Integrity, and other stuff

I set aside trifling poitical contests and media enhanced strife to teach a lesson in ethics and humanity.

First of all, let us define integrity-recently I have heard integrity defined as "Doing what is right, even when no one is looking."

This is a pathetic attempt at a sound bite. It is also easy to regurgitate, in the fashion of the American Education System.

It is not, however, the right way to view integrity.

Integrity is not, as suggested, an external force, nor is it easily influenced by external forces. Integrity is the choosing, of one's own free will, to be consistent in choices and actions, so as to maintain self-respect. It means there are lines that you will not cross, no matter what the choice may cost you. I know men with real integrity, and they often miss out on opportunities, simply because they cannot be dishonest, or disloyal, or immoral. These men understand that one does not consider whether anyone is watching, they consider only that they will always know and understand what they have done.

Because at the end of the day, they are the men who have to live with their actions.

I wish so deeply that this country was full of men like this, but it is not. We have all become comfortable with the lie, or with the occasional disloyalty. You have to screw your buddy to get ahead, right? Its just business, right? Everybody else does it, I may as well get mine, right?

All men fail. Every man falls short some time. People disappoint.

Heroes get up again and continue to struggle with their nature, continue to fight to change the world.

Being the best is a work ethic, not an image. Being brave means not that you are unafraid, but that you walk into the fire with your fear under control. Bluster in peace doesn't prepare you for war.

We have churned out generation after generation of boys who think that they are men. A hypercompetitive state exists in these boys, which encourages only more bluster, which leads to emotionally charged decision making. I guess that's OK if you are a ditch-digger, I don't know.

It doesn't work in the Army, and it doesn't work in the media, and it certainly doesn't work in politics.

I hate to think that a man's ingrained insecurities would cause a shift in National Foreign Policy. It seems to me that a man or woman with integrity would avoid such a thing.