Integrity

By: Bastiatarian

There is a famine in our nation, not one of food, but of integrity. It is most obvious in the Decadent City and the political vermin that infest it, but it extends throughout all levels of society. It becomes easier and easier to understand what Diogenes felt as he wandered the streets of Athens with a lamp in his hand looking for an honest man.


19th century educator Karl Maeser once said the following.

I have been asked what I mean by word of honor. I will tell you. Place me behind prison walls—walls of stone ever so high, ever so thick, reaching ever so far into the ground—there is a possibility that in some way or another I may be able to escape, but stand me on that floor and draw a chalk line around me and have me give my word of honor never to cross it. Can I get out of that circle? No, never! I’d die first!

If I have integrity, I will constantly strive to ensure that my actions are in accordance with both my words and my beliefs, regardless of my emotions, the difficulties presented, or the thoughts, feelings, or behavior of others. If I have made a promise, an agreement, or a covenant, then I will do what I have sworn to do.

Unless physically incapacitated or mentally incompetent, my actions are always and completely my own choice. I cannot justify my own bad choices by citing the bad choices of others. To claim integrity, we must at least put forth an honest effort to maintain consistency between our words, beliefs, and actions.

When we know truth, we must live it, without compromise to pressure or the lure of convenience. As we promote the principles of liberty, we must be sure that we are doing all we can to live them, without making excuses for "exceptions." We have all seen disgusting RINOs and others who claim the legacy of the Founding Fathers as long as it will get them votes, then turn around upon election and push forward more governmental intervention and oppression. We can't be like them. We must have integrity.

There are, of course, those who will accuse us of hypocrisy or a lack of integrity, regardless of our actual behavior. For the most part, those are merely pitiful individuals who have such a lack of integrity themselves that they constantly project that lack onto others, and cannot believe that others are not as dishonest as they are. It doesn't matter. Integrity and the opinions of others are unrelated to each other. If we have integrity, it is in spite of the views of others.

Integrity--the willing, enthusiastic, and thorough embracing of truth--should define us. Only a man or woman of integrity is a man or woman of worth. Only a man or woman of integrity is a true American. Anything less than complete integrity is unacceptable.