When is enough ENOUGH?

Another trusted official seemingly walked down an unsavory path and is now paying the price today for their actions. Today, the HUD Secretary Jackson resigned because of his alleged participation in a scandal that involved money. I don’t pretend to know all of the details of the situation, or what is true and what is not. This story is not unlike many of the other stories that have surfaced in recent years with the same theme. It’s a story of people not being satisfied with what they have, and instead of working within the constraints of the law and moral ethics, make the decision to bypass those things in an attempt to gain or profit (at times, at someone else’s expense). A list containing the names of those people is too long to write down here. What I’d be more interested in learning about is where that whole mentality comes from, and why some folks think that it’s okay to circumvent the laws that the rest of us rely on to guide our behavior?

What message are we sending to our young people by participating in such activities? It’s the same thing as trying to tell your child not to smoke as you yourself are taking a puff of a cigarette. Is it really effective to in a sense tell your child “do as I say, not as I do”? According to Mr. Jackson’s biography on the HUD website, he and his wife have two grown daughters. It is my hope that the next generation of potential leaders that are the offspring of these fallen leaders will not do as they have seen done.