Saint Whistleblower

It’s not easy to blow the whistle on people who are doing bad things. But that’s what good people do: blow the whistle on bad people.

Esther is the patron saint of whistleblowers.

Background: People have been blowing whistles in the literal sense ever since the shrill sound-makers were invented, but “whistleblower” in its figurative sense is a distinctly modern term, entering our language only as recently as the 1970s.

Whistleblowers, of course, are employees or insiders who become aware of wrongdoing within the corporation or agency. They learn of products or policies or practices that stand to harm the customer, the stockholders or the employees themselves, but the dangers of which are being concealed, and then make the information public. Many people who blow the whistle on corporate shenanigans are motivated by a concern for the common good. One reporter, in an in-depth newspaper story on whistleblowers, stated that such persons “often feel it’s their responsibility to speak up for those who can’t.”

Sherron Watkins, a former vice president at Enron, is one whistleblower who was...