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If one is going to speak out strongly against or for a certain policy or behavior, he or she must have the moral authority to do so. The moral high ground is not something that can be claimed without a price. It is only attained if you are already practicing what you are demanding of others.
There is no crisp conviction in your speech and no power to impact behavior without this kind of credibility.
Eighty years ago, the United States and Franklin Roosevelt ran into this very problem.
As Adolph Hitler was rising to power in the early 1930s, America remained officially silent. As the persecutions of the Jews in Germany increased-their being stripped of their professions, physically beaten and sometimes killed-America's policy was silence.
There were some practical reasons for this. For one, there was a large contingent of isolationists in the United States, who were especially sensitive after our involvement in World War I just fifteen years before. Most felt it would be political suicide to speak out strongly against the happenings in Germany.
There was also a universally strong opinion that, if the world waited patiently, Hitler would self-destruct, flame out and be gone without any need for international interference.
But there was something else...
Erik Larson, in his superb new book, In the Garden of Beasts, quotes a State Department memorandum that Assistant Secretary of State, R. Walton Moore, wrote at the time. In it, Moore explained the conundrum the American government was in.
If Roosevelt chose to speak out, he "might be involved in a very acrimonious discussion with that (German) Government which conceivably might, for example, ask him to explain why negroes of this country do not fully enjoy the right of suffrage; why the lynching of negroes...is not prevented or severely punished..."
In other words, on what authority could America speak? Blacks weren't allowed fully to vote. They were being lynched while authorities looked the other way. They were shut out of normal professional and educational opportunities. All things the Germans were doing to the Jews! How could the German government take Roosevelt seriously given the unchecked treatment of blacks in America?
The question is a good one....and the American government was emasculated by it.
The topic of torturing prisoners has been a hot one of late. I don't know enough about it to come down strongly on one side or the other. It's also a bit elusive to define what exactly constitutes torture. My feeling is that in most situations it is probably counterproductive. I'll take former prisoner of war John McCain's word for it.
The one thing I do know, though, is that if America is going to be the voice in the world for humanity, freedom and human rights, we'd better example it in every way possible, or our actions will emasculate us again.
Indeed, the strength of leadership is born of proper conduct, especially if it's a conduct being demanded of others.
A voice without credibility is no better than any other voice...in reality, it's but a peep in the wind.
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