Friday, January 11, 2008

Standing Up for What You Believe In

only "counts", if upon standing up,
there is a reasonable chance that
you will be knocked back down again
for your temerity.

The harder you are willing to be knocked down,
in standing up for what you believe in,
the more standing up for what you believe in
really "counts".

Standing up for what you believe in, counts.

Sacrifice is the currency of commitment.

A principle unworthy of sacrifice is meaningless.
It serves no point. It is just talk.

If your principles are unworthy of your sacrifice,
how worthy are your principles?


just a thought

1 comment:

Joseph Lopez said...

If we were interested in compensation instead of change, Ched, we would take our whistleblower chips to the Good Old Boy legal table, with copies in a slow boat to China, and let them "help" us.

But we don't want a pay off, we want them to educate kids right and keep them safe while they are at it, and now. We want them to admit mistakes made in he past so those mistakes can be avoided in he future.

You espouse Character Counts and I devote time to Continuous Improvement, but we want the same thing, have fought the same institutional golems.

But I really feel like giving up sometimes, I feel like everyone who sees that I got my ass kicked for whistleblowing only enforces the GOBC power base and their street crime prestige level.

I am not ashamed of it, I just don't want the fact that "they kicked Joe's ass for trying to whistleblow" to make them stronger and make future witness intimidation and attacks more likely.

And the only way to do that is to take the red or blue Matrix pill. You can live in a shadow world, a dream world, a 2d version of three dimensions, or you can just open your eyes and try to live in the moment.

I hope that is what we are doing,anyway. Trying to help with things we know and care about while we are still alive and ca make a positive difference in.

And I still want to quit and lay down the burden at times, to let them sleep in the beds that they made. It really sucks banging your head against a brick wall.

So I am now trying to instead let regulatory and enforcement officials of any misconduct or malfeasance I see. It lessens the chance that a Good Old Boy will intercept it, and gives me a good chance to work on other things that need to be done.