As I drive to work each morning, I say my morning prayer. One thing I often thank God for is letting me live in this area where I am surrounded by his beauty and good people. Me being me, I got to thinking, what makes people in some areas good and others not so much. Why is there always a ‘wrong side of the tracks’ or ‘the hood’ in most towns? I remember being lost in Memphis one night after picking someone up from the airport. I could tell I was in a sketchy part of town but figured I would be fine if I went to a gas station/mini mart that was well lit, to get directions. I walked in and there was a black man behind the counter. His eyes got very large when he saw me. When I got close enough to him, he said in a hushed voice, “You shouldn’t be here.” To which I responded “please, tell me how to get out of here.” He told me how to get back to the interstate and watched until I got back into my car and left.
For three white girls in a car in a bad part of Memphis, after dark, which was a bit scary. I’m not sure why that has stuck in my mind after all these years. It makes me wonder about the man at the counter. He had a job, however crappy it may be. He looked after me while I was in his presence, whether he wanted to or not. He was kind when suggesting that I leave and when giving me directions. So, for a man who, at least worked in ‘the hood’, he obviously had some goodness about him. So, maybe being from ‘the hood’ or not doesn’t really play that much into what makes someone. When you grow up in a small town with two or three churches on every block and most everyone either attends one of them regularly or did at some point in their life, it is easy to see people as either good or bad. Over the years I have found some surprising good in some of the worst and visa versa. Maybe presenting to people as good or bad all depends on what is important to us personally. If I don’t care what people think of me, I may not make any effort to be kind to people. However, I may be a strong advocate for rescuing animals and may spend much money and time caring for animals and raising funds. So, am I a good person or a bad one? Something you might not know: Hitler was a big animal lover and introduced several animal welfare laws. He was also a vegetarian. Proof the there is a speck of good in all of God’s children, no matter how evil.
I know that you are probably wondering how in the world this rambling has anything to do with the title of this post. Well, ethics is what I want to discuss in this post. According to Al Gore’s internet, Ethics are moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity. As one who must take a long and boring online ethics class every year at my job, I can tell you that ethics are not always personal. We have ‘ethics forced upon us as government employees. Most of them are logical and easy to follow, but some get in the weeds, especially when talking about gifts, who can give or accept what, to or from whom. And when you can and can’t use your past work influence, or your current government influence. There is a lot of stuff like that to remember. I’m sure every company or institution has their own ethics rules. What I am more interested in is personal ethics. What personally makes us who we are and shapes our decisions and actions in life.
Ethics is a little different than morals. Morals are based primarily on a person’s religious or spiritual beliefs, whereas ethics are not necessarily religious based. As humans we all live by a code of ethics that are just inherent. Things such as murder, stealing, lying, adultery, harming children or animals, committing fraud, and any number of other things, most people find to just be wrong. These are things that most people, whether religious or not, agree that you just shouldn’t do. Individual ethics are not always so simple. There is a reason those who have harmed children or who are informants are separated from the general population in prison. There are a lot of things you can do to get locked up, but there are even some things the hardest of criminals won’t excuse. Yes, even hardened criminals have ethics.
Many people claim it is not ethical to use fossil fuels for what they do to the environment. Others will argue it is not ethical to use wind turbines because of the harm it does to the birds, or to use electric cars because of the child labor used to get the raw materials for batteries. There are usually two sides to every story and both sides have their ethical high road to back them up and can’t, or choose not, to understand the other side.
I like to go to Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge (TCWR) as often as possible, for a couple reasons. 1) I love big cats. 2) They are an ‘ethical’ tourist destination. To TCWR that means not exploiting their animals in any way, not touching them and letting them be their true selves for animals that must be held captive. They are a forever home for the animals, meaning once the animal gets to them, they are there and cared for and loved for the rest of their natural lives or until they no longer have a quality of life. They have space for each animal to run and play, with fresh meat every day, toys, pools, heated dens, etc. They use all their income for caring for the animals and use as much sustainable products as possible while stressing conservation and humane treatment of animals. To me, being an ‘ethical’ tourist destination makes TWCR special, and I like to support them as much as possible.
Many times, we confuse the ethics of others to be a political statement because they fall into stereotypes of one political party more than the other. One might think that one who is a vegan, or who drives an electric car, or who is against calf roping or wearing furs would be a liberal or a democrat. One might be wrong. Though I couldn’t be vegan because I like Southern cooking too much, and I wouldn’t have an electric car if you gave it to me unless it was a hybrid, since the charging stations are too few and far between and they take too long to charge. I do wish they would outlaw calf roping and killing new animals for fur, unless they are being used for meat as well. I don’t know many people who eat mink.
We all have our own rules we live by, not because of anything we were taught or because the preacher said it was right or wrong, but because we in our hearts just don’t feel it is right. I don’t lie, or I try very hard not to, the only exception is to telemarketers and surveyors. Most of the time I just hang up on them. I buy peanut butter without palm oil because harvesting palm oil is taking away the natural habitat of the few remaining tigers. I try to be kind to everyone. I try not to boast. I don’t eat lamb or veal. I just can’t eat a baby. I don’t hunt; I cry when I kill a bird with my car. My sister has a cowhide rug at her house, and I don’t walk on it. She got mad at me one day because I wouldn’t walk on it and accused me of thinking badly of her. I told her it was my thing; she could do what she wanted; I personally didn’t want to walk on the backs of animals. I don’t know why I feel that way, but I do. Yes, I eat beef, and I wear leather. I don’t know! I am who I am. I feel how I feel. I refuse to purchase from TEMU and Shien. Yes, their stuff is cheap and some of it may be decent, but it is made by slave labor, and I want no part of it. I recycle most things that I can, although I know most of it never actually gets recycled and used again. I reuse my Walmart bags, I compost, I put out fresh water in the summer for animals passing through. I am loyal to a fault. I refused to give a name to a drill sergeant in the Army even as he smoked just about everyone around me to get me to talk. I think he was impressed. Some of the others weren’t, I’m sure. Most importantly, I try very hard to live by the golden rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. These are some of my ethics, rules, quirks, whatever you want to call them.
Some of my stuff may sound silly to others, but they are important to me, as your ethics or code should be important to you. I believe they are a big part in what makes us who we are. Others may not agree with us, and some may ridicule us, but we must be true to ourselves. I know someone who won’t eat in a restaurant that serves alcohol because he doesn’t want to be seen in that kind of establishment. I know someone who doesn’t use the word ‘awesome’ unless describing God, because to her, only God is awesome. I know of some who will eat meat, but not mammals. To most, these things probably never crossed their minds.
If your ethics line up with God and the law, don’t let anyone change what is important to you. Remember even the worst of us have a code, it is human nature to give ourselves boundaries. And while you are taking pride in what makes you special, take notice of what codes others live by and what boundaries they have set for themselves and respect them as sacred. My ethics are sacred to me as I am sure most others feel the same.
Add comment
Comments