Ethics in Your World and Mine

By Carolyn Roesbery

“Let this, then, be our statement of what is the standard of nobility, and what is the aim of things absolutely good.”

Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics .

Ethics is an ancient perception and practice of excellence. John Gardener book author of Excellence, Can We be Equal and Excellent Too? tabulates the decline of hereditary privilege, the identification of talent, education as a sorting out process, motivation , leadership and fulfillment. One of the shared aims we have as a nation he lists as freedom. “We want freedom. We don’t think man was born to have someone else’s foot on his neck—or someone else’s hand on his mouth. We believe in the dignity and worth of the individual and it is our unshakable purpose to protect that dignity” pp. 156, 157. Excellence, Can We be Equal and Excellent Too? Gardener, J. (1961) New York: Harper & Row.

A complete list of ethics is impossible to compile. A broad list would cover many issues of concern in the world right now: Abortion, Academic Integrity, Animal Rights , Bioethics, Computing , Death Penalty, Environmental Ethics, Euthanasia, Gender & Sexism, Poverty & Welfare, Racism, Reproductive Tech Sexual Orientation, Torture, War, Terrorism & Peace, World Hunger. http://ethics.sandiego.edu/index.asp - 4/17/2006 Ethics covers items of local, national and global concern and comes from Greek ἦθος meaning "custom". It is the branch of axiology, one of the four major branches of philosophy, which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to distinguish that which is right from that which is wrong.
The diversity ethics holds in modern corporate America is shown in the wide variety of ethics associations the website, Integrity Active dotcom has retained as outside counsel. More than 25 people who provide expertise in specific ethics and among its advisory board panel. Three examples for comparison here are;
Margaret Bavuso—Senior Counsel, CSLG formerly the executive director of Integrity, Security and Compliance for Verizon Wireless. She was responsible for the design and implementation of the compliance program and the compliance group. In addition, her responsibilities included investigations into allegations of wrongdoing, compliance with court orders for electronic surveillance and subpoenas for subscriber records, and liaison with national security agencies in connection with authorized national security investigations.

Eddie Correia—Counsel, Latham & Watkins At Latham & Watkins, Mr. Correia's law practice focuses on government relations, antitrust, consumer protection and civil rights. Before joining the firm, Mr. Correia served in the Clinton administration as special counsel to the president for civil rights in the White House. He also has held senior positions at the Federal Trade Commission and served as chief counsel and staff director of the Senate subcommittee on Antitrust, Monopolies, and Business Rights. Peter O. Safir—Partner, Covington & BurlingMr. Safir is a partner in the Washington D.C. firm of Covington & Burling. He is recognized in the pharmaceutical industry as one of the leading food and drug regulatory lawyers. Recently, he has worked with the research-based pharmaceutical industry on marketing practices, life cycle management, and issues involving drug quality and manufacturing. He has conducted internal investigations involving fraud and abuse, advertising practices, and GMP compliance issues in the drug and medical device fields. http://www.integrity-interactive.com shows Types of ethics are : Meta-ethics is the investigation of the nature of ethical statements. Normative ethics bridges the gap between meta-ethics and applied ethics. It is the attempt to arrive at practical moral standards that tell us right from wrong, and how to live moral lives. Applied ethics applies normative ethical theories to specific controversial issues. In these cases, the ethicist adopts a defensible theoretical framework, and then derives normative advice by applying the theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics

Because ethics are dynamically changing and diverse, it remains a challenging arena. One of the more important ethics areas for me are feminist ethics. Feminist Ethics is an attempt to revise, reformulate, or rethink those aspects of traditional western ethics that depreciate or devalue women's moral experience. Among others, feminist philosopher Alison Jaggar faults traditional western ethics for failing women in related ways. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-ethics/

The Women’s Bioethics Project Blogger features a news release that has been the subject of a recent Oscar nominated film The Constant Gardener, Abberley, Blackman (executive producers) Meirelles, F. (director) 2005, Universal Studios, which I just saw and highly recommend as insight into corporate social responsibility. In the Blog, Glenn McGee, the director of Alden March Bioethics Institute in Albany, draws a parallel between the outsourcing of clinical trials of Western pharmaceutical companies and the history of British imperialism in India. As the necessity for clinical trials increase with the discovery of new drugs, people willing to enroll in clinical trials from developed countries decreases. Pharmaceutical companies, therefore, are moving clinical trials to the largely illiterate populations of the developing and under-developed countries in exchange for a minuscule amount of US/European currencies. The disparity between the exchange rates reduces the cost of the trials drastically as well as providing a large (in terms of Indian currency) income to the participants in these clinical trials. http://womensbioethics.blogspot.com/


