Doctors intervene and induce labor when waiting for normal contractions to begin would pose unacceptable risk to an expectant mother or baby. The decision to take this step is never a decision made without serious thought. Society is now experiencing contractions that portend disaster. At risk is our trust in the security and integrity of our systems. City council members and general managers imprisoned for fraud. Trusted staffers guilty of embezzlement, county supervisors found to have diverted pandemic dollars to family members, nationally elected officials flaunting all boundaries related to ethics and civility. Corruption has seeped into every interstitial space of our society, so much so that the citizenry defaults to thinking nothing is without taint in institutions we rely on to navigate in today’s world. Perilously at risk, we are beyond the time to induce reform into the body of institutions that assert dominion over us in our municipalities and these United States. A quote referenced in Gerald E. Caiden’s 1969 book, Administrative Reform, is as prescient now as it was then, perhaps even more so. It states, “Men considering the world, see things that are bad, situations that are wrong, conditions that affront and feel compelled to reflect upon the source of their anomalies which distress their natural desire to inhabit a world that yields their own standards of desirability.” What is the source of those anomalies that we need to reflect on today? The quest for easy profitability, greed, the ubiquitous unquenchable thirst for power? An attitude of well...everyone else is doing it so why shouldn’t I?” When I’m chatting about organizational change, I often mention Professor Caiden, who I studied under in my long-ago days at the University of Southern California (USC). Many times, I’ve borrowed from what I remember from his lectures in my effort to remind the willing and those who are patient enough to hear me out, about the citizenry’s responsibility to ensure that society’s actions are on behalf of the public interest. Interest, in the context of protecting the well-being of the community at large, not of individuals. Not of self, as we are wont to do in this era ruled by the gods of individualism. In his seminal book, Caiden defines administrative reform as “the artificial inducement of administrative transformation against resistance.” Hence, my opening paragraph as a gestational metaphor, getting something to happen in opposition to the organic “natural” way of things when something is imperiled and time is of the essence. When conditions warrant intervention to prevent catastrophe. Stay with me in the gestational thread as I inform that researchers at Michigan State University recently discovered that the time of day that medication was administered to induce labor had a significant effect on the duration of labor experienced by the mothers-to-be. Prior to the pandemic of early 2020 I was a guest lecturer in an Arizona State University Graduate Engineering course entitled Advanced Procurement Systems. One of the three sessions I taught was on Ethics + Politics. The class was composed of students of varying ages, backgrounds, and enthusiasms. A sizable percentage of the students, who were from the southern part of Asia, explained that they’d heard that the business culture in the United States was far different than the countries they’d hailed from. Not a surprise here. ’d worked in Libya for a large business concern and am very familiar with the dilemma faced when expats applying ethical concepts from the US attempted to conduct business in another country. The thing I wanted to shout about was that the students were eager to participate in the situational exercises that challenged them to investigate their position on ethical dilemmas. They were excited and paid close attention to the stories of ethical violations and the actions or inactions that occurred once the wrongdoing was found out. For the past two years my time has been spent addressing family vicissitudes of life, and contrary to previous years, I have not been actively involved in studying or participating in organizational decision-making. But I’ve been watching and listening. To angst-filled calls from former colleagues and friends who are still working in and with municipal sector entities. Even had the calls not come, no one who lives here with any allegiance to our country and its citizenry can close their ears to the cacophony of the ongoing chaos. So, my ifs are these. If I were to stand in front of those students, these six years later, I wonder if their enthusiasm for learning about ethics is the same. And I wonder about those in charge, those I used to work with, those who I see stories about along with you, my reader. Has the commitment to ethical principles in the current world dissipated? If you were an administrator with influence who was faced with a landscape of public interest issues which if left unaddressed would put us all at risk, would you hesitate or intervene and induce reform? As you ponder your answer, don’t take too long. Timing is always everything.