Taking a Stand

On “This State University Has a Plan to Take on Trump” in The New York Times, I am grateful for the Rutgers University professors who conceived and drafted the “mutual defense pact” that faculty at many Big Ten schools have signed. 

Their decisions remind me the 2014-2019 series “Madam Secretary.” At the end of season one, Secretary Elizabeth McCord (played by Téa Leoni) decides to testify before Congress, thereby waving executive privilege and sparing her husband, an ethics professor, from having to answer questions as part of a Congressional inquiry to determine whether she violated the Espionage Act. Before taking the oath and possibly facing prison, she quotes her husband’s words back to him: “You know what you do when there’s no integrity in a situation, Henry? You find it in yourself; you change the world right where we’re standing.” 

The show has long been my favorite because of the way it shows the moral grounding of public servants working at the highest levels of the federal government. I’m disappointed the show is leaving Netflix in a few days and will no longer be available on a streaming channel because its lessons are instructive now. 

As the federal government and civil society institutions continue to be upended and unraveled, this is indeed a moral moment, as Sen. Cory Booker (D) of New Jersey said last month.

What is each one of us doing to meet this moment and uphold the American values of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”?

The professors at Rutgers are teaching us all.