Integrity - A Worthwhile Cause
"The human character, we believe, requires in general constant and immediate control to prevent its being biased from right by the seductions of self-love." --Thomas Jefferson

I believe that before attempting to make the world a better place, one must attempt to make oneself a better person.  Thomas Jefferson said that "Self-love... is the sole antagonist of virtue, leading us constantly by our propensities to self-gratification in violation of our moral duties to others.”  I believe that self gratification often prevents people from behaving with integrity. Integrity is difficult to maintain when the larger world is not in tune with it.  Integrity to me means making decisions based on what is right as opposed to what is most beneficial to me.  Maintaining integrity in the midst of corruption is challenging.  As a nurse I have hade to make these kinds of decisions on a daily basis.  Right decisions aren’t always so clear cut.  Making decisions from the perspective of integrity requires critical thinking skills. As an advocate for child and adolescent psychiatric patients, I have often been put in the precarious position of either advocating for the patient or risking losing my job.  Do you give the 5 year old child a dose of thorazine that you know will have a cumulative affect with their other medications and possibly contribute to tardive dyskinesia in the future or do you challenge the dose or the order altogether?  Do you dare suggest alternatives such as therapeutic intervention? Corruption is proactive.  The children I was advocating for were victims of a corrupt system.  There aren’t enough foster homes or therapeutic foster homes so kids are being dumped into for profit treatment centers where they get a diagnosis, medications, and very little treatment.  Huge profits are being made on these kids paid for by government taxes.  The pharmaceutical companies are profiting along with all the so–called professionals that benefit from their relationship with these kids.  Kids are held like prisoners in locked treatment facilities for long term (two years or more).  Their only crime is that they either have no parents or they have been taken away from their parents.  Discharge is a reflection of the census and is in no way related to any successful treatments.  If the census is low they will keep the kids there indefinitely. If there is a waiting list kids, will suddenly be well enough to be placed into the community. After six years of advocating for these kids I gave up and quit my job.  My employer and the staff made my life miserable and impossible to bear.  What made it most difficult though was the fact that my peers didn’t have the same integrity.  Most would say “I just look the other way” or that they “just want their paycheck.” Several jobs later I can say that I experienced the same thing over and over again: People making decisions that were self serving as opposed to making decisions based on right thinking grounded in integrity.  The worst part is how self serving people network with each other and sabotage the careers of honest people. I recently saw a documentary on corruption in the Police Department. In the documentary it mentioned how hard it was to prevent corruption when the larger world was corruption ridden.  When the Supervisors, Administrators and the Judiciary are also corrupt it makes it difficult for honest employees to survive. The best way to fight corruption is to not be corrupt.  That is not an easy task.  You have to have strength of character, critical thinking skills, self awareness and awareness of what is going on around you.  Sometimes it means losing your job or going to battle.

"Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals have an intimate connection." --Thomas Jefferson
Pamela R – Tacoma, WA - 10/05


Forty years ago Americans were flocking north to BC in good protest...I remember, I lived there, and we wondered what would become of the islands, the valleys, the quiet places we loved.  Young Americans with more money than we had bought islands and valleys, settled and contributed.  In one exquisite Kootenay-area valley, the ex-pats got together with Russian immigrants to keep a massive logging project at bay.  I still marvel at that.  And driving through that little valley 3 months ago, I marveled that it hadn't changed in 40 years.  So now I've been in the US for over 24 years, still Canajun, eh? and I have to go back.  I simply can't stomach it any more.  New York and now Washington states have been good to me, educated me, gave me a reasonably clean, open space to raise my equally Canadian daughters.  The girls are grown, I pay taxes, own a home, grow vegie gardens, play music for people ill and dying, and teach college earth and space sciences.  I'm pretty good at what I do.  But this is one brain that must drain back north again and it is in large measure due to the inanity of the situation here.  Not insanity, inanity. There is so much wealth, so much opportunity for real growth and it's being so wasted it makes me want to weep.  "Intelligent Design?"  Oh please, the very words and definitions beg the situation!  Maybe it's the perfect phrase after all; as long as the villages are missing their idiots, they know where to find them!  And this isn't to say that the body politic is any better in Canada...the excesses and abuses are just as ludicrous and embarassing.  But there isn't that edge of anger, that brittle, awful sense that the prevailing righteousness we see growing and looming ever larger here might gain a critical mass and do something really nasty.  I don't have solutions to offer, just the desire to grow up, to become real, and the need to share with my peers...are you out there?  Peering?  Please do, we may yet be preaching to all the choirs of love and compassion that ever were, but in the long run, what else is there to preach...and what else is there to counterbalance this fearsome present?
Waiting, with bait on my breath...
Lindim, Seattle, 10/05

Here is something to think about: much of the email that is getting passed around amongst your friends is just about preaching to the choir. It is mostly just frustrated & disgruntled people finding things that fit with their viewpoint. After just a few days of having this site I’m realizing that what needs to happen to see situations change is for people to be passing things around that they’d be just as glad/proud to have forwarded to anyone that is on ‘the other side’ of any given issue. Example: if you wanted to create harmony with the Islamic world, would you forward email about why Americans are better than Muslims? (for example) It not only isn't true, but is certainly going to be inflammatory if you point out to the whole Islamic world how some other people are better than them. See what I mean? Howbout passing something around to your friends with this idea: Let’s all try to write something powerful that would make a difference, not just point out the differences.
Maury King, Seattle, 10/05

I find it difficult to believe that anyone with a spark of independent intelligence could be happy with our national leadership and the deterioration that our nation is going through with respect to education, values, ethics, healthcare, and a variety of other issues of national concern. I would like to see a grass root movement that is willing to consider and act on issues not in accordance with party lines, but in alignment with Common Sense and the greater good.
David Loring - Seattle, WA 10/05

I think John Roberts may be OK, he seems like a sensible, down to earth guy, with cautiously considered ideas.  Don't sweat the small stuff.
Tom - Seattle, WA 10/05

Have you noticed that with everything going on with the Bush Adm. that it seems like no Democrats are raising holy hell?  Howard Dean is the chairman of the Democratic National Committee; have you heard a peep out of him?  I'm angry and frustrated and you can read my note to Governor Dean.  Lifestyles of the Liberal and Powerless, indeed!  If you agree, might I suggest that
you something: Send an email to Governor Dean (link below)or anyone else you can think
of.  http://www.democrats.org/page/petition/chairman/fdlokd
Thanks!
[message to Governor Dean]
Please speak up for the Democratic Party or find someone who will, a Karl Rove bulldog in the meatmarket kind of person.  There is SO MUCH to talk
about right now... Remember what was done to Clinton over Monica Lewinsky & Whitewater?  A Ted Rall cartoon this week has a man and woman sitting on a sofa.  The man says: "This is it! Bush is going DOWN!", the woman says "They'll get away with it.  They ALWAYS get away with it".  The caption is "LIFESTYLES OF THE LIBERAL AND POWERLESS" Please call press conferences every day and ask questions... it's time to
fight hard, please.
Lynn - Bellevue, WA 10/05