In Alaskan Ethics, we often think of wild Pipeline days and earlier. Tough times that led to free range criminality subject to the laws of the fittest. ­Johnny’s Girl: A Daughter’s Memoir of Growing up in Alaska’s Underworld, (Rich, Kim 1999 . Portland Oregon: Alaska Northwest Books.) chronicles the results of this prevailing Alaskan attitude and how it evolved in the 1960’s and 70’s. I have met the author of the play and subsequent book, Kim Rich, and she is an eloquent story teller and the same age as me. Both pieces are heart wrenching in presenting to the public what life is like for a young woman who resides by no choice of her own where ethics are a thin edge in the adult world. The people of this book and play were real and left legacy in both Anchorage and my town. A former boss of mine was the mentor and surrogate parent of the son of the convicted murderer in the book and the grandfather’s deeds were only infrequently whispered about. I never knew why this son, this quiet handsome man was such a fine person and a good man with so much value on family. Midway through reading this book I realized I knew the people she was talking about. What I learned from reading this book was the extent to which healing has taken place. Without knowing it, I have also taken part in the healing. In my years of teaching some of my favorite boys were a part of this story; the grandsons of the man who killed Kim’s father were beautiful children. Now grown exemplary adults and the finest human beings because their father had grown up with the same legacy of gangster-ism that Kim had and with the support of his wife and mentors refused to let his family be less than anything wonderful and good. The pain and loss of their father and their grandfather’s criminality has somehow been released through the lives of these excellent sons. Kim would be amazed to meet the Ladd boys if this could ever happen. Alaska itself has come a long way and their story is just one of many who have overcome some type of ethical devastation.


The Bar Association website displays extent of accountability that the Bar Association now covers—a long way from the frontier days of Sam McGee, the string tie lawyers in tweed jackets I once heard about from the late pioneer Marla Adkins. Marla said with absolute candor she was once approached by a well known attorney in Anchorage—the same lawyer who gained fame in Kim Rich’s book, with the proposition “Ya wanna make a hundred bucks? I need a witness.” The website makes it clear how far we have come with a Bar Association that governs ethics by committee in a dynamic and vital way addressing legal issues in question not readily defined by written law and providing disciplinary authority. The bar association website displays interesting stories that pitch personal ethics against community and professional ethics, many other features including Ethics Opinions. There are 1,933 words in the Ethics Opinion No. 84-1 alone, Propriety of Advice to a Defendant to Refuse to Submit to a Breathalyzer Test. Regarding ethical propriety of a defense attorney advising his client not to submit to a breathalyzer test when under arrest for driving while intoxicated. I love this site which is a great reference for any topical discussion group, educators and newscasters. http://www.alaskabar.org

Ethics is a subject that grabs hold of my heart. I am drawn to the plight of oppressed peoples. When I see films heavy in ethics dilemma, like Changing Lanes, Schroeder, A. (producer) , Michell (director) . (2002) Paramount. , it makes me want to become a lawyer and use the law passionately and ethically to help others. Hollywood was actually a center of fight for ethics based in reality during the McCarthy era between 1947 and 1954 when the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) when HUAC members considered it their duty to purge the country of any Communist influences. While numerous industries were investigated by HUAC, because of Hollywood’s high profile, it became the best known target of this infamous committee. The Hollywood Ten , were individuals who refused to testify at the HUAC hearings and were faced with blacklisting and imprisonment. Many more suffered working environments of fear and faced ruined careers due to this fear mongering taking hold.

Trouble in Hollywood predated HUAC and was present from the very beginning of pictures with scandals such as the 1921 rape of a young actress by one of the highest paid comedians of the silent screen, stock company funnyman and acrobat, the rotund Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. http://www.ralphmag.org/fatty.html

The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Hays Code) was created with the idea that if motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind. It is a twelve page document that encompasses the complete control and restrictions of visual art ever in existence, assuming that all artistic creativity was within the vested trust of the Code Board responsible for spiritual or moral progress and for correct thinking.


Imagine, if you can, with the freedom that we have today what it must have been like for highly creative film makers of the day to be faced with these constrictions:
“The sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin, no picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented. Law shall not be ridiculed. Crimes Against the Law shall never be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation. Murder: a. The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation. b. Brutal killings are not to be presented in detail. c. Revenge in modern times shall not be justified. 2. Methods of Crime should not be explicitly presented. a. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, buildings, etc., should not be detailed in method. b. Arson must subject to the same safeguards. c. The use of firearms should be restricted to the essentials. d. Methods of smuggling should not be presented. 3. Illegal drug traffic must never be presented. 4. The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization, will not be shown.


I believe this was a great contribution to the ignition of the huge German Expressionist movement, French New Wave and brilliant Italian, Swedish, Russian and other European films of the day. And it is exactly where our American Cinema Film Noire emerged from in the 1940’s and 50’s.The document is extensive eliminating scenes of passion treated that so that those scenes did not “stimulate the lower and baser element.” Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races) was forbidden. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases were not to be used as subjects. Scenes of actual child birth, in fact or in silhouette, are never to be presented. Vulgarity included the treatment of low, disgusting, unpleasant, though not necessarily evil, subjects that should always be subject to the dictates of good taste and a regard for the sensibilities of the audience. [I see this as impossible] Obscenity is forbidden. . Dances which emphasize indecent movements are to be regarded as obscene. Ministers of religion in their character as ministers of religion should not be used as comic characters or as villains. And the use of the Flag shall be consistently respectful. Repellent Subjects included: Brutality and possible gruesomeness and surgical operations.


