Julian Assange, like so many whistle blowers before him, is under siege. Sweden has issued an arrest warrant even though no charges have been brought against him and the Wikileaks website is fending off denial of service attacks. While Wikileaks would live on without him, some American political leaders are calling for his execution.
The world probably rightly views these acts as a typical ‘shoot the messenger’ response but we are nonetheless distracted from the content of the message(s). Importantly, what do we do with this knowledge, especially in light of the heroic risks taken to get it to us?
Imagine if information was leaked to confirm the most unimaginable crimes. What if somewhere someone, in a fit of conscience, provides proof the SEC deliberately let Madoff get away with his actions? Knew the money was used to fund militant intervention in struggling countries?
What if we learn Bank of America has committed glaring crimes against its customers and the public with the full knowledge and blessing of the very regulators meant to protect them? What if we learn the Twin Towers were brought down in a controlled demolition and people well placed in our government knew? I am not suggesting any of this is true but speculating about what we, as a people, will do if we discover massive corruption so far and so wide and so high up in our leadership it can’t be ignored?
Truthfully, it seems to me that we have been provide lots of ammunition in the past and allowed Congress or those who should have acted not to act. Assange has picked his way through the minefields and delivered the ammunition, but it is up to others to load the weapon and pull the trigger, pardon the metaphor.
Are we ready to use this information? Do we have the character as a people, as a society governed by laws, to formulate a strategy, a battle plan to fight the festering oozing inertia that has entrapped our country for too long and act on what is provided? Do we have the stomach to meet these revelations head on?
Even a peaceful revolution begs a leader. A new transparency, even one forced by a whistle blower here or there, is still a revolution. To embrace it and benefit, we need to know what we are going to do and how we are going to do it.
