Laws, Morals, and Ethics..Oh My!

I’ve been busy working a ton of overtime the last few weeks. It seems as if I haven’t written in a long time. A lot has happened in that time … there has been some really big news here in San Antonio and around the country. San Antonio has gotten some poor press with mothers killing their children, Toyota stopping production, and the national coverage of a retaining wall failure in a new home subdivision near the area I live in Helotes, Texas.

Nationally, the President has finally been called on his campaign promises he has not kept (or even attempted to keep). From his broken promises, to televise healthcare negotiations, to his failure to lower the unemployment rate and save or create new jobs, and even for not knowing what a Navy Corpsman is.

A new tell-all book has come out detailing John Edwards’ moral and ethical transgressions, written by the very person that was enabling him. (I won’t be reading that book.) A lot has happened and it has gotten me thinking about the root cause of such things. Is it because we don’t have enough laws? … or the right laws? … I don’t think so. The irony within laws, codes, regulations and ordinances is that they only effectively control the law abiding. The law abiding usually share common qualities, they are generally honest, hard working, moral and ethical. I have for a long time said that a lack of good morals and ethics is the root cause of most of our problems as a people. How many times do we hear of a law or some type of enactment written to satisfy a real or perceived public concern?

The range of laws is broad and far-reaching. They are written to punish or control all matters of concern, from minor inconveniences to more major problems. Many times, if we just investigate a little we find that a law already exists that pertains to the issue that is not enforced or has been forgotten. Laws exist at every layer of government and they are meant to control you and me. They limit how loud we can play a car radio and dictate how we dispose of our garbage. There are laws that punish crimes and how we describe them. We have white color crime, organized crime, hate crimes and crimes against humanity. Why do laws (rules) exist … or more importantly, why are they broken? It always boils down to morals and ethics and the lack thereof. We see it in every thing we do.

I happen to have spent most of my working life in construction-related businesses. I’ve seen what can happen when greed, opportunity and temptation collide. It is a perfect storm for disaster. Shortcuts take place, things are overlooked or ignored often causing unintended consequences; either some one gets hurt or something goes terribly wrong. Construction building and trade codes, engineering specifications, and the use of proper materials are usually the areas where deception is targeted. In the end, what we usually find out is that someone (or a group of people) have allowed a moral or ethical breakdown take place.

Our ethical standards and moral positions are how our reputations are earned. They are the reason behind our reasoning. We have become too accustomed to accepting lying, cheating, and stealing as the way of the world. In the 1960’s we entered the “if it feels good do it” era and our moral and ethical foundation has been severely damaged because of it.

I’m no saint and have never said I was, but I write this blog as a political commentary. I’m trying to sound a warning that we are in a time where we must pay close attention to who we elect at every stage of government because our nation has suffered enough at the hands of morally and ethically bankrupt politicians and bureaucrats. There is a trickle-down effect that takes place in our country that causes me to believe that as our leadership in government, politics, business, education, and so on go … so goes the country. When we have political leadership that reflects strong moral conviction combined with high ethical standards, our nation mirrors those traits. In contrast, we’ve seen the same effect take place when our leaders are less moral and ethical.

Some say that it is foolish to set our standards so high that they are not achievable or sustainable. They say it creates falseness and hypocrisy and they are right, but it gives us something to strive for. By lowering expectations and loosening our moral and ethical beliefs, we become a less perfect people and a less perfect union. I myself will always believe that we are created by God to never stop working at becoming a more perfect people, in order to form a more perfect union.

There you have it
Pass it along if you like or let me know if I don’t have a clue.
Eddie Perez / U.S. American