[Vision2020] Otter Plans Closed-Door Oath Taking

[Donovan Arnold]

Chas,
   
  I don't trust politicians, for the most part. I think they are mostly there for the purposes of self, not public service. I feel that an oath of office offers at least some type of assurance that the person taking the office is promising to do so for the purposes of the people, not themselves. 
   
  Taking a public oath of office provides three major purposes;
   
  1) It provides an actual legal time and place of handing the office from one person to another and creates a public record of the person being swore into office.  
   
  2) It provides for the tradition of a place and time for people to gather to say goodbye to the old people of power and a welcoming of new people coming into power. It allows people to finalize the previous administration, to protest it, or praise it in a public manner. 
   
  3) It offers those that believe in a God and afterlife that the person taking the office will use their power for the good of the people and face a higher being for their actions even if we cannot get to them. 
   
  I know that number three doesn't mean anything to the 5% of people in the country, but it does to the other 95%.  
   
  Perhaps maybe we should consider other forms of assurance as well, maybe holding all of the assets of a public office holder until they complete their term, then a public vote taken to release those assets. This would prevent public office holders from profiteering off the positions they seek. Delay, Foley, Cunningham, Clinton, Bush, etc, would have to face a public vote on if they get an annual salary and their personal assets before getting them back. 
   
  I don't agree with you Chas, that the office holders are incompetent, I think they are very competent, they just do what they do for $$$$$, not for the interests of the people they are suppose to be serving. 
   
  Happy New Year,
   
  Donovan J Arnold

Chasuk <chasuk at gmail.com> wrote:
  On 12/26/06, Tom Hansen wrote:

> What is it about his inauguration that Governor-elect Otter doe not want
> publicly known?

That question strikes me as unintentionally humorous. I distrust the
government in many circumstances, but all of my distrust is pragmatic,
based on the performance (or non-performance) of governors, mayors,
congresspersons, councilors, etc., at a functional level. However,
ritual is, or should be, of zero actual importance.

Maybe Otter has an intensely personal relationship with God, and he
feels that turning his inauguration into a public spectacle would
cheapen it?

Maybe Otter objects to taking oaths at all, and he is trying to avoid
the fundamentalist zoo that would result from his choosing to affirm
instead of to swear?

Maybe Otter admires greatly the few presidents who have opted for
private ceremonies, and he is striving to emulate them?

Maybe Otter dislikes the media, and this exclusion is a message to them?

Maybe Otter feels strongly that he should swear in on a stack of holy
books, comprised of the Qurʾan, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the
Urantia Book, but he seeks to avoid the tempest this would cause?

Maybe Otter is an atheist, an agnostic, a Deist, or a secular
humanist, and he is uncomfortable swearing in on any scripture at all,
but he seeks to avoid the tempest this would cause?

Maybe Otter would like to spend more time actually doing the job that
he will be paid to do, and feels that all politicians should do
likewise -- that substance is more important that form, in other words
-- and this is his example to his peers?

Maybe he is shy? Maybe he doesn't like the look of his face, or the
sound of his own voice, on film?

Maybe he has a Jehovah's Witness grandfather who has pleaded with him
not to take oaths?

I can think of many reasons that don't have any sinister implications
at all, as demonstrated above.

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