Aye
In late August my daughter Abby began high school, and Hannah and I decided that our family schedules required that I drive Abby to school most mornings. I have been thoroughly enjoying this daily time together with my daughter. Most recently, beginning about a month ago, we began to listen on the radio to testimonies offered by witnesses brought before the House Intelligence Committee about their knowledge of events surrounding the Ukraine Affair.
We noted that all of the witnesses, under oath, provided testimony that sounded authentic. None of the witnesses sounded as if they were lying - and none refused to testify for concern of incriminating themselves. In the composite, these testimonies painted a clear picture that a scheme of multiple individuals to bias next year’s Presidential election was committed at the highest levels of the Executive branch, including the President and some of his closest aides and cabinet members.
Crucially, we heard no opposing testimony at all on our way to school. We heard no witnesses who contradicted each other, and we heard no satisfactory explanations that mitigated the accusations. We also learned that the President was prohibiting the witnesses from testifying, including those closest to him, and that those who chose to honor the official subpoena of Congress, as Abby and I would have done if required out of respect for our House of Representatives, were in many cases accomplished professional people with reputations for honesty, and in some cases, valor in service to the country. We heard many complaints by the President’s supporters that the process was unfair, but to our ears the process seemed entirely fair: both sides were allowed to bring witnesses (only one really chose to do so), and both sides were permitted equal time to ask questions.
As your financial advisor, charged by you to solemnly, as a fiduciary, care for your wealth and uphold your trust, if I engage in lies, believe the lies of others, or fail to require and recognize evidence and data to support the investments and recommendations I make for you, regardless of how the stock market is currently performing, then I have no basis whatsoever for serving as your advisor. Furthermore, it is contradictory, even hypocritical, for me to behave one way as a financial advisor, but another way as a citizen of my country. I cannot require evidence as an advisor, and then blithely ignore it as a citizen. To do so is to call completely into question my honor not just as a citizen, but also as an advisor. In other words, I cannot be both an honorable citizen and a dishonorable advisor, and I cannot be an honorable advisor while also being a dishonest citizen. Either of these combinations is simply an impossibility.
What, then, does it mean to be an honorable citizen? It means the same things as being an honorable advisor, or plumber, or teacher, or President, including:
Be honest in all aspects of your behavior.
Strive to constantly improve your knowledge and understanding.
Have a clear view of what is right, and what is wrong.
Be willing to revise your thinking and your views when presented with persuasive evidence.
If you make a mistake, admit it and then try to repair it.
Support others and recognize that they in the aggregate are larger than yourself.
This morning, December 13, Abby and I, an American father and American daughter among those striving to be honorable citizens, advisors, and students, listened raptly in the car to the roll call taken of the Judiciary Committee members’ votes on two articles of impeachment. We had listened to some of the debate over these articles in the days before, but generally found them tiresome and repetitious, especially the ongoing insistence by some that the process was flawed. Crucially, we heard nothing that changed our minds, but instead things that actually caused us to reify our views.
We listened to the roll call, as the “ayes” and “no’s” were spoken, repeated, recorded, tabulated, and then announced. The ayes comfortably carried the day. And that, for what it’s worth, is exactly how both Abby and I would have voted too.
Aye and aye.
Leonard Golub, CFA
Fiduciary Financial Advisor