Congressional Candidate Plagiarizes Post

"Honesty is the best policy." -- Benjamin Franklin

Greg Raths is running for the Congressional seat being given up by John Campbell.  He has posted on "The Boards" section of Patch several times; each time he's been backed into a corner regarding his beliefs, he has just simply deleted the post.  His actions say quite a bit about his inability to take criticism, let alone take responsibility for his own words, so he can demonstrate his commitment to his beliefs.  

In a comment to one of those posts, he claimed to have five degrees.  Raths was a career Marine officer, it takes at least 7 years to earn three degrees in one subject (a B.A. a M.A. and a Ph.D.), so being curious as to when he found the time to earn five different degrees in at least two different subjects, I asked what subjects those degrees were in and which institution issued them, Raths gave the non-committal answer of inviting us to come to his house and see them on his walls.  

I know, I know it's shocking that someone who is less than honest would run for Congress.  But I bring this particular claim up for another reason. On December 28, 2013, Greg Raths went beyond the simplistic dishonesty of a terribly stupid lie.  He put his name to a piece on Benjamin Franklin, claiming words written by someone else as his own.  That is, as we all know, called "plagiarism, " and it constitutes grounds for expulsion from every  University and college in our nation.
  
Not only is plagiarism an act which is completely devoid of ethics and integrity, it's also illegal. Plagiarism constitutes the theft of one's intellectual property.
Raths' wife is, by his own admission, a professor and he says his daughters teach. It's unfathomable that Greg Raths doesn't know what constitutes plagiarism. Especially if he does have five degrees from actual universities or colleges.
When called out on his act of plagiarism, Raths used his delete button.  Knowing he would, I took some screen shots for posterity.  I always anticipate the cowardly...

You can click here to see a full-sized screen shot of his post.

The original was published in March, 2013, on Yahoo, by Anisa H.:

One of the leading figures of early American history, Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) was a statesman, author, publisher, scientist, inventor and diplomat. Born into a Boston family of modest means, Franklin had little formal education. He went on to start a successful printing business in Philadelphia and grew wealthy. Franklin was deeply active in public affairs in his adopted city, where he helped launch a lending library, hospital and college, and garnered acclaim for his experiments with electricity, among other projects. During the American Revolution, he served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He also negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War (1775-83). In 1787, in his final significant act of public service, he was a delegate to the convention that produced the U.S. Constitution. 

On December 28, 2013, at 10:22 p.m.,  Greg Raths published the following in Patch; you can compare the text below with the screen cap linked above. (Note that he left the faulty punctuation of the first sentence completely intact.)

One of the leading figures of early American history, Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) was a publisher, scientist, inventor, and diplomat. Born into a Boston Family of modest means, Franklin had little formal education.  He went on to start a successful printing business in Philadelphia and grew wealthy. Franklin was deeply active in public affairs in his  adopted city, where he helped launch a lending library, hospital, and college, and garnered acclaim for his experiments with electricity, among other projects. During the American Revolution, he served in the Second Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776.  He also negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War (1775-83). In 1787, his final significant act of public service, he was a delegate to the convention that produced the U.S. Constitution.

One can certainly understand what drives an 18 or a 19 year old college student to plagiarize; a child away from the safety of home, scared, and in over his head academically will resort to cheating and it's always sad when he does.  One also gives the student, that child, a "F" despite one's understanding.  

But what, in God's name, motivates a middle-aged man, a former Marine Colonel, to steal the words of another and pass them off as his own? 

We live in dire times for our Republic; we may actually be witnessing our fall.  There are plenty of people, in both parties, who hold office and are dishonest as far as morals, ethics, and integrity are concerned.  We really don't need one more.
  
On June 3rd, please vote, responsibly.