The Power of One: Multiplied by the Rest of Us

The Government Accountability Project began 40 years ago as an effort to change the culture of the United States surrounding the topic of whistleblowing. We saw whistleblowers as courageous heroes and patriots while the nation’s culture was mired in the notion that they were merely “finks,” “tattletales” and “snitches.” We have certainly succeeded in changing the culture, but more importantly we have helped to transform society and how it deals with corruption, abuse of power, environmental and public health threats, illegality and gross mismanagement.

We used to speak of whistleblowing as an example of one person standing up to powerful forces and, thereby, changing society as if once confronted with “The Truth,” major institutions would immediately and automatically take corrective action and reform themselves. We now know that whistleblowers are the catalysts – the sparks – that will either get snuffed out or will transform many aspects of our life impacted by the revelations.

They are still heroes in this more accurate assessment of their contribution, but these courageous truth-tellers need the rest of us to succeed. First, they need the Government Accountability Project that substantiates their information, advocates for them, defends them, and organizes all the component parts of the necessary reform effort. They need reporters to convey the information about problems to the public; public interest groups to wage campaigns to see that those problems are addressed; legislators to provide avenues to address the exposed concerns and to pass statutes to protect them against retaliation; lawyers to defend their rights; and committed reformers everywhere – both inside and outside institutions – to compel the necessary change.