Miss A’s Thoughts on Elizabeth Becton Scandal

Betsy

Dear Betsy,

In the past, I worked as an Executive Assistant for several powerful executives, such as a Partner at DCI Group, and the Managing Director of PeopleSoft’s Public Services Division, which brought in over $300 million in annual revenue. I never corrected anyone if they called me /On-drEE-ah/ or /Ann-drEE-ah/ or hell, even Angela. Your name isn’t what’s important. What’s important is giving great customer service whether it’s internally to someone in another department, or externally to a client. To be a great Executive Assistant, you have to be extremely organized, and you have to be a “people person”. Apparently, Elizabeth Becton is NOT a “people person”.

Even though, Ms. Becton isn’t a Congresswoman, she had a great deal of power as Scheduler for for Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott.  And as Lord Acton wrote in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton back in 1887, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” Her power seems to have gone to her head, or perhaps she just had a really bad day.

As inappropriate as Ms. Becton seems to have been, I am not sure she deserved being called out publicly by the media. We have all done and said things that we regret, and that when brought out into the public spotlight might show our character as being flawed. Whenever one small sample of who we are and what we do is blown up in the media, it can make us look like heros or villains. Take Michael Phelps, everyone thought he was a god because he won eight gold medals in Beijing. He wasn’t. He’s human like the rest of us. That was made clear when he got busted for smoking weed. It takes a much greater sampling to judge a person’s character. We see people the way we want to see them, by the simplest, most convenient definitions. Any great writer knows that characters are complex. The villian can be lovable, and the hero has flaws.

For all we know, Ms. Becton may volunteer at a soup kitchen three times a week, and may have donated her kidney to a neighbor in need. We have no idea. Only the Lord knows everything she’s been through in her life, and what all she’s done. Although, we’re all guilty of judging others, this is why we shouldn’t. Leave that to God. Is she the “Meanest Person in DC”? Probably not. She just happens to have the misfortune of being exposed. And of course, the media will continue to humiliate her until it gets old….and fortunately for her, her family and Rep. McDermott, it will get old at some point.

Being that I’ve been publicly called out by the media, I know this won’t be an easy time for her. Hopefully, she’ll gain some wisdom, as I did. I know her life will no longer be the same. She will have to go above and beyond to prove she’s a nice person to all of those who will now be prejudiced against her. Perhaps she will write a book on Business Etiquette, or get a reality TV show. Lord knows reality TV producers are circling Washington like hawks.

A word to the wise, be careful! Be very careful. You never know when you’ll be the next person to be exposed. We all live in glass houses in this age where “word of mouth” has been amplified 100 fold by Camera Phones, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs.

- Miss A