Right now in the United States businesses are crawling on their hands and knees groveling before the current administration.

Here, look at a headline: Here’s a link –

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/volkswagen-seeks-audience-trump-dangling-143559316.html

Volkswagen believes that if they deliver up enough goodies to our “fearless” leader they will get a tariff exemption protecting their profits.

They are not alone. Universities, law firms, media firms and countless other business organizations are on bended knee. It is a humiliating spectacle to see this in what was once a proud nation of men and women who could in previous eras stand before government unafraid give up their rights and praise the current leadership, a leadership of lies and boundless corruption.

Yet, here we are.

So, why teach ethics in an environment where Don Corleone would be morally repulsed by what is happening in the United States?

Because it is the just, the moral and the right thing to do. We have a duty as teachers to our students and our nation to teach with honor and respect for our nation’s long held traditions of fair dealing and honesty.

What’s more, it is to be hoped and is likely that the current regime will end soon. And when that happens, there will be a reckoning and many people will find themselves in legal jeopardy. Many will find new homes in prisons and jails and many more will live the rest of their lives as pariahs for having participated in this massive corrupt enterprise.

We have to hope for a positive outcome because if we lose this, our democracy ends and what is right and wrong will exist only at the whim of our government.

James Alan Pilant