Profiles in Courage

This "author interview" with William Ian Miller about his book on retribution, An Eye For An Eye, at Salon (a subject worth its own dissertation) has a link to another interview with the same author, this one about his book, The Mystery of Courage. The good quote comes at the end, referring to a popular political figure who has been treated badly by his party: "Why is he unreliable? Not because he lacks virtue, but because he has it."

Possibly that's why people with virtue and moral courage are no good for politics. Their courage makes them unreliable. Their loyalty is to their principles, not to their party... though whether or not the person referred to in the interview (John McCain) violates this theory, I don't know. But no matter.

Miller talks about moral courage as well, which made me think of whistleblowers. Now, the Bush Administration has attempted to redefine the term whistleblower so it refers to a person who actually uses the media to damage virtuous people, but never mind. The whistleblower I thought of was Coleen Rowley, who is running for Congress. I remembered her interview on "Speaking of Faith" from a couple of years ago, which you shouldn't miss.

Simultaneously, Salon's advice columnist, Cary Tennis, who sometimes gives colossally bad advice, clarified the importance of moral courage for someone in his column today.