What happened to honesty and integrity? I’m not sure it ever existed in
politics. After watching the Presidential debate last night and the previous
vice presidential debate last week, it’s hard to know what is truth and what are
lies. Since lying and telling half-truths seem to be part of the game.
But that’s not what got me thinking about this topic. Actually, I had a
dream a couple of nights ago – it was a strange dream and I don’t remember the
details but it was about honesty on the football field, something about coins
being dropped onto the field (weird I know) – and I read an article by Vai
Sikahema in the Deseret News a few weeks ago about honesty in sports. And then
of course there was the talk given in General Conference by Elder Robert C. Gay
of the 70. So those experiences might have triggered my dream.
Anyway, why is it that it is okay to be dishonest in sports? When a
receiver traps the ball he picks it up and holds it in the air, celebrating, as
if he caught it. And the announcers say something like, “that’s a good piece of
acting” or “he almost got away with that one” or something similar. It’s as if
the receivers are taught to be dishonest and are rewarded for doing so. And for
some reason it’s okay and even expected. The commentators expect such dishonest
behavior, and even celebrate it.
If the receiver trapped the ball and he knew it hit the ground, but the
official calls it a catch, shouldn’t the receiver tell the official that he didn’t
catch it? Isn’t that the honest thing to do? Paraphrasing Elder Gay—would you
sell your soul for a catch?
That is just one example from
football, but it pertains to every sport. When a basketball is going out of
bounds and it grazes a player’s fingers, does he tell the referee that he
touched the ball or let the referee call it out on the other team and celebrate
that the call “went his way”? Then perhaps on instant replay when it’s obvious
that the player touched the ball, instead of the commentator calling him out on
his dishonesty, he praises him and says he was lucky the referee didn’t see it.
In all my years of watching televised sports I have never seen a player
tell an official he made the wrong call if the ruling was in favor of the
player. And most of the time the player knows he didn’t make the catch or he
touched the ball or whatever the ruling is.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if that actually happened? As far as I know,
honesty is a fairly universal virtue. Kids are taught honesty from a very young
age. It’s not okay to steal a candy bar or cheat on a test. So why is it okay
to act like you caught the ball when you didn’t? Isn’t that cheating? Tell me
what the difference is. Cheating is cheating. Dishonesty is dishonesty.
Perhaps this is why we can have a
President of the United States who can look directly into the camera and
blatantly lie to the American people and still be considered a great president.
It seems that cheating and lying about it is okay for sports stars and
presidents.
These are the role models we are supposed to emulate? It’s no wonder society is on a downward
spiral. What ever happened to honesty and integrity?
Wouldn’t it be nice if everybody
tried to be more like Job?
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