Bernstein: Ken Frazier Steps Up Again
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Donald Trump is accepting enough of murderous white supremacists, but he was quick to direct his righteous anger at a different target Monday morning: Kenneth Frazier.
Frazier is the CEO of Merck and resigned from the president's council of manufacturing leaders in the wake of Trump's refusal to decry specifically or disown the ideology and violence of the hate group in Charlottesville over the weekend. Frazier said "America's leaders must honor our fundamental values" by rejecting expression of bigotry and hatred. In a statement on Merck's Twitter account, Frazier said, "As a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."
Trump then tweeted "Now that Ken Frazier of Merck Pharma has resigned from President's Manufacturing Council,he will have more time to LOWER RIPOFF DRUG PRICES!"
See, when Trump really wants to get after someone or something, he doesn't equivocate or delay.
Frazier's name was last seen in this space, you may remember, in July 2012 in a column titled "Goodness Among Evil At Penn State," in which we noted Frazier's powerful role in ousting Joe Paterno from the school for all of the correct reasons. Even amid the rampant sickness that infects Penn State to this day, it was Frazier who was unafraid to speak truth about the horrors that were facilitated by Paterno and his football program.
"It was about these norms of society that I'm talking about: that every adult has a responsibility for every other child in our community," Frazier, a Penn State grad and Harvard Law alum, told the New York Times in January of that year. "And that we have a responsibility not to do the minimum, the legal requirement. We have a responsibility for ensuring that we can take every effort that's within our power not only to prevent further harm to that child, but every other child."
Frazier chaired the internal special investigation, hired former FBI director Louis Freeh and empowered him to shine as harsh a light as needed. It was Freeh's report that set in motion the prosecution of school officials that only reached sentencing just this past March. Frazier always understood that his help came too late.
It was Frazier who put his public face on the announcement of the findings.
"Our hearts remain heavy, and we are deeply ashamed," he said. "We allowed the former administration to characterize to us the issues, and we failed to ask the right questions, the tough questions or to take definitive action. Put simply, we did not force the issue."
It makes sense, then, that Ken Frazier would have the courage of conviction to act on his beliefs yet again. It should also not surprise us that our unfortunate president could not bring himself to denounce this latest vile amalgam of Nazism and the Ku Klux Klan but lashed out personally at an African-American business executive as soon as he had the chance.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Bernstein and Goff Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.