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Beth and I had a very interesting conversation
the other night about professional responsibility, personal ethics, and,
political leanings (ooh--look at all the P words).
I think the whole conversation really began with me asking
her why she never makes any comments in the Comment Section (several
bottles of wine were involved, so the conversation may have actually
started with me farting, for all I know...). Well, she says she's hesitant to make comments
because she doesn't want to piss me off. Wha--? Piss me off? Apparently,
she sides more with the conservative views espoused in the Comment
Section--and by "more" I mean much more. I told her that I have
no problems whatsoever with her political beliefs and she shouldn't be
afraid to side with the jackasses conservatives. Won't
bother me in the least. I mean, I know her political views already, so
that's fine. Hell, I married her anyway, didn't I? Heh.
Then, from that, we got into this whole big
discussion about her job and how she feels about it. Without going into
too much detail, Beth works for a fairly prominent
government contractor (which is why I'm being a little vague--I don't
want to cause problems for her or for me, if you get my drift).
Although she doesn't have absolute authority over certain projects and
certain contracts, she does have a say in many of them. And, once again
without going into specifics, this could cause ethical and moral
dilemmas. It was quite interesting to hear her take on how she
reconciles her personal beliefs with what she does at her job.
Fortunately for her, she believes in what she's doing.
But then she asked me how I felt about what she
does. Now, I'm not naive, but I prefer not to know just exactly
what she does and what her company does (when people ask me about her
company, I tell them they make flashlights). I'm sure her company does
important work for the government. Do I agree with what they do?
Probably not.
But that's not the crux of it. The real point is: How do I
feel about having my wife do what she does? And how do I feel about
85-90% of our income coming from a company that I have ethical
differences with? Yeah, those are tough questions. Definitely. But I
told her two things: One, I'd much rather have her partaking in
decisions than someone I don't know, and two, if she believed in what
she was doing, then I had no problem with it. None at all.
And just for the record, it's not about the
money. Anyone who knows me should know this. All things being equal, I
want her to be happy with what she's doing. Period. End of story.
Now if I can just get her to sell that goddamn
Exxon-Mobil stock... |
2000-2006