If you were asked ‘how many people do you know with integrity’ would your list be long?  Would you include yourself?  Would any company you worked for or know of make the cut?

Or would you find yourself sooner than you thought you would, thinking ‘who doesn’t qualify’ and ‘why’?

Denotation (Merriam-Webster):  Integrity: “firm adherence to a code of especially moral values”

I (like you care but it is my column) don’t like that definition.  My six-year-old godkids could run a mack truck through what it doesn’t cover, which specifically is who decides and what is moral?

And that’s where the challenge(s) reside(s).  If integrity is based on morals, how in hades can we objectively judge someone as acting without integrity when the essence of the morality is based upon our own individual foundational beliefs concerning deity, humanity, and the rest of the universe.  Throw in where and how we were educated, our religious upbringing, ethnicity, and life experiences … The facts of the situation, what we are told and not told, how it’s spun and who’s spunning when we’re told and sold…

This is generally when I feel quite small and inadequate.  And I won’t judge you if you don’t … although I’m thinking this is someone I want nothing to do with because they’re arrogant and think only of themselves and that reminds me of … and Lord knows I don’t trust them because …

Sliding slope isn’t it!

So realizing my viewpoint (and yours) is skewed by my personal biases, but being aware of this gives me more objectivity, hopefully (and prayerfully), here is my take on the integrity of recent events.

Bill Cosby

Why is the discussion more on whether he was right or wrong, and what he said or didn’t mention, and he and she’s reaction and nonreaction like anyone should care and all the ‘who shot john?’ crap.  The black community has serious problems.  Yes, other communities have issues to, but don’t get sidetracked.  Just because someone else has a broken leg doesn’t make mend your broken arm any faster or better.

So I’ll borrow from screenwriter Aaron Sorkin words from The American President, with my personal tweaks (in bold).

“Everybody knows being black isn’t easy.  Being Black in America is advanced citizenship.  You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight.  It’s gonna say, “You want to be black and equal?  Let’s see you acknowledge a message of personal responsibility when the words make your blood boil, and the messenger who’s standing center stage and advocating, at the top of his lungs, that you have spent a lifetime not being responsible. You want to claim this land as the land of the freedom and claim your rights as an American, not just a black American, then the symbol of your commitment can’t just be words and uh huh’s; the symbol also has to be the exercise of the words and uh huh’s.”  Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms, homes, churches, street corners, radio stations, cable channels, newspapers, water cooler chats … Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free because you will have created it yourself and moved from being brainwashed to brain trust.”

Doesn’t matter if we’re 0 or 100% responsible for the problem’s creation.  When we don’t solve the problem, and the problem is the elephant in our house, we become the problem, and lose ourselves.

I really don’t do enough.  Do you?

Michael Moore – Farenheit 9-11

Believe the sentiment runs, if you’re anti-Bush you’ll love it because finally the truth is out.  If you’re pro-Bush it’s a pack of lies designed to bring down the Presidency of the United States.

And the truth is lost.

I was in New York on 9-11 and that day is as surreal to me as living in Los Angeles during the Rodney King L.A. riots and watching my community go up in smoke.  Yes, the latter didn’t have the physical body count, but in terms of murder a lot of black souls died in those three days.  And yes I know that they still have a chance while those who physically died have lost all chances.

Don’t miss the message.

And in the movie.

We elect.  We elect.  We elect.

And the lobbyists and special interest and big business buy.

And we elect.  And elect.  And elect.

And the lobbyists and special interest and big business buy.

So we stop voting because it doesn’t make a difference.

And we ask no questions because we won’t get an answer … that’s true.

And what happens in our every day life becomes more important than what happens 3,000 or 3 miles away because we can control that and when we can control we feel We Make A Difference … in the In-Between.  We’re not helpless.  It’s not as overwhelming.

We cannot hold anyone else accountable when we abide by a lesser standard.

If we don’t hold others accountable we live by a lesser standard.

Accountability may not always include integrity, but it always should have truth.

I really don’t do enough.  Do you?

Civil Rights Act – 40 Years Later

Who woudda thunk a die hard Southerner would have championed the largest piece of equality legislation passed in modern history?

Kennedy is always championed as what was good and right about this country.  I won’t take that away from him.  Fairytales like Camelot feel good to me too.  Happy ever after and all that.

But before we continue to crown Kennedy ‘Lord of all’ read Taylor Branch’s ‘Parting the Waters.

And before we uncrown him and crown Johnson – did you know as a Senator he also engineered the passage of the 1957 Civil Rights Act.  Good acts can come from, I’m searching for a word here which continues to escape me so I shall use nothing.  Good acts can come from … intentions.  You fill in the blank after you do the reading research.

What we do know is the Civil Rights Act swept in the largest act by the federal government to create equality on paper in hopes that the hearts would follow.  And like the ramifications of Brown vs. the Board of Education in some aspects we have moved forward, in others we’ve been kicked arse backwards, in others we haven’t moved, and in too many we’ve rolled over.

I really don’t do enough.  Do you?

Integrity – Us

You’re wondering, huh?  She mentioned it at the beginning but haven’t we gotten off the track?  Heck, it didn’t even need to be here because we’re talking Bill Cosby, Michael Moore, and Lyndon Johnson.  News stories.  Above the fold stories.

Let me throw in Jack Ryan, who dropped out of the Illinois Senate race after the media released details of his sealed divorce, and Monica Lewinsky who … never mind.

News stories.

A line was crossed long ago where the media not only reported the news, but added spun and manipulation.

Read media press after Bill Cosby’s NAACP speech and there is no sense he said anything controversial or anyone in the audience was ‘stone faced.’

Can you read a story about Farenheit 9-11 that does contain some truths without those truths being wrapped in Moore’s anti-Bush feelings.  Since he’s the latter, the former can contain no truths.

Did the voters really care about Jack Ryan’s divorce and supposed sex club escapades or was this a media story to justify going to court to obtain the records released?

Can any of this be thought about without the subject of integrity – ours, the subjects, the media?

Have you ever wanted to turn the cameras on the media and scrutinize their lives?  Show their biases.  Make that part of the story.

Let me tell you up front – I hate spin.  I’ve spun with the best of them and am very good at it, which is why I despise it now.  I’m a big proponent of free speech.  I like truth but don’t always tell it but it’s usually by omission and not admission.  I believe more I give more than I get.  I’m loyal.  Hate betrayal.  Cannot imagine my life without God and don’t really waste time doing that since it’s a nonreality for me.  I’m pro choice.  I support the intent of affirmative action.  I, sorrily, haven’t always voted.  I read 3 to 5 newspapers a day, 5 to 10 magazines a month.  I’ve never been married.  I have no children.  I am not a virgin.  I did inhale.

I like my integrity.

I’m more grey than black/white.

I don’t do enough.  Do you?

And we’ll continue to try to bring ‘just the facts, ma’am.  Just the facts.’

So you can make up your own mind.

You do know we’re all brainwashed to some extent.