Friday, December 4, 2015

What it's like for a "Whisle Blower"

I communicated with Dr. Soeken around 1985 and he read my manuscript which I had hoped to get published.  He told me my "story" was the standard profile of someone who had their life destroyed by government(and business).  Below is a description of what it is like to be a whistle blower/political prisoner - words can never describe the hell you are put through as a result of you having courage, conscience, values and morals.

"They get pummeled,'' said Mr. Soeken, who runs a counseling service specifically for whistle blowers, the Association of Mental Health Specialties, in College Park, Md.
''Consider the effects on your children and family life,'' was the advice to potential whistle blowers from the wife of one of those in the survey, who had included a note with the response of her husband.
A whistle blower who worked in a nuclear power plant wrote: ''This has turned out to be the most frightening thing I have ever done. But it has also been the most satisfying. I think I did the right thing, and I have caused some changes to be made in the plant.'' 
      
Their study shatters a perception of whistle blowers as misfits. The average whistle blower in the survey was a 47-year-old family man(I was only 35) who was employed seven years before exposing wrongdoing. Most were driven by conscience.
      
As a group, the whistle blowers were moderately religious. They tended to assume that the best could be achieved by following universal moral codes, which guided their judgments.
          
After exposing misdeeds, all those in the private sector reported they were dismissed.  (I was never fired, I always resigned because the harassment became so sever that my mental and physical health were failing).  It is more difficult to dismiss Government workers, but 51 percent of these whistle blowers reported they were no longer with the same agency.    
   
One out of every five of those in the survey reported they were without a job, and 25 percent mentioned increased financial burdens on the family as the most negative result of their action.
      
Fifty-four percent of the whistle blowers said they were harassed by peers at work.
      
Eighty-two percent of the Federal whistle blowers said they were harassed by their superiors. The harassment reported included reduced responsibilities, close monitoring of their activities and telephone calls.
       
 The Soekens promised confidentiality to the respondents The Soekens but made available some of their comments. 'I Went Through Hell'
      
A truck driver for a food chain said: ''I went through hell emotionally. The insults from management and fellow workers were extreme. It made me a colder, callused person, and yes, I would do it again.''
      
A Government worker said, ''Don't do it unless you're willing to spend many years, ruin your career and sacrifice your personal life.''
                   
Another Federal employee confided, ''Finding honesty within myself was more powerful than I expected.'' 
     
The whistle-blowing experience took a high toll in physical and emotional health, the survey showed. Eighty percent reported physical deterioration, with loss of sleep and added weight as the most common symptoms. Eighty-six percent reported negative emotional consequences, including feelings of depression, powerlessness, isolation, anxiety and anger. 
             
Mr. Soeken said there are seven stages of life for the whistle blower: discovery of the abuse; reflection on what action to take; confrontation with superiors; retaliation; the long haul of legal or other action involved; termination of the case, and going on to a new life.
''The last stage is the most difficult to reach,'' he said, ''and most of them don't reach it.''
 
I have never been able to reach the last stage because I always run into some psychopath, wacko or NeoNazi who believes I don't have the right to life and because the fascist state wants me to tell everyone that I am to blame for the destruction of my life.  The truth is they don't want people to know that they fix/rig federal trials and torture people.      

And I didn't forget about the war on terrorism post which I promised.  Will post in the future.

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