1. The Martha Stewart Case: Stop and Think.
Recipes, home products, how-to presentations on TV and in print, a popular magazine... These are some of the ways Martha Stewart has touched most Americans' lives, maybe only a little for some of us, and a lot for others. She's trusted and respected. She's also been parodied on Saturday Night Live, sure proof of a person's prominence.
As you probably know, Martha Stewart was charged with a federal "white-collar" crime. In con talk, she "caught a case," or in more universal jargon, "got her ass in a sling." It's been debated whether she did, in fact, commit any crime, and whether, if she did, it was serious enough to warrant felony charges. In any event, as I'm writing this, Ms. Stewart is serving a short sentence in a federal prison. She's banned for life from serving as a director of a publicly traded corporation, including her own company.
Her products and her magazine, however, have continued to sell. Obtaining the Martha Stewart line had been a major coup for K-Mart, but there was speculation that K-Mart would drop the line like a hot potato. It's true that major advertisers pulled out of her magazine like rats leaving a sinking ship. But what's actually happened is that sales of Martha Stewart products are increasing , and advertising revenue for the magazine is going up. Why?
Part of it may be a sympathy factor: People who believe she was treated unfairly want to support her. More important, in my opinion, is that most rational consumers realize that her conviction doesn't diminish the value or quality of her products. A bed sheet bearing the Martha Stewart logo continues to be a good buy even if the sheets she's sleeping on are prison issue.
To the majority of citizens, on the other hand, a felony conviction is assumed to make everything a less famous person touches turn to poison. At present there are more than two million people behind bars in the U.S., and many more on probation or parole. Very few of them are respected celebrities, but most can be productive citizens, some just if given the opportunity, others if given the opportunity plus guidance, direction, and re-education.
But increasingly, the paths to productivity and respect are closed to those with felony records. In many states they cannot vote, which is an essential duty of a citizen in my opinion. There have been uproars about "convicted felons" working in carnivals. In carnivals???? There was a major hubbub over someone with a rather minor criminal record working in a nursing home. O.K., I'll agree that anyone with a history of acting violently toward the helpless should not be entrusted with their care, just as I'll agree that my conviction for forgery would be reason enough for a bank to carefully consider my record before making me a vice president. But if anyone with any felony record isn't good enough to empty bed pans and change bed linens for a pitiful wage, then what are they good for? Would we say that none of them is good for anything except landing behind bars, where we'll pay an average of $22,000 a year for their keep?
I've never heard anyone say that Rory Calhoun shouldn't have been allowed to act, or that Tim Allen shouldn't be allowed to make people laugh, and no one is saying that Martha Stewart shouldn't be allowed to show us how to bake a cake.
I never met Rory Calhoun, although I served time in an institution that had held him decades earlier. Although I've done some comedy, I'm no Tim Allen. I've never met Ms. Stewart, (although I believe I'd like her) and I barely know how to make an omelet; but my own work I do to the best of my ability. My wife and I together pay a lot in local, state, and federal taxes.
Aren't you happier to have me putting my share into the kettle, instead of draining it of $22,000 a year? In the overall scheme of things, that $22,000 isn't much, and what I contribute to society, financially and otherwise, isn't a lot. But I'm only one of millions who wear that lifelong brand called a criminal record.
Unless we're willing to tell Martha Stewart she's not good enough to demonstrate cooking or decorating, is it fair to tell everyone else with a criminal record that he or she isn't good enough to repair an engine? Or drive a bus? Or teach in a community college? Or work as a hair stylist? But all too often, we do. |
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