Oklahoma Bible Mandate Abandoned

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Government Failure, Opinion

Oklahoma Stuck with 500 Trump Bibles Already Purchased

Oklahoma has ended Ryan Walter’s mandate to place a Bible in every classroom. The Oklahoma Supreme Court in the wake of Walter’s resignation asked the State Superintendent if he wished to continue the current lawsuit defending the mandate. Walter’s replacement, Lindel Fields, withdrew the mandate this last Wednesday.

It appears much that Walters did while in office will be reversed and removed. I prefer not to think of him as having resigned preferring to think him melted by a bucket of water.

KOSU and NPR have a news article written by Robby Korth and Lionel Ramos.

https://www.kosu.org/education/2025-10-15/lindel-fields-announces-end-to-ryan-walters-oklahoma-classroom-bible-mandate

Ryan Walters’ controversial plan to put a Bible in every classroom last summer almost immediately met pushback. About a year ago, a coalition of parents, teachers and faith leaders filed a lawsuit against him and the state over the mandate.

The suit is ongoing, but because of Walters’ exit, Oklahoma’s State Supreme Court gave his replacement Lindel Fields, the opportunity to withdraw or resolve the case in the next two weeks.

But he ultimately took much less time. On Wednesday, Fields announced he would withdraw the mandate at the heart of the case.

(This is from a book picturing “The vanished places of worship and cathedrals in France from 1917.”)

Oklahoma like much of the United States is a place of many faiths. The Pew Research Center found that there were Oklahomans who practiced the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu faiths besides a bewildering variety of Protestant sects.

Here in Oklahoma we are leaving this chapter, this episode, of the culture wars to return to the very real problems of low morale among teachers and administrators as well as a tragic lack of funding for education in general. We are the 50th state in per pupil funding and I must reluctantly admit, a national laughingstock.

But stay tuned as various investigations into Walter’s conduct are now ongoing and there may be much, much more to see and hear about what passed for administrative decisions in Oklahoma Education.

In regard to business ethics, this is a cautionary tale of a narrow minded ideologue running wild. It is not the last one we will ever see although we may hope.

Salaries were paid to people who barely showed up, the most pitiful propaganda was adopted as if they somehow qualified as “teaching materials,” and the department was run like a personal fiefdom.

I wish the new Superintendent well and pray for his success.

The people of Oklahoma deserve so much better than what was done and a new beginning is called for.

James Alan Pilant

The Search Continues for Victims of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

On By southwerkIn Capitalism, Government Failure, Opinion

(A picture from the work, “The Boys’ Book of Battle-Lyrics.)

While the current regime claims we focus too much on the history of slavery, in Oklahoma, the City of Tulsa is continuing its efforts to find the bodies of victims of racial violence.

https://www.kosu.org/local-news/2025-10-15/more-tulsa-race-massacre-victims-could-be-found-as-city-begins-fifth-grave-excavation

It’s an effort that could take weeks, Mayor Monroe Nichols said during a press conference at City Hall. Forensic anthropologist Phoebe Stubblefield and archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck joined Nichols as he gave an update on the city’s progress.

“This groundbreaking work from our archaeological and genealogy teams is a great mark of success and it tells us where we are, certainly in the right place and on the right track,” Nichols said. “The latest report from the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey gave us very detailed information as to what we believe we have left at the Oaklawn Cemetery.”

The destruction of “Black Wall Street” and the deaths of so many of our black citizens deserve remembrance. That such horrors happened are matters of fact and history which we ignore at our peril.

A free and great people does not fear its history. It embraces its past with a willingness to change and improve.

Ethics and Morality demand that we remember the crimes and mistakes of the past in the hope that we are now a better people who have found a better moral compass and a greater responsibility toward our fellow human beings.

Let us pay attention to the great words of one of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln:

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentiment to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words, “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride; how consoling in the depths of affliction! “And this, too, shall pass away.” And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral worlds within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.

Lincoln didn’t just talk about having more money but assumed that social and political health were also of great importance. He could not have spoken truer words. While we live in an age of the most disgusting and degrading money grubbing and corruption, he calls us to be a great people with an unwavering committment to doing what is right.

