Integrity         [ in-teg-ri-tee ]
Part 3, Saturday’s Screed

Only one question is worthy of supreme anxiety:
How to live in a world pestered with lies and remain
unpolluted, how not to be stricken with despair, not
to flee but to fight and succeed in keeping the soul
unsoiled and even aid in purifying the world.
~ Abraham Heschel

Power really is a test of character.
In the hands of a person of integrity,
it is of tremendous benefit; in the hands of a tyrant,
it causes terrible destruction. ~ John Maxwell

How far have we fallen when the daily exhibition of duplicity by elected officials, public figures, supposed leaders, and other alleged adults is no longer even hidden, but instead is bold-faced lied about, gaslighted, or merely shrugged off by both the forked-tongue culprits and their complicit minions? Night after night the news reports show political “leaders” saying one thing—even on camera, even though recorded for posterity sake for their great grandchildren to see and hear one day—and then so casually look into another camera days later and say the exact opposite. No blush, no flush of face.

How absent or shallow must be the Integrity and how deep the perverse complicity, feigned ignorance, and systemic culpability of so many supposed leaders of institutions and organizations like the Roman Catholic Church, Boy Scouts of America, Facebook, USA Gymnastics, Michigan State University, schools and after-school programs, Summer Camps, athletic teams, and juvenile detention centers—to name many but certainly not all—who either allowed employees or volunteers to abuse children and adolescents, obscured the truth, or shielded perpetrators in order to protect the reputation of the institution or organization? What we find is that the absence of integrity—whether on an individual or a collective level—is exacerbated when tied to the misuse of power. And at what cost do we stand by, stay quiet, as expediency wins the day, and Integrity lies alone in solitary confinement?

How absent or shallow must be the Integrity and how deep the cowardice of numerous political “leaders” who made direct, vehement comments and damning assessments about Donald Trump only to change their tune and tone as soon as they realized the truth they have spoken might ruffle the quaffed feathers of Big Bird or make it more difficult to win their next election. Really? Did they not even take a peek at the CliffsNotes about Dr. Faustus?

How absent or shallow must be the integrity and how deep the willful blindness of Georgia Congressman Andrew Clyde who—while addressing what happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021—had the audacity to say, “If you didn’t know that TV footage was a video from January the sixth, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.” I can’t recall the last White House tour in which five people were killed and some one hundred forty police officers were injured. Perhaps my eyes deceived me when I watched the footage. Shame on those now calling a riot and insurrection an act of patriotism and a fight for freedom.

How absent or shallow must be the integrity and how deep the prejudice or racism that a person would knowingly let other persons go to jail or prison or call for their execution for a crime they did not commit? I give you the proverbial Wall of Silence with police departments and the former President of the United States respectively as was the case in the wrongful convictions and imprisonment of the five innocent young black men (I refuse to call them The Central Park Five) in the famous rape case in New York City in 1989. Truthfulness be damned. How flippant, how irreverent, how dastardly.

How absent or shallow must be the integrity and how deep the deceit (including the self-deception) that allowed many adult (I use the term loosely) management personnel, coaches, and players of the Houston Astros shamelessly to accept the 2017 World Series Trophy knowing they had cheated by stealing the catcher’s signs with the aid of technology, then relaying signs from the dugout to the batter by banging loudly on a garbage can lid? Sort of gives a new meaning to “bang the drum slowly.” Hey, if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough.

How absent or shallow must be the integrity and how deep the indifference to another’s anguish that certain executives and coaches of the Chicago Blackhawks hockey organization who—prioritizing winning at all cost—succeeded at winning the 2010 Stanley Cup Trophy while failing to acknowledge and address a twenty-year old player’s report of being physically threatened and raped by an assistant coach. But hey, they won the Cup didn’t they, the Cup the assistant coach and rapist so proudly took his turn to hold up over his head.

This is a dark litany. And the realization that it is a very abridged list is nauseating, and gives one pause. Admittedly, these are large, attention-grabbing, national and organizational failures of Integrity. But organizations and institutions are comprised of flesh and blood human persons making and failing to make critical decisions. When expediency wins out over Integrity and its beatitudinal collaborators—Humility, Thoughtfulness, Fairness, Kindness, Compassion, Courage, and Justice—the good will be in short supply and in danger of extinction. It should be noted, however, that each of the examples above begins with one person’s violation and one more person who witnesses and learns about it, but keeps quiet. Yet, if one person speaks up, if one brave soul speaks out—as did whistle-blowing, truth-tellers Maggie Nichols and Frances Haugen respectively—then, Integrity, fairness, well-being, and the common good are conserved and can flourish. Nichols was the first female athlete to report misconduct by former USA Gymnastics’ team doctor Larry Nassar who over the course of two decades abused more than 265 young women. Haugen recently exposed Facebook’s deceitful and unethical practice of continually choosing what was good for Facebook even though they knew it would be bad for the public. Bernie Madoff as patron saint?

When purported leaders of a family, community, church, organization, movement, company, institution, government, or nation continually opt for what is personally expedient rather than what is right, fair, just, and good for the commonweal, especially the most vulnerable, that collective is rounding the clubhouse turn and heading straight for lives that are guaranteed to be perennially soulless, ethically challenged, and morally bankrupt.
(to be continued . . .)

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