Will The Last Honest Person Please Stand Up

Lisa Rodrigues

8, November 2011

FD3

Will the last honest person please stand up.

Good morning graduating class.  You are on the cusp of a new chapter in your life, one that takes you into a lifelong journey.   Many of you have entered the working world, some have not.  Up till now, you’ve had the guidance of faculty, counselors, professors and parents.  After this day, what little coddling existed will cease.  One thing you should always remember, whether with family, friends or co-workers,  [THESIS]” honesty is the best policy”(webcitation, p 6)[THESIS].

Dishonest people can be classified as selfish.  They think only of themselves.  They don’t care about the well being of other people.  They do not care who they hurt.  One big recent case of a lie, Bernie Maddoff.  He was a successful trader who’s firm created the NASDAQ.  He served as president on the board of directors for NASDAQ.  However, greed got in the way.  His dishonest ways produced ”securities fraud, investment advisor fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, false statements, perjury, false filings with the US Securities and Exchange commission, and theft from an employee benefit fund”(biography).  He wasn’t thinking of the trail of destruction behind him.  People lost their pensions.  Banks, individuals, and investment companies lost money.  Reflecting on this case brought to mind an excerpt of a reading “Judged one instance at a time, any “harmless” lie may be trivial, but the habitual telling of white lies may ultimately lead to undesirable consequences.”(Schulman, p 10)  Bernie Maddoff’s undesired consequence is a prison sentence of 150 years.  His dishonest practices not only besmirched him, it ruined the trust people had with their investment banker.  Some people found out that the money they entrusted to their banker, was used to invest with Bernie Maddoff.   

Everybody goes through ups and downs.  But how you handle the situation shows your character.  You will either be a person of morals or a person of ethics.  You can’t be both.  A moral person knows the difference between right and wrong and will act upon the right.  An ethical person is guided by their own philosophy.  They may act upon the wrong but have justification.  One night after a long day of work, my husband and I were up talking about our day.  He had a tough situation at work and asked how I would handle it.  I give him my honest answer.  When we were done talking, he told me that I was the only person in all his life that he ever trusted.  That no matter what, I was the only one that he knew would ever tell the truth.  It felt good to hear that.   That he could confide in me, whatever he needed to say about work would stay with me.  I was his rock.  This deeply enhances our marriage.  As a mother of two, I’ve also found that what I say will affect my children.  Often times my children would ask if I can take them to the store and I would say yes.  The day goes by and I haven’t taken them to the store, they would remind me that I told them I would and by not doing so, it was a lie.  Children trust their parents.  Everything you say to children is taken into context.  So if you say you will do something, you better do it otherwise failure to do so is a lie.  They do not understand that you may have had a ton of things to do or that you were tired.  They only know failure to do what you said you would do is a lie and lying is bad.  So when you commit to something, you need to be sure you follow through. 

During Christmas season we are all so busy with shopping, family gatherings and parties.  A group of us at work decided to do an outing rather than exchange gifts.  The outing however, wouldn’t take place till after the New Year.  It wasn’t till May of this year that we finally did our gathering.  We all agreed on a date.  However, what you should know is that in this group is a person that I really don’t care to be around.  It was also during that time that we were getting our house tented and needed to bag all our food.  I agreed to pick up dinner the night of the outing, completely forgetting I made a commitment.  The day of, I was reminded of the dinner.  I didn’t really want to go and was looking for a good lie to get out of the dinner.  But then I remembered that I needed to pick up dinner for my family.   These people that I was to dine with are much older than me.  So I figured, I’ll tell them the truth and they would understand, after all I need to take care of my family.  It wasn’t a lie and I was being honest.  As it turns out, they didn’t understand and were soon on the phone with each other talking about me.  Yes, I could hear one side of the conversation.  Yes, I did say they were older than me.  Even though I didn’t lie, I felt bad that was trying to get out of a commitment that I agreed upon.   I also felt like our working relationship would be strained by not going.  So to please everyone, I left work early to get dinner for my family, dropped it off at home, headed back into Waikiki to have dinner with the office gang.  Now remember, I said there was one of them that I didn’t like.  Just being there felt like a lie.  I think it caused so much stress on me that I actually got a headache and felt nauseous.  I ended up leaving the dinner early.  I was out sick for the next week with the flu.  In Japanese we call that bachi.  I was dishonest by pretending to like being in the company of someone that I didn’t like all to keep a good working environment.  As Dean Kurozumi wrote “I (sic) believe that just by being honest, you will have a clear conscience.”  In this case, I should have been honest and declined the offer.  Had my conscience been clear, I wouldn’t have had to endure the stress of the situation.

Honesty may not always net the results you were expecting but it is the best way to go. University of Texas Philosophy Professor Richard Solomon says, “The honest man is not so much one who refrains from lying, much less one who resists the temptation to lie because he or she knows that it is wrong to lie; he or she just does not lie.”(Schulman, p 14)

“Bernard Maddoff.” Anwers.com. NP. 31 Oct.2011

<http://www.answers.com/topic/bernard-madoff>

“Bernard Maddoff.” Biography.com. NP. 31 Oct.2011

<http://www.biography.com/people/bernard-madoff-466366>

“Honesty”  Webcite. 25 Jul 2007. 31 Oct.2011

<http://www.webcitation.org/5iXHXyAmW>

Kurozumi, Dean “honesty – Dean Kurozumi” 31 Oct 2011. Laulima.Hawaii.edu/discussion and private messages

“Truth and Consequences.” Schulman, Mary. NP. 07 Nov.2011

http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v10n1/truth.html

_X__ Oct. 13- Intro to Paper #3. Read the Guidelines for Paper #3.
_X__ Oct. 17- Complete readings for paper #3 for paper #3.
_X__ Oct. 21- Laulima Discussion #1
_X__ Oct. 28- Laulima Discussion #2
_X__ Oct. 31- Submit RD3 [50 pts] Review the guidelines.
_X__ Nov. 4- Submit three RD3 evaluations [50 pts] Review the guidelines.
_X__ Nov. 8- Submit FD3 [125 pts] Review the guidelines