James Alan Pilant

Work-Life Balance is a Real and Vital Concept

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Government Failure

(Presumably over the last dime of profit just like our tech bros.)

Billionaire bosses scoff at the concept of work life balance. Squeezing every conceivable sacrifice from the pitiful workers they exploit mercilessly is embedded in their DNA. The cruelty is the purpose. The cruelty is to instill fear and obedience in their worker drones.

You might say, “James, you don’t seem to like them very much?”

“No, I don’t.”

And I will tell you why. These individuals with their enormous wealth larger than most of the world’s nations’ annual budgets have it in their power to make their workplaces worker friendly, a paradise and continuing benefit to the nation. They could provide day care, scholarships, travel and most importantly, a guarantee of employment as a reward for loyalty. Instead they impose pain and hardship as a means of getting every last dime even thought they have billions upon billions of those “last dimes.”

When I was a young man I read a lot of history. I still do. There is the story of George Pullman. He created the Pullman Car. It is a train car that allows passengers to travel in comfort and sleep while traveling. He made many millions of dollars. Like today’s billionaire bosses, he wanted every last dime. So, he built a “model community” for his workers where they had to live and where every action and every expenditure could be controlled. A horrible cruel dictatorships that demanded moment by moment obedience punishable by immediate dismissal for any failure. He could have built a paradise just like our beyond all human understanding levels of greedy tech bros could but they won’t.

I think they relish the power. The idea of doing good of doing what is right is repugnant to their openly fascist belief systems. They take and they take and they take — and that is all the rationale they need. They want and have created a nationwide atmosphere of fear to keep wages and worker demands low. And in case, we forget for a moment their power they sail their yachts before us, fly their planes above us and buy our politicians cheap.

Am I wrong?? Show me the kindness of these men. Show me at any time where their workers were a priority. Show me.

We should expect more of the wealthy. We should expect more of Americans. We all have duties to each other as citizens and as members of human kind.

It is painful to write about business ethics when the prevailing mood in the business world is crass exploitation.

And I’ll tell you something else. Right now in the halls of power both in business and government, the idea of obeying the law is greeted with merriment and scorn.

But verily, verily I say unto you, they have their reward and it may well be coming sooner than they think.

James Alan Pilant

Standing Together in Defiance

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Government Failure

Over the last year, we have seen many American institutions cave in to the demands of the current administration.

But in the last couple of days, media outlets have united in refusing to give in to Pentagon demands over their reporting.

Here is the opening part of a statement from NPR:

NPR will never be party to limitations on the independence of the press and the objective, fact-based reporting of our journalists. We will not sign the Administration’s restrictive policy that asks reporters to undermine their commitment of providing trustworthy, independent journalism to the American public.

Courage has been rare in the last six months, but we’re seeing it now. It is a good thing.

On Monday, the Washington Post joined the New York Times, CNN, the Atlantic, the Guardian, Reuters, the Associated Press, NPR, HuffPost and trade publication Breaking Defense in saying it would not sign on to the agreement.

(The finest journalism in American history has often come from the battlefield.)

Pete Hegseth, the unqualified current Secretary of Defense, and a former commentator on Fox News, is demanding that journalists comply with his demands. And these demands go far beyond any conditions imposed even in the midst of war.

Walter Cronkite was a war correspondent in World War II. I have read some of his work. Eric Sevareid was another. I’ve read his book on his tour as a correspondent. I am confident from that they would refuse this nonsense just like the current journalists do.

But lets us mention the legend, Ernie Pyle. He was killed while reporting on the American troops whose stories and sacrifices he so carefully documented. I have read his books and marveled at his courage and writings. I have every confidence that he would have told Hegseth to go straight to hell.

For the moment we still live in a democracy and our Defense Department is funded to the tune of more than one trillion dollars in public money. Surely, some journalistic oversight is called for.

Wherever American troops have gone from the time of the American Revolution to the current sad age, there have been rules that have been followed. I know this and understand this. Military secrets must be protected and the lives of the troops placed first and foremost in journalistic ethics.