Reasons Supporting the Preamble of the Code were listed as:
Theatrical motion pictures are primarily to be regarded as ENTERTAINMENT. Mankind has always recognized the importance of entertainment and its value in rebuilding the bodies and souls of human beings.
It enters intimately into the lives of men and women and affects them closely; it occupies their minds and affections during leisure hours; and ultimately touches the whole of their lives. A man may be judged by his standard of entertainment as easily as by the standard of his work. So correct entertainment raises the whole standard of a nation. Wrong entertainment lowers the whole living conditions and moral ideals of a race. Note the effect on ancient nations of gladiatorial combats, the obscene plays of Roman times, etc.
Though a new art, possibly a combination art, it has the same object as the other arts, the presentation of human thought, emotion, and experience, in terms of an appeal to the soul through the senses. Art enters intimately into the lives of human beings. Art can be morally evil it its effects. This is the case clearly enough with unclean art, indecent books, suggestive drama. The effect on the lives of men and women are obvious.
The motion picture, because of its importance as entertainment and because of the trust placed in it by the peoples of the world, has special MORAL OBLIGATIONS:
By reason of the mobility of film and the ease of picture distribution, and because the possibility of duplicating positives in large quantities, this art reaches places unpenetrated by other forms of art; dances which suggest or represent sexual actions, whether performed solo or with two or more; dances intended to excite the emotional reaction of an audience; dances with movement of the breasts, excessive body movements while the feet are stationary, violate decency and are wrong.
Six more pages Of the Motion Picture Productions Code compare the dangers of film media as opposed to lesser influence of book and newspaper, plus reiterating reasons for restrictions. Film makers endured heavy fines and found many clever ways to skirt the Code. By 1963 The MPPC had become The Motion Picture Association of America and William Hayes had passed on and such heavy handed legislated morality lost its hold on America. http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html

It is my opinion that artists are the most ethical human beings of all, and by the most unconventional methods of all. I did not have once ounce of hope for the nation after the 9-11 terrrist attack on New York City. However, three days after when I heard Playwright John Guare, and Poetess Maya Angelou answer to the incident, it was the first response I heard without fear and addressing the need to move forward toward responsible foreign policy and humane solution born of wisdom and not knee jerk reaction. This was the news I could pass to my children with pride and respect for my country.
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible Miller, A. (1952) , Martin Beck Theater, Broadway (premiere run), awakened awareness among people to the important theme that Miller was writing about. It was clear to many observers at the play's opening that the play was written in response to Senator McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee's crusade against supposed communist sympathizers. Despite the obvious political criticisms contained within the play, most critics felt that The Crucible was a self contained play about a terrible period in American history. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_CRU.HTM

This era was most recently beautifully portrayed with David Strathairn’s performance as Edward R. Murrow and his courageous stand against communist “witch hunter” Senator Joe McCarthy in Goodnight and Good Luck , Heslov, G. (Producer) Clooney, G. (Director) , (2005) Warner Independent Pictures. This is a very stylized and excellent film for young people to watch in order to understand the McCarthy obsession with communism played out.

The genre Film Noir, characterized by dark, shadowy conflict, desperate action and crime was inspired by the atmosphere of that fear, blame and punishment prevalent in the McCarthy Era. Oscar winning classic films like Casablanca, Curtis, M, (Director). Warner, J. (Producer) (1942) . Warner Bros. which involves a mix of love, loss and international intrigue, and Mildred Pierce, Wald. J., Warner, J. (Producers) Curtiz, M. (Director) (1945) Warner Bros., about a woman driven to kill, are highly charged with plots related to both personal and political ethics. But even more critical to the structure of life in America than fictional ethics of screen characters, the Golden Age of Hollywood and studio domination of the motion picture industry came to an end with the ruling of the 1948 “Paramount Decision”. If the Paramount decision had happened in the our present day, it would have been a featured news coverage all day every day for months like the O.J. Simpson Murder trial where in the televising of such an event became a matter of ethics in itself.
In the Paramount decision, the United States government charged antitrust violations against the five major studios, Paramount Pictures Inc., Loew's Inc., Columbia Pictures Corporation, United Artists Corporation, Universal Pictures Company, Inc., American Theatres Ass'n, Inc. All sorts of twists and turns, negotiations and compromises occurred but basically the major “Big Five” were considered a monopoly because production, distribution and exhibition were completely controlled by them, disallowing competition by the smaller independents eventually represented by the The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers, SIMPP., which included Walt Disney, Metro Goldwyn Mayer and RKO.
SIMPP reached a plateau with the decision in the Paramount suit, the Society considered the case as one step toward their ultimate goal of complete freedom of the screen. In ninety-two U.S. cities with a population of 100,000 or greater, the studio-owned theater chains held domination over all but four theaters. Over one-third of the cities had no independent theaters at all. Block booking of films had been in place for thirty years disallowing theaters to purchase films on an individual basis. A lower court mandate was reversed for competitive bidding, and stated that such an involved legal restriction would involve the government too deeply in the day-to-day business of the industry. Disagreeing with the statutory decision, the new ruling considered studio disintegration to be the ultimate solution to the problems faced by the independents. The Supreme Court remanded the decision back to the lower courts with the recommendation that competitive bidding be nullified and that divorcement be reconsidered.
In short the divorcement opened up the market to independents and disallowed the ownership of both production companies and theater ownership ending the giant studio system. Howard Hughes, the independent producer - turned - movie - czar, announced that RKO would immediately comply with the Supreme Court decision by spinning off its theater chain from the studio operations. The move typified his spontaneous behavior, and reverberated from his independent roots as a enemy of the studio establishment. Hughes also had much to gain. RKO, by far the weakest of the Hollywood theater owners, would be brought on equal ground if divestiture was successfully enacted across the industry.
Hughes’ decision to break ranks with the other major theater owners was one of the singular events in the antitrust case, leading the way for the disintegration of the vertical Hollywood majors. With obvious plans to remain a film producer, Hughes kept the RKO Pictures Corporation and sold the RKO Theatres Corporation. The RKO consent decree was signed on November 8, 1948, signaling the finale of the studio epoch. The days of baroque movie palaces and powerful monopolized star maker machinery were over by 1949 when the studios were declared guilty of violating antitrust laws. http://www.cobbles.com/simpp_archive/paramountdoc_1948supreme.htm

