I think it's one of the best letters of resignation that I've ever seen.
The question it raises for me, though, is where he can go that will have a source of grant money that is sufficiently "safe". I applaud Ethan's adherence to ethics, but I personally don't know that a truly ethical approach is actually possible.
If "one hop" from Epstein is too close, how about two hops --- say, money donated from a foundation that Epstein contributed to? Three hops? Four? What about money coming from people who have associated with Epstein in the past?
For that matter, is it just Epstein, or are their other irredeemable sources as well? I don't suppose Idi Amin has a charitable foundation, but what about money with Nazi ties? What about Saudi money? Israeli? US?
Where does one draw the line? Is it just a matter of what one is personally comfortable being associated with, or is there some coherent principle that can be drawn upon?
I imagine it's not just the money, but also loss of trust in this particular person (Ito) for making the choices they did and not being up front about them at the time. Once you can't depend on the people you need to trust to be trustworthy, it's time to go.
A good coherent principle is "if everyone knew about this, what would happen?"...
The question it raises for me, though, is where he can go that will have a source of grant money that is sufficiently "safe". I applaud Ethan's adherence to ethics, but I personally don't know that a truly ethical approach is actually possible.
If "one hop" from Epstein is too close, how about two hops --- say, money donated from a foundation that Epstein contributed to? Three hops? Four? What about money coming from people who have associated with Epstein in the past?
For that matter, is it just Epstein, or are their other irredeemable sources as well? I don't suppose Idi Amin has a charitable foundation, but what about money with Nazi ties? What about Saudi money? Israeli? US?
Where does one draw the line? Is it just a matter of what one is personally comfortable being associated with, or is there some coherent principle that can be drawn upon?