But what has been happening has nothing to do with military secrets given up by journalists. It is the Secretary of Defense himself who threw open military planning and secrets. We are not at war. But we have seen a truly incredible number of firings and retirements in our military. This administration and its lackeys seem to have serios difficulty with minorities and women serving our country. And I believe it is these controversies not military secrets or the defense of the United States that are in question here. It is simply a matter of an administration that wished to avoid oversight for its often bizarre decisions.

But there is a larger issue here. We are constantly being threatened and cajoled by this administration toward obedience and compliance like some sort of medieval peasants.

But we are not medieval peasants, we are a nation of free men and women who will not bow down and give up our rights to a band of incompetent and openly corrupt government officials.

James Alan Pilant

.

My Allergies Have Been Bad.

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I’ve missed posting for several days and I apologize. My allergies result in my face being swollen among other symptoms and I have difficulty concentrating enough to write intelligently.

I’m feeling a little better today and will see about posting tonight.

(I saw the news about the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and was delighted.)

You have no idea how much I appreciate you, my kind and intelligent readers.

James Alan Pilant

(I’m getting a little old.)

One Man Protected the Sword of Eisenhower from Being Given Away

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism, Government Failure

And then he was forced to resign.

He was told “Resign or be Fired.”

Todd Arrington refused to give up one of Eisenhower’s swords so our current regime could give it to King Charles III.

So, we the American people retain our property, one of the prized possessions of a famous soldier and former President of the United States.

This is one of those times I wish I knew nothing about ethics, honor and righteousness. If I didn’t know, I would not know the depths to which a nation has to sink for a man to stand with honor and do his job and I might, do his job well strongly evidencing courage and then see him constructively fired.

What kind of people when looking around for gifts for foreign royalty goes to the preserved treasures of our heritage, our history, and says “Let’s get one of those!” What kind of people want to grab an item from our museums and historical collections so that we might flatter the faltering and flawed royalty of another nation and gratify the thoughtless greed of the President and those around him?

On the plus side, the sword was saved. On the negative side, our nation’s lack of leadership and the all consuming grasping greed of our current government is on display once again. .

(Eisenhower trained a tank unit for World War I and was deployed to France in 1918, before he arrived the armistice was signed.)

Here is a link to a news story on the subject written by Ed O’Keefe for CBS News.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/head-eisenhower-library-resigns-sword-110206460.html

It is entitled: Head of Eisenhower library resigns after sword spat with Trump administration

Todd Arrington, a career historian who previously held posts with the National Park Service and National Archives and Records Administration, said he stepped down on Monday under pressure as director of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home.

In an interview with CBS News, Arrington said he was told on Monday, “Resign — or be fired.”

This story concludes with the following two paragraphs.

The 52-year-old said he is less than five years away from retirement eligibility and is hoping to find a new job at a different federal agency.

But, he said, “If there’s any way for it to happen, I’d return to this job in a heartbeat. I love the job, I love the people, I love the history. I never in a million years wanted this to happen.”

As a business ethics expert, I am appalled. If you get into the weeds of the story, there are the usual denials of White House responsibility we have come to know so well. And once again, the clear message sent directly by this administration is that any form of opposition will not be tolerated. What this administration wants and desires are to be yielded to under all circumstances as if it were the law.

But this administration lives for revenge and payback. (Is it not written that we are to forgive our enemies?)

This is wrong. This is unethical. This is a violation of dozens of systems of morality. This is petty and pathetic.

We should honor the man and women who do their jobs with pride and serve the interests of the American people.

What kind of nation punishes those that follow the way of duty? What kind of nation seeks vengeance for every act that offends the President?

The answer is the one we have now – honorless, crude, grasping and incompetent.

James Alan Pilant

TikTok Leads Youth to Porn?

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Capitalism

As an expert on business ethics, each day is another dreary ride into greed and evil. Today is Friday and just another day in the exploration of greed when we find that an internet platform leads children to porn. Yes, just another day.

