I don’t think I ever met him but I knew both the person who had the conversation with him and the person who’d referred him.
There was a college student who got a job in DC that he thought was really something. Democrats were the enemy, and he got assigned some cloak-and-dagger type excitement on behalf of the President himself. Pretty heady stuff for a kid just starting out.
Until someone asked him at church, Are you honest in your business dealings?
He said yes, because of course he was…but then because he did feel he was honest, he stopped to backtrack a moment, suddenly a lot less sure of himself. He explained what he was doing at work.
He got counseled to quit that job immediately, and he did, and thus rescued his name and future from infamy.
That was the day before the Watergate break-in. He had been doing preparatory groundwork for it, though I’m not sure he knew that.
He would be about 70 now, and he instantly came to mind when I read that the hackers going from Federal department headquarters to Federal department headquarters plugging in their servers and wreaking havoc on the workings of our entire Federal system under an unelected, unvetted billionaire who’s not even a Federal employee and has zero legal authorization to bypass Congress on any of this, while falsely invoking the authority of US Marshalls if the professionals didn’t comply, are all probably thinking they’re doing the country a great favor.
And they are college students. Or just graduated. With not a clue how the world really works nor the impact nor the treason of what they’re doing. The youngest, 19, went to our local high school and I wonder what his parents think of the job they now know he has. I mean, that’s too young to even be fully myelinated and he’s doing this?!
Creating the biggest data breach in the history of mankind and putting every single American’s financial security at risk. And that’s not even starting on the assault on our laws, our democracy, and our system of government. Not just the civil servants but members of Congress were locked out of the building when they showed up to ask questions.
Did those kids stop to think that Elon Musk–a man who came on a student visa but ghosted the college, ie an illegal immigrant–could now empty nearly every bank account in the country? Or let Putin do so? Or sell every piece of data in the Treasury to China, while Musk makes false demands to clear out the entire Civil Service coupled with severance offers of illegally high amounts that will not happen?
But back to the hackers. Every single dime the Federal government sends out or where it collects from is now exposed and at risk. Already there’s been a report of an automatic Social Security payment not going through but labeled Pending, with its intended recipient wondering how on earth they’re supposed to pay rent on time.
Gee, that’s a great story they get to tell their grandkids someday.
It is a crying shame that apparently there was nobody along those very young mens’ paths to ask them this one simple, direct question: Are you honest in your business dealings?
And if that doesn’t work, then, Would you be proud to tell your grandma what you’re doing?