From: Walter Starck [ggoldend@bigpond.net] — re “The Three Whistleblowers” 

It is great that some people are willing to speak out and despite the disclaimers I don't think their gender is coincidental. It is also disturbing but hardly surprising that many in their organizations seem more concerned about the revelation of problems than they are with doing anything about them.

To Walter from Suzanne

I liked the Time cover.  It's a more sophisticated and gutsy choice than I'd have thought they would make — biting the hand that feeds them sort of thing.

I love this: “More unusually, all three are married but serve as the chief breadwinners in their families. Cooper and Rowley have husbands who are full-time, stay-at-home dads.” Blowing out all preconceptions.

This is great — it's quintessentially female in terms of reciprocity versus the male tendency to rugged individualism: “During the ordeals of this year, it energized them to know that there were two other women out there fighting the same kind of battles. In preparation for their meeting in Minneapolis, WorldCom's Cooper read through the testimony that Enron's Watkins gave before Congress. 'I actually broke out in a cold sweat,' Cooper says. In Minneapolis, when FBI lawyer Rowley heard Cooper talk about a need for regular people to step up and do the right thing, she stood up and applauded.”

As Cooper says, “This is a wake-up call for the country.” I like what she thinks we're waking up to: “There's a responsibility for all Americans—teachers, mothers, fathers, college professors, corporate people—to help and make sure the moral and ethical fabric of the country is strong.”

I was watching Frontline, I think the same day that you sent me the Time email.  It was a story about Bhutan, which seemed unbelievable. As it says in an article about Bhutan on the PBS Website, “Gross national happiness is more important than gross national product,” because, “happiness takes precedence over economic prosperity in our national development process.”

More choice parts: “It is hardly surprising that people here often speak of 'the outside world' as if it were another celestial body…Maybe we are somewhat isolated from the world, but we feel part of a living community that is not just connected by wires. That's why 95 percent of us exchange students return home. By and large, you would have to say people are happy here…because an individual's quest for happiness and inner and outer freedom is the most precious endeavor, society's ideal of governance and polity should promote this endeavor…the last Shangri-La…a paradise o­n earth.”

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