jobs, are about 800 to 1.
Compounding sin with lies moves the soul into the area where The Judge may find it guilty of having participated in “complex fraud”. As Dante tells us, any “complex fraud” that involves taking money from taxpayers for personal or family gain sends those who participate to the 8th Circle. That’s an agonizing place to spend eternity.
We should pray for those who trade their souls to get their proverbial “mess of pottage” by using fraud and favoritism.
Even more, we should pray for the strength to avoid falling into that agonizing pit, ourselves.
