FD3 Honesty and Integrity, Its our Only Hope

Mary-jane Garasi
14 Nov. 2011
FD3

Honesty and Integrity, Its our Only Hope

Aloha everyone, my name is Mary-jane Garasi and I welcome all of you to the Kapi’olani Community College graduating class of 2010. I am before you today to leave you with a few words before you embark on your life long journey of happiness and success. Today you are graduating and tomorrow you will become leaders in our society. There will be many challenges and decisions that you will face in your future. Before you see a glimpse of light at the end of your tunnel towards success, there is one vital thing to remember. Honesty. There are some cases, a lie is spoken to ensure the well-being of a person, but the overall result is that it creates a bad impression and makes it difficult for the liar to be trusted. I'm sure you have told many lies throughout the school years. Lies that were harmless, but so deceitful. Whether you're a judge, a caring wife, or a concerned parent, lying is one of the most common things done by individuals in society. Lying does not only take place within families, but between governments; businesses to customers; and others. [THESIS] The idea that a person's truthfulness can be detected, regardless of what they are actually saying, may be not much more than a throwback to ancient ideas of trial by ordeal.[THESIS] It is important that each and every one of us take a look in the mirror and make a commitment to honesty and integrity, it is our only hope.

I’m sure everyone has heard that honesty is the best policy. Although it sounds like the simplest thing in the world, being truly honest with others and even with yourself can be a real challenge. Being sensitive of other people’s feelings, and facing uncomfortable truths about yourself usually requires lots of patience, vigilance, and hard work. There are so many reasons that people lie. It could be as a joke, to escape punishment or to even land a great job. I catch myself lying to my friends in a way just to not hurt their feelings intentionally, just so that I wouldn’t hurt their feelings. For example, when my best friend came to me and asked my opinion on the new hair cut she just got, I told her it looked great, even though I thought it looked horrible. Believe it or not, I could have told her that it was horrible. It isn’t that my relationship with my best friend was too insecure that I can’t tell her the truth, but by not telling her is just so that I wouldn’t hurt her feelings after seeing how great she loved it. I believed that it wouldn’t matter if I liked it or not, just as long as she did. Sometimes innocent things like this wouldn’t be a real issue.

There will be challenges not only between friends and family, but within your work employment also. Many of you are undecided of what you want to be in the future, but we all have one thing we are striving for which is success. Sometimes poor self esteem can block your ability to move forward in your life and may prevent you from living your dreams’. I came across an article about honesty and integrity that Thomas Palubicki wrote about his dad being a successful businessman. He explained that his dad had four characteristics essential to his success which is honesty, vigilance, hardwork, and kindness. He lived by these principles and people recognized this and that is why he was so respected. This is not why he did it, but because he understood that the greatest value in life is when you can look in the mirror and say I respect myself and who I am. Thomas also explained that these four characteristics are not automatic to anyone, but have to be developed. With this commitment this world can be a much better place and would not have the problems of stealing, cheating, and killing that we see today. Remember that in a work environment, people tend to remember the bad before the good. Working in a bank for six years gave me the opportunity to analyze what Thomas was writing about. Our clients look at us as bank tellers to be trusted with their money and to be honest when selling a product to them. It would be deceitful to sell someone a product knowing that they don’t need it just to make your quota. This would be unethical and greedy. Gaining that trust that you are there to help them with whatever financial needs makes them not only stay with the bank, but to gain that much trust that they only love coming to you.

Reversing psychology is how I always look at it. Our classmate Robert Gornichec explained that it is hard to ever trust or rely on someone who has lied to you before, if you are not considered an honest person it will hinder your ability to form and build good relationships with others. I’m sure none of you would be able to trust or look at the other person the same way if they had lied to you. Imagine if this role was from upper administration like our governor or even president. Respect would be lost so fast that it would take a long time until you can trust that person again or even believe another statement that comes out of that person’s mouth.

As I leave today, I hope I have left you with some words that will stick with you for the rest of your life. It will always be a challenge to be honest, but honesty is vital to making effective changes and identifying who you really are and what you really want. Without the truth of who you are and what you really want, you cannot have clarity in life and you cannot achieve your dreams because you have no true direction. Stay honest with yourself, be honest with others and always come from a loving place. Once again, CONGRATULATIONS! And best of luck!


Works Cited
"A Brief History of Lying." BBC News. 6 Jan. 2002. 8 Apr. 2003 .

Palubicki, Thomas. Honesty and Integrity Are the Cornerstones to Business and Society. http://ezinearticles.com/?Honesty-and-Integrity-Are-the-Cornerstones-to-Business-and-Society&id=4686902

Gornichec, Robert. "Honesty in Employment/White Lie/Honesty." 28 Oct 2011. Online Posting to Lailima. Web. 31 Oct 2011.

Log of Completed Activities
_x_ Oct. 13- Intro to Paper #3. Read the Guidelines for Paper #3.
_x_ Oct. 17- Complete readings for paper #3 for paper #3.
_x_ Oct. 21- Laulima Discussion #1
_x_ Oct. 28- Laulima Discussion #2
_x_ Oct. 31- Submit RD3 [50 pts] Review the guidelines.
_x_ Nov. 4- Submit three RD3 evaluations [50 pts] Review the guidelines.
_x_ Nov. 8- Submit FD3 [125 pts] Review the guidelines.