Someone Will Be Ticked

"Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you're a writer, you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive." — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

To this I would add, "risk getting a lesser grade."

Last week my instructor informed me the Bible was not an appropriate source to cite for university courses. Did I mention the name of the course is "Public Administration Professionalism" or that the textbook is called The Responsible Public Servant? If ever there was a public servant, it was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Perhaps he didn't fit the "responsible" part, what with all the whip cracking in the temple and all.

But I digress. Today I wrote the first draft of my first essay assignment, where you give and back up your opinion on whether the person in the case study is justified in whistle-blowing. I discovered the following in the textbook:

Has the whistle-blower gone to the immediate supervisor and to other appropriate personnel up the ladder? Has there been an adequate attempt to reason with the wrongdoer?...In short, has the whistle-blower sought to keep the problem "in the family" as long as possible?

Let me say this as lovingly as I know how.

HELLO? That is straight out of Matthew 18. Look it up if you don't believe me. I cannot NOT bring this up. Sorry.

A long list of citations, acceptable or not, decorates the bottom of my essay-- including Will Shakespeare's Hamlet. And the Gospel according to St. Matthew. And a lot of boring books and articles no one ever heard of.

Someone's gonna be ticked. I'll keep ya posted.