It is important to the writer that he can take pride in what he has accomplished. As you know, the same concept enters into the work place, sometimes in a negative fashion as when production workers never have the self-satisfaction of knowing a finished product is a good as it can possibly be.
Oh, they may know that their part was excellent but do they always have pride in the finished product? Maybe or maybe not, depending on their knowledge of the abilities and conscientiousness of their fellow workers.
If they know of others who are not as conscientious, then their own quality of workmanship may suffer. Kind of, who cares, it will be sold anyway and I can't do anything about the other workers.
The author once started his own business because of this. He was working his way through college as a carpenter and, for a short time, worked for a contractor that used inferior materials, a practice of many contractors that is extremely disliked by the author.
Finally, he could take it no more and went to the realtors
that were financing the new homes that were being built by
the contractor. Their response (all three realty companies) was: "We
don't care. We get the same amount
of money for the houses even though poor materials are being
used."
Then, the quality of the writer's work went down but only
for a day or so.
He went to the owner of the construction company and asked
for a $35 an hour raise since that would leave the owner
about $10 an hour and the writer would get paid for the work
he did and simultaneously replace the worst of the inferior
materials.
When the owner refused, which the author felt certain he
would do, the writer gathered up his tools and went into business
for himself.
And, rather than income diminishing, it went up even though the author charged far less than
other contractors, bought the best materials (and gave his customers his contractor's
discount), and did jobs as they should be done, to the very best of his ability.
Word of mouth from his customers kept his business going for
two years while completing his graduate work and teacher
certification. Plus, the author had great self-satisfaction
from taking a chance, doing jobs well, and the pride that
goes along with keeping one's integrity intact.
He hadn't thought about this since he quit teaching PMA to
sales people to pursue a writing career but there is much to
be said for pride and one's assuming responsibility for seeing
the job is done right, with the conclusion being that one
would have enough satisfaction to point his work out with
pride.
For the past year, the author has had great interest in
politics and politicians. He has written many essays
concerning the political structure of this nation and the
politicians who are, more or less, the backbone of it.
It should be, idealistically, the people forming the
back-bone but, at the present time, it seems that
politicians are in control, a most undesirable state. Apathy from the public assures this is likely to continue for quite some
time.
The natural evolution with his thoughts was to begin
considering the satisfaction of a job well-done by our
Washington politicians. The author's concern began being
focused on people such as Newt Gingrich. This stands to
reason since Gingrich has been in the news quite regularly
after the negativism of his admitting to wrong-doings and his
lying quite extensively.
The writer wonders if Gingrich feels pride in what he has
done. Does he feel pride in acting more as a common conman
than a leader who should be a role model to the youth of
America?
Does he feel pride in lying, and getting away with
it for years?
Does he feel a false sense of pride by convincing himself he is an honorable man, a
pipedream at best?
Does Gingrich sleep at night knowing there are many of us who
feel he should be removed from office because of violating the public's trust and moral
values?
Does he even bother thinking about his loss of, or lack of, integrity when dealing with the
public and his colleagues in Congress?
Or, instead, does he feel like: "Poor little me. Everybody is picking on
me and after all the things I have done for for God and country?" For
some reason, the latter seems
more probable in Gingrich's case.
Does he expect the majority of us to believe deep down
to the very fiber of his soul, he innocently misused funds
and abused tax laws concerning contributions? Or, does he
now gloat because he may get away with his moral and legal
offenses?
Does he consider his avalanch of negative comments about the
other party's members to be the complete truth, that he can
prove his statements and abusive allegations against other
politicians?
Can he (and other leading politicians) honestly
state every political dealing he has been involved in has been for the improved welfare of
our nation or his home state?
Or, have many, maybe even most of his actions, been to further
his own welfare, special interest groups that focus on him,
and the public be damned?
The writer wonders. Just what is a source of pride for a
man that appears to be quite pompous and full of himself
while lacking in integrity and moral and ethical standards?
What pride can possibly be felt from accusing others of
wrong-doings while simultaneously one is engaged in activities which violate our moral,
ethical, and civil/criminal laws?
What pride is there in belittling others while behaving just
as badly or more badly? Hasn't integrity been buried with
the resulting lack of integrity being the dominant
characteristic of such an individual? Does that not result
in the person living a lie?
Is pride felt when one lives a lie, when one's integrity, if
one ever had any, has been lost for profit and power?
Can a great job be done, the job that one is hired or elected to
do, that is, without justifiable pride and integrity?
The writer thinks not. A job will be done but it will not
be the job expected by the employer. And, in the case of politicians, the employers are the
people of this nation, clear and simple.
The job for our politicians is also clear and simple. Do
the right thing always for the public. Deposit the money and benefits from influencial
organizations or businesses where they belong, in the proverbial cesspool along with the
rest of the unwanted waste.
Serving the public's interests, along with integrity, should
be the sources of pride and self-satisfaction for our
politicians, not a false, inaccurately perceived sense of
pride from mutual backscratching with greed for money and
power being the guiding forces.
Until these become the norm, we will forever be bombarded
with allegations by politicians against politicians, by it
being revealed, once again, that some politician has broken
laws, civil, ethical, moral, or all of the above.
Are we never going to tire of it, Ladies and Gentlemen, and
demand better from our elected officials? Isn't our own
pride of country at risk if we don't?
The positive aspect is many hundreds, perhaps thousands, now recognize our Washington
politicians for what they are, very corrupted, self-serving power/money mongers who have
not the slightest degree of concern for the common man.
