SOCIETY IS A REFLECTION OF ITS LAWS AND GOVERNMENT

The level of comfort and trust Americans have in their government is fast disappearing today as corruption, fraud and political infighting by professional politicians reach the top echelons of government both state and federal. A spotlight example of that problem came to light in late March 2007 in New Mexico state government and reverberated all the way to the federal government in Washington, D.C.. The New Mexico kettle of fish had been stinking since 2004 involving reported huge kickbacks in the construction of the new Metro Courthouse in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This fiasco happened under the watch of former U.S. attorney in New Mexico David Iglesias, former New Mexico attorney general Patricia Madrid and the powerful, longtime Democratic state senate speaker Manny Aragon. The conclusion of the investigation on a scheme to defraud the state burst upon the public scene with indictment of Manny Aragon, a lawyer and New Mexico’s top lawmaker for over twenty years who allegedly received kickbacks adding up to $700,000. Pleading guilty in the scheme was former Albuquerque mayor Ken Schultz, Marc Schiff, architect and senior partner in charge of the project, Manual Guara, subcontractor that inflated vouchers and kickback money. Not yet indicted Toby and Sandra Martinez the court boss and his wife that are accused of approving over $2 million in phony invoices for kickback purposes. Also not yet indicted is Raul Parra accused of skimming off $773,000 and funneling thousands of dollars more to other defendants. This scam totaled an estimated $4.2 million in fraudulent kickbacks and sent the Metro judges scurrying to the state to pay for overruns on the project.

While not involved in the chain scam conspiracy former New Mexico U.S. attorney Iglesias and former State Attorney General Madrid have been viewed with a jaundiced eye for slowdown of the investigation. U.S. Senator Pete Domenici and U.S. Representative Heather Wilson were aware of the slow-moving investigation and both called Iglegias in the fall of 2006 to see how the investigation was coming along. Those calls triggered the political lurching-reach of U.S. house and senate democrats to cry foul after Iglesias and seven other U.S. attorneys were fired. U.S. House and Senate democrats immediately rushed to press conferences to point the political finger at the Bush administration hoping to find something wrong with the dismissal of the U.S. Attorneys including New Mexico U.S. attorney Iglesias.

Honesty is the foundation of strong character. Dishonesty is the foundation of weak character. Like a house built on a sandy foundation weak character will ultimately collapse and often with a loud bang. Government leaders representing the people are expected to be held to a higher moral standard. Their standard of morality can lead a nation to the higher moral ground or lead them to the depths of immorality. These people are the lawmakers of the nation. Every democratic society is a reflection of its laws and how those laws are administered. When lawmakers engage in immoral acts of dishonesty the reflection of the nation’s laws is permanently impaired and we have arrived to the age-old excuse (everybody does it) that sends a nation further toward the edge of the slippery slope of immorality. History records great nations that have destroyed themselves because of that slippery slope. Could this all be placed at the doorstep of a counter-culture with a strong foothold in our nation hell-bent on creating a utopia of peace without God?