This Is What a Leader Sounds Like

4/18/2020

(The eulogy for three citizens can be found from 3:00 to 10:00.)

I don't know much about Gov. Phil Murphy from the neighboring state of New Jersey -- but I do know he has two admirable assets in a leader: a brain and a heart.

These were amply evident on Thursday when Gov. Murphy spoke about the impact of the pandemic on New Jersey, starting with the horrible facts and then moving into the personal.
In six-plus minutes, he eulogized three residents of New Jersey who had died of the virus.

They were selected as a balanced ticket – a Roman Catholic white man, a black man, and a Jewish woman, who had survived as a 15-year-old in Bergen-Belsen and remained a witness and a teacher, into her 90s.

As he introduced these three pillars of his state, Gov. Murphy used terms often heard at wakes and funerals, invoking some version of an Almighty to bless their hearts, bless their souls.

I doubt that any non-believer, even those allergic to religious presence in public, would be offended by the opening of Gov. Murphy’s own heart. He was feeling the tragedy of losing people, good people, to a killer. By blessing their lives, he was helping all of us feel the humanity of the fallen, and ours.

This is one of the highest callings of a leader, in any field. When David Stern passed recently, many people recalled him as tough negotiator as commissioner of the N.B.A., but I also recalled the day he had to banish a player (Micheal Ray Richardson) for life, for repeated violations of drug policy. Rather than be vindictive, Stern seemed to be feeling deeper emotions as he blurted, “This is tragedy.” He felt it. He made me feel it.

This was leadership from the heart, as was President Obama’s visit to the church in South Carolina where worshippers had been murdered by a man with a gun. The President took a deep breath and sang, a cappella, the first lines of “Amazing Grace.” He called a blessing on all. He made us feel the horror.

Amidst all the legal skirmishes about the presence of religion in public life, leaders often give witness to their faith, sometimes recklessly.

Jerry Falwell, Jr., has insisted on re-opening Liberty University; 78 cases of the coronavirus have since been detected in the immediate area. (Personal note: I covered religion in the late ’70s and knew and liked Falwell’s father. I bet Falwell, Sr., would have had enough sense to listen to medical experts.)

Nancy Pelosi often ascribes her public policies to her Roman Catholic faith. Former vice president Joe Biden and current New York governor Andrew Cuomo – who applies real facts, real logic, in his daily seminars on the plague – are said to bond in their faith.

Meantime, evangelicals ascribe a previously undetected faith to the current president. Preachers told their flock to vote for him in 2016 and I am sure they will again in 2020. He has speculated out loud about the eternal destination of the deceased landmark member of the House, John Dingell of Michigan.

There is no evidence that Donald Trump holds any belief in the goodness, inherent or potential, of others. His worth is measured in the stock market, how much relief money he can slip to his cronies. Life is a battle to make himself look good, pushing the rock uphill with every event. It is all about him.

Gov. Murphy helped us love the lives of the three citizens, as stand-ins for all the others who have fallen in recent weeks. However we felt it, however we expressed it, in religious or secular terms, we knew it was a tragedy.

May the governor have fewer occasions to introduce us to the fallen of his state.
* * *

The transcript of Gov. Murphy’s eulogy for the three citizens:
https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562020/approved/20200416b.shtml

A separate clip about Margit Feldman:
Holocaust survivor, NJ resident dies of COVID-19, honored by governor

Gene Palumbo

4/18/2020 11:06:21 am

George, this is beautiful. Really extraordinary - and extra-ordinary, beyond the ordinary, is what we need at this point. Thank you for this.

George

4/19/2020 09:17:53 am

Gene: thank you for the nice note. You enjoyed, as much as I did, the two comments from the man in Kuala Lumpur (a first for me) in the previous post about JC Superstar and Man for All Seasons Great to have other viewpoints on line here. Best to La Patrona Bonita de La Casa. GV

Andy Tansey

4/18/2020 04:41:21 pm

Catholic raised and still a bit observant, I am also glad that I got ideas that religious truths can be relevant outside of traditional religious structures. Now I am old enough to be content that, however persuasive one may be about a particular faith or agnosticism or atheism, there is truth there beyond our capacity.

However, since the other, darker side is mentioned, I'll endeavor into some Judeo-Christian musing. In the earliest chapters of Genesis, we learn the lesson that we cannot be like God, though the evil one was clever enough to confuse the earliest people about this. As I seek to finish my very scholarly Catholic Bible during this mortal life, I have gotten up to Jeremiah. Such nuance between the true prophets and the false prophets! Easy similes with our politically motivated religious figures. There is no greater sin than to be a false prophet, and though I recognize my arrogance in saying so, I fear too many Americans are failing to recognize these false prophets. I sometimes make the mistake of leaving the TV tuned to a channel - playing something okay when I tune out at night - which when I wake up greets me with a preacher selling his hatred of New York City and his books and souvenirs. Apparently enough believe him to keep him in business.

Allow me to return to the main theme, that those rooted in true faith of whatever form can be counted on to lead us in the right direction. Thanks for the insight about Gov. Murphy.

