Ethical Lobbying

My late mother always did have a difficult time figuring out what I was doing with my life.  Once, driving home from picking me up at the airport as I returned from years of study, she asked:  "Now what is it you got your degree in?" "Anthropology, mama."  Well, it was a discipline alien to her experience, and I really wasn't all that shocked that, after I had spent 14 months in East Africa, sending her all of my films and slides and weekly (yes) letters, she still hadn't figured it all out.  Mama was a sweet soul whose world could be a bit narrow.

Many years later, when I was talking about something that I was working on at the Texas capitol, mama again asked the key question:  "Now, what is it that you do at the capitol?"  "I lobby, mama."  "Carolyn Ann, you don't mean it?!!"

Now any southern child knows that when their mama says <first name> <middle name>, especially with audible italics, the Vigoro® has hit the Mixmaster®. Mama's shocked reaction said it all.  "Lobbying" is a bad word, a bad thing to do.  No wonder when the corrupting influence of money in the halls of our government is so blatantly evidenced by those who lobby.  And no wonder when all the lobbyists one hears about are demonized as, well, the bad guys.

How, then, can I use the phrase "ethical lobbying"?  Is that not an oxymoron?

Well, no.  There are some ethics in lobbying, standards which good lobbyists might want to uphold.  Most likely do.  There are also those who lobby in the public interest.  These lobbyists--and the people (not corporations) that they represent--are interested in social change, public policies that have a positive effect on how we live.  At Ethical Society of Austin, we are thinking about doing a little lobbying in conjunction with Reason Rally 2016.  Can this even be a good thing? I'd say it is if we think of it in terms of "ethical lobbying"--just another form of ethical action, if you will.

One could talk about our constitutional rights to free speech, to petition our government for "redress of grievances."  One could talk about the eight commitments that ethical humanists make, which point toward building a more humane society, acting on our shared responsibility to create it.  We do not, however, need to appeal to various "authorities" to know what ethical lobbying is, because it is simply a natural human response to hurt and suffering and unfairness and ignorance and dysfunction and all the other ills we encounter--whether they are man-made or the products of the natural world.  If a lightbulb burns out, we replace it.  If a dress pattern doesn't quite fit, we modify it.  If a child falls, we pick her up.  If an animal is hungry, we feed it.  If a house is on fire, we call the fire department. Ethical lobbying is simply another way, another tool, if you will, to address the problems--great and small--that we face in our community.  It is another way to seek justice, to demonstrate compassion and caring, to discover truth.  While technically, lobbying is advocacy that focuses on specific legislation and is addressed to specific decision makers, ethical lobbying would take the values and principles of ethical culture into the public arena to promote the common weal, to take one more step toward creating a world that is more humane, just and fair.

"Yes, mama, I do lobby.  To help sick people get medicine."  "Well, okay, then."