Ethics has no bigger responsibility than it does in journalism. True to form in generational studies, generation x born between 1965 and 1989, exhibit less loyalty not only to organizations but also to concepts of consensus agreement to be nothing less than honest, especially in position of responsibility. This has never been more blatant than in recently accounts of journalistic ethics violations. America seems to have sunk to a new low in a series of widely publicized exposés of fraudulent journalism that bring a believer in the old school values of excellence and accuracy to tears.

Plagarism is described by scholars Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen as the attempt to pass off work of another’s as one’s own. Rosen and Behrens advise that prevention of plagiarism can be successful with meticulous attention to citation of materials. They advise that the writer cite all quoted material and all summarized and paraphrased material, unless it is common knowledge. Behrens, L. & Rosen, L. (2000) . Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. NewYork: Addison Wesley Longman.

I am very sensitive about plagiarism and terrified that it could happen to me. All through my childhood years I fought off, ignored, and sometimes shared my ideas with imitators and those who chose not to be inventive. Not until my late adult life have I learned how to value and protect my own work and this will also be a very important part of my education and the support I get among theater professionals as well as theater academics, where originality is a very important area of protection as well as inspiration.

Plagarism is generated in two ways; intentional, deceitful plagiarism and two type of accidental plagiarism. Intentional, deceitful plagiarism would include the true life instance of Steven Glass, a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, his articles turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, his prestige down-spiraled when it was found he had faked over half his work. It'was tough proving a negative, even tougher proving that something or someone does not exist. That was the challenge after The New Republic story, "Hack Heaven," which appeared in the May 18 issue, proved to be unverifiable. "Hack Heaven" detailed the exploits of Ian Restil, a 15-year-old computer hacker who broke through the online security system of a "big-time software firm" called Jukt Micronics. Once inside, the cheeky youth posted every employee's salary on the company's web site alongside a bunch of nudie pictures, each bearing the caption "THE BIG BAD BIONIC BOY HAS BEEN HERE BABY." But instead of calling in the Feds, Jukt executives, according to The New Republic, decided to hire the teenage hacker, who had obtained the services of an agent, Joe Hiert, described as a "super-agent to super-nerds." The magazine also claimed that such deals have thwarted efforts to prosecute hackers and that law enforcement officials in Nevada got so desperate that they ran radio advertisements: "Would you hire a shoplifter to watch the cash register? Please don't deal with hackers."
A frightening story. But not true. The article was a complete and utter hoax perpetrated by one of the magazine's own associate editors, 25-year-old Stephen Glass. http://www.forbes.com/1998/05/11/otw3.html , Lies, Damn Lies and Fiction Penenberg, Adam L. (05.11.98, 12:00 AM ET )This was a tragic story of public trust betrayed and a career lost that meant a great deal to me as I have had to defend my right to present the truth under the scrutiny of unscrupulous editors who were willing to make up quotes and suppositions. Being a journalist is a very high calling in my mind, and since I am an atheist, it is a much higher calling than a priest to me. Glass’ decent was made into the excellent film Shattered Glass, Cruise, T. (Producer) , Ray, B. (Director), (2003) Lions Gate Entertainment. Another wonderful way to teach young people about the value and the functional, extreme necessity of good ethics. http://movies.about.com/od/shatteredglass/

