Putting people first

When Miroslav Kalousek criticizes his president and acts like the leader of a new anti-drunkenness movement, almost everyone understands that the joke is on him. We shouldn't kill the messenger, even if he did have his own recent bout on Czech Radio with a nasty virus. When analyst Michal Šnobr of J&T criticizes the expansion of Temelín and gets increasingly vocal about it, we shouldn't dismiss his concerns just because the financial group he represents has its own energy agenda. When lawyer Tomáš Sokol goes on Czech TV and talks about bank fees and the efforts of certain law firms to take collective action (and earn a killing in the process), we shouldn't ignore his words of wisdom just because we know he has his own debt-collection business that brings him tens of millions of crowns a year (according to Respekt). Sometimes people say and do things out of their heartfelt concern for the common man.