President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been in touch with Cherelle Griner, wife of Brittney Griner who is a superstar in the WNBA regarding an effort to get Brittney released from jail in Russia. Brittney has pleaded guilty for bringing an illegal drug into Russia. There has also been a full court press by the WNBA to get Brittney released as well as other celebrities making a case in support of Brittney. That makes for an ethical problem that I could see coming immediately when I read about it.
Elizabeth Whelan, sister of Paul Whelan who has been imprisoned since 2019 on espionage charges, made it known that she has never heard from the President or Vice President and neither had the families of many others who are unjustly imprisoned there. John Kirby, spokesperson for Biden on these matters, assured the other families that he thinks of their relatives every day. Sorry but actions speak louder than thoughts.
Earlier this year a U.S. citizen and former marine, Trevor Reed, had been imprisoned since 2019 and was released on a prisoner swap. The Whelan family wants to know why Trevor and not Paul.
Optics are everything in life and particularly in politics. Access is key! It is the bedrock of decision making. What you do for one, you should do for all. It is a simple guideline. This was put into law regarding organ transplants after the Mickey Mantle Incident. Mickey Mantle, a famous baseball player, needed a liver transplant caused by his alcoholism. He was put on the top of the list because of his celebrity. That did not sit well with others who had waited their turn in line to get a transplant.
This resulted in a bioethics formula to make an ethical decision about who gets a transplant that contained ingredients such as how old is the person, how severe is the disease, and how well would they do after a transplant. The bottom line was that there are limited organs so who would be served best in the process. You could be too sick or too well. There was a concern that the organ itself had to get its maximum use as well. It put flesh on the ethical mandate what you do for one you do for all. Justice is one of the two major pillars of ethics so the decision about an organ donation had to be fair. The Biden Administration needs to come up with a formula for the criteria of who gets out of Russian prisons to return to the states and why.
Back to Biden and Harris. Who else did they both call? No one! Why was Harris on the call? Bad optics. Every white supremacist or bigoted person in the nation is saying, “See these leftists are going to put black people ahead of us.” The issue raises the ugly possibility that what matters is who you know and your celebrity. This administration does not want to be perceived that they are not for the little guy.
It’s not what you know. It is who you know. That is the way the world is. Perhaps I am the last person who should be writing this message for part of my ministry that has been rewarding for me is connecting people to the right people. When people come to see me so that I can help them with a connection they sometimes literally say, “You know people!” I feel uncomfortable hearing that as I feel like the godfather and will usually joke that “I have friends in low and high places.”
The way that I justify making connections to others ethically is to tell the person that I may need them to help someone else in the future and will need their help in assisting another person. It becomes a connection web of “paying It forward.” I am an equal opportunity connector.
Malcolm Gladwell, a thought leader, calls people who do this, “mavens.”
But I see a difference between what I do and what Biden and Harris are doing regarding Brittney Griner. I never connect someone based on celebrity or any other criteria. Like the transplant list my only question is, “Is this going to help this person and maybe others in the future?”
That is the only question that the President and Vice President should be asking. They need to be reminded that what you would do for one who came to you is what you should do for all who came to you asking for help. That’s fair. That’s justice. That’s ethical!
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