Accidental plagiarism is another ethics concern that is a curious and compelling subject for me. It is now widely known in science and quoted in prose that besides humans, whales also have their own syntax of sound symbols for phrasing into lengthy songs. This knowledge has had phenomenal impact on pop culture as evident in statements by ecstatic website users:

by Hypersapien on 3/21/06 Unfortunately it may be impossible to translate whale song into human speech except for a few bits that have to do with food, sleep, play, mating, and family units or other things that we have in common with whales. If the content of the songs is truly complex, it may contain concepts that we have no reference point with and our brains aren't equipped to handle.
by lobster on 3/21/06 [comment buried, show commenthide comment] Ah - you mean they are small talk programmers?
However it is likely we can sing or recite poetry together with whales. A translator would have come in handy to turn around the whale that recently swam up the Thames in London. How hard can it be to say "wrong way"? I believe in Star Trek the Whales were able to travel in time (Using Spock and comrades as host technology) and speak to aliens. Dr Doolittle eat your heart out. Incidentally I speak some dialects of fish. http://digg.com/users/Hypersapien
One day, over lattes, my friend Rocky Stone and I discussed a popular author, and his idea of whales in different oceans singing the same song. Was this a parallel evolution of behavior on separate sides of the world? Certainly the whales were not plagiarizing one another . . . or were they? Perhaps the same process was there that is present in human behavior; a social osmosis among whales and resulting mimicry in whale language. This could be a very successful survival tool. But whales do not have ethical standards regarding language origins that are violated . . . or do they? It might be worthwhile study topic for researchers to consider the significance of language in interspecies acts of aggression in whales.
I know that in my career as a journalist, every time I have been plagiarized I have been extremely angry and am forced to hold back aggressive tendency. In any case, the talk with my friend Rocky, gave rise to the idea of parallel originality; That the exact same idea may be conceived at the same time in different places among different people. Certain common social and other stimulus may be the initiator of this process.

I have personally experienced this phenomenon many times and have come to believe that it is not that much of a phenomenon at all but rather a matter of course in being creative, inventive humans. I often see ideas in new films; new inventions, social and science approaches that I had previously conceived of that someone else is now marketing , implementing or developing. I have even heard word for word; pieces of dialog I have written in someone else’s newly released work. Being that it was impossible these originators had knowledge of my ideas proves to me the existence of parallel originality. Having spent over ten years associated with theater I know that playwrights and creative script writers often experience this.
In the play /film Six Degrees of Separation, written by John Guare, [Play] 1990 [Film] 1993 . MGM., the action takes place around the theory that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than four intermediaries. John personally said to attendents of the Last Frontier Theater Conference, 2001 that the actual mathematical number is five point something but being a very extensive number would be a terrible title for a play. According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation, the theory was first proposed in 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called Chains. The concept is based on the idea that the number of acquaintances grows exponentially with the number of links in the chain, and so only a small number of links is required for the set of acquaintances to become the whole human.

In the words of Molly Smith a staple inspiration at the Last Frontier Theater Conference in Valdez throughout the 1990’s, founder of Perseverance Theater in Juneau, Alaska and now the Artistic Director at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., “Steal everything you can, reinvent it and make it yours.” This was spoken in reference to Perserverance Theater’s well received presentation of an audience interactive production of Alice and Wonderland and a conference goer’s question about how to fuel creative work. Smith suggested that all ideas have to come from somewhere and that the greatest ideas may not begin with you but can be tempered and reworked into something entirely new.


There is now a popular TV show that sports competing inventors. American Inventor (Executive Producers) Cowell, S. Jones P., Bronstein L., Greene S., l Hall, N. and Frot-Coutaz, C.. (Co-executive producer) Soiseth D. Syco Television LLC and Fremantle Media North America, Inc. (2005) ABC .
I believe the show is not all about money and celebrity recognition due to the heavy emotion and self esteem invested in the event by the competitors, It makes me believe their investment is greater and that there is a basic need for originality in the human experience. Many have given up on this and delegate this quality to a perceived artistic sector of society. All my life I have been championed, praised, envied, sabotaged and even punished for what may be just a slight above average tendency for originality and I have found this to be a common denominator discussed among many artists in many genre. Such would explain the prevalence of plagiarism and in fact the existence of such a damaging and unnecessary behavior at all.

Besides a metaphor of the fear mongering of potential communist threat in entertainment industry, I see Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as addressing religious ethics and human rights ethics as well and I think that religious ethics are the hottest topic of the moment since America has elected a president who based war decisions in large part on religious inspiration. Religious Ethics are the heart of War in the Mid East and among communities of our country with ethics conflict.

Personal conduct in some states is often still governed by religious decree administered by law and is often challenged in the courtroom during these modern days of changing mores. One example being cited protection by the Fouthteeth Amendment of the U.S. Constituion:

LAWRENCE V. TEXAS[Syllabus] 1. Whether petitioners' criminal convictions under the Texas Homosexual Conduct law- which criminalizes sexual intimacy by same-sex couples, but not identical behavior by different-sex couples- violate the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the laws? 2. Whether Petitioner's criminal convictions for adult consensual sexual intimacy in the home violate their vital interest in liberty and privacy protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment? 3. Whether Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986), should be overruled?

