Everyday Ethics • By Rick Pope • One of the reasons I don’t like flying is the cramped quarters in coach. Last time I flew I had the misfortune of sitting behind someone who reclined his seat back as soon as the airline rules allowed. He left it that way for the rest of the flight. Is it ethical to recline your seat back on a long flight in coach?

By Rick Pope • A couple of months ago our neighbors of many years separated and the wife moved out of the house. Recently the husband began receiving a frequent visitor. She apparently wants to keep her visits discreet, because she never parks in my neighbor’s open driveway, or in front of his house. Instead, she parks around the corner and down the street — right in front of my house. This has become a regular occurrence. For some reason I find it annoying. Should I say something?

Everyday Ethics • By Rick Pope • You will have legal protection if your employer retaliates against you for whistleblowing to a workplace safety agency, or a nondiscrimination agency. This legal protection against retaliation exists even if your complaint is found to be invalid. But if retaliation occurs, as my father-in-law the probate judge used to say, in law, “It’s not what happened—it’s what you can prove happened.”

By Rick Pope Q: The mailman rang my doorbell and alerted me that he noticed my neighbor’s front door open. I went to check and nobody was home. Concerned about theft, intruders, etc., I locked the door and closed it. Pretty soon my neighbor came to my door, saying she was locked out of her house and needed my help. She was furious when she learned I had “butted in.” I thought I was being considerate. What do you think? Q: My office coworker is an avowed atheist and objects when anyone says “Bless you” in response to a sneeze. He says people shouldn’t impose their “superstitions” or belief systems on others who may or may not share them. Is it reasonable for him to expect everybody else to suppress this customary goodwill gesture?

Our town has a “leash law” prohibiting dogs from running loose and requiring owners to have dogs under their control. While walking around the path at a popular local park, I often encounter people with dogs 6-15 feet away on leashes loosely dragging behind the dog instead of held by the owners. . .

Your question brings up two fascinating and related ethical subjects: what is a gift, and how hard it is for us to see the world from the perspective of somebody else. . .

For better and worse, we also live in a crowded modern age. Unless we are hermits in the forest full time, we need to think of the impact our actions have on the people surrounding us . . . That is the essence of ethics.

You need not be a stickler in following every rule or order someone in a position of authority imposes in order to be ethical. You may be a lawbreaker, or a rulebreaker, but that does not necessarily make you unethical. Ethics is founded on independent, careful thought — not blind obedience.

Q: I have an acquaintance who is a vegetarian. When I made a favorite dish recently for a potluck we both attended, I used chicken stock instead of vegetable. I doubt she could tell the difference, but should I have informed her?

Q: I gave a spare back-door house key to my friend. I mislaid mine and asked her to make me a copy of the one she had. Unbeknownst to me, she asked a friend of hers to have it made, and told her it was to my house. I don’t know my friend’s friend, and feel very uncomfortable. Should I complain to my friend? Change the lock? Send her the bill?