The Whole World Is Watching

If you work in an industry that is at all dependent upon the public’s perception of their reputation in order to be profitable, you probably have an understanding of loyalty – at least to the degree that regardless of how you really felt about your employer, you would not stand around at a party and tell people what a horrible place of business you work in. In fact, you may even find a section in your employee manual that outlines consequences of speaking unfavorably about the business. Take, for instance, my profession. I run a healthcare facility. Healthcare is very much a business that depends upon the public’s perception in order to remain profitable. If a hospital or outpatient facility develops a poor public image, it hurts the bottom line. If I overheard one of my employees telling their friends that they wouldn’t recommend our facility for the care of a loved one, I would at the very least reprimand the employee, and according to our employee policies, I would be justified in terminating the person’s employment.

This isn’t a new concept and is widely understood. In fact, I would go so far as to say it falls under the category of common sense and knowingly or not – we apply this to a number of things in our lives.

If you visited your child’s high school basketball game, you wouldn’t “boo” the home team.

These things should be a matter of common sense and are not about your freedom to voice your opinion, but exhibiting courtesy, professionalism and a sense of loyalty. If you hate your boss, you have every right to tell your wife, your best friend, your mother…but trust me, if you come to an interview in my office and I ask you why you want to leave your current employer, I do NOT want to hear how unfair he/she treats you or how much you are overworked and underpaid. Answers like these speak volumes to your work ethic and professionalism.

Take Martha Stewart….she was in trouble with the law and the Board of her multi-million dollar company asked her to step down. Then, as though that wasn’t insulting enough – they systematically began to either remove or reduce the size of her name on the products they sold, so as to distance themselves from her bad publicity. Did she go public with a tirade of, “I built that company! Don’t buy their products! They’ve squeezed me out of what is rightfully mine!” No, she kept her mouth shut and remained loyal and was eventually able to return to the company when she became less of a liability.

A couple of years ago while I was vacationing outside of the United States, I had a conversation with a foreigner about places we had visited. During the conversation, the gentleman said, “I usually vacation in Port Douglas”, then he looked at me with one of those expressions that indicated he was waiting for a grand response. When I simply said, “oh, and how do you like it there?” He said, “That’s where your former President Bill Clinton used to vacation!” I’m certain all the color drained from my face. To be sure, I do not wish to be standing on foreign soil and be pulled into a conversation about Bill Clinton. It’s one thing to talk with my friends or at least with an American about the Clintons, but quite frankly, the entire Clinton era is an embarrassment to me, particularly when I’m asked about it by someone who is not an American. If I had been having this conversation with a friend or neighbor, I might have said, “whoopdidoo!” or, "he wasn't MY President". In this case, however, a response of that nature wasn’t an option. I didn’t have to think about it or weigh my words. Being disrespectful toward a former President of the United States was not an option for me as I stood on foreign soil. My loyalty toward the United States simply prohibited anything other than the response I gave, “Oh! How nice!”.

Did I think it was nice? Not really. Did I care where Bill Clinton took his vacations? Not at all. In fact, I was a little mortified to be talking about the Clintons, but I never gave a second thought to what my response should be.

The likes of Natalie Maine, Johnny Depp, Madonna and of course, let us not forget about William Jefferson Clinton are perfect examples of disloyalty and an absence of ethics and professionalism. It seems that these people have something in common. Other than the obvious unpatriotic attitude toward the country that made them who they are and lined their pockets with American dollars, these people seemingly like to be in a crowd of cheering people. So, rather than exhibit appropriate, common sense driven loyalty for their country, they say whatever they think the crowd wants to hear – whatever will solicit more cheers and applaud.

In a speech yesterday in Montreal, former President Bill Clinton announced to delegates from around the world visiting at a U.N. climate conference that President Bush is “FLAT WRONG” in his statements regarding reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Then in the most patronizing of statements, urged the delegates to “try to work with the current administration”.

For what it’s worth, the delegation was not happy with Clinton’s impromptu visit. In other words, he wasn’t invited to speak – but showed up anyway.

Occasionally I get an e-mail or a phone call from one of my friends who live in other countries. Most often, somewhere in the conversation they make the statement, “the whole world is watching”.

It’s very difficult for me to understand why grown men and women can’t grasp the concept of loyalty and patriotism. I’m sick and tired of hearing people say “dissent is patriotic” and “freedom of speech”. It’s not about the freedom to say what you wish. It’s not about expecting people to agree with everything this administration does. It’s about having the decency, dignity and loyalty to NOT visit a foreign country and air your dissent while the whole world watches.

Feeling a sense of loyalty to your country and displaying respect for its administration should be as natural as being loyal to your parents or your employer or your alma mater. For those who were born without the very natural loyalty I’ve spoken of here, there IS a solution.

According to Wikipedia…

In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one's nation. A person who betrays the nation of their citizenship and/or reneges on an oath of loyalty and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor.

In the United States Code the penalty ranges from "shall suffer death" to "shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."

I can live with that.

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