Let me first start by saying that I know very little about politics. I have never understood it. I don’t understand a lot of the terminology, the strategic planning or why we accuse rather than work to fix situations together. However, I do know what I believe in and what aspects I support, but all the stuff that happens behind the scenes always confuses me. 

Even though I don’t understand politics, recently the word “whistleblower” has been brought up by so many people on so many different platforms, I eventually forced a student who was majoring in Political Science to explain to me in layman’s terms what a “whistleblower” truly was. 

For those of you like me, a whistleblower is someone who reports on wrongdoing or unjust behaviors within an organization. Recently, there has been a lot of discussion regarding the whistleblowers in the White House and if their identity should or should not be disclosed. 

To me, this isn’t a question of should people be blamed for discussing the actions that were conducted, but rather a question of what is morally correct for a situation like the one that we are in. This is the portion of not working together, bringing our ideas together to create a successful country rather than a country that is at each other’s throats because we don’t believe in the same things. 

Side note: I am not stating that unjust behavior on either side is okay. If someone does something wrong or unlawful, it is important to call them out because playing on an unfair playing field is not okay. 

This shouldn’t even be a question brought up because of this single situation, rather if anonymity was such a big deal, why bring up the issue now? Why try and change the definition of the word from “identity remains a secret at all costs” to “identity remains a secret at all costs unless a situation arises”?

Personally, I think anonymity as a whole is a very important aspect to have within society. We use confidentiality and keeping identities hidden in many different ways. From something as extreme as reporting a crime to something as small as being a confidential person for someone to have a vulnerable conversation with. Knowing that a person’s identity will remain sealed away in times of fear or trouble is much bigger than one political scandal. 

In the end, the protection of other humans is much more important than revealing their identity. No one should be afraid that their identity will get out because they reported something that was unlawful or unjust. They should feel safe and that they made a difference in the world as we know it. 

Safety should be our number one priority as human beings. This particular political scandal should not bring up the discussion of the identity of whistleblowers, but rather determining if we as citizens of the United States are in harms way because of the information disclosed anonymously. 

The way that you feel about the information disclosed and the conversation that President Trump had should not impact the way that you feel about keeping others safe. We should be looking out for each other despite our political affiliation and what we believe in. 

Even if you think that the identity of the whistleblowers should be disclosed, they are protected by the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989.