Becky Ellisor

My Handbook on Ethics is moving right along finally. I had a couple of teenage muses working for me over the holidays and they did nothing but convince me even more of the need for teaching ethics in schools. So many kids really don’t understand how to determine right from wrong.  Kids always find it hard to grow up and accept responsibility and having nothing to fall back on to make decisions makes it even harder to choose the right road.

In the summer of 1969 I was living in Anchorage Alaska. I took a trip to Seward  a short days ride from Anchorage, and we came upon Portage Glacier which lies south of Anchorage near Turnagain Arm. This giant glacier flowed from a distant mountain into Cook Inlet. In order to build a road south to the Kenai Peninsula the state had to carve off the end of that 40 foot thick glacier to allow for the road. Every year or two they had to come back with ice saws to trim the Glacier to keep it from destroying the road, as it continued to head down the mountain and across the Tundra into the sea.  I returned to Alaska in 1989 to vacation with my sister Fran. We again passed by Portage Glacier, only now there was a large expensive looking building that tells the story of the Glacier. The Glacier only 20 years later was a mile or more back from the road. This year my cousin Earl Ellisor sent me a picture of the glacier as it is now, 40 years later. It looks like a white teardrop between two mountains way in the distance…

I won’t print the whole book on this site , but I can sure share this first draft of the Preface.

Preface             

               A person with integrity does not lie awake at night worrying about his enemies.  He doesn’t feel sorry for himself or his actions. Instead he feels good about himself and consequently has lots of good friends.  He makes the world a better place for himself and everyone else.

                Imagine a whole world full of men and women who also have integrity, who sleep and feel like he does; a world where honesty and ethical behavior is the norm and expected of everyone.  I believe we can live in a world like that.  For one thing, lots of people are already ethical most of the time.  All we as a nation need to do is make school rooms a place where kids learn about ethics and integrity in addition to the three R’s and we as a people need to expect ethical behavior from everyone else. If we don’t get that behavior then we need to do something about it. This book will point out what is ethical behavior, in addition to teaching how to make ethical decisions.

                I am not a learned Philosopher of Ethics.  This book is not for a person who wants to study and discuss ethics for the rest of his life. If that is your desire, go to a University that offers a Doctorate in Ethical Philosophy.  I am however over 60 years old, with a lot of experience in being taken and shaken by unethical people.  Where do these people come from? They come from all parts of society. There are many reasons some have chosen to follow the low road, instead of the high road. Many of these people simply know no better and some are mentally ill.  Some have learned this behavior from their parents or caretakers and others become desperate enough to cheat due to circumstances beyond their control.  Some actually took this direction in life because they have heard that everyone does it.  Does this belief exonerate them?

                I hope you know the answer to this question. Whether you do or you don’t doesn’t matter though; you will learn enough from this book to know what is right in most situations and how to figure out what is right in others which aren’t  covered here. You can always ask someone you trust as ethical, to help you make a difficult ethical decision.

                Most kids learn about integrity and ethics from their parents and caretakers.  Some kids never get that opportunity.  For one thing, parents cannot teach their children ethical behavior if they don’t have any ethics themselves or no one ever taught them about ethics.  I hope that you will decide while reading this book, as I have, that Public Schools need to take on that duty in order to assure that all kids will at least learn the basics of ethics and how to make ethical decisions.  There all kinds of ways to make room in school schedules to teach these practical issues.  There are many ideas that allow children more time in school. I leave that portion of this plea to those who are more qualified than I.

Why would anyone care about a big name golfer’s one car wreck? It didn’t kill him. He didn’t kill anyone in the process and it was the middle of the night. I will tell you why. They are hoping to see him screw up his career, his marriage and his life. They will feel better if he does. It makes the average person happy to see failure especially in someone who had the push to have made it big. It justifies their own failures and makes them feel better about themselves.

This is sick and a big part of what is wrong in our country.  Instead of thinking poor Big Name Guy, he is just like the rest of us and isn’t perfect; we instead think…  isn’t it great, he is going to be a failure now and I can feel smug as a bug. Nanny, Nanny boo-boo. 

Immaturity is rampant. Grow up America and let’s get the show on the road.

Will someone please tell me why soldiers and people killed on US soil get so much more respect and louder condolences than the US Soldiers getting killed everyday in Afghanistan. They are fighting the same fight.