Friday, November 18

I sense Americans are justifiably experiencing a loss of faith and trust in our bedrock institutions as the Washington debt crisis, the Wall Street mortgage/banking crisis and Penn State’s child endangerment crisis have all come to a head this year.

The crisis in each case boils down to a lack of honesty on the part of leaders, a desire to put off hard decisions and an inability to resolve conflict.

There seems to be a shortage of ethics at the highest levels.

Two favorite books of mine related to lying and ethics are:

Lying, Moral Choice in Public and Private Life by Sissela Bok; and

Approaches to Ethics, Representative Selections from Classical times to the Present, 2^nd Edition, Jones, Sontag, Beckner and Fogelin.

But you do not need to read a book to know that what is ultimately best for society as a whole and long term is to tell the truth.