The IP Weekly
These past few days I’ve been wracking my brain thinking of jobs any of us could have and keep if we distorted our resumes. My thinking led me to a story I remember from my childhood. My father owned a pharmacy and was very loyal to the few employees he had. One employee told my father he was enrolled, completed pharmacy school and had become a licensed pharmacist. My father was proud and left him in charge of the pharmacy one day. I don’t recall how my father found out that none of it was true, I was young, but he did. I recall my father’s disappointment. I also recall his forgiveness, my father cared about this young person and recognized that beyond lying to my father and risking a very serious problem that there was something wrong. And while my father never stopped caring for this person, he did not allow him to continue to run the store. That last part is obvious, isn’t it? Aside from potential legalities involved the destruction of any trust would disqualify almost all of us from keeping the jobs we had.
Of course, I am thinking about our newly elected Congressperson from New York George Santos who distorted his resume in published documents and while on the campaign trail. Mr. Santos claimed to have graduated from CUNY Baruch College and claimed to have worked for two different high-profile firms on Wall Street. When questioned neither Baruch nor the firms could confirm Mr. Santos’ affiliation with them. There are a series of other allegations against Mr. Santos related to things he said on the campaign trail and many other questions about his wealth and his heritage that don’t need to be discussed here. I am really only interested in his resume.
Mr. Santos has admitted to his fabrications on his resume and insists that he will take his seat in the United States House of Representatives come the new year. He believes that his fabrications do not disqualify him from holding public office and, it would appear, that there are no legal actions to be taken to prevent him from taking office. My own frustration is not about anyone’s political beliefs (you’ll note that I haven’t revealed a political party here) it is about holding our public officials to the same standards the rest of us are held to. I have been thinking about students, high school and college, who are routinely penalized for acts like plagiarism, another form of distortion. I know I have wrestled with the appropriate penalty for claiming someone else’s work as your own over the years. Why would we bother to impose any penalty at all from this point on? How is it possible college students be penalized for their indiscretion, but Mr. Santos be rewarded for his?
Our society has become consumed with truth, lies, distortion, alternative facts and, of course, punishment for those caught in any deceit. Sports are almost always my favorite barometer for how society feels. I too love sports, but I can recognize that it is just a game and has no real impact on the rest of my life. In recent years we have kept great baseball players out of the Hall of Fame because of their fabrications and deceit. We have punished baseball teams for stealing signs and football teams for attempting to negotiate contracts with players before the assigned signing period. Watch any baseball game this coming season and you’ll note that almost every pitcher is searched by an umpire looking for illegal substances that, if found, will result in immediate ejection and likely suspension. Is it possible that we take our sports more seriously than we do our federal government?
I understand that politicians lie. I understand that they all make promises on the campaign trail that they cannot keep. I also understand nuance. We don’t punish parents for allowing their children to believe in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny. We understand that every parent isn’t ready to explain to their children where babies come from when asked. We don’t accuse them of distorting the truth. Like many other instances we understand that distortion sometimes happens and the reasons for it aren’t nefarious.
I don’t claim to know why Mr. Santos has chosen to lie about his education and his work history on his resume. I want to believe that he, like the young person who lied to my own father years ago, did it for reasons more complicated than his own personal gain. I want to believe that he needs our help and support, being outed in our lies so publicly can be devastating. And while I want him to get help, I also want him held to the same standard I get held to on my resume. We shouldn’t need legal recourse here; we should need an understanding that if any of us lie on our resumes and get caught that we aren’t keeping the job. Isn’t that just a simple notion?
