editorial in the other times on the supreme court's decision not to give whistleblower protections to government employees.
the times, i think, is wrong. this is a scary notion: that once you join government service you lose some of your freedoms as a citizen. it should be that government service enhances your freedoms.
i don't think there is much difference between speaking as a citizen -- which the court said is protected by the 1st amendment -- and speaking as a public employee -- which the court said is not protected speech. especially in the case of a government official blowing the whistle on misconduct that costs american taxpayers or damages our credibility or even worse. government employees deserve the right to speak truth to power and reveal gross abuses of power -- otherwise, in order to serve your country you have to sublimate your personal freedoms.
that's not a choice americans should be forced to make.
1 comment:
hmmm. i dunno about this. Yes, employees should have whistle blower protections. but in an environment where anonymous sources are according front page attention, it seems that governement employees should be at least somehow reminded of the fact that their words have a much larger echo effect than someone at Enron. Namely, what's to stop a dissenter from completely derailing the work of a government for their own personal motives...it's just more likely to create scandal.
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