I am disappointed that Obama selected Biden for his vice presidential running mate. As an English teacher, I warned my students about plagiarism using Biden as an example of how it can haunt the person years later. Maybe it no longer haunts Biden and he’s a reformed plagiarist. However, even when people who drink excessively stop drinking they still call themselves alcoholics. If he’s not plagiarizing, my guess is that he’s doing something else that’s equally dishonest. I don’t trust him and I don’t think I would like to see him step in as president if Obama couldn’t serve.
Maybe as my son-in-law suggested, I should just give him a chance. But I have misgivings. How important is it that he might be the next vice president? Is it fair to disparage him or is it fair to make analogies that compare plagiarism to other fraudulent activities? If I look for his highest life condition, remembering that each of us reside in the Ten Worlds from Hell to Buddhahood, then I have to ignore his earlier transgressions and trust that he has overcome them.
But I also have a responsibility to face reality.
As a writer, I think that stealing someone’s words is the same as stealing their TV, stereo system, or car. Maybe even more serious because it misappropriates the thoughts created by another person.
If I invented a new system of energy transmission that solved the energy crisis and someone else called it his own, I could feel violated, or I could be willing to share it with the world like with open source programming. So maybe plagiarism only becomes a violation depending on the attitude of the victim. But even with open source, even though everyone shares, someone gets credit for his work. They just let others use what they created. That’s different.
So I still believe that a person who plagiarizes is stealing by not giving credit to the source. And I also think that a person who plagiarizes and thinks he’s overcome that affliction is still going to have the urge to take from others if not their words, then their ideas, their rights, or their possessions.
