Remember "convicted felon" Eugene V. Debs? (Cranston Herald post )

I refuse to be angry at any fellow citizen who is appalled that a "convicted felon" can return in glorious triumph to Providence City Hall-with national news media glitz and all.

But I also think that well intentioned newspaper editors like Ed Achorn operate with a very narrow-even elitist- view of corruption. The fact is that the majority of voters perceive THE SYSTEM itself as corrupt. And this devastates their lives far more than puny individual corruption.

Is a bought and sold judge - bought and sold legitimately on the FREE MARKET, on a higher moral plane than a shady politician like Cianci? Could Cianci's real crime only be that he refuses to play the game by Harvard Law School standards? And so the Providence Journal recommends to their readers Jorge Elorza.

Each of the three candidates for governor of Rhode Island, Raimondo, Fung, and Healey, thinks the other two are captives of "special interests". Is that not just a polite way of saying they are legitimately corrupt?

Also, some truly great citizens have run even for president as "convicted felons". Remember one Eugene V. Debs, the old socialist crusader?

Eugene Victor "Gene" Debs (November 5, 1855 – October 20, 1926) was an American union leader, one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or the Wobblies), and five times the candidate of the Socialist Party of America for President of the United States. Through his presidential candidacies, as well as his work with labor movements, Debs eventually became one of the best-known socialists living in the United States.

Also, there is the Judeo-Christian concept of redemption to reflect upon.