Thursday, November 17, 2005
The Politics of Integrity and Character
Hello, my name is Timothy Crawford.
Please do not call me Timmy.
I know it’s hard to imagine that a grown man with facial hair would ever be called Timmy, but believe me it happens. I’m a motivational, inspirational speaker with an attitude: a positive one. This is the first entry in my blog. I’m glad you stopped by. It’s early Wednesday morning, my wife and children are asleep. I, on the other hand am pounding away at a sticky keyboard. Why am I pounding a sticky keyboard? My wife so graciously deposited a half-can of Coca-Cola into it.
Coca-Cola is strong stuff. I heard that you could use it to dissolve oil stains in concrete. Coca-Cola works equally well on sticking things, especially keyboards. My space bar sounds like a small caliber handgun firing every time my thumb taps it.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Is someone knocking at the door?"
“No honey that's just me trying to use the space bar, thanks”
I do have a point, finding it is the hard part. I’ve been wrestling with the idea of writing something interesting to give my blog an engrossing beginning. In my hopes to find a hot topic, I searched the Washington Post for something timely. During my relevancy search, I’ve discovered a news-worthy story to share. Feel free to sing along if you know the words.
In the race for Virginia governor, a fierce campaign was run between Democratic candidate, Timothy Kaine and Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore. I’m not a Virginian. I do not endorse either candidate personally or professionally and my blog is NOT about politics, but regardless, I couldn’t help but notice the huge amount of mudslinging throughout the election. The term “huge amount” might be an understatement. A “mountainous-slew” might be a better description. A repetitive series of negative campaign commercials have been airing in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area leading up to the election. In one of the most controversial ads, Jerry Kilgore suggested that Tim Kaine opposed the death penalty so sternly, that he would issue Adolph Hitler a stay of execution. (I found this hard to believe when I read it too, so I visited Mr. Kilgore’s website to be sure. Go here to view the commercial
http://www.jerrykilgore.com/contents/media/videos/ads/stanley1.shtml
The focus towards the end of the election quickly became integrity when President Bush endorsed Kilgore by saying “Kilgore is a man of character and integrity” I'm not implying that the President was wrong or right, like I said earlier, I don't know either candidate well enough to have an opinion. Let's look at integrity. Integrity is defined as the firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values. Stop right there. Who determines the codes or values that we should adhere to? Can we truly judge another person’s integrity, and if so what do we base it on; actions, beliefs, convictions, personal-life, marriage, conduct, children’s behavior, affiliation, financial condition or reputation?
People might consider you of low-character for all types of reasons. Conservationist might consider those who fail to recycle to be low of character. I support conservation, but I must admit just tonight, I slammed an empty Coca-Cola can into the paper-only bin. What does that say about me? For the record, that soda can had it coming. I was upset. My keyboard was assaulted by that can and the silly can recycle-bin was out of my reach. Call me low of character, but that puppy went right in with the newspapers!
If my admission of not properly recycling didn’t cause you to click away please continue reading this blog.
Everything is relative to the circumstances. Can an isolated incident truly give us a clear view of a person? People are not insta-matic snapshots. We are major motion pictures, all of us beaming in Technicolor and Dolby Surround Sound on high-definition widescreens and if you listen close, some of us even have our own theme music. My theme music is still Eye of the Tiger from Rocky II. (I could actually hear it playing now if it weren’t for that semi-stuck spacebar).
Isolated incidents are not a true reflection of our integrity. People are complex. People have too many bright moments and unfortunately, people have too many dark moments to be judged by stray occurrences. I would think, condemning me for occasionally failing to properly recycle is over-reacting, yet some radical conservationist would say it isn’t, “…Timmy is a selfish pig”, which brings me to another point. I’m not selfish and didn’t we already have a talk about the Timmy thing? (Just kidding).
My point is that judging other people is a very tricky thing to do. How can we even-handedly issue condemnation? We all condemn based on what we suppose we would have done in similar circumstances. Our negative criticism depends on our own sense of values. It’s easy to judge others when you’re referring to a commonly held value. Take thievery for instance, most people detest thieves. I find it hard to imagine anyone who’d like to come home and find their personal belongings missing and home ransacked. I’d wager good money that the only people holding praise for thieves are other less accomplished thieves. On second thought, I bet thieves don’t like getting robbed either, so it’s safe to say no one likes a thief.
