The Truth Shall Set You Free

Upon first picking up Whistleblowers, I was pretty intrigued on what this book contained. Not being much of a book person (or a reader, at that), I tend to let the cover page of a book tell me its synopsis. We all know that good saying about the judging a book, so I won't repeat it. Needless to say, I still do it.

Until this point, I had no clue what a whistleblower was, though in the introduction, he describes just what a whistleblower is. But just because I do not know what it is, doesn't mean that I didn't see or hear about it. Even though most of the time I hear about them have some sort of negative connotation (mostly everything we watch in television will have this), their actions were not unheard of by me. What set this book apart for me from the introduction is this quote:

"...I have never been a whistleblower, and yet I've felt like one all my life...no one ever spoke the truth, so I thought I must (2-3)"

This quote, something that all whistleblowers must have thought of before they blew their whistles, makes me question what their motives are based on. Is it for the better of the community, themselves? I think of how many times there was an error in my definition of truth, yet chose to do nothing about it. What impresses me about these people is that though they work for a rather prestigious company, have job and life security, family, etc. they choose to do the "right" thing, knowing the consequences of their action. Though most of the stories I have read so far fit within this mold, I imagine how many whistleblowers were not given attention, simply kicked off by society, such as Winston Smith.

So what gives? Alford himself makes the statement that whistleblowers tick because if they held the truth any longer, then they would go insane.

In my opinion, whistleblowers, such as the ones mentioned in this book tell their stories because they want to be set free. They don't want retaliation or the notoriety of exposing an exposé, but to inform the world that this situation is happening, and if something doesn't change, then all hell could potentially break loose.