Jewish World Review May 15, 2003/ 13 Iyar, 5763

Marianne M. Jennings

Marianne M. Jennings
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FORGET VIRTUE: JUST GROW UP!


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Casino lords don't comp rooms, limos, food and beverages for breaking even. Fredo Corleone, Moe Green, et al., don't dole out $200,000 lines of credit for recreational gamblers. And $8,000,000 in losses at the video poker machines mean Bill Bennett is a chump extraordinaire. Those casinos saw him coming; and they conquered.

The Dems are having a field day as the king of virtue and standard bearer for the Republicans is caught with his hand on the one-armed bandit. However, Dems can't go too far down the virtue path because doing so labels gaming a vice. They risk alienating the voting bloc of the sovereign nations, i.e., the tribes who are addicted to the cash of the Ak-Chin casinos.

Republicans are in an equally hard place against a rock. They can't come to Bennett's defense or they endorse gambling. Should they try the inane "personal life" defense, all their Clinton clucking comes home to roost.

The masses miss the point. Perfect leaders, political and otherwise, do not exist. However, there is a consistent posture here, at least for the Republicans because they don't court the reservation vote. One need not moralize about gambling, women, wine and song to denounce Mr. Bennett, Mr. Clinton and all the Kennedys except Ethel. Those who are front and center in leadership positions, political and otherwise, ought to behave as adults. A man of Bennett's position ought to have progressed beyond Vegas hustler.

Why is there no longer a scale of maturity, an evolution in which we move from party-on-down to nights at home, from bar-hopping to hedge-trimming, from sex in the city to barbecues in the yard? Why is there no longer a clear line of demarcation between follies of youth and responsible adulthood?

I demand no more from Mr. Bennett than I demanded from Mr. Clinton. Not plunking down $8 mil at casinos is neither a rigorous nor moralistic demand. Not chasing interns around the desk also sets the bar fairly low. Mr. Clinton hurt his knee partying into the wee hours with golfer Greg Norman. Is such recreation appropriate for the leader of the free world? When it was 11 PM during the Clinton years, we always knew where our president was - not at home in bed. And if he was there, it wasn't with Hillary. We had National Enquirer photos of the starlets who joined him there. They were jumping on the Lincoln bed. Ah, what adults these be!

Animal House has absorbed the culture. Former Alabama coach Mike Price was fired last week for his nocturnal activities at a topless bar. He asked for "forgiveness," saying, "I admit making mistakes." A mistake is 4 X 8 = 36. His behavior bespeaks defiance and immaturity, especially since it followed a pre-departure warning of, "Don't carouse!" Emotional, social and psychological maturity are necessary qualities in coaches, virtue gurus and the prez. I like George W. precisely because he has put aside childish things. He gives every parent of a frat-like child hope. Level heads can emerge after high blood-alcohol days.

There are so few examples of real adults. In 1997, Michael Kennedy, father, husband, and advocate for the poor was killed while playing football on skis. My 8-year-old shows more wisdom and restraint. Real fathers fix training wheels, deal with crabgrass and crave hammocks. They don't jet-set on Colorado's slopes or chase their baby-sitters - Michael Kennedy's claim to fame before death by astonishingly stupid recreational activity.

Here in Arizona, a lawyer is doing time because he killed a college coed in the wee hours while driving drunk at 90 mph on a street that runs between the ASU campus and student residences. This hot-rodding hot dog begged for mercy from the court at his sentencing because he has a wife and two small children. What on earth was the father of two small children doing out drinking with friends in the hours before dawn?

The night club fire in Rhode Island and the stampede in a Chicago night club still bring stories of how many children lost their parents in those accidents. Why do parents of young children need to frequent dilapidated joints that feature grunge bands known for their lack of restraint when it comes to exotic animals and pyrotechnics? Aren't their lives richer than this?

Do adults ever progress beyond PARTY? Does "experimentation" with drugs stop? Do we ever move beyond physical attraction into deeper relationships? Do commuters ever stop gunning their cars at lights in order to best the Jetta next to them? Driving has deteriorated to Grease-type drag races, complete with dodging, weaving, and passing. Where are our fathers' Oldsmobiles? It's bumper cars for adults on our highways and byways.

For many, Mr. Bennett's conduct betrayed virtue. Hypocrisy stings. But, Mr. Bennett was on a pedestal because we was our adult in a world of perpetual adolescence. He spoke unequivocally during the "meaning of is" days of Clinton debauchery. His deep entrenchment in gaming's sleazy world leaves us doubting. Bennett has not progressed beyond activities that consume 95-pound nicotine fiends seeking elusive jackpots. The father of The Book of Virtues has been ensconced in a Naugahyde bar stool, succumbing to a fool's temptation. I feel just as I do when I question my teens, "You spent $8,000,000 on what???!!!! What were you thinking? Will you ever grow up?" Virtue aside, is that too much to ask?

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JWR contributor Marianne M. Jennings is a professor of legal and ethical studies at Arizona State University. Send your comments by clicking here.

Up

05/08/03: The Divine, man, war, and leaders
04/28/03: Dixie Chickens
04/22/03: "Squaw"king over a peak
04/16/03: Pulling the old Johnnie Cochran
04/07/03: The other casualties of war
02/27/03: War and principle
02/20/03: Diabolical women
02/14/03: Deadhead poets and society
02/07/03: Misguided compassionate conservative
01/31/03: The Wisk "fix it!" mentality
01/24/03: There are only two types of people in the U.S.: Trial lawyers and their clients and those who have had to pay trial lawyers and their clients
01/16/03: "My ex is a minority, so I deserve special treatment"
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03/15/01: Columbine redux: Moral infants
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01/26/01: The challenge to be better than we have been
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12/06/00: The company we keep: Lawyers and elections
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11/20/00: Put me out of my misery
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08/18/00: Resenting the accusations of racial prejudice
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06/02/00: Oh, Canada: Our Nutty Neighbors to the North
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05/12/00: Taking your lumps
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04/11/00: The monsters we're raising with the ergo proposition
04/05/00: Endowing the Hooters Chair for Literature Appreciation
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12/14/99: Drop-kicking the homeless
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07/06/99: An Amish woman in a Victoria's Secret store
06/30/99: That intellectually embarrassing Second Amendment
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06/17/99: True courage is more than just admitting troubles

© 2002, Marianne M. Jennings