showing up: the nytimes editorial board

The most striking aspect of the New York Times’ Editorial Board’s recent opinion, “Why the Trump Impeachment Inquiry Is the Only Option” was not the cogency of the arguments or the persuasiveness of the words - powerful though they were.¹ Rather, it wast the board’s ability (and decision) to look at the record it’s established over the last 150+ years and revisit the positions it held during each of the prior impeachments proceedings in America’s history.

Jackson, Nixon, Clinton - the board took a position all of their impeachments. Now, before wading in and providing an opinion on the Trump inquiry, the board returned to previous debates to understand how it had viewed those situations and to determine what was similar between then and now — and what is unique.

Showing up is hard work,² whether as an individual or as an organization. When you do, however, you leave behind a product which reflects who you are and where you’ve come from. Knowing that intellectually is one thing. Actually seeing it in practice, however, is quite another. The sight can take your breath away.

Footnotes

• ¹ Why the Trump Impeachment Inquiry Is the Only Option | The New York Times
• ² Showing Up And the Daffodil Principle | /_ Code Comments _/