One Man Protected the Sword of Eisenhower from Being Given Away

On October 4, 2025 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

The Thin Blue Line – A Bunch of Freeloaders?

On March 3, 2011 By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

I teach people who want to be in law enforcement.

According to some of what I have read in the past few days, police officers are all greedy freeloaders, whose call to duty is a fraud while they exercise their narcissistic self interest.

You can look here, here and here.

Now, you might object that the writers and speakers here did not directly attack police but attacked public employee unions.

Seventy-three percent of all sworn police officers are in unions.

No, they are not going to say police or the word, fireman. But that’s what they mean.

These attacks on unions and collective bargaining hit the police just as hard as any other public union.

I’m not going to get into, whether or not unions are good ideas for police. I am more interested in another issue.

Police work is motivated in many cases by the idealism of the young and the status of the job in the eyes of the public. How are we supposed to recruit good people to be police officers with this kind of talk going on? And what if it continues? Month after month, year after year, the words, “Greedy public employees are destroying the nation!” How do you deal with that? What kind of police are we going to get?

Does this hammer idealism until only those who become policemen gravitated to it as kind of a last chance employment?

What in the hell have we become here?

If most Americans don’t have good pensions or good medical benefits, the police shouldn’t have them either?

At two o’clock in the morning, when somebody is trying to jimmy your window, do you want a highly motivated police officer whose idealism and commitment to duty made him want to be a police officer? Or would you rather have someone who couldn’t do anything else?

I wouldn’t worry about it. You see, it takes motivation and guts to confront a robber outside a house, so the unmotivated uncaring policeman will just ignore the call.

Probably a lot of you don’t care one way or the other. Or you won’t until your law enforcement agencies have started taking damage.

I’m not waiting for that to happen.

Law enforcement is not a lucrative job. It’s not always a pleasant or easy job. But my heart is with those people, who do a job that must be done and deserve better than insults.

James Pilant

Espresso, WiFi, & Confidentiality with a Twist of Lemon (via Bow Tie Law’s Blog)

On February 4, 2011February 4, 2011 By southwerkIn business ethics

Does an attorney violate client confidentiality by using public broadband? It appears so. There are clear implications for any profession in which confidentiality is a responsibility. Is this the first shot in a dispute about using public Internet access for professionals or all of us?

Maybe we should all be more aware of the risks to our own data?

Read this fascinating article on using the web and an attorney’s fiduciary duty.

James Pilant

Many attorneys, as with a large contingent of the general public, do not possess much, if any, technological savvy. Although the Committee does not believe that attorneys must develop a mastery of the security features and deficiencies of each technology available, the duties of confidentiality and competence that attorneys owe to their clients do require a basic understanding of the electronic protections afforded by the technology they use in t … Read More

via Bow Tie Law’s Blog

The dynamics of employee dissent: whistleblowers and organizational jiu-jitsu (via FAA Whistleblowers Alliance)

On January 21, 2011January 21, 2011 By southwerkIn Capitalism

In the modern age, whistleblowing is one of the most effective means of bringing corporate organizations to justice. It is hard to understand what is going on inside a giant organization from the outside. Modern corporations, have their own buildings, their own security systems, their own police forces (security), their own legal systems (company policy, administration and legal staff).

Corporations are hybrids, not quite businesses and not quite independent states. They are a monolithic stack of sole proprietorships and partnerships melded together. In organization they are most like municipalities. They have a certain resemblance to the city states of Ancient Greece, each city loyal to Greece but fiercely guarding its own independence and its own prerogatives.

Enforcing the law against these types of organizations is more a matter of espionage than criminal investigation. Detecting a corporation committing a crime is like trying to penetrate the security apparatus of a small foreign country.

Law enforcement can scan through newspapers and magazines, tap the rumor mill and watch the multiple civil suits filed for and against these organizations. But even then, what do they really know about an organization with thousands of members spread over three or four continents? Not much.

But take one individual inside the organization and combine that one person with just a little authority to access data and a computer work station, and you can gather more data about organizational crime in twenty minutes than independent sleuthing for weeks.

These individuals are a precious last line of defense against corporate wrong doing.

This society should welcome and protect these people. It has been said, “Let justice fall like rain.” It seems a garden hose sprinkle is more acceptable in the popular and business press. They don’t like whistleblowers, and could that be a surprise to anyone? Power and the money it brings may well be the biggest religion of the 21st century, the first truly international religion.

Against the religion of Power equals Money, the notions of law, duty and religious devotion probably appear a little quaint, more than a little obsolete.

Nevertheless, the whistleblower is important to maintaining some element of the rule of law in this country. And remember, the whistleblower is very close to the sole line of defense in discovering corporate wrong doing in other nations directed at the United States.

This article discusses how a whistleblower can use strategy to survive the inevitable fallout more successfully.

You may very well find yourself in the position of knowing what you should not and having to live with the decision of what to do. Read the article, put some knowledge on your plate, so you don’t have to start out cold when the crisis comes.

James Pilant

The dynamics of employee dissent: whistleblowers and organizational jiu-jitsu By Brian Martin with Will Rifkin Go to Brian Martin’s publications on whistleblowing Brian Martin’s publications on backfire (political jiu-jitsu) Brian Martin’s publications Brian Martin’s website We thank Bill De Maria, Hugh DeWitt, Wendy Varney, Tom Weber, Deena Weinstein and an anonymous reviewer for valuable comments on drafts of this paper. Abstract Whistleblowing … Read More

via FAA Whistleblowers Alliance