I am not the type of person to blame society for my problems.  I believe in honesty and integrity, and in basic respect for my fellow man.  I believe in individual responsibility for individual actions.  I believe that good people do bad things sometimes.  Humans are fallible.  But a good person who does something wrong will see the error in his ways and will both apologize and do everything in his power to set things right.  A man of integrity will spend his life righting a wrong, if necessary.

From the beginning, I must say that I have done nothing wrong.  That is, I have no outstanding wrongs to right.  I lay no claim to perfection, but I do not waver from what I believe in.  Most people in this country, I am firmly convinced, still believe in the principles this country was founded on.  Many, I dare say, are afraid to admit it.  I mourn their weakness, but, in truth, cannot fault them for it.  It takes a lot of strength these days to stand up for what you believe in, and such strength is more often looked down upon than respected.

Those who crave the approval of others have an especially difficult time standing up for their own beliefs.  The craving for approval is a disease from which I suffer very little, if at all.  It is because of this, and not because of any special strength on my part, that I am able to maintain my integrity.  I have sacrificed many things because of this – some would say too much – but it is a small price to pay for the ability to go to bed every night with the certainty that I have done right by the world that day.

Many would say I have no tolerance for other viewpoints.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I respect any man who stands up for what he believes in.  I respect any man of principle.  And men of principle respect me.  We may differ in political viewpoint, or in religious perspective, but we each have beliefs.  Each of us knows where the others stand, and there is trust that comes from that.  I may disagree with a man to the point of nearly hating him, but, if he stands by his beliefs, I will not disrespect him.

No, it is the person without beliefs that I cannot fully respect.  The “open mind” is an excuse for mindlessness.  The man (or shadow of a man) without beliefs may be intelligent, even clever; but he lacks a foundation.  He cannot stand firm, and every wave of opinion moves him one way or another.  But you can never convince such a person of these things, because he is, indeed, spineless.  He’ll twist not only your words and his, but his very own self, into a bow or a pretzel, until you realize there is no way to pin him down on anything.  You cannot reason with someone who has no foundation from which to build logic.

What others call inflexibility I call dependability.  I will not tell a lie, even to save face or to save feelings.  I do not bend the truth to suit my purposes.  When I transact business, I pay the price the merchant demands.  It is his merchandise, and he can part with it at his discretion.  If the price is too high, I either buy somewhere else or go without.  But I do not cheat the merchant.  And I do not allow the merchant to cheat me.  Not out of a single penny.  A few cents may make no difference to me, but a few cents many times over adds up, and it is too high a price to pay for the ability to tolerate dishonesty.  In truth, I do not want to tolerate dishonesty; so why should I pay anything for the ability to do it?

I extend this principle to the whole of my life.  Showing respect is a marvelous way to receive respect in return.  Respect is my first position in all situations dealing with another human.  I may be dealing with someone whom I know to be the very scum of the earth, but it does no good to treat anyone with open disdain.  It may well be that my respect will be met with disrespect and dishonest behavior.  But, while respect is not always met with respect, disrespect is almost always met with disrespect.  Showing respect, you can sometimes deal with out-and-out criminals and come out with a fair shake.

I learned this from the martial arts.  I have a brown belt in Karate, though I haven’t practiced in several years.  I want to again, when I get the money.  Violence against another human is truly a last resort.  It is not my job to distribute justice in the world; just to look after my own interests.  Even someone who commits a crime against me should be punished by the law, rather than by me, if at all possible.  I say this knowing full well that many, many criminals do not get properly punished, even when they are brought into the hands of the law.  But, while it is my right as an American to speak up about this, it is not my right to take the law into my own hands, unless I absolutely have no choice.

The point is, I believe in treating every individual with respect until I have no choice but to treat him otherwise.  Even those whom I cannot respect intellectually receive the full benefit of my honesty and integrity.  I hope, perhaps, to show by example that the path of honor is the only really sane path to take.  Once convinced of this, nobody is too weak to stand with integrity.  The bad seed is a small minority to start with, but, if there are enough people, a small percentage still adds up to a large number – and a powerful little group gains the strength to grow.

Look at the small town in America.  There are still places, though many would not believe it, where people walk at night in peace and safety.   There are places where nobody locks his door, and nobody suffers any consequences from leaving his house open for all the world.  These are places where a small percentage means a small number, and the bad seed can be readily controlled.  These are places where people come closest to recognizing the benefits of integrity and honesty.  Anyone who leads a life of honor will find peace in himself.  But those who are also consistently treated with honor find peace in the world, as well.

I do not write all of this to convince anyone of my viewpoint.  Those who already agreed will still agree when they are done reading.  And those who did not agree before will walk away still not agreeing.  Maybe nobody will even read this at all.  But I want the chance to exist that someone will read this.  And this chance cannot exist unless I actually write it down.  I have tried to get people to listen to me, and have failed in almost every circumstance.  Most who begin to listen to me know only of my actions, and refuse to understand the reasons behind them.

Many think they understand, but the understandings they’ve formed in their heads are utterly simple-minded, and thus easily dismissed.  Many blame rage when honesty, integrity, and reason have ruled throughout.  It is a natural reaction.  Making my deeds foreign – either inexplicable beyond reason or explainable by easily dismissible delusions that I must hold – makes it easier to believe that the world around them is, in principle, good.  If I maintain any credibility at all, I threaten that belief.  In a way, it is pitiful to watch how tightly some cling to these useless crutches.

So I needed to tell you something about myself first – about who I am, and what I believe.  Those who would judge me should first know this about me.  I strive to lead an honorable and honest life, and to pursue all my affairs with integrity.  I acknowledge my mistakes, especially those where my integrity falters, and do my very best to put right whatever I have made wrong.  I do this not because I feel that I am better than everyone else, but because it is the best way I know to live at peace with myself and with relative peace toward the world.  Most importantly, and I repeat this: I have nothing at this point in my life to apologize for, nothing that I have not, in the past, done my utmost to put right.  Recent events are the result of the lack of honesty and integrity in a few, the lack of insight in a few more, and the lack of access to the proper information for a good many more.

It is this lack of access to information that I hope to set right here.  I cannot see that evil on my part has contributed to these events.  I cannot see that any lack of honesty or honor on my part has contributed to these events.  I do see clearly where adherence to my principles has steered the events, but this is not something that I can apologize for, and it is not something that I can regret.  Some readers may find I am nothing like them, and they will likely be right – and this will probably be easy reading for them.  Others are like me, but will convince themselves that I am lying.  But I challenge these to treat me with the initial respect I grant even the scum of the earth, and they will no longer be able to reach such a conclusion.

I started with a cross-section of who I am now.  This cross-section applies to me during the entire history of what I will relate here.  How I came by my values is not so important, nor do I believe that I have all of the knowledge necessary to explain it properly.  I am sure that the examples of my parents helped a great deal, as did my education, and many of the other things to which we commonly attribute the finer qualities in ourselves.  Why others, who had just as much in the way of education and good examples, somehow lost their sense of honor, I cannot say.  And this is also why I do not feel that I can provide a good explanation of how my values developed.  Suffice it to say that I have them, and that I honestly believe that they are a set of values held deep in the hearts of many, even a majority, of the American people.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 7:19 AM and is filed under Works in Progress. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.