The Value of Integrity

by Lester Rennard

"What's Right is Right, What's Wrong is Wrong, And You Can't Compromise With Integrity". These words have been ascribed to the late United States Senator Sam Ervin, Jr. of North Carolina who gained fame from his role in chairing the Senate Watergate Committee that resulted in the resignation of President Richard Nixon. I have immortalized this statement for my own personal inspiration by engraving it on a wall plaque.

Integrity has become a popular buzzword from the highest seats of governments to the profit analysis gurus of corporate boardrooms; from the ivory halls of academia to the locker rooms of entertainment sports. From the boiler rooms of media houses to the man on the street, the talk of integrity reverberates across the landscape of every stratum of society. But just what is integrity and why is there so much attention being focused on it?

Integrity is a personal quality that one possesses that makes that individual trustworthy and credible. It addresses authenticity, honesty, fairness, lack of duplicity, dependability and excellence in moral and ethical character. It is not only limited to describing individuals but also groups, political entities, institutions, governments and corporate enterprises.

In considering political candidates to represent them, constituents are concerned about the integrity of the potential candidates who offer themselves to be considered for election. People want to know that their representatives are trustworthy and are individuals of moral and ethical characters, who will not violate their trust or use the privilege of their offices and positions for corrupt practices and personal gain. These concerns are legitimate when one considers the many and all too frequent cases of political figures who are either accused or convicted of malfeasance and corruption by abusing their oath of office.

Many people have lost fortunes and have been forced into bankruptcies because the institutions and corporations in which they invested their life's savings have deceived them. Corporate officers of the highest rankings who were thought to be people of integrity have been found out to be otherwise. They violate the trust of their investors and other stakeholders by falsely reporting phantom profits in an effort to inflate and influence the value of their corporate stocks in the stocktrading marketplace. When these deceptions are brought to light, the corporations involved often suffer tremendous losses or at worst collapse, sometimes almost overnight, erasing the fortunes of many unsuspecting stakeholders.

We live in a world where we cannot avoid trusting others to safeguard and promote our various welfares. The citizens of a geopolitical area whether a township, city, parish, state or nation cannot all govern and so must choose others whom they trust to govern as their representatives. Stockholders in a corporation cannot all direct the affairs of the enterprise and so they elect directors whom they trust to safeguard their investments and promote the profit and welfare of the corporation. The members of a church cannot all provide leadership for the body and so they elect leaders whom they trust to be people of integrity to provide such leadership. Judges and people in law enforcement are appointed and entrusted as individuals of integrity to maintain justice and fair play and to uphold and enforce the rule of law with impartiality.

When we look for people of integrity to lead, direct and safeguard our interests, we are not looking for people who are perfect. We are looking for individuals who are genuine and do not have ulterior motives as they offer themselves to us as trustworthy. The quest is for individuals of character who will do what they say they will do and will have the strength of character to resist the ever present temptations and inducements to use the power vested in them to benefit themselves and others associated at the expense of those who have entrusted them.

Integrity is a valuable asset that we all should strive to acquire and secure for ourselves. It is valuable in the formation of any relationship and invaluable in the most intimate of relationships between husbands and wives. Integrity is valuable in the classroom as students resist the temptation to cheat on academic assignments and tests. It is valuable for adolescents as they seek the trust and confidence of their parents and guardians. Integrity is invaluable as a character trait in any position of trust in which credibility is indispensable, whether it is the presidency of a nation or the street sweeper of a city. It is of utmost value in business, in the formation of contracts, in law, in medicine and in all areas of life.

When trust is violated, integrity goes through the back door and whatever legacy of excellence that one might have previously accumulated, it is quickly diluted and sometimes almost forgotten in the face of the scandal. When trust is upheld and integrity maintained with vigilance, credibility soars and the one who possesses such a character will ever be held in the highest esteem and his or her legacy immortalized and not soon forgotten. The terms 'honest Abe' and 'Mother Teresa' are testimonies to this fact.

Copyright(c)2006 by Lester Rennard. All rights reserved.