Late last year, I published my latest blog, “Doing the Right Thing.” I wrote about a long time local politician who lost her reelection bid because she cancelled her town’s LGBTQ pride recognition, and about the success of companies that did not bow to political pressure, but instead maintained their commitment to their DEIB strategy and efforts. Yes, it does take courage to do the right thing!
I plan to continue on this theme for a while, and this time I will write about doing the right thing, but perhaps not going far enough.
In the past few weeks, the USA ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) group has gone into the Minneapolis area to round up undocumented immigrants. They have used strong arm and inhumane techniques, leading to wide spread protests across the city. Now in two cases, two innocent well-meaning US citizens have been murdered by ICE. In addition, agents have been attacking peaceful protests with tear gas and projectiles.
President Trump and other leaders around him have quickly jumped to conclusions labeling the two murdered people (Renee Good and Alex Pretti) as domestic terrorist who threatened the lives of agents, totally disregarding the facts presented in videos of the incidents.
At this point, I am expecting all political leaders from both sides of the aisle to strongly condemn these lies. It is disappointing to see only a small handful of Republicans honestly address the situation.
Finally, after the second murder and seeing images of several peaceful crowds being pepper sprayed, most leaders of the Fortune 500 companies in the Minneapolis area issued a letter urging “state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions” and how the recent tumult in Minnesota has caused “widespread disruption and tragic loss of life.”
I call this “partially doing the right thing.” I view this as a fairly feeble attempt to address the situation as the letter did not specifically name President Trump or any other political leader involved with the situation. Executives across the country have been largely reluctant to comment publicly on political issues throughout Trump’s second term.
This reminds me of a situation with a team I was once on. There were three people who were causing chaos and being outward belligerent toward other members of the team. The leader then came and gave us a tepid talk about how we need to work better together without addressing those causing the problem. So nothing changed and the team totally imploded into ineffectiveness.
Doing the right thing does take courage, especially when it includes being totally frank about addressing those in the wrong. So is it enough to “do the right thing” part way?