Pointing a finger at a thief and labeling them short on character won’t get you on Larry King Live.
What happens when we judge others on less common values, such as over-spending? Now we have a debate, because first you most clearly define what over-spending is. If your wife buys a $200 pair of designer jeans, is that over-spending?
">
Not if you can afford it, but if you’ve agreed to closely monitoring your spending, buying $200 jeans might be considered a poor character action, or acting with a lack of integrity towards the agreed upon budget.
Follow me?
Judging another’s character is dangerous. As free people we are diverse and so are our beliefs. We should be careful rushing to judge others based on our own convictions. It’s important for us to give others the benefit of the doubt, knowing that at any given time, we ourselves may be judged out of context.
What if the wife who brought those $200 jeans only did so because her husband pays more attention to bathroom grout than her?
The Wife may have thought a stunning pair of jeans could help zap some zest back into a floundering relationship?
Does the wife lack integrity or is her inattentive husband to blame?
Things are never very cut and dry are they?
I’m suggesting that we all make an attempt to be more understanding in both our professional and personal lives.
Give Jerry, your co-worker who failed to greet you this morning a break. Yesterday, Jerry may have come home to a burglarized apartment.
Deborah, your other co-worker probably didn’t mean to be impolite when she snapped at you, it’s possible she arrived at work this morning only to find cola residue in her keyboard.
And those over-priced $200 jeans you’re wife purchased, just might be her way of telling you, “forget the grout for God’s sake, take me dancing”.
Foregoing negative opinions makes for a friendlier, more productive and more enjoyable life-environment.
Contrary to what you may have read in the newspaper this morning, most people are rather decent. In Jerry Kilgore’s defense, he did have that Hitler commercial pulled.
Timothy Kaine won the election, and in my own defense, the soda can in question, did in fact find its way to the proper bin.
Good night.
Please do not call me Timmy.
I know it’s hard to imagine that a grown man with facial hair would ever be called Timmy, but believe me it happens. I’m a motivational, inspirational speaker with an attitude: a positive one. This is the first entry in my blog. I’m glad you stopped by. It’s early Wednesday morning, my wife and children are asleep. I, on the other hand am pounding away at a sticky keyboard. Why am I pounding a sticky keyboard? My wife so graciously deposited a half-can of Coca-Cola into it.
Coca-Cola is strong stuff. I heard that you could use it to dissolve oil stains in concrete. Coca-Cola works equally well on sticking things, especially keyboards. My space bar sounds like a small caliber handgun firing every time my thumb taps it.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Is someone knocking at the door?"
“No honey that's just me trying to use the space bar, thanks”
I do have a point, finding it is the hard part. I’ve been wrestling with the idea of writing something interesting to give my blog an engrossing beginning. In my hopes to find a hot topic, I searched the Washington Post for something timely. During my relevancy search, I’ve discovered a news-worthy story to share. Feel free to sing along if you know the words.
In the race for Virginia governor, a fierce campaign was run between Democratic candidate, Timothy Kaine and Republican candidate Jerry Kilgore. I’m not a Virginian. I do not endorse either candidate personally or professionally and my blog is NOT about politics, but regardless, I couldn’t help but notice the huge amount of mudslinging throughout the election. The term “huge amount” might be an understatement. A “mountainous-slew” might be a better description. A repetitive series of negative campaign commercials have been airing in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area leading up to the election. In one of the most controversial ads, Jerry Kilgore suggested that Tim Kaine opposed the death penalty so sternly, that he would issue Adolph Hitler a stay of execution. (I found this hard to believe when I read it too, so I visited Mr. Kilgore’s website to be sure. Go here to view the commercial
http://www.jerrykilgore.com/contents/media/videos/ads/stanley1.shtml
The focus towards the end of the election quickly became integrity when President Bush endorsed Kilgore by saying “Kilgore is a man of character and integrity” I'm not implying that the President was wrong or right, like I said earlier, I don't know either candidate well enough to have an opinion. Let's look at integrity. Integrity is defined as the firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values. Stop right there. Who determines the codes or values that we should adhere to? Can we truly judge another person’s integrity, and if so what do we base it on; actions, beliefs, convictions, personal-life, marriage, conduct, children’s behavior, affiliation, financial condition or reputation?
