SENTINEL WATCH August 11, 2003 Issue

Truth's consequences

By Kay Olson

I found out something important about honesty early on in life. On a lazy summer day when I was about ten years old, my friend and I wandered into the neighborhood drugstore to pick up something for her mom. While the druggist was in the back of the store getting the needed item, my friend began to examine the contents of the candy rack. Suddenly, she grabbed a package of Lifesavers and stuck them in her pocket. I was terrified we would be found out, but when the druggist returned with her mom's package, he just sent us off with a friendly wave.

At a safe distance from the store, my friend took the candy out of her pocket, peeled away the wrapper, and handed me a piece. With only a slight hesitation, I popped it in my mouth. I enjoyed the candy, but I knew in my heart that what she had done was wrong. And I felt guilty. I was beginning to understand that "sharing the spoils" with my friend made me dishonest, too. The memory of that event burned into my consciousness so powerfully that I vowed I would never steal anything, nor be a part of a "heist," again.

While it may be fairly common for kids to make the kind of mistake my friend and I made, the tendency to deceive appears pretty frequently in adults, too. Tuning in to current news reports, you see quite a number of lapses of integrity. One would hope that the level of honesty would be "kicked up a notch" in the consciousness of leaders. The worlds of corporations, politics, law, journalism, need honesty and integrity.