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, is often in the center of ethics issues as this news story reveals:

Wal-Mart went ahead with plans this week to sell DVD copies of the gay-themed film Brokeback Mountain, Costigan, M., Cox, T. (Producers)Lee, A. (Director) (2005) Paramount., despite protests from a Christian advocacy group.The American Family Association, which called for a boycott against Ford Motor Co., for advertising in gay publications, recently began pressing Wal-Mart to refuse to carry the award-winning movie in its 3,700-plus U.S. stores.The Tupelo, Mississippi-based group accused Wal-Mart of abandoning its "family-friendly" corporate image by selling the film, about two cowboys who carry on a homosexual love affair.

Most people like the idea of consumer activism, and the idea of big companies bowing to public pressure. But for most of us, that ends as soon as we see a company bowing to demands we disagree with. So, there are a lot of people who would rejoice if Wal-Mart acceded to public demands to stop selling, say, guns, but who would be angered if Wal-Mart acceded to public demands to stop selling Brokeback Mountain. From Reuters: "Wal-Mart sells 'Brokeback' DVDs despite protests"

A blogger responds to the Wal-Mart ethics news story adding examination of two priciples applied to the social engineering aspects of commercial ethics problems:

Deep disagreeement about gun issues and homosexuality are unlikely to go away. So, retailers like Wal-Mart are left with hard decisions about what kinds of public pressure to bow to. I'll merely suggest two philosophical touchstones, starting points for those of you interested in thinking more about this problem.1) John Stuart Mill's "harm principle." Mill's 'harm principle' says, roughly, that you shouldn't have a law against something if it doesn't harm anyone. Simply finding a behaviour objectionable is not enough to warrant passing a law against it (even if a large majority were to find it objectionable). (For more: see Mill's "On Liberty")2) John Rawls's notion of "public reasons". Rawls held that deep disagreement is a central feature of life in a modern, liberal democratic society. He also held that the existence of such disagreement is reasonable. Rather than try to argue away disagreement, Rawls held that we ought to seek good deliberative procedures that would allow us to make pragmatic decisions in spite of ineliminable disagreements. One key principle that Rawls suggests ought to guide such deliberations is that the reasons brought to bear should be "public" ones. That is, they ought to be reasons that are consistent with the shared values of a democratic people. (My apologies to Rawls scholars for the roughness of this explanation.) (For more: see Rawls's "Justice as Fairness")Of course, both Mill and Rawls were talking about public decision-making, rather than decision-making by private institutions like Wal-Mart. But in a sense, a mega-retailer like Wal-Mart plays a role akin to that played by public institutions. Given both its size, and the fact that corporations are made possible by various pieces of public law, a case might be made that corporate decision-making on contentious issues ought to be guided by the best available philosophical principles designed for public deliberation. So (and here's a good thesis project), are there corporate analogies to Mill's harm principle and Rawls's notion of public reasons? Are they defensible?
posted by Chris MacDonald at 10:53 AM
http://www.businessethics.ca/blog/2006/04/wal-mart-brokeback.html
I am quite comfortable in my Sunday morning Buddhist Zendo sittings attended by Zen Master Kelly Weaverling. With Kelly’s guidance I have come to love these meditations and the calm they bring to me all week long. My atheism is perfectly acceptable among these friends which as it is non negotiable I am so thankful for. Buddhist ethics are the religious ethics I can get closest to. Western thought approaches many ways in which to acclimate to Eastern ethics. Great scholars have helped this effort evidenced in Douglass Mickelson’s work, (work I would like to explore further) from the University of Hawaii:

Abstract
Recent efforts to articulate Buddhist ethics have increasingly focused on “Western” ethical systems to serve as a bridge. One promising avenue is the employment of Aristotelian-Thomistic thinking in seeking to understand certain manifestations of Buddhism. More specifically, we can explore how the thinking of Thomas Aquinas to illuminate the moral vision of the Zen Master Dōgen on specific topics, such as that of “poverty and the religious life.” Two texts seem particularly conducive as foci for this approach, namely IIaIIae 186.3 of the Summa Theologiae and the Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki. This modus operandi reveals how Dōgen’s views on poverty and the religious life are significantly similar to, and yet in certain respects distinctively different from, those of Aquinas.
IIaIIae 186.3 of the Summa Theologiae of Thomas Aquinas and Dōgen’s Shōbōgenzō Zuimonki (hereinafter abbreviated “SZ”). Both of these texts discuss in considerable detail whether or not poverty is required in order to lead the religious life. Is Poverty Required? Initial Responses and Clarifications;
IIaIIae 186.3 asks “whether poverty is required for religious perfection” (utrum paupertas requiratur ad perfectionem religionis). Previously Aquinas explained that religious perfection consists principally in charity (IIaIIae 184.1), and this is the proper goal of those people leading the religious life, who are said to be in a “state of perfection” (IIaIIae 186.1). Thus Aquinas’s question amounts to asking “whether voluntary poverty is required for the religious life,” and indeed this is how Aquinas poses it in his preliminary list of points of inquiry to be addressed by IIaIIae 186. Aquinas and Dōgen on Poverty and the Religious Life Volume 13, 2006 by Douglas K. Mikkelson, University of Hawaii at Hilo dougmikk@hawaii.edu