People might consider you of low-character for all types of reasons. Conservationist might consider those who fail to recycle to be low of character. I support conservation, but I must admit just tonight, I slammed an empty Coca-Cola can into the paper-only bin. What does that say about me? For the record, that soda can had it coming. I was upset. My keyboard was assaulted by that can and the silly can recycle-bin was out of my reach. Call me low of character, but that puppy went right in with the newspapers!
If my admission of not properly recycling didn’t cause you to click away please continue reading this blog.
Everything is relative to the circumstances. Can an isolated incident truly give us a clear view of a person? People are not insta-matic snapshots. We are major motion pictures, all of us beaming in Technicolor and Dolby Surround Sound on high-definition widescreens and if you listen close, some of us even have our own theme music. My theme music is still Eye of the Tiger from Rocky II. (I could actually hear it playing now if it weren’t for that semi-stuck spacebar).
Isolated incidents are not a true reflection of our integrity. People are complex. People have too many bright moments and unfortunately, people have too many dark moments to be judged by stray occurrences. I would think, condemning me for occasionally failing to properly recycle is over-reacting, yet some radical conservationist would say it isn’t, “…Timmy is a selfish pig”, which brings me to another point. I’m not selfish and didn’t we already have a talk about the Timmy thing? (Just kidding).
My point is that judging other people is a very tricky thing to do. How can we even-handedly issue condemnation? We all condemn based on what we suppose we would have done in similar circumstances. Our negative criticism depends on our own sense of values. It’s easy to judge others when you’re referring to a commonly held value. Take thievery for instance, most people detest thieves. I find it hard to imagine anyone who’d like to come home and find their personal belongings missing and home ransacked. I’d wager good money that the only people holding praise for thieves are other less accomplished thieves. On second thought, I bet thieves don’t like getting robbed either, so it’s safe to say no one likes a thief.
Pointing a finger at a thief and labeling them short on character won’t get you on Larry King Live.
What happens when we judge others on less common values, such as over-spending? Now we have a debate, because first you most clearly define what over-spending is. If your wife buys a $200 pair of designer jeans, is that over-spending?
">Not if you can afford it, but if you’ve agreed to closely monitoring your spending, buying $200 jeans might be considered a poor character action, or acting with a lack of integrity towards the agreed upon budget.
Follow me?
Judging another’s character is dangerous. As free people we are diverse and so are our beliefs. We should be careful rushing to judge others based on our own convictions. It’s important for us to give others the benefit of the doubt, knowing that at any given time, we ourselves may be judged out of context.
What if the wife who brought those $200 jeans only did so because her husband pays more attention to bathroom grout than her?
The Wife may have thought a stunning pair of jeans could help zap some zest back into a floundering relationship?
Does the wife lack integrity or is her inattentive husband to blame?
Things are never very cut and dry are they?
I’m suggesting that we all make an attempt to be more understanding in both our professional and personal lives.
Give Jerry, your co-worker who failed to greet you this morning a break. Yesterday, Jerry may have come home to a burglarized apartment.
Deborah, your other co-worker probably didn’t mean to be impolite when she snapped at you, it’s possible she arrived at work this morning only to find cola residue in her keyboard.
And those over-priced $200 jeans you’re wife purchased, just might be her way of telling you, “forget the grout for God’s sake, take me dancing”.
Foregoing negative opinions makes for a friendlier, more productive and more enjoyable life-environment.
Contrary to what you may have read in the newspaper this morning, most people are rather decent. In Jerry Kilgore’s defense, he did have that Hitler commercial pulled.
Timothy Kaine won the election, and in my own defense, the soda can in question, did in fact find its way to the proper bin.
Good night.
