{"id":122,"date":"2009-08-10T11:52:40","date_gmt":"2009-08-10T11:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/moral-monday-speaking-truth-to-power.html"},"modified":"2009-08-10T11:52:40","modified_gmt":"2009-08-10T11:52:40","slug":"moral-monday-speaking-truth-to-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/moral-monday-speaking-truth-to-power.html","title":{"rendered":"Moral Monday: Speaking Truth To Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Doing the right thing. Speaking up. Looking out for those
\nless able to defend themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are qualities embodied by a man I grew up knowing,
\nand, throughout high school, was proud to call my friend.  <\/span>In fact, he was a lot of people’s
\nfriend, and still is today.<\/span><\/p>\n

His name is Brian Laguardia. You might recognize it, if you
\ngrew up in the nineties in Manhattan and went to certain public schools, or if
\nyou read the New York Times<\/i> last
\nweek, where he was interviewed in a piece called “Suicide’s Rising Toll<\/a>,” talking
\nabout his experiences as a soldier in Iraq in the <\/span>1451st Transportation Company<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I understand it, Brian was only months from the end of
\nhis inactive regular Army reserve duty when the Army recalled him to active
\nservice. He could have fought it; he had a good case and the resources to make
\nit stick. But he didn’t fight it. He dropped everything and went to war. <\/span><\/p>\n

And along the way he became comrades with a tight-knit group
\nof men; one of whom he felt had no business being in Iraq, due to an unstable
\nemotional history. Brian did his best; he notified the Army authorities before they
\nwere deployed, and again expressed concern for his friend’s mental health after
\ntheir return to the States. He tried to protect his buddy, and he did
\neverything he could against an enormous and faceless bureaucracy to get his
\nfriend find the help he needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the Army dropped the ball, and Brian’s
\ncomrade committed suicide; a horrendous human tragedy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Though the outcome may not have been uplifting, and I’m sure
\nBrian would probably be embarrassed I’m making a big deal about him, I’d like to
\nnominate my friend, Staff Sergeant Brian Laguardia, as my personal Moral Monday
\npick.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason? We need more guys out there like him. Stand-up guys.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Subscribe to receive updates from Everyday Ethics or follow us on Twitter<\/a>!<\/strong> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doing the right thing. Speaking up. Looking out for those less able to defend themselves. These are qualities embodied by a man I grew up knowing, and, throughout high school, was proud to call my friend.  In fact, he was a lot of people’s friend, and still is today. His name is Brian Laguardia. You…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-hillary-fields","category-personal-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nMoral Monday: Speaking Truth To Power - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/moral-monday-speaking-truth-to-power.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Moral Monday: Speaking Truth To Power - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Doing the right thing. Speaking up. 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She attended St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she studied classics and philosophy, and then respectfully declined to spend the rest of her life in an ivory tower. Instead, she turned to the life of a writer and editor, penning three romance novels published by St. Martin's Press and contributing features to such periodicals as Cosmopolitan magazine. Her fascination with the moral dilemmas that crop up in everyday life--and the many intriguing ways people handle them--has always colored her writings. Now, that interest is leading her to take the discussion online; where, hopefully, the addition of reader feedback will bring these quotidian quandaries--and their potential solutions--vibrantly to life. When she's not plumbing the ethical mysteries of humanity, her passions include cooking (especially baking), origami, kittens, reading, watching really bad television and playing online scrabble. (And no, she doesn't cheat... much.)","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/hfields"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}