Black and White and Gray

Black and White and Grey

A duty assignment early in my Navy years was as a student in the Master of Business Administration degree program at the University of Michigan. One MBA requirement was two graduate courses in accounting. Having not enjoyed (to put it mildly) my accounting courses at the University of Florida five years earlier, my first summer in Ann Arbor before the fall semester was invested in cramming graduate accounting textbooks before taking the placement exam. It paid off by exempting me from all accounting courses, thus greatly enhancing my enjoyment of Big Blue and studying under several professors of world-renown. 

Our first snowfall the autumn of 1962 was in October and the last snow was the middle of May 1963. From May to October, the ground was white, the sky was grey, and the trees were black. To a native Floridian, a bleak picture. But summer was incredibly delightful; and much to my enjoyment, part of it was even spent in a month-long indoctrination course at Ford Motor Company headquarters, manufacturing and assembly plants. Malinda was four just as we arrived in Ann Arbor and Joe was two that fall. Having lived previously in Newport, Rhode Island, Linda and I were able to cope with and even enjoy the Michigan winter. But it did stretch on and on. 

My favorite course in the university’s MBA curriculum was a semester of business ethics. There were lectures by an excellent professor, a ton of reading, several papers to write, and a term paper as well as an exam. One thing that stuck with me was a new definition and realization of pornography. And the illustrative example that hit me hardest was a front page newspaper photograph of a little girl who had just been struck by a car while riding her bicycle.

Pornography is from Greek. It means evil writing. It isn’t sexual pictures and texts, it’s evil, sheer evil. Evil is wanting to look at a photograph of an injured or dead child. Evil is publishing such. There is a market. There is a purveyor, and a consumer. 

The Murdoch news empire scandal has brought back my Michigan days. A pornographer may be obscenely wealthy, arrogant, prominent and influential, eighty years old, own politicians and police executives, testify before Congress and Parliament about his innocence and humility, and have his photograph spread around the globe. 

And have millions of eager customers.

TW+