Americans like movies where truth speaks to power. Rest assured, however, power doesn’t appreciate it. Joseph P. Kennedy, Ambassador to Great Britain in 1939, denounced the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, by Frank Capra, as a scandal. It made foreigners believe “the United States is full of graft, corruption, and lawlessness.” Ambassador Kennedy didn’t want to upset the sensitivities of world leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Average Americans, on the other hand, flocked to Capra’s movie. They didn’t delude themselves that we were perfect. They didn’t fear letting the world know that American confidence could handle hard truths about themselves.
Americans live with paradox. On one hand, we like ourselves. We see ourselves as special in the world, not bound by the dead hand of tradition. We consider those who point out our flaws as informers or worse. We have whole industries dedicated to drumming up our national identity as favoring the independent minded, patriotic, pragmatic hero. Yet we relish denouncing ourselves, too. We watch both the Crucible and On the Waterfront.
Not everyone’s a Martin Luther King
When Martin Luther King took a stand for Civil Rights in Birmingham, he was rewarded with jail time. Time proved him to have been right. Jonathan Pollard, on the other hand, secretly acted upon his belief that the United States should do more to help Israel. He had to be found out, was arrested as a spy, and imprisoned. Not all those who act upon their beliefs are moral heroes.
One thing that characterizes the moral advocate is a willingness to face the consequences of his actions, the better to bring an unjust system to light in America. We think of such people as John Brown, who believed in violence, and Daniel Ellsberg, who did not.
Want to Know About Leaks? Go Way Back
Better cases to consider are Richard Marven and Samuel Shaw. Marven was a junior officer and Shaw a midshipman under the command of Esek Hopkins. Hopkins was the definition of Colonial era power. He was no less than Commander of the Continental Navy whose brother was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Further, he was a war hero, having beaten the mighty British Navy in combat.
But he was also an alleged torturer of British prisoners. Marven and Shaw believed this wrong, and brought this to the attention of the new American government. Hopkins had them both arrested. Congress disagreed with Hopkins, and created the first law to state: “That it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States, all well as all other inhabitants thereof, to give the earliest information to Congress or any other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds or other misdemeanors committed by any persons in the service of these states, which may come to their knowledge”.
Hopkins, despite all the power, prestige, lawyers, military brass and politicians on his side, was defeated. Marven and Shaw, good officers who believed we were better than torturers, decided to act against wrongdoing in government. They reported, and they believed in the ability of our government to correct itself.