Usually I find the faith of friends and townsmen to be burdensome but sometimes acceptable and occasionally inspiring, sometimes charming. As an atheist I spend a great amount of time defending my own presence in my community and respect for my needs as an atheist. It is one of the most important value bases in my life. I resent legislation or consensous by theocracy, yet at the same time, culturally we seem to be in an era of taboo testing that is challenging for communities and individuals on an ethics level. No one can predict what will happen in everyday life and certainly the example of Sharon Tendler, an eccentric British millionaire, who married the love of her life, a 35 year-old dolphin named Cindy at an Israeli resort. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10694972/ is a case for pondering. ‘Does she have sex with the animal?’ remains the unanswered ethical quandary. I have a huge crush on an Oceanographer who swims like a beautiful giant manta ray, however my fantasy visons remain just that and the thought of the millionaress having her way with the dolphin is preposterous to me.

There are people, surprisingly who would challenge this, perhaps more-so in the State of Washington, one of 17 states that does not outlaw bestiality. Recently a man lost his life in an “accidental mishap” involving sex with an equine species in Enumclaw Washington. I have no doubt that with the wide publication of this incident, the people of Washington state will rise up to the need for legislation in protecting animals from human misuse. Animals and children are always the easiest victims and call for our most diligent watch and care.
Constitutional law is often cited for protections of rights and then challenged with ethics concerns that require court action. A case in point being:
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES SyllabusCHURCH OF THE LUKUMI BABALU AYE, INC., et al. v.C ITY OF HIALEAH, certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the eleventh circuit
No. 91-948. Argued November 4, 1992 -- Decided June 11, 1993
Petitioner church and its congregants practice the Santeria religion, which employs animal sacrifice as one of its principal forms of devotion. The animals are killed by cutting their carotid arteries and are cooked and eaten following all Santeria rituals except healing and death rites. After the church leased land in respondent city and announced plans to establish a house of worship and other facilities there, the city council held an emergency public session and passed, among other enactments, Resolution 87 66, which noted city residents' "concern" over religious practices inconsistent with public morals, peace, or safety, and declared the city's "commitment" to prohibiting such practices; Ordinance 87 40, which incorporates the Florida animal cruelty laws and broadly punishes "[w]hoever . . . unnecessarily or cruelly . . . kills any animal," and has been interpreted to reach killings for religious reasons; Ordinance 87 52, which defines "sacrifice" as "to unnecessarily kill . . . an animal in a . . . ritual . . . not for the primary purpose of food consumption," but exempts "any licensed [food] establishment" if the killing is otherwise permitted by law; Petitioners filed this suit alleging violations of their rights under, inter alia, the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The District Court ruled for the city an exception to that prohibition for religious conduct would unduly interfere with fulfillment of the governmental interest because any more narrow restrictions would be unenforceable as a result of the Santeria religion's secret nature.
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/search/display.html?terms=animals&url=/supct/html/91-948.ZS.html


I was once a fur trapper in the 1980’s and with the devaluing of fur sales have come to understand the view point of my niece Ms. Peggy Farrar who is active in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA and was always abhorred by my occupation. A therapist in my town and a close friend, Ms. Lilli Ohse of Homer, AK. Was an executive administrator of PETA and the handler of Koko the signing gorilla. Her stories were wonderful and inspiring yet I do not think the general public has arrived at the level of respect for life that Peggy and Lilli have. There are chatrooms according to arresting officers of the Enumclaw bestiality farm, that focus on human sexual abuse of animals and farmgirls.com is well known site of pornographic animal sex abuse that only the insatiable curious with strong of stomach, and hardened investigators will have the fortitude to look at. That is the second worst site, tied with the Nick Berg Islamic beheading video, I have seen on the internet and don’t care to see it again. The first one is so disgusting and warped to my mind and ethics, and my sense of good hygiene and health that I won’t mention it in order not to offend my readers senses as well as myself. The truth I found in investigating all areas of the internet is that ALL THINGS EXIST. Nothing is beyond the imagination of the human mind, and that can be extremely scary. This is why we need ethics; to keep our selves in check and have an inventive but dignified map for life. Not the way the Motion Picture Code of Conduct planned for us but with our own judgment of celebrating life that protects the rights of life of others, great and small, as well as ourselves. The area of personal ethics provides the compass rose to this life map.

