Whose Ethics? Now Is The Time ~ What Do You Stand For?

When I was co-chairperson of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, I suggested introducing an ethics class to go along with the newly accepted sex-education course that was being taught to that year’s sixth graders. The answer I got back was, “Whose ethics?”

That answer, as if it were a viable one, is what stood between teaching with and without ethics.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ethics as: “the discipline with what is good and bad, and with moral duty and obligation.”

The other answer I got at that same meeting was, “If we teach morality, whose morality should we teach?”

We see this today on the world stage, as if different sides can interpret ethics and morality differently.

We see this in the movie and television world, where each year, we reach certain tolerance levels addressing crime, violence and bloodshed. Once those limits are set, it seems more detailed crime, violence, and bloodshed is required to maintain the status quo of an increasingly bloodthirsty audience.

We see this in the ever-infringement on innocent youth for the invading and decending language, as well as inappropriate dress, as if it is normal to send prepubescent students to school in the same clothing as ladies of the night.

The government of the United States of America is also not unaffected by sweeping away ethics and morality, claiming immorality as morality, unethical behaviors as ethical behaviors, lies as truth, and always claiming that it is “the other guy” who is lying, even when videos and facts prove otherwise.

Remember, even Pilate asked the famous question, “What is truth?” We all ask this same question when we do not like what we are hearing, and have our own agenda.

What do you stand for?

Do you close your eyes to dishonest practices because they serve you in some way?

Do you sell out your integrity for the bottom line?

Is your political career more important than the lives you hold in your hand with the swipe of your pen?

Do you have any part of playing God by separating children and babies from their parents, putting all of them in cages, those who are seeking refuge at our borders?

Do you make yourself complicit in human trafficking by selling stolen children from their parents and selling them through adoption agencies?

Do you mandate SARS CoV2 (COVID-19) numbers be sent to the US Health and Human Services, which are said to be manipulated into more palateable numbers for public consumption, rather than mandating they be sent to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for accurate expert, medical opinion and dissemination?

Do you close your eyes to global warming and climate change because you receive some benefit of money or endorsements?

Do you listen to medical doctors or pharmacological companies in your decision making process?

Do you trample upon the Constitution of the United States, and what the Statue of Liberty stands for as imprinted on her base, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Do you stack the Supreme Court with judges who truly serve justice blindly, remembering Lady Justice wears a blindfold signifying that justice is truly blind when it comes to race, skin color, ethnic background, gender, age, ability, or disability?

Do you stand for equal pay for equal work, regardless of people of different race, skin color, ethnic background, gender, age, ability, or disability?

Do you value people over things?

Where do you spend your money?

Where do you spend your time?

What do you think about?

Where you spend your thoughts, time and money; there is where your heart is.

Each of us, whether we are in public office and have a direct ability to make just laws for all citizens, or whether we are citizens making a living at our life’s work, or even currently without work or home, we can all take in the news of the day and create more just and civil societies right where we are.

The recipe for our life may need to change depending upon the variables at hand. We can always use our free will to uplift rather than put down, heal rather than inflict pain, listen rather than ignore pleas for help, listen without an answer running (which is not listening), and feed the poor rather than close our eyes to the plight of hungry humans.

Giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. Sometimes it seems easier to give than receive. But receiving is necessary for balance of greed running rampant. It is odd that those who truly are in need of receiving have a harder time receiving what they need, as opposed to the wealthiest among us, not in need, who seek to usurp receiving to fill their gluttonous desires.

Bloom where you are planted, even if you are the only one blooming.

Namaste