From Deseret News archives:
Integrity measured best in the little things
One of these, of course, is that dishonesty, in the long run, generally doesn't pay. That's a fairly obvious one. People can get away with things for awhile — perhaps even their entire lives — but eventually the truth comes out. Reputations are like granite monuments. They go on living long after the people they are attached to have died, and they can be vandalized and sullied by corrosive facts.
The other is a little more complex. It is that integrity is measured in thimbles, not in gallon jugs. It's easy to be honest in the big things. Most of us, if we saw that our neighbor left his car unlocked and his keys in the ignition, never would consider stealing it. But what about padding an expense report after an out-of-town trip? What about returning a small amount of change that a cashier gave you by mistake?
What about, as some county officials have done, taking a credit card that was intended only for gassing a county-owned vehicle and using it for something else? What about taking a county-owned car on a long trip for personal pleasure, in violation of a policy, or of billing two organizations for the same expenses? Is the wrong any less serious if the victims (in this case, taxpayers) can't be seen and won't really notice the difference?
Thimbles are small, but, as now-former County Auditor Craig Sorensen found out, they can pack a wallop if filled with the wrong stuff.
Crimes come in degrees. Society attaches penalties depending on the severity. But integrity is rigid. It is not completely synonymous with honesty. Instead, as British business ethics expert Roger Steare recently told the Sunday Times of London, it is a "word that describes the sum of all our principles and values."
Years ago, a high-ranking Salt Lake County official, who no longer works there, assured me he was honest, but that he probably would take money that didn't belong to him if he could be absolutely certain no one ever would find out. By that definition, common thieves also are honest. The point, obviously, is not to get caught.
To graduates, about to head off to college or the great world beyond, it's time to decide which principles and values you intend to pursue. For the rest of us, it may be time to take stock and measure where we are. No one is perfect. We all have lapses. But perhaps, if we're lucky, the lessons from Salt Lake County will ring louder than the actual deeds, themselves. Like drivers who happen on a fresh accident, maybe we'll decide to go a little more carefully from now on.
