If you believe in morality and ethics, you have a duty to speak out particularly when there is an particularly offensive tragedy that has taken place.

Seven aid workers were killed by a precision drone strike. Israel is responsible for these deaths.

Let me begin by naming the seven dead aid workers: (I’m going to use a quote since I don’t want to get any names wrong.)

The victims have been identified as Poland’s Damian Soból, Australia’s Lalzawmi “Zomi” Frankcom, Gaza’s Saifeddin Issam Ayad Abutaha and American-Canadian dual citizen Jacob Flickinger, as well as the United Kingdom’s John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby.

These seven people are heroes, in my judgment, the best of us. They died attempt to feed and help other human beings. Their lives are a testament to the good that can be achieved by high moral values and the rare qualities of courage and sacrifice. God love every one of these wonderful people now lost to all of us.

Israel calls claims that the attack was targeted, “Absurd.” Yet, the food convoy had just dropped off food in a designated safe travel zone with the full knowledge of the Israeli military in clearly marked vehicles which were hit individually although they were hundreds of yards apart. Looking at the pictures of the destroyed cars I was shocked at the almost perfect precision of the hits.

I am having real trouble believing that Israel did not kill these people to deprive the Palestinians of food and to drive foreign observers out of the region so they can kill and commit crimes at will.

But there’s more. It is reported that the Israeli military established a ratio for acceptable collateral damage, that is, the killing of civilians. For a low level Hamas official it was okay to up to 20 civilians, for a high ranking as many as a hundred.

Israel has long been a United States ally. Sometimes I get the impression that they are shocked that we in the United States would question what they have done. But at this point in history, not counting the seven aid workers blown into pieces, 33,000 Palestinians have died in the current conflict and more than a million are starving. It is time to start asking questions and making demands. They depend on American money. That money should no longer be free of conditions. Why? Because the blood of the innocent is calling out to us and we have a duty as human beings to respond with justice.

Is Israel willing to make changes? I doubt it. There is this from the great state of Arizona:

An Israeli diplomat praised Arizona lawmakers for their support and condemned the international community’s lack of outrage at the harm Israel has suffered from the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. In a speech punctuated by three standing ovations, Israel Bachar, the country’s counsel general for the Pacific Southwest, refuted reports of starvation in Gaza and rebuffed calls for a ceasefire unless Hamas meets certain conditions.

It is pretty obvious to me that they feel with their allies in the media, politics and of course, American Evangelicals, they can just bluff their way through this. They can’t. There is too much blood.

We in the United States cannot escape blame. We give Israel about three billion a year and our total aid comes to about 260 billion dollars over the long term. Last year in response to the Hamas attacks, they received a 14.5 billion dollar military aid package. This emboldened that nation and every time someone dies at the hands of Israel, it is more than a little likely that U.S. dollars paid for the bullet.

Now, I am sure that some will do the “what about” argument so popular on the internet and on Fox News. So, here it is.

What about the crimes of Hamas? Aren’t you being naïve and serving their purposes by calling out Israel for their supposed crimes?

Hamas has murdered and kidnapped. They are currently holding hostages. They should be brought to justice. I am not on their “side.” We have a responsibility and a duty to humanity to do what is right. And what is right is avoiding indiscriminate killing, collateral damage and at the very, very least missile strikes on food convoys. And that is true whether “we” did it, our friends did it or our enemies did it.

You don’t do what is right because it is convenient. You do it because it is the right thing to do. We have duties in this life. If there is anything that I am completely sure of, it is that those seven dead aid workers deserve more a passing mention in a news feed. Something must be done about this.

James Alan Pilant

Even in the 21st Century, Facts are Facts

On April 2, 2024 By southwerkIn business ethics

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/cleveland-plain-dealer-donald-trump-editor-chris-quinn_n_660bce73e4b0328a72bde2a8

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/major-market-newspaper-editor-publishes-stunning-rebuke-of-trump-the-north-star-here-is-truth/ar-BB1kTGWg

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/this-is-the-key-to-covering-trump/ar-BB1kTNci

The editor of “The Plain Dealer” a newspaper in Cleveland announced in an editorial that “The North Star is Truth.” He was responding to criticism of the paper’s critical coverage of Donald Trump. This is a poetic way of alluding to the North Star’s guidance in navigation to true north, in this case, accuracy and an adherence to facts not favor. Let’s have a look at a larger quote from the editorial:

The north star here is truth. We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.