TikTok leads teenagers to porn after a few clicks. The internet being the cesspool that it is, we shouldn’t be too surprised but I am. What surprises me is that this was in “restricted” mode.

That’s right. The fake accounts used in the study were not just teenagers, they were supposed to be operating in restricted mode but still after a few clicks they began leading these example children to adult topics and pornography. A parent doing due diligence could be fooled be this thing and that was probably the intent.

Let me get the news article that leads to my content out of the way as well as the usual quote.

(Internet Porn breaching the home’s defenses.)

The article is called – TikTok ‘directs child accounts to pornographic content within a few clicks’

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/03/tiktok-child-accounts-pornographic-content-accessible

Global Witness set up fake accounts using a 13-year-old’s birth date and turned on the video app’s “restricted mode”, which limits exposure to “sexually suggestive” content.

Researchers found TikTok suggested sexualised and explicit search terms to seven test accounts that were created on clean phones with no search history.

The terms suggested under the “you may like” feature included “very very rude skimpy outfits” and “very rude babes” – and then escalated to terms such as “hardcore pawn [sic] clips”. For three of the accounts the sexualised searches were suggested immediately.

The article was written by Dan Milmo writing for the online version of the Guardian.

The inevitable question here is why would anyone do this. The money is very good. Teenagers have a lot of spending power and these villains want to tap into it.

How many ways can I say that this terribly wrong and people shouldn’t make money this way? Close to infinity. So moral persuasion is useless. If you want to stop children watching and buying porn, people have to pay fines and go to jail.

There is no other choice. We’ve had the kind words and tried to reason with them and yet here we find a process designed to fool a cautious parent but still get the child as a customer. That speaks to a massive amount of intent. They are playing the government and the people of this nation for fools pretending to regulate content while building a Swiss cheese of holes that any child can get through to get to the supposedly regulated content. It is not right.

Let me in closing state the facts about online regulation when it comes to the United States. We are failing as a regulator of the internet. The EU and Australia have long ago taken the lead in online regulation and we should be following their lead.

James Alan Pilant

Anti-Defamation League Chickens Out!

On By southwerkIn Corporate Social Responsibility, corruption, Editorial

ADL Caves to Demands by Elon Musk and Prominent Rightwing Accounts

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/oct/01/anti-defamation-league-removes-extremism-research

The Anti-Defamation League, one of the most prominent Jewish advocacy and anti-hate organizations in the US, removed over a thousand pages of extremism research from its site on Tuesday night following online backlash from rightwing influencers and Elon Musk.

The ADL’s now-deleted “glossary of extremism” contained over a thousand entries that gave background information on groups and ideologies connected to racist, antisemitic and otherwise hateful incidents. Its pages on neo-Nazi groups, militias and antisemitic conspiracies now redirect to the landing page for its extremism research.

Musk and prominent rightwing accounts on X had targeted the ADL in recent days over the glossary, which included an entry on slain far right activist Charlie Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA. Musk also attacked the group for its page on Christian Identity, responding to posts on X that falsely conflated that extremist movement with Christians as a whole. In reality, the term refers to a movement which believes in a racial holy war against Jews and other minorities.

Nick Robins-Early wrote this article for the Guardian.

(A vanishing species, an American with courage standing up for what he believes.)

Seeing this kind of cowardice and moral bankruptcy is painful.

This is a case of massive organizational failure. What are they supposed to be doing if not discouraging defamation? Should they change their name? How about “On Rare Occasions We Oppose Lies and Misleading Information?” I have to admit this isn’t very catchy. But since they gave up on that anti-defamation stuff, what’s left?

Since the rise of Donald Trump, we have seen more and more of this institutional cowardice and a complete lack of a moral and ethical backbone. Universities, Businesses, Law Firms and Media Companies rushing to pay money and give up their principles for a little safety and a little relief.

We see it again and again. The bully shows up, demands the lunch money, and he gets it. What happened to American courage and honor?

I really don’t get it. Wasn’t the ADL supposed to call out these people instead of cravenly surrendering?

How do they live without honor, decency or courage?

