In an economic and political period such as this in America, it is vital that your word be your bond.
Where has integrity fallen on people’s list of values? Who are we as a country if lying is part of everyday living and interacting with people? I pose these questions after reading the Washington Post to discover that a former colleague, and someone I called a friend, was recently arrested and indicted on Federal bribery charges. Graham Aide's Arrest Rooted in Probe of D.C. Taxi Industry - washingtonpost.com I ask myself, who is this person to put his family, friends, and co-workers in such a perilous position. We are all now under suspicion for work we did for the people of the District of Columbia. Though I did not always agree with him, and openly told him so, I trusted him with everything but my ATM PIN. I interacted with his beautiful family, would always answer his calls no matter what time of night, and would stand up for him when community members trashed talked about his political style. He would call a spade a spade without hesitation. He kept it real and called matters of gentrification what they were. Newcomers clearly believed wiping out longstanding DC traditions was about change, when most of the time it was about race. My colleague called it what it was to their faces.
Upon hearing the news my mind quickly raced back to all the times we were planning meetings and trips for the Council member, and community events, meeting with community members. Where shady things going on right under my nose in 2004, and I didn’t know it, or might I have made a simple phone call for an appointment that could have lead up to the bribery charges. Might I have taken a lunch or dinner meeting involving my friend, and co-worker that helped to line his pockets, and undermine the honest work of the Office of the Council member. Or did he mastermind this whole tragedy alone, making sure to leave us all out of his misdealings. Could he have thought to be at least that unselfish?
Now that salaries have fallen off and material things are going the way of the repo man, we all have to realize that integrity is the most valuable thing we have to bolster our family names and reputation. We can no longer hide behind career titles, high salaries, overmortgaged homes, and shiny little things. We have to face the world totally raw and with the only thing we truly own, a soul untouched by dishonesty. That is truthfully the way to keep it real. When it’s all said and done, and our lives are over in this earthly experience we will have to account for our actions. This accounting my not come before a Biblical panel chaired by Jesus Christ, but it may be our lives flashing before our eyes. However it comes, let’s come to it with light hearts and honest minds. Let’s make lying so 1980’s, and so over.