In his adventure genre books author David Roberts often writes about ethical struggles extreme sports celebrity athletes sometimes have in their life ventures. In his book Escape Routes within the twenty stories it contains, there is often direct confrontation of ethics on many levels. In A Mountain of Trouble Roberts presents the effects of personal ethics when he reports on a love story that is both enticing and tragic; two beautiful and celebrated mountain climbers in passionate love to the great loss of the spouse of one of the climbers. In the story Bandiagara: the Dogon and the Tellum, Roberts examines the fragility and precarious lives of isolated, primitive culture in the face of human encroachment and technology. Moab Treehouse is a story I enjoy reading out loud because it is such a great map for eco involvement, awareness and community consensus of land value beyond dollars. One of the stories focuses on a young woman extreme athlete who lied her way into fame and was on an obvious downfall to exposure. It was a painful view into her life at its most presumptuous precipice- the moment when you are just about to fall into an abyss that just might have a nasty cesspool waiting to drown you
at the bottom.
Besides being a brilliant mathematician and a professor of literature, Roberts is an adventurer, an active anthropologist, historian, translator and archeologist, contributing editor to Climbing Magazine, Men’s Journal, five time contributor to National Geographic, among many other publications. The man has vital energy and no doubt the powerful drive allowing him to pack several lifetimes into one, it seems. Since a young age, a climber of great achievement himself, Roberts has had a very special POV in the value of adventure and sport achievement. There are great implications of ethics standards in these arenas.

In his book, Great Exploration Hoaxes he poses serious arguments and asks the questions, did Peary reach the North Pole? Was Admiral Byrd the first to fly over it? And was Frederick Cook the first to ascend Mt. McKinley? Roberts covers cases that debunk records of pursued glory at any cost including the truth. Roberts examines [brilliantly I will add] the psychology behind the stunts and asks why these individuals, all of whom were exceptionally able, would perpetrate fraud on such a grand and public scale and defend it to their deaths, even in the face of damning evidence. These dubious achievements are still hotly debated, often hundreds of years afterward. http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780679783244

In regards to personal ethics, I believe the most shocking and poignant breech of personal ethics, we experience as young children when we find out our parents are separate organisms not capable of our every bidding. If this experience does not occur within parental ties, it will with extended relatives or later in school years.
David Roberts also plays a part in my thoughts on personal ethics. He is a personal acquaintance of mine, a serendipitous connection made by mutual friends; former climbers Art Davidson of Anchorage, AK. And Kelly Weaverling of Cordova, Alaska. David remains an important yet imperfect and very human hero in my life; a role model in so many things, physical and mental. In my experience David holds a place among the most brilliant and accomplished men I have ever met, including many of the living Great American Playwrights, journalists, scholars, performers, politicians and scientists of international, national and regional acclaim.

Yet David proved a fundamental truth to me; even one who has the highest ranking of knowledge, achievement and performance, a respected record of the highest public ethics, can be subject to messy personal ethics. He chose a particularly disturbing day, September 11, 2002, to send an email surprising me greatly in dismissing me for the second time, admitting truthfully the real reason. He had taken someone else on the Utah journey he had promised to spend with me and was doing so again and though he had given me no knowledge of the other relationship and his preference for it, it was now very important to him. Expressing his considerable turmoil and uncertainty and “feeling like a real jerk for reneging” was relieving for me in the very creepy way that ugly truth gives us relief. A sad but new lesser trust in this person’s honesty took hold in my heart and I still have yet to ask him if the mugging bandits on his Costa Rica rafting trip and his consequent strangulation and traumatization really occurred the first time he cancelled our plans.

His communication taught me something else about celebrity status; mental capacity, brilliant achievement, and alpha male or female status does not insure one from mistakes in personal ethics. This should be obvious to anyone who is aware of any political or popular scandal of the last hundred years, but with someone as pristine David, any kind of deceit was unthinkable for me. His communication stunned me in discovering his disingenuousness about the parameters of his interest in me, plans and behaviors. The disappointment David Roberts gave me was a great gift of knowledge about my own values and liberty from an immovable mind set of perfect heroes. It didn’t knock him entirely out of hero status in my mind but certainly out of the realm of perfection, leveling him to real human role model and illustrating point one in personal ethics; the first person you have to tell the truth to is you. Accessing our own personal ethics is a pattern every human has to process on some level every day. Our personal ethics stems out like a great tree with the xylem and phloem of interaction extending out into the world beyond our roots of family of origin and community into organizations of local regional and national value. If we have a strong and positive life force we will be able to blossom, make seed of our efforts, sway strong in the winds of time and be part of the climatic human forest.

Ethics is the biggest issue in question for the survival of our species and the continuation of planet earth to remain a habitat for life . One of my dearest friends, Dr. Rikki Ott wrote the book Sound Truth and Corporate Myths, Ott, R. (2005) Cordova, Alaska: Dragonfly Sisters Press, that chronicles the legacy of chemical poisons from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and Art Davidson, the man who originally connected me to David Roberts wrote In the Wake of the Exxon Valdez., Davidson, A. (June 1990) Black Ice Publications., that traces events of this oil spill. Like it or not my 17 year-old daughter Susan was born in the wake of the Prince William Sound Exxon Oil Spill of 1989. If there is one thing she will take into the world with her it is the understanding of global responsibility we all hold in the palm of our hand. The tools we have are accountability, knowledge understanding and . . .truth. And as popular culture is our art mirroring our lives in sometimes fascinating and silly ways, I have no doubt, the compelling characters of Scully and Moulder in long-running, hit Sci-fi TV show X Files, were right when they struggled with ethics and the paranormal in each week’s episode to find justice, humanity and answers; The Truth is Out There.