George Vecsey

4/19/2020 09:24:57 am

Andy, I can't watch or listen to that stuff anymore. Print news delivers the facts and opinions without that ugly persona and sound.
I think that guy serves the callous purpose for "religious" blocs, the same way he serves Putin as a
полезный идиот
That is to say, useful idiot.
He plays to them, so that works.
It is great to see people with a stated core refuting his bile.
Be well, GV

Alan Rubin link

4/18/2020 06:42:27 pm

George-People of all religions observe their faith with varying degrees of belief. What I believe is the essence of anyone’s commitment is that they live the moral component of how to interact with others to the fullest.

Unfortunately, I have observed over the years too many devout people who have lacked any moral fiber. People should be judged by their actions. It seems that you can always depend upon the quite ones.

George Vecsey

4/19/2020 09:33:34 am

Alan, thanks for your response, always from the heart.
I found it fascinating the way Trump seemed to react with double bile to certain testimony. Coming up with Shifty Schiff seemed to come naturally to him. His disdain for Vindman. Likewise his contempt for women with brains and conscience during the hearings -- Marie Yovanovitch and Fiona Hill, etc. Brains and core values make him uncomfortable. Best, GV

Gene Palumbo

4/19/2020 12:54:21 pm

George spoke of Trump's disdain for Vindman. Maybe it goes beyond that, beyond him. Maybe Trump fears what Vindman represents, the example he gave of telling the truth instead of covering it up; of blowing the whistle when a higher loyalty demanded that of him. If more people in his administration did that, Trump would be in trouble.

I'm reminded of another official who, like Vindman, held himself to a higher standard. Like Yovanovitch, he was an ambassador; and like her, he was fired. I'm talking about Robert White, the U.S. ambassador here in El Salvador in 1980, when the archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, was assassinated, and four U.S. churchwomen were raped and murdered. The Reagan administration pressured White to report that the Salvadoran government was doing a serious investigation of the murders of the women. He refused. He knew that the opposite was the truth: a cover-up was in process. When it became clear that he wouldn't cave, he was removed. Imagine if more public servants took a similar stance. As White later said,

It is true that I stated publicly that no serious investigation was taking place into the torture and deaths of the [four U.S.] churchwomen. The State Department knew [that] from my reports. For me to have affirmed as true something that I knew to be false would have made a mockery of the sacrifice of those women. They devoted their lives to the poor of El Salvador, and died at the hands of their oppressors. For me to have gone along with the Department’s misleading statements would have been morally wrong. If the price of keeping a job is to participate in the continuing cover-up of those responsible for this barbaric act, that price is too high to pay.

What if that kind of attitude were to catch on? I'll always remember how struck my students here were when they learned what White had said and done. Here's what two of them said:

In a world where it’s hard to know what to believe, it’s refreshing to learn about an ambassador who put the truth and human rights above all else. He was a person who didn’t take the easy way out.

What impressed me most about Bob White was his commitment to really doing his job, not just keeping it. . . . His courage and deep sense of service are models for the rest of us, especially those of us who still dare to dream of a just and peaceful world.

We need more people like him and Vindman and Yovanovitch.

George Vecsey

4/20/2020 09:38:49 am

Gene, thanks for your reminder. In the context, I had not thought about Arch Romero, the only saint I have ever met.
As you know, I met him twice during the bishops' convention in Mexico, 1979, After JP II's message in the Zocalo, journalists I respect were furious, saying Romero was now set up . I sought him out in Puebla a few days later, and he left a meeting to walk with me outside, and (in my poor Spanish) I asked him if his position was more vulnerable and he said, yes, it was, He was murdered saying Mass a year later. The awareness of Sir Thomas More and the John Legend's Jesus in the rock opera both relate to Arch. Romero's state that day in Puebla de Los Angeles. And White was abandoned by Reagan. On it goes. GV

bruce

4/20/2020 12:18:52 pm

george,

reagan was more saintly to americans than he was to canadians, i would say.

his behaviour wasn't as benign as is often portrayed.

my best friend was bureau chief of the financial post in ottawa. he knew one of the top 2-3 advisers to pierre trudeau. this guy told him of a story of a meeting of haig and reagan with trudeau--who was genius level IQ--this adviser.said when reagan left the room for a few minutes haig apologized for reagan's 'performance'....

becket, i would think, could be mentioned with more and romero.

one of the 'good' side effects during terrible times is finding out--or being exposed to people you weren't aware of, or vaguely.

i've seen murphy a number of times on cnn.

don't know how his fellow jersey citizens felt about him before this pandemic, but he certainly does a good job as the public face of new jersey.

bruce

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QUOTES
“They may hate the cultural context they now find themselves teaching in, but they love their work. The Achilles’ heel of schoolteachers, one all too easily exploited by politicians, is that they love their students.”
(One of the best reads in the NYT these days is Margaret Renkl, in Nashville. In her latest post, Renkl describes the dedicated core of “born teachers” – the majority, she submits.)
***
(From Madeleine Albright in one of her final interviews in February):
“Putin is small and pale,” I wrote, “so cold as to be almost reptilian.” He claimed to understand why the Berlin Wall had to fall but had not expected the whole Soviet Union to collapse. “Putin is embarrassed by what happened to his country and determined to restore its greatness.” – Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, recalling her first meeting with the relatively unknown Vladimir Putin in 2000. – The New York Times, Feb. 23, 2022.

This Is What a Leader Sounds Like

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