Do The Right Thing

Do you lie? No, I'm sure that you don't. I mean, you may tell your kids to tell that bill collector on the phone that you're not home, but that's not really LYING, is it? And then, there are those times that you called in sick even though you really weren't. But that wasn't a lie because you were sick… OF WORK! BAM! Right?

What about traffic violations? Do you speed? Well, THAT'S okay because everyone does that. And that's why they make radar detectors, right? So that you can speed all you want? What about running red lights? Well, they're not really RED when you start to go through, right? At least not that you saw.

And what about stealing? You'd never steal, right? I mean there's that pirated cable, and those bootleg CD's and DVD's, yeah? But that's not really stealing, is it? I mean, it's not like you went into the store and lifted them.

What I'm talking about here is ethics, plain and simple. Ethical behavior. Doing the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do.

NOT GETTING CAUGHT DOES NOT EQUAL NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG.

It kind of amazes me that the "law and order" party, the Republicans, have turned into the party of "I didn't do anything wrong. Unless I get caught. Then it's either all a misunderstanding or it's someone else's fault. We have the most lawless administration in the White House that we have EVER had, and all of this has led to a flagrantly lawless society. No, there's not rape and murder in the street, but just this kind of sense of moral laxness. And no, again, I'm not talking about morals here as being the neo-cons two favorite whipping horses, homosexuality and abortion, I'm talking about TRUE morals… the simple knowledge of right from wrong.

Let me be completely clear here… I am not saying that I do nothing wrong. I do. I am a human being and, therefore, imperfect. But when I do, I do not attempt to justify it to myself. I do not say "It's okay because…" I know that it's wrong. And really, ultimately, it's not the doing wrong that I have such a huge problem with. It's the justification.

The reasoning? I find with myself that if I do not justify… if I simply say "This is wrong, but I'm doing it anyway", then I do less things wrong. If I justify, then it doesn't FEEL wrong, so it's easier to keep doing wrong.

Make sense?

Peace.

Randal