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Josephson: Character counts: The power of integrity
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A teacher wrote telling me that a parent with a great deal of clout at her school asked her to change attendance records to make her child's record look better. The teacher said she thought long and hard about the request but eventually refused, knowing it would make the parent angry.
First, I commend her moral courage. I wish it didn't take courage to do the right thing, especially in such a clear case as this, but in the real world, people with power often retaliate when they don't get what they want. This can make your life difficult.
Still, moral courage is the much-needed bodyguard of conscience and character. The personal costs of putting our integrity on the auction block are so high, we simply have to take the risk. Once we start on the slippery slope of moral compromise, it's hard to resist the slide downward.
My first instinct was to think of the parent who subjected the teacher to this corrupt and corrupting request as a villain, but I suspect she's a basically decent mom so intent on helping her child that she ignored her moral brakes.
Nevertheless, it is wrong to ask someone to lie or cheat, and when it comes from someone with power, it's even worse. Power is intimidating even when it's not used.
But unswerving integrity can also be intimidating. Clearly improper requests deserve an immediate, firm and dignified response that leaves no ambiguity that they are inappropriate. Be careful not to be self-righteous. Let people who ask worry about what you think of them and, if they persist, let them — not you — worry about the potential consequences.
— Michael Josephson, of Playa del Rey, is founder and president of the Joseph & Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics and of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition. His Web site is www.charactercounts.org. He can be reached by e-mail at commentary@jiethics.org.
Posted by sslocal on August 31, 2007 at 12:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Ethics. A quality lacking in oh so many people today.
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