One final hurdle. The Senate bill now has to pass the House on an up or down vote. We're out of time. There can't be any change made to the bill. One change kills the bill. This all has to happen in the next several days.
Can you just take one second to explain why a change in the bill ends up killing it? What if it makes the bill better?
This is the end of the Congressional session. If the House and Senate pass different versions of the bill, they would have to have a conference in order to reconcile the differences. It's too late to have a conference; there's barely time for an up or down vote, so it's either a lame duck [session] or a dead duck.
Drs. Wigand and Murtagh at Congress
Why have whistleblowers been so critical throughout history to the running of a free society?
High drama. I'm not the best person to explain all of this. I hope you have time to talk to the leaders of the coalitions including POGO [Project on Government Oversight], Public Citizen, GAP [Government Accountability Project], all of the groups published in the letter last night. I am a foot soldier. I'm a doctor, not a lawyer. I know the impact this bill will have on the sick people I see every day. Integrity in medicine is not a luxury. It is essential. We want Marcus Welby in charge of your medicine, not Enron medicine.
Look at history. Civilizations fell when they did not listen to truth-tellers. Achilles should have listened to Cassandra. Caesar should have listened to the soothsayer. Britain should have listened to Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine.
We face incredibly challenges today. The first step is to know the truth. We can't solve the deficit unless we know the real facts about where money is going. We can't solve climate change when scientists are gagged. Patients deserve to know if they are getting quality care. Our nation can't afford to go to war based on false information. The Trojans and the Greeks were both destroyed in their futile war. What started that fighting? Nobody really knows, probably the Helen incident was all a hoax and a pretext, much like the WMD. Does it matter to the soldiers that ended up sleeping with the strengthless dead? They knew, as all armies know as they charge each other, that someone had blundered. Real national security rests on knowing the truth, and avoiding those blunders.
People someday will ask why America slept during the storms arising now. As Churchill would say, we are no longer in a period of indecision - we are entering a time of consequences. Passing the WPEA is the bill that makes possible all the other bills needed to safeguard the public and decrease the deficit.
Truth tellers are patriots. We want our country to continue to succeed. How can America thrive when truth tellers are gagged? Look upon the works past, ye mighty, and despair, unless we take a different path. It is an honor to be with the few brave people who are happy warriors in this great drama.
All that remains of Caesar is his salad. Now is the time to pass the WPEA for the USA!
Okay, okay, I'm sold! Can you give us more details about some of the IAW's whistleblowers and their stories?
Great question, Joan. GAP just wrote a white paper about whistleblower witch hunts. It really is a startling report- I hope that you can publish the entire report as a separate article on OEN.
I also suggest your readers watch the videos we've made over the years that are posted at GAP TV- more than 70 stories. Some are famous like Dr. Ellsberg, Coleen Rowley, Frank Serpico and Dr. Wigand. Others are unknown whistleblowers who have made a huge impact on our society, such as my good friend Michael McCray who predicted and might have been able to prevent the mortgage meltdown.
Many medical doctors are foot soldiers like myself in this story. Many can't be named because hospitals take draconian steps so that they are never heard from. I've written about this in OEN many times.
It's gratifying to know that OpEdNews had a small hand in this. What exactly have you found helpful?
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