Donald Trump may be a man without principles, but now you can’t say he is without convictions. (Okay, okay, that’s a cheap shot—but I’ve been saving it literally for months!)
‘Conviction’ is one of those odd words with two conflicting meanings. Webster’s defines ‘conviction’ as “the act or process of finding a person guilty of a crime” in a court of law. As in Trump getting convicted of 34 felonies committed in the furtherance of election interference.
The second definition of conviction is “a strong persuasion or belief.” This is not to say that a powerful conviction must always guide a person to do good. One could, for example, have a conviction that the only thing that matters is making more and more money, regardless of the law or morality. That kind of person might routinely cheat on their taxes, bilk students with a fake university or set up a phony charity.
But convictions can also give a person the strength to do what they believe is right. Just last week, State Department official Stacy Gilbert resigned from the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in protest of an administration report falsely stating Israel was not blocking humanitarian aid to Gaza. Ms. Gilbert’s position with the State Department must have been the pinnacle of her career, but she gave it up willingly because she was true to her convictions.
Sometimes both definitions of conviction operate simultaneously. The astronomer Galileo Galilei (1633) held the firm conviction that our sun (and not the Earth) is the center of the solar system—for which he was convicted in a court of law and forced to live out his life under house arrest.
Nelson Mandela’s personal conviction that racial apartheid is wrong got him convicted of sabotage and sent to prison for 27 years. Throughout his incarceration, Mandela held true to his convictions and when he was finally released, he was elected President of South Africa.
Joan of Arc (1431) was driven by her conviction that God chose her to lead France to victory over the English. She was convicted of heresy and witchcraft and burned at the stake.
Speaking of witch hunts, during the Salem witch trials of 1692, 20 people were convicted of witchcraft and condemned to death but steadfastly refused to confess, holding to their conviction of innocence and belief in God.
Iowa has had notable examples of people of great conviction. During World War I, before he became the 31st president, Herbert Hoover organized efforts to feed millions of starving people in Belgium and France. Hoover was later convicted in the court of public opinion for the Great Depression but continued with his humanitarian work throughout his life.
Mahlon H. Clark (1842-1890) was an African American attorney who fought against racial discrimination, courageously dedicated to winning civil rights for all Iowans.
Trump now has 34 criminal convictions to his name and they probably won’t be his last. I followed his trial closely but now I am frankly sick of hearing about him and his many crimes. I think the Justice Department should make a deal with him. They agree to forget his remaining three indictments and, in exchange, Trump agrees to take a vow of silence. Now that would be justice for all.