Integrity - Doing What's Right Even If Nobody's Looking

Both of my girls and I trained in Tae Kwon Do at Revolution Martial Arts, and are still personal friends with the owners and instructors.  One of the things they used to teach the girls is to have "Integrity - Doing what's right even if nobody's looking."  We also taught our girls the Golden Rule - Treat others as you'd like to be treated.  These are seemingly simple things, but people go through phases when these pearls of wisdom sound simple but are difficult for some people to adhere to.

For instance, when I was a teenager, my dad didn't really know how much I "partied."  He knew I did some drinking and I admitted smoking pot once when he asked.  He kinda freaked so I pretended it was just one time and didn't like it.  But he had no idea how often and how much I used to party.  That was when I was in my teens/early 20s; and I suspect many at that age have a different persona at home than what they have with their buddies.  But as we age and mature, we are supposed to be consistent.  We should mature and do what's right even if nobody's looking.  We should treat others as we'd like to be treated.

Unfortunately, we now have a president who seemingly has no integrity.  Everybody thought it was such a big deal that he spoke with his "indoor voice" when making his speech this week, but I think we are setting the bar pretty low.  He also spoke "nicely" after meeting with Obama the first time, and I thought there was some hope for him.  But as weeks passed and he started showing his true colors again, I knew there was no use holding out hope for him (and that's why I was in the Women's March and joined the ACLU).   I knew that it was useless to listen to him anymore.  Nowadays, I just wait for transcripts to come out and skim them.  Much of what he or his representatives say are lies or backpedaled on later.  

He said he was going to drain the swamp, and instead he restocked it with Billionaire Bankers who were "too big to fail."  Alt Right Bannon is calling the shots and they put out an unconstitutional ban against Muslims.  He said he'd build a wall that Mexico would pay for, but now they won't.  He's letting the Dakota Access Pipeline go forward, even if it puts the Natives' water source at risk.  He claimed it would be built with US Steel, but evidently it's not.  He is at war with the press and calls them "Fake News" if they question his Russian ties.  Now he claims Obama tapped his phones.  He said he would disclose his taxes after the audit was over; and now he says he won't.  

We should've known better than to believe him and elect him, but too many believed his lies.  Even when he was caught talking about grabbing women's P**y, people believed his excuse that it was just "locker room talk" and he never did it (despite several women saying he did grope them).  Never mind that a 55-60 year old guy should've outgrown locker room talk... His ex-wife said he pulled her hair and raped her, but later said that she didn't mean it literally.  Even if you were to believe her recant, he still manhandled her.  

Worst of all, he wasn't even in the situation room during the Yemen raid.  There are reports that say it was an ill advised raid, but I won't even get into that or talk about whether or not he "used" the widow during his speech.  I'll simply say that he should've been in the Situation Room when it was going down... and he should NOT have blamed his generals.  He should treat these situations as if he were sending his own children in to war.  He doesn't do what's right when nobody's looking... or even when they ARE looking.  He says one thing, then does another.  Sadly, while I used to pray that he be granted wisdom and integrity; I now pray for the wisdom and integrity of the other US and World Leaders... so that they can either remove him from office and/or find a way to govern despite him.