The importance of good character

Jun 20, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor;
Good character is the leadership quality that distinguishes great leadership.  It is the quality that most people admire.  Leaders of good character have integrity, courage and compassion.  They are careful and prudent.
Humble in their awareness of their own limitations, they seek out the knowledge and counsel of others.  They constantly learn and others want to learn from them.  Their decisions and actions inspire employees to think and act in a way that not only improves the bottom line, but that contributes to the well-being of the organization and society.
 Integrity
What exactly is integrity? According to the dictionary, integrity is “the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards, and the state of being complete, undivided, sound or undamaged.” Integrity, then, is having high principles and keeping those standards consistent throughout all the different parts of the self.
One of the first places integrity issues show up is in our language patterns. When we are “in integrity,” we speak from a place of wholeness. Our words match our actions. “We say what we mean and we mean what we say.” When we break from this pattern and say things we don’t really mean, we move “out of integrity.”
A lot of people today in our society have no integrity they are all basically the same? People make promises they cannot keep or they can never keep their time and word. I observed most people go late to work or they just lie to make excuses about being late they are never on time wherever they go.
They are never honest with finances of their own and when given finances for someone else to manage they have some real issues. Integrity has been a problem in Guyana and globally because people inculcated some real deceptive habits from their homes.
When a person who is highly educated lacks integrity on a job they did not develop those vile traits on their job they learn it from home. Character building is something we are parented into whether good or bad.
It’s also something we inherit by keeping bad company. Have you ever wondered why some very rich educated people can cuss and behave very disorderly?
They may have money and education but lacks morality and character.I read in the papers and saw on the news about a great number of University of Guyana students who owed the University loan but never re-payed it.
What bothers me most many of these hard to pay students have prominent jobs and positions in politics yet the were not honest enough to pay back the government the current loans they took to study. I also read the mayor of Georgetown mentioned of many prominent business people who owed the City Council millions of dollars but never paid it.
Where is our Integrity?
‘’Those who conduct themselves with morality, integrity and consistency need
Not fear the forces of inhumanity and cruelty. The greatest glory in living lies
not in never falling but in rising every time you fall.” Nelson Mandela. The wise Greek Philosopher Socrates made this profound prophetic statement below:
‘‘Those who provide much wealth for their children, but neglect to improve them in virtue and character, do like those who feed their horses high, but never train them to be useful.’   If we are very keen and observant in our society we will soon discover the family structure is dissolving gradually from our communities and nation. We hardly see faithful and responsible fathers and mothers.
Many of our children grow up without fathers who are the foundation of the family. Some with a grand ma, uncle or aunt or with complete strangers and many on the streets; it’s very sad because we have a real moral breakdown in our homes. It’s no wonder crimes have escalated.
The crime is not a political or social issue it’s more of a moral phenomenon it’s an issue where moral and character building was never given or inculcated to those who commit crimes in our society. A keen evaluation of prisoners’ background will give us our answers. Bring back the family structure, get back families into their churches in their respective religions and we will have a clean and free society devoid of crime.
Our words contain our life that’s our character and attitude. Life is sowing and reaping. We sow bad seeds by our words most marriages ended up in divorce because of one person destroying the other with deplorable words.
We must think before we speak because we speak our thoughts; I see a society of very angry and bad cultured people from all walks of life. Our ethics, morality and conduct with each other are extremely poor. Very few people can say: ‘Good morning, thank you very much, excuse me sir or madam’
These terms of mannerisms have become obsolete or archaic and is now being replaced with terms like: ‘Lol,dawg, or a cuss word most people used as greetings these days. Why is that so? It’s because of a lack of character and attitude. Our conduct and attributes are the key pillars of our life. It’s not people we hate it’s their attitudes. It’s not too late for us to develop our character into a life of integrity, morality, fortitude and spirituality.
“Such as thy words are, such will thy affections be esteemed; and such will thy deeds be as thy affections and such thy life as thy deeds.” (Socrates) Character is the sum total of all the good qualities in a man.
It consists in honesty, truthful speech and dealings, dutiful- nests, diligence, and obedience to parents, teachers and elders.
Sincerity, love of mankind, inner goodness and desire to do well to others and to be free from hatred, jealousy and malice are also part of character.
To live in harmony with the people of all religions, races, castes and nations may be added to the characteristics of high character. Not to cast an evil eye on a member of the opposite sex is the essence of high moral character. Character is a God given principle given by God to man from His Holy Books.
Rev. Gideon Cecil

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