▸ Column · Office parking garage, six p.m., the lights just coming on
RED SKULL replies.
Replied to by Red Skull, with a rebuttal from Captain America.
The letter
I work at a midsized company that is doing something — not illegal, but harmful, and they know it's harmful. I have the evidence. I have what would amount to a journalist's case. Going public would end careers, including those of two colleagues who didn't make the decision but did the work that made it possible. I have a young family. I'm not naive about what happens to whistleblowers in this country. What do I do? — Standing Near The Door
Red Skull replies
You write to me as if I will tell you not to go to the press. I have a different observation. You have already decided to act, or you would not have catalogued the evidence. What you are seeking is permission to act in a way that does not cost you. There is none. The question is not whether to act — it is whether to act badly, in haste, with the consequences distributed across people who never opted in, or to act calculatedly, with timing that protects what you actually want to protect. The colleagues you wish to spare are adults. They made their choices and now they will pay the cost of those choices, just as you will pay the cost of yours. Spare them sentimental warnings. Speak only to a lawyer. Plan the exit. Then, when no one can stop you and your family is shielded, you go. Whistles are easy to blow. The expensive part is choosing the moment.
— Red Skull
Captain America weighs in
He's not wrong about the timing. He's wrong about the colleagues. Sentimental warnings, as he calls them, are how you live with yourself for the next thirty years. The cost you save by warning them is small. The cost you save by doing the right thing with the right care is the only one that matters. Don't act in haste. Don't act in cold either. Cold is how good people end up regretting what they did even with the noble version of themselves.
— Captain America