The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.

It is very edifying to hear someone dedicated to truth and facts with an apparent revulsion to lies and stupidity. Social media and a great deal of the alternative media such as hate radio are conduits for lies, conspiracy theories and propaganda. Wading in the middle of this cesspool is every two bit grifter, crook and washed up former politician. It gives decent people nausea.

There are people that believe that when this election is over and (God willing) Donald Trump is defeated that things will return to normal. I think not. Trump’s methods, the constant personal attacks, the vicious name calling and the use of winged monkeys, that is, his more demented followers, to threaten and intimidate, are not going away. Why not? Because they work! They drive decent people out of politics, intimidate the media, and allow the foolish, the intemperate and terminally stupid to succeed in politics. And I promise you, the pitiful losers in America want badly to punish their imagined enemies and to proclaim their importance at any cost whatever.

Civil society is created by good and intelligent people who live as ladies and gentlemen. Currently it is battered almost beyond recognition but it is not dead and it worth taking a second look at and rebuilding.

And the solid bedrock up which we build a great and powerful society is just what the editor said: “Our North Star is truth.”

What I Am Reading Today!

On March 25, 2014March 25, 2014 By southwerkIn Editorial

What I Am Reading Today!

Revealed: The insane delusions fueling rich conservatives’ temper tantrums

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/25/revealed_the_insane_delusions_fueling_rich_conservatives_temper_tantrums_partner/

The Koch brothers are dead wrong: Half of America is living in or near poverty

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/25/despite_what_the_koch_brothers_and_republicans_might_tell_you_half_of_america_is_poor_partner/

Rick Perry: Current political focus on the gender pay gap is “nonsense”

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/25/rick_perry_current_political_focus_on_the_gender_pay_gap_is_nonsense/

Women in the “best states for women’s salaries” still make 90 percent of what their male colleagues earn

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/24/women_in_the_best_states_for_womens_salaries_still_make_90_percent_of_what_their_male_colleagues_earn/

A Forgotten Scandal in Baltimore’s High Society

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2014/03/baltimore_s_rosewood_scandal_wealthy_families_sprang_asylum_inmates_to_be.html

New Study: Nearly Half Of All Americans Are Dangerous Stupid Idiots

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/03/new-study-nearly-half-all-americans-are

Krugman and DeLong on Avoiding Secular Stagnation

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/krugman-and-delong-on-avoiding-secular-stagnation

U.S. prosecutors eye new approach on company misconduct after Toyota

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/25/us-usa-autos-accountability-idUSBREA2O09520140325

The End of Jobs?

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/16472/the_end_of_jobs

Sane ideas from Tufts psychiatry prof: Linking effective leadership and mental illness (via Minding the Workplace)

On August 11, 2011 By southwerkIn business ethics

This is different. Very different.

Mental illness as an advantage?

I guess. The article is persuasive.

Are mental problems really an adaption to difficulties. If the strategy is successful, maybe its not crazy but a successful adaption.

Maybe, someone smart enough to adapt in so strange a fashion has superior powers of creation and those have application in other fields?

I don’t know.

See what you think?

James Pilant

When Nassir Ghaemi, a professor of psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center, studied prominent figures of the American Civil War, he discovered that many of the greatest leaders during the war (e.g., Abraham Lincoln and Union general Ulysses Grant) were mentally abnormal or mentally ill, while many … Read More

via Minding the Workplace

Fault Lines: The Top 1% (via THE INTERNET POST)

On August 3, 2011 By southwerkIn business ethics

Exactly. The distribution of income is this country is a great moral and ethical problem. If the money were allocated according to ability and work ethic, that might make some sense but walk around in this country and look at the hard working men and women reduced to penury by law that favor financial “innovation” over hard work and productivity.

