The Government Accountability Project sponsors the Ridenhour Award today in Washington, DC, "in recognition of the year's noteworthy whistleblowers and truth-tellers." The award is named after Ron Ridenhour, a Vietnam veteran who helped bring the My Lai massacre to light.
FatCratz supports whistleblowers, who play a crucial role keeping our government honest. We need more of them. Many government employees remain silent about misdeed and waste they observe, for fear of punishment in the workplace. I have observed them being retaliated against.
What we find intersting, however, are the whistleblowers who are celebrated in our news and entertainment media. They either take down corporate Fat Cats--chemical companies, tobacco manufacturers, Enron--or expose programs related to national defense and counter-terrorism.
For instance, among this year's honorees are Thomas Tamm, who helped expose the government's wiretapping program, and Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side: The
Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals. A quick run down the list of past recipients includes Jimmy Carter, Bill Moyers, Seymour Hersh (Abu Ghraib), and Joseph Wilson (husband of Valerie Plame, in case you've forgotten).
Everyone on this list may be worthy of their awards, but FatCratz is disappointed that we see know truth-tellers exposing the abuse of food stamps, or Medicare fraud, or bureaucratic waste in DC. Whistleblowing should not be a partisan activity, but all too often it seems that those who argue for greater "sunshine" in our policy-making have a particular focus on areas of policy that have some justification for secrecy in the first place. Sure, challenge that justification, but how about some sunlight of the waste that takes place in broad daylight?
Want to blow your whistle? Drop us a line.
