Reply #132: That's exactly what I was thinking, yardwork.

[kdpeters]

I admire him for taking a principled stand, but he and his superiors could have handled this better. They could have found some way to fly the flags at half staff while accommodating Mr. Eason's right not to honor someone he detests. Terminating a valued, employee and career public servant seems to be the worst resolution for all parties: Mr. Eason, his superiors, and the citizens of North Carolina. The remedy has a greater negative impact on the work environment and functioning than the problem they're addressing.

I once refused to do part of my job and feared how it might affect my employment or my performance. I can relate to what he risked and ultimately sacrificed for his conscience. Years ago, my partner risked, and ultimately sacrificed, both our lives and our livelihood to stand up to the CHP for refusing to do anything about antigay harrassment from some of the other officers. In California, the law was on our side, but that doesn't matter when you're rocking the boat. Make waves; pay the price. So you've gotta admire the courage in anyone who decides to take that kind of a stand.

In my case, there actually was a legal copyright question at issue. I was about 75% sure I was right. Remember, I just told you that being right doesn't matter. I happened to be so lucky to have a really great immediate supervisor. She totally supported me on the issue itself, but felt we should just go ahead and use the legally murky means one last time in order to deliver on a deadline coming up in a few days. That, in turn, would then buy us a few months to really fix the process before we'd need to use it again. The department had been doing it twenty years by then. What's it matter just one more time?

I refused. HER supervisors were telling her to order me as part of my job, but her conscience wouldn't allow her to do that. THAT'S what mattered. Had she been Mr. Eason's supervisor, I'm sure he would still have his job. It most certainly could have and should have been handled better. It just takes a little bit of effort and creativity to find something that everyone can live with. This is not something for which someone should lose their job or that the people of North Carolina should lose a good employee and career public servant.

It's just a fact of living in a diverse society that employers -- even government employers -- will have to make all kinds of accommodations for all kinds of different reasons. Some are mandated, but for the most part, it's just good business sense. If you want to attract and keep good employees, you're going to accommodate them as much as you can within reason. It should be well within reason to accommodate conscientious objection on occasion.