James Pilant

The richest 1% of US Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is more extreme than it's been in almost a century — and the gap between the super rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the US' 14.3 trillion dollar debt is u … Read More

via THE INTERNET POST

How The Rich Are Winning The Class War (via Blogadoccio’s Blog)

On August 2, 2011 By southwerkIn business ethics

I think that the No Child Left Behind law had severely damaged character education, critical thinking and issue awareness among the young. An ability to take multiple choice tests, true false, or completion tests is not a useful employment skill. Yet that has become almost our sole measurement of educational achievement.

But the inaction of the middle class, whatever it’s cause, is critical to the success of the rich in shifting the tax burden.

James Pilant

The rich won the class war by depriving the middle and lower classes of education: history, civics, political education, and training in how to think critically. As a result, their mouthpieces can spout nonsense and the relatively uneducated voters now swallow it clean. The antidote, until we get a real education system back again, is for those of use whose eyes are open to educate those around us who cannot see what is going on. We need to devel … Read More

via Blogadoccio's Blog

Adding Insult to Injury – America’s Debt Ceiling Crisis & Who is responsible for the financial crisis in America? (via Tucson Blonde)

On August 2, 2011August 2, 2011 By southwerkIn business ethics

This is a explanation of why the rich are gaining ground and the middle class losing it. It cites statistics on a regular basis. No statistic cited is anything that I have heard contrary data on. So, I think the report was written with considerable research. I would note that there is not just a little passion in the post which is delightful to me but not always to my readers.

This blogger wrote a lengthy, well written and thoughtful article. Please visit the web site and reward those efforts.

James Pilant

Whose side is Congress on? In November 2009 the New York Times published an article about the number of US Senators and House members who were millionaires.[i] At the time two-thirds (66%) of the senate and more than half (55%) of the house were also millionaires. That year recorded an estimate of nearly 7% (ca. 21 million) Americans who were, at least, millionaires. If our “representatives” truly reflected the current state of our great Nation w … Read More

via Tucson Blonde

PROOF that tax cuts do not create jobs: Bush’s decade was a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers (via Under the Mountain Bunker)

On July 30, 2011 By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

I always thought that once supply side economics failed in the 1980’s, the idea would be dead. That was a major miscalculation on my part. The idea that cutting taxes raises revenue is so much fun for some people, that facts do not inconvenience them.

James Pilant

From the Washington Post: There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well. Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 — and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts were the first decade … Read More

via Under the Mountain Bunker

Heritage Foundation’s Report Lacks Real Information (via Colloquial Usage)

On July 30, 2011 By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

I was appalled when I read the Heritage report. Apparently if your children have video games and you can afford a fridge, you really can’t be in that much economic distress? How weird are these guys? I appreciate this take down of their case that appliance ownership negates economic insecurity.

James Pilant

What is Poverty? a new report by The Heritage Foundation, has been getting a lot of press this week, first from Fox News and then from The Colbert Report. In fact, a link to the report was the first item that came up this morning when I searched for the term “poor in America” on Google. According to the abstract, the report's aim is to address the following problem: Exaggeration and misinformation about poverty obscure the nature, extent, and cau … Read More

via Colloquial Usage

The only debt I can care about these days is my own (via MichaelEdwardKelly.com)

On July 28, 2011 By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is a personal view of our current debt limit crisis. I liked his take on the situation and call your attention to it.

James Pilant

It's been a while since I've delved too deeply into a political discussion here, and that's been a conscious decision. I've really found myself thinking less and less about national issues as time has gone on, and I think this is a direct result of me thinking more and more about my own personal issues. So when it comes to this whole "problem" of the debt ceiling debate, I have little to offer. It's not that I haven't been watching the news, or r … Read More

via MichaelEdwardKelly.com

Pilant's Business Ethics Blog

Tag: politics

Who Are You Going to Believe about the Aid Workers Killed in Gaza??

Even in the 21st Century, Facts are Facts

What I Am Reading Today!

What I Am Reading Today!

Sane ideas from Tufts psychiatry prof: Linking effective leadership and mental illness (via Minding the Workplace)

How The Rich Are Winning The Class War (via Blogadoccio’s Blog)

PROOF that tax cuts do not create jobs: Bush’s decade was a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers (via Under the Mountain Bunker)

Heritage Foundation’s Report Lacks Real Information (via Colloquial Usage)

The only debt I can care about these days is my own (via MichaelEdwardKelly.com)

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What I Am Reading Today!

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