Integrity

I am going to begin this post by saying that I never started this blog to make any kind of political statement whatsoever. I won’t hide the fact that I call Jesus Lord of my Life, or my love for the husband and son God gave to me. But my purpose in starting a blog was not motivated in any way whatsoever by the desire to make political statements of any kind.

And this post really isn’t about politics. This post is about personal integrity as it relates to how we respond to the politicians making a mess out of running our country . Just for the record--before I get into any of what has been bothering me lately--I am neither Republican nor Democrat. I am in fact registered Independent . I believe in small government, more personal responsibility, and moral standards of behavior. You don’t have to agree or disagree, but there it is for the record.

Unless you’ve been in a cave somewhere, you know that we recently elected a new President. Well, every time I turn around, someone has an opinion about President Obama’s policies. It seems he is either loved or hated by the individuals I speak with. I hear a lot of extreme comments. Most of the extreme comments are on the negative side regarding Mr. Obama. I am not going to get into what I agree or disagree with regarding our newly elected President’s policies.

But what I am going to discuss is operating with integrity when discussing politicians, or any topic for that matter. I looked up the definition of integrity at dictionary.com, and this is what it said: adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty. Honesty.

Hmm… well, I could write a whole post regarding the honesty of the media. But this isn’t about things we can’t control. This is about things we can control--ourselves.

Before the election, I can’t tell you how many individuals insisted Barack Obama would be sworn in on the Koran. That he was a Muslim and not only that, supported terrorism in the United States. Well, I did a little research and just typing in some search terms into Google, I quickly became aware that not only did Mr. Obama intend to be sworn in on the Bible, but profess to be of the Christian faith and his family intended to attend a Christian church in the DC area after election. And above all, there was no proof that Mr. Obama sought the presidency for the purpose of bringing terror to the U.S. All of those accusations sound quite sensational. I have to admit that it would be a terrible thing if we elected an individual that had deceived us so well that he or she would actually insight acts of terror on our country. But the fact of the matter is that none of it was true. And I can’t tell you how many people who profess to be born again Christians continually spread these very untrue and horrible rumors regarding Mr. Obama.

Why is that okay? Why is it supposedly acceptable to spread lies about someone? You may not like the politician, but why is it okay to lie about them? If you don’t like them, then say so. And if someone asks why you don’t like them, do a little research and get SOME FACTS about why you don’t like them. I’m sorry, but the internet is just way too readily available for people to NOT research on topics they are concerned about.

Obama being sworn in on the same Bible that President Lincoln used.

So my point is that before you express “what you heard” about a politician, a new policy, or anything else, do some research. If you don’t want to take the time to research the topic, then refrain from speaking about the topic.

I would like you to put yourself in a hypothetical situation for a moment. Let’s say you are running for Public Office of some kind. Let’s say it’s City Council. For the purpose of this scenario, let’s imagine for a moment that your city has a serious issue with road drainage. On your platform, you tell your constituents that you are going to head an effort to improve the road drainage problems. When asked about how you are going to pay for them, you answer that you are going to explore all avenues of funding the project, from raising taxes to dipping into city reserves, but that you wanted the least impact to the individual. Well, after your news conference, what you said is turned around. Everyone begins to claim that you are going to repair the roads by putting toll roads on every major road and raising the sales tax to 8%. Think about that for a minute. You didn’t say that for a second, but someone turned around what you said and it became gospel truth to the naysayers. Let’s make it a little more personal. While you are running for City Council, that the question of how you raise your children comes into question. You tell them you want to raise your children to be well rounded and cultured. Then someone turns it around to say you are raising your children to be evil because you are allowing them to learn about Arab cultures. Do you get it? Do you understand how wrong it is to spread falsehoods about others?

We are all going to face adversity whether we spend our lives as a public figure or just a normal every day employee. We can’t control whether someone chooses to spread lies about us, but we CAN control who we speak about.

We can control our own integrity-- honesty. Think about it.