Virginia Proverb: "Hindsight is Better than Foresight by a Darnsight"

The chattering class, writing in hindsight, is offering pages of speculation on whether or not Mark Felt, aka "Deep Throat" did the right thing by leaking rather than whistle-blowing or resigning. It is an interesting question worth some time and effort to learn lessons about ethics. Save yourself some time and effort by checking out this opinion column from Peggy Noonan. She nails it in this paragraph:

"Was Mr. Felt a hero? No one wants to be hard on an ailing 91-year-old man. Mr. Felt no doubt operated in some perceived jeopardy and judged himself brave. He had every right to disapprove of and wish to stop what he saw as new moves to politicize the FBI. But a hero would have come forward, resigned his position, declared his reasons, and exposed himself to public scrutiny. He would have taken the blows and the kudos. (Knowing both Nixon and the media, there would have been plenty of both.) Heroes pay the price. Mr. Felt simply leaked information gained from his position in government to damage those who were doing what he didn't want done. Then he retired with a government pension. This does not appear to have been heroism, and he appears to have known it. Thus, perhaps, the great silence."

She makes the case that many evil, unintended consequences resulted from Mr. Felt's course of action. Mr. Felt, of course, did not have the benefit of hindsight and has lived with the intended and unintended consequences.

As for the rest of us, we can only do what seems best at the time and take comfort in Romans 8:28.

Comments

[Steve F.]

Interesting thoughts...especially since I was a cowardly pacifist as a teenager who was transformed by the Watergate travesties and the Nixon impeachment. If I'd had my way, Judge Sirica would have been named Pope and Sam Ervin would have been president for a term not less than his remaining natural life. Idealistic innocence dies hard, it seems.

I had some mixed feelings about Felt "coming out of the dark" (apologies to Gloria Estefan) after 30 years. I agree that he played it safe, hid in government-pensioned comfort, and now seems to be standing up at this late stage only to take a bow and cash a check or two before he shuffles off. But all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, I've been told - myself most especially.

I'm not sure that anything I've done would equal the value of Felt's tip-off to the Woodward/Bernstein team - so I really can't judge, eh?

I've come to see that the fruit of our actions is rarely as sweet or pure as we would want 'em to be. My motives are never, ever pure - so calling others' motives under the spotlight just reflects ever so brightly on my own tarnished intentions.

My thoughts have been, "Let him go, let him die, and God, grant him whatever peace he needs to find you and stick with You." That's rarely the way it works these days, however. I'm afraid that soon they'll be trying to exhume the bodies of the Oval Office tapes, to re-examine the 6-1/2 minute gap, to see if it's REALLY as silent as they say...

My question frequently ends up being, "Don't we have enough to be concerned about today without having to wonder about stuff from 3 decades ago?"