It must be a bleak existence to surrender up your basic principles in the face of the every people you were supposed to be keeping an eye on.

Every true American should be sickened by this pitiful display. What cowards!

James Alan Pilant

Children’s Brains Changed by Inequality

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics, Editorial, Government Failure

Research finds that Inequality creates a toxic environment.

MRI scans of thousands of children found that those living in areas of higher inequality had measurable changes to the brain and it is believed that these changes may have long term effects on mental health.

This should be front page news.

I am not surprised with the results or the fact that this is not a major story. As a society we talk about children as important but when it comes to money and effort, we demonstrate a lack of concern. .

If you live in a society where basic unfairness is part of the life you lead, you are harmed. The study showed that children from different social classes, that is, the winners and losers, suffered just the same.

The old simple Biblical principle that doing evil and having evil done to you damages the soul.

Yes, it does.

What are we going to do about it. The standard playbook used by Big Tobacco and currently by the fossil fuels industry will be applied as it always is when social change threatens the established order. And so, the result will be —

Nothing.

The Right Wing media machine will spend tens of thousands of words explaining the results away. They are quite likely to produce several made up studies in which they decisively prove that inequality is good for everybody. They will endlessly discuss avoiding a culture of “dependence,” which is a scurrilous way of describing having people fed. There will be several hundred thousand bots posting derogatory attacks on the specific researches and on academics in general. And there will have to be some death threats to round out the mix. After all, the cruelty is the point.

After these attacks, politicians, public figures and regular people will consider the topic controversial and have “doubts.” that these doubts are cleverly manufactured by evil and well paid advocates will be irrelevant.

(It is possible by careful planning using God’s gift of intelligence to create great and wonderful things.)

Now, what would intelligent thinking and capable human beings do with this research?

Now, that is interesting. Obviously, we need more studies of children in societies with different levels of inequality. We also need to see if there are variations that can be achieved by different methods pf parenting and education.

We have information that leads us to see brain changes in children. So, what can we do and what are we doing now that has an effect on this process.

In other word, we as a society and a people take significant research and use it to improve our way of life.

That is what is supposed to happen.

But right now, the intelligent and cultured are under attack by an increasingly unhinged band of goons who are determined to impose their lack of breeding and intelligence on all of us.

We will see whether or not they succeed.

Here is the Guardian article explaining and linking to the research – along with a short quote.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/sep/30/study-links-greater-inequality-to-structural-changes-in-childrens-brains

A study of more than 10,000 young people in the US discovered altered brain development in children from wealthy and lower-income families in areas with higher rates of inequality, which were also associated with poorer mental health.

The data was gathered from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study and published in the journal Nature Mental Health.

Researchers at King’s College London, Harvard University, and the University of York then measured inequality within a particular US state by scoring how evenly income is measured. States with higher levels of inequality included New York, Connecticut, California and Florida, while Utah, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Vermont were more equal.

This article was written by Tobi Thomas for the Guardian.

One Million Year Old Skull

On By southwerkIn Editorial

New discoveries and new information appear in modern civilization from time to time.

It is a wonderful thing.

As a species, we continue to learn and develop an enormous body of knowledge that if used to think critically and carefully will result in a continued advancement of our common culture.

Sometimes, there is so much evil nonsense and fascism about that it seems like all is lost and that may yet happen. The images of the 1930’s of book burnings and exultant crowds marching in the streets celebrating the massive evil of their leader seem like a rehearsal for America today. And I know that some of us wonder if the death camps and the crematoria cannot be far behind.

But at the moment, there are still signs of science and progress. Here is a link to the story and a short quote.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/sep/25/study-of-1m-year-old-skull-points-to-earlier-origins-of-modern-humans

Prof Chris Stringer, an anthropologist and research leader in human evolution at the Natural History Museum in London, said: “This changes a lot of thinking because it suggests that by 1m years ago our ancestors had already split into distinct groups, pointing to a much earlier and more complex human evolutionary split than previously believed. It more or less doubles the time of origin of Homo sapiens.”

Hannah Devlin wrote this article for The Guardian.