September 1, 2025

ETHICS MEGATREND:

Moral Courage in America

In my last newsletter, I commented briefly that the topic of moral courage had emerged this summer as a more frequently discussed ethical virtue. It had already become a topic in the spring as we contemplated what we would do if we were leaders of one of the law firms or universities attacked by President Trump. Was it courage to resist the demands of Trump-as-bully—or prudence to extract one’s institution from his attacks by a negotiated settlement?

In the past few days, though, moral courage has increasingly been on the front page due to acts of conscience by a growing number of Americans, many of them federal workers and managers.  

• On August 27, the director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Susan Monarez, confirmed by the Senate only a few weeks earlier, was fired by the Trump Administration for refusing to roll back vaccination recommendations on the basis of what she called “pseudo-science.” Monarez was followed out the door by several other senior CDC officials who also sought to protest the administration’s disregard for science and for the public’s health.

• Earlier, more than 270 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with 170 revealing their names, signed a letter protesting that changes in their agency undermined the EPAs mission to “protect human health and the environment.” Of those, 144 were immediately put on leave and last week an initial group of seven were fired for their protest.

• Also last week, 180 employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) signed an open letter contending that the newly appointed leaders were inexperienced and had made changes that could result in a disaster of the level of Hurricane Katrina. More than 30 of these, who revealed their identities, were immediately placed on administrative leave pending a decision about their employment.  

These incidents, joined by the courage of federal judges who are being castigated by President Trump and his administration for not rubber-stamping all his actions, and by the witness of an increasing number of Republican officials who have openly challenged the legality and ethics of Trump decisions, gives me hope that ethics and morality will survive the corruption and authoritarianism of the Trump Administration.

Moral courage has taken many forms in American history. One immediately thinks of Harriet Tubman and untold others who risked their own lives to create an Underground Railroad to help runaway slaves escape. During the Jim Crow era many thousands of individuals, Black and White, put themselves in harm’s way to prevent racial violence and exclusion. Stories are told in my California family of neighbors who aided Japanese Americans interned in World War II, protecting and then returning their property to them when they came back from the camps.

Arlington National Cemetery and military burial grounds around the world testify the moral courage of generations of Americans who gave service—and often their lives—to their country. As a young man in the 1960s, I remember the courage both of the thousands who fought in the Vietnam War, but also of a courageous few who refused orders to prevent additional MiLai massacres. More recently a generation of whistleblowers, of nurses and doctors treating AIDS and COVID patients, and of small-town neighbors who helped settle refugees fleeing extreme violence abroad have inspired us.

But let’s admit that moral courage and sacrifice have been out of fashion in recent years. American culture has centered on looking out only for yourself. The culture and media have communicated that we have rights—but few obligations. This has fueled ever greater demands for government benefits, resistance to climate measures that require sacrifice today to benefit our grandchildren, and resistance to paying enough taxes to support the good our government does here and abroad. The call for sacrifice and moral courage sounds quaint and old fashioned to many Americans.

As an ethics professor, I am often asked what distinguishes those who act ethically and those who act selfishly and choose expediency over ethical behavior. I think the difference is simply an understanding that life in America (indeed any human life) brings both rights and privileges, requiring some responsibility and sacrifice from every person. That understanding leads directly to a sense of duty. Duty is another old-fashioned concept: it holds that one simply does their part—and more if one is successful economically or has power and influence. Too many Americans today believe only in looking out for number one, and often believe that their economic success is proof that they are better human beings, and can insulate themselves from the problems of less talented and inferior neighbors. 

This is a moment requiring an acute sense of duty and robust moral courage. There are so many injustices being done in our name, and so much damage being done to our society. We are each called upon to step up, to demonstrate exceptional moral courage, perhaps requiring real sacrifice and perhaps for the first time in our lives as Americans. My father insisted that “about once a generation, we are called upon to make a significant sacrifice to maintain our American way of life.” While he was likely thinking more about military service, I take today’s moment as my generation’s time of sacrifice and moral courage. 

It is time for us to voice our objections loudly, to support in any way we can those who are investigated, prosecuted, and fired by an unjust administration, to backfill with philanthropy to the extent we can nonprofits doing critical work here and abroad, and to work politically to reverse the tide that (barely) swept authoritarians into office in 2024.

Recent incidents of moral courage are indeed a positive sign. They confirm that a sense of integrity and moral courage are alive in American society. But only if they encourage more acts of moral courage resisting the immoral actions of our own leaders and institutions.

Past newsletters available at: kirkohanson.com/newsletters.

ETHICS MEGATRENDS is published twice monthly by Kirk O. Hanson, Senior Lecturer Emeritus at the Stanford Business School, retired university professor and executive director at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.