[meteorite-list] Must've Had Rocks In Their Heads (Editorial)

From: gle_at_bellatlantic.net <gle_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:00:09 2004
Message-ID: <3D3F0DD5.BDA4516C_at_bellatlantic.net>

When you read this account and then reflect on Enron and Worldcom etal,
one does start to question the viability of morality/the right thing to
do in todays society- GRANT ELLIOTT
Ron Baalke wrote:
>
> http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1506081
>
> Must've had rocks in their heads
> By THOM MARSHALL
> Houston Chronicle
> July 23, 2002
>
> Houston, we have a problem.
>
> What's the nation to do with those young people
> accused of swiping and trying to peddle off pieces of the
> moon and Mars?
>
> If these charges are true, what in heaven's name were
> they thinking? Did they look at it as some big joke? Did
> they envision themselves as actors in a movie -- The
> Great Moon Rock Heist -- about how a gang of novices
> outsmarts NASA security to make off with a 600-pound
> safe containing lunar and meteorite samples?
>
> Or maybe they attempted to rationalize the shortcut to
> personal profit as being no worse than shortcuts taken
> by top execs of certain bankrupt corporations.
>
> Second thoughts in jail
>
> It might have seemed an exciting lark, right up until they
> were arrested over the weekend. But don't you imagine
> they started to have second thoughts while sitting in jail
> and waiting for their shocked and disappointed folks to
> bail them out?
>
> Shae Lynn Saur, 19, an engineering student at Lamar
> University. How proud her family must have been of her
> summer job at NASA.
>
> Tiffany Brooke Fowler, 22, a recent graduate of Texas
> Lutheran University. She landed a NASA internship, no
> doubt with plenty of recommendations from professors
> who believed in her abilities and potential.
>
> Thad Ryan Roberts, 25, a graduate of the University of
> Utah with a triple major. He worked at NASA's Neutral
> Buoyancy Lab. Authorities fingered him as the main man
> in the moon sample snatch, the leader of the gang.
>
> Gordon Sean McWhorter, 26, a college buddy of
> Roberts'. He is the only one who did not work at NASA.
>
> The others no longer work there. They got fired on
> Monday. A federal prosecutor in Florida said that
> conviction on the charges they face carries up to five
> years' hard time and/or a fine of up to $250,000.
>
> But that doesn't balance the scales of justice. Prison
> terms and fines punish the perpetrators without repairing
> the damage, without setting things right for the victims.
> I'm one of the victims, same as every other U.S. citizen. I
> want more than mere punishment. I'd like to see some
> rehabilitation and some restoration.
>
> I called Tom Russell, a law professor at the University of
> Denver and formerly of the University of Texas. He
> teaches a course on restorative justice and said that
> restorative justice methods could work well in this
> national-level case, much as they work when applied to
> community-level crimes like home burglaries or graffiti
> painting.
>
> He said four questions should be asked:
>
> 1. Are they willing to hold themselves accountable? If
> not, then we can forget the other three questions and
> turn them over to the regular retributive justice system
> for the hard time and/or big fine.
>
> 2. What was the harm done? In this case, Russell said, it
> appears the harm was "the violation of a variety of
> relationships of trust." The security breach was a harm
> to others who work at NASA. Harm was done to the
> relationship between NASA and the public that expects
> NASA to protect our moon rocks.
>
> Discussing a breach of trust
>
> 3. What can be done to repair the harm? It isn't easy to
> answer this one. Russell suggested a meeting of the
> people who took the rocks with some people who work
> at NASA and some representatives of the American
> public, "and maybe a couple of Apollo astronauts," and
> have them all discuss "what a large breach of trust this
> was and how important these moon rocks are as
> symbols of American history."
>
> 4. Who should repair the harm? "In this case, it's pretty
> clear," Russell said. He said those who took the rocks
> should return to their colleges and talk about what they
> did. "And they should talk to Americans like me who
> watched the first lunar landings."
>
> A restorative justice approach may strike you as a big
> change, as thinking outside the box. If so, how fitting.
> Making changes and thinking outside of boxes got us up
> there in the first place, to gather those rocks, to take that
> giant leap for mankind.
>
> Thom Marshall's e-mail address is
> thom.marshall_at_chron.com.
>
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Received on Wed 24 Jul 2002 04:28:05 PM PDT