BeenThere,DoneThat
Joseph Carson (73530.2350@CompuServe.COM)
17 Apr 97 23:27:12 EDT"60 Minutes," the TV news show, is doing a story on US Department
of Energy (DOE's) Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island
and its sorry environmental record. I'm going to be interviewed
next week in NYC for it. My piece is that DOE's woeful
environmental, safety and health record is a direct result of its
coercive, repressive, "chilled" atmosphere for safety and that
DOE has routinely engaged in workplace terror - which is what
whistleblower reprisal is, plain and simple - against its ethical
employees for many years. I intend to go on to say that the
estimated 250 billion dollar cost to remediate DOE sites is
largely due to, in effect, a program of industrial and
environmental sabotage on the part of senior DOE and DOE
contractor managers with end of "keeping the taxpayer money
coming."
I anticipate I'll be asked the "why" question - "Why did Joe
Carson risk his job, his career, and his savings to confront
DOE's lawlessness, on a number of occasions, during the past five
years?" I hope the opportunity can be captured for a positive
witness for the Christian beliefs that form the basis of my
motivations in that matter, but a most troubling aspect of this
overall situation is that I can't think of anything much positive
to say, including the role of organized Christianity.
The people I can speak most highly of as selfless patriots in
this situation are Jews - Sandy Rose and Bob Seldon. Some of the
chief culprits go to Christian churches. To me, it's Mark Noll's
1994 book, SCANDAL OF THE EVANGELICAL MIND, writ large. My
situation and the larger realities it illustrates should be and
are scandals to the Church in America as well as to America.
The most dismal thing about this situation is the advice, based
on my first hand experience, that I'd honestly have to give to
anyone contemplating voicing any concern, no matter how serious,
in the workplace (particularly one that would embarrass or
implicate a supervisor) - "look the other way, if you can live
with yourself." It is that dismal, and I'm qualified to say it.
I'll soon be arguably the most "successful" whistleblower in the
history of the federal government - the first three time straight
"prevailing" whistleblower.
The dismal realities I've experienced, first hand, are these:
o The statutory protections for whistleblowers in the federal
government allow the perpetrators of reprisal to remain
"unaccountable" as they "grind down, bleed white, and spit
out" federal employees who have "committed the truth."
Been there, done that.
o Even though the "Code of Ethics for Engineers" is the basis
of America's Engineering Professional Societies and is also
codified, to a large degree, in the licensing requirements
for State Professional Engineering license, the Societies
and State Licensing Boards "wash their hands" of engineers
who allege workplace reprisal for adhering to the "Code of
Ethics of Engineers." Been there, done that.
o Even though Christian professionals, like their secular
counterparts, spend the most productive hours of their lives
preparing for or pursuing their careers in their chosen
profession, their organized impact as "salt, light, and
leavening" agents in their professions, as the Gospel
commands, is nil. There is no significant "Christian
distinctive" or collective "Christian influence" in the
Engineering Profession in America, and I haven't found
significant evidence of it in other secular professions. If
someone reading this disagrees, please point it out to me.
Been there, done that too.
Sincerely,
Joseph Carson
10953 Twin Harbour Drive
Knoxville, TN. 37922
423/675-0236
423/966-1675 fax
internet: 73530.2350@compuserve.com
copy:
"60 Minutes"
Bob Seldon
Sandy Rose
Pastoral Staff at CSPC
Various Christian Activists and leaders