| What's 225 About? |
|
| |
Sheila Boyce '85 takes us sailing on Biscayne
Bay
|
"Enoughhhhhh … arghhhh … here I am looking up some
guy named Rico in a lawyer's manual while two blocks away topless
babes are sunning themselves on the beach!" Some
such struggle in one form or another went on in every student who
has gone with me to study public corruption in south Florida for
the past two years. The course is "Politics 225: Ethics and
Public Policy." The struggle is important because it parallels
a struggle within public figures facing a choice between public
service and one of the many forms of public corruption.
Choosing to study instead of going to the beach,
like choosing public service rather than its corruption, involves
deliberation and will, an exercise in self-restraint for the sake
of a higher, more enduring purpose. The more exercise the easier
the choice until one chooses self-restraint and public service almost
as a matter of habit. No purpose than this is more important to
me throughout 35 years of teaching, and I've never taught it better
than in South Beach. Instruction there is reinforced by absorption.
Lessons penetrate both head and heart. The best teachers are the
many people we meet. Prosecutors, TV reporters and investigative
journalists, lawyers, business leaders, lobbyists, public interest
advocates, elected officials, and public ethics bureaucrats have
all welcomed us and devoted hours of their time to helping us understand
how and why so many public officials abuse their positions in south
Florida.
 |
Widely respected Miami-Dade-area lobbyist
Dusty Melton (navy shirt) spent more than five hours with Robert
Sutherland (white shirt) and students in Florida. |
|
