Ethics, Religion, and Doing Your Job

So, yet another profession is contaminated by religious fanatics not willing to either seek other employment or shut up and do their jobs: For Some, There Is No Choice. Briefly, an EMT refused to transport someone for an abortion. She got fired, and is suing.

Boo-fucking-hoo. You knew the demands of the profession when you entered it. You don't get to decide who is worthy of your services and who isn't. It's not your fucking call. Your damned job is to provide services and transportation to patients - not just patients who meet your little moral criteria, but all patients presented to you. If you can't do that, GET A DIFFERENT JOB, BITCH!! No one wants your scruples imposed on them. Really. They have to answer to their own consciences and religions, not yours.

You know, not just medical people have ethical & moral issues in their jobs, but most have a real clue about how to handle it.

If your religion is antithetical to your career, it is you who must change, not the career. You must either change religion (not likely), or change career.

A person with a job as a bartender can't suddenly become a rabid temperance pusher, refuse to serve any alcohol, and keep their job. A person who believes that drinking is immoral would be an idiot to go into bartending to begin with. Suing over being fired for it would get laughed out of court, why should sudden fanatical anti-choice Christian stunts be any different?

A vegan isn't going to get a job as a butcher, and then not be fired when they refuse to cut meat as a moral issue. Why should anti-BC or anti-abortion Christians get any special priviledges to impose their beliefs as part of their job?

I'm a system administrator. Since we often have priviledged access to sensitive systems and data, ethics are very important in the field. While it's not life and death, per se, bad handling of someone's data can screw up their life. As a part of this, I believe that blanket email spamming to get customers is wrong, and should be illegal.

One company I worked for, the marketing department was so unethical, it took all of the names it could get from WHOIS, and started to send them spam advertising our services. When several of us found out about it, we literally said "stop, or we'll quit". Management hadn't been aware of what they were doing, and made them stop (and apologize to our customers).

But if they hadn't, I would have left the company. That's how you handle ethical problems with your job: ask that it be remedied, and if it won't, leave and find a job that doesn't violate your ethics.

If it suddenly became standard practice to instantly turn over all data, email and other info about a person to any government agency without requiring a proper warrant, I would refuse (and risk being fired) or just quit if I knew that company policy was against me. It's a matter of conscience, and being adult enough to be realistic about the consequences of having a conscience.

Seriously, if your career choice turns out to be something that is against your principles, be an adult, and find a different career. Don't whine that the courts should force your employer to pay you for either refusing to do your job or trying to impose your narrow religion on others in the course of it. I don't want to live in your theocracy. After all, you wouldn't want to live in mine...

A Note to Voters

We have an election in November, one that will determine the control of the House and the Senate. To avoid the rush, and shenanigans by unscrupulous voting officials, make sure that you are registered NOW!!.

Ask your friends and family, especially those in "swing" states, to verify and/or re-register before September. Don't risk having your application shredded by officials "too busy" to process the paperwork from opposing parties.

The campaigns are starting up already. Be sure to be registered before the other games start.

EDIT: And another thing - I specifically didn't mention either party as tending to practice voter suppression or fraud. I want to hold all parties, major and minor, to the same high standards.

It's high time that people put aside the partisan crap, and realized that many of these politicians that we supposedly elect aren't serving us, but are serving monied interests who couldn't give a damn about the little guy. Both major parties do this. We all need to hold them accountable for their cash box politics.

If the cash box can render the ballot box insignificant or moot, it may be time for the bullet box.

If we don't stand up for the rights of all citizens, we'll all have to kneel to some jerk's whims.