That’s exactly what he tried to do, use his position of authority to express his opinion. It’s not his company. It’s not his flag. It’s not his prerogative as to when the flag is lowered. The citizens of the state voted for both the Senator and the Governor, not Mr. Eason. He was given a clear choice and decided he was entitled to make decisions on behalf of the Governor and impose them on his subordinates. He did this against his wife’s wishes, which is certainly going to strain his marriage. He has a financial responsibility to her, which he ignored.
He’s a self-absorbed jackass with delusions of grandeur.
Wrist slap? For insubordination?
I don’t know what company you work for, but I’ve never met one where you can allow subordinates to tell their bosses where to get off without more than just a wrist slap.
They show integrity because he accepted the consequences of his actions, and made his point, and can sleep at night. If he had sued for his job back, then you would be right that “he thinks he’s privileged to impose his views in a work enviorment.” In this case, however, he knew he was not so privileged, and he no longer works there.
That doesn’t make him a “jackass,” but a man of integrity, in my book anyway.
I understand your point except that his actions were not honorable to begin with. His political views are not a job mandate.
I personally think Ted Kennedy should have done jail time for Chappaquiddick. It was swept under the rug during a period in history when that was possible. But my opinion doesn’t travel to work with me. If the voters put him in office it’s not my job to rain on his funeral parade.
I doubt Mr Eason will sleep well at night because he made an irrational decision that affected his family’s future. He let political feelings get in the way of his job.
He was being asked to do something by his superiors that he found morally repugnant. Would it have been more honorable for him to comply? At what point, does your responsibilty to your employer outweigh your responsibilty to your conscience?
I don’t deny that Helms accomplished some good in his career. I feel that it was far, far outweighed by the harm he did to citizens of his state and his country by steadfastly opposing civil rights. Unlike other segregationist politicians, he never changed his views on civil rights. I think Eason is honorable for refusing to help pay tribute to a person like that.
I would say that the line between integrity and doucheitude was crossed when he ordered his own inferiors to act in accordance with his own privately held beliefs, thereby making them the ones "being asked to do something by his superiors that he found morally repugnant. "
I’d like to hear your thoughts on that.
I applaud the man, and would have done the same in similar circumstances. In fact, I did. In 1988, I was working as the General Manager of the typography division of an ad agency in NYC. We got the account for Pat Robertson’s presidential campaign. I made it clear to the owners that I considered Robertson a very dangerous individual and I would not devote one minute to working on his campaign material. I also made it clear that I was speaking only for myself, and the employees under me could do what they wanted. I knew I was risking my job.
Long story short, many of the other employees, including one owner, agreed with me, and they turned down the account.
No, he wasn’t asked to do anything morally repugnant. He was asked to follow the instructions of the Governor. He isn’t the keeper of the flag nor does it represent his political views one way or the other. It’s a state function not open to interpretation by the hired help. By NOT lowering the flag he then made it a personal statement on his part. In essence he spit on a deceased Senator while representing the state.
It’s unprofessional to bring politics into the office. Forcing it on subordinates is blatantly unprofessional.
You know, you’re right. Upon thinking it over, he shouldn’t have asked his subordinates not to fly the flag. I still admire his willingness to stand for his principles, but he placed his subordinates in a very difficult position. It would have been better if he could have made his stand without involving them.
It’s ludicrous to say that the man was a hero, or anything like it for adhering to his convictions. That’s what Helms did, and nobody here is saying he was a hero for that.
The guy was being a jerk, and was too self important. He thinks that he can tell others what to do, but that the elected governor may not do so. The man is more evil than Helms, because he imposed his will on others without moral or legal authority. He also didn’t give up too much…he gets retirement rather than a well deserved firing. No big loss for a guy that has worked for the state for about 30 years. He was probably planning to leave anyway.
Helms was a staunch supporter of Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator who overthrew a democratically elected government and imposed a military regime noted for torture, “disappearances,” and human rights abuses. Helms was a major supporter and defender of El Salvador’s Roberto D’Aubuisson, even though he knew D’Aubuisson ran death squads that tortured and killed thousands of civilians. Eason, by contrast, asked his subordinates not to follow a directive to take down a flag. You have a strange definition of evil.
You aren’t really drawing an equivalence between convictions like “racial segregation is a good policy” and “AIDS research is not worth spending tax money on” and convictions like “Jesse Helms was an evil sack of shit,” are you?
Having one’s principles is great. Sometimes you just have to suck it up if you want to keep your job. I can’t count the number of times I practically have had to bite my tongue with my co-workers or my boss.
Pride and principles are in a distant second place behind the unemployment line. Or maybe I’m just a wimp.
It has nothing to do with sucking it up. He was not making a personal statement by lowering the flag. Helms was an elected official and it’s standard protocol to lower the flag. Eason had no business bringing politics into the office.
He was interviewed on NPR yesterday, and I was absolutely floored by his humility. He said what he had done wasn’t really brave since his punishment was retirement. But the guy has received death threats over this. Though I guess since he’s as evil as Jesse Helms was, he deserves it. :rolleyes:
No, standing by one’s convictions doesn’t make one a hero. Refusing to honor an unapologetic bigot does, however.
No matter what we think of him, the voters there kept sending him back, note. He was also never convicted of any serious crimes.
I didn’t care for the Senators politics at all. I can’t imagine why dudes kept voting for him, or how he avoided prosecution. But they *did *vote for him, and he did avoid it.
If “our hero” though Helms was so evil, then he should have worked to harder to stop Helms from getting re-elected. I’ll bet a nickle he did nothing but vote and bitch. Did he walk the precincts, get petitions signed, donate the max to Helm’s opp? :dubious:
So the flag goes at half-mast if your boss sez so.
This has been a hard one to think about, and all the posts here have helped me clarify those thoughts. Burundi, your thoughts are most in line with mine, and are appreciated as a fellow North Carolinian. Jesse Helms has been a painful row to hoe here.
By all rational thought, Mr. Eason was in the wrong as to his absolute duties to the state, as those rules are laid out. But, I greatly admire him for standing up for his moral convictions. There have been plenty of us here in NC that were always against the Helms rhetoric, and trying best to get past it.
