American Integrity
In 1990, I attended my first baseball game. I was only seven so I don't remember much about it, but I do remember going to the ball park and watching the players play. Even though they were the LA Dodgers, it was still amazing to watch them play. They were the greatest ever in my mind.
As I grew up my loyalties changed from a Dodger fan to a diehard Yankee fan. I watched every game I could. I studied the players and their stats. I became more than just a Yankee fan…I became a huge baseball fan…and in my family I was known as the baseball guru.
A couple of years ago I even got to go to Yankee Stadium and watch the Yanks play. It was the most amazing experience ever. I got to tour the entire stadium, sit in the dugout, sit in the press booth, and visit Monument Park. I saw all the players that I had watched on television growing up. It was so neat...and the best part about it was the Yanks won on a Giambi 3 run homer in the bottom of the ninth.
Throughout my years as not only a Yankee fan but also a baseball fan I have heard the rumors of steroids being used by baseball players. I refused to believe that the best players in baseball could be juicing to get better. This would be a violation of not only the rules but also of their integrity. Then on December 13, 2007, the Mitchell Report became public. Not everything is known yet about the report but players like Clemens and Petite are said to be mentioned in it, some of my favorite Yankees. This really made me upset not only as a fan but also a person with integrity. The whole mess got me thinking about integrity and if anyone or company still has it in our society.
Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary defines integrity as a strict adherence to a code of moral values. The question then becomes what are moral values? Morals relate to right or wrong behavior. In our society many of the people we are drawn to or look up to are athletes. If athletes have bad moral values, then people assume it is ok for them to also have bad moral values. How do we fix the harm that athletes are causing? We start at the grass roots level.
One avenue is to start is in the corporate life of America. So many businesses, like ENRON, folded in the early 21 century due to lack of integrity. Many homeowners are struggling now because of bad loans made by companies, another example of the lack of integrity in our society. There are many companies, though, who are trying to restore integrity into the American value system. One such company is called Tutorzila. They are an online tutoring company that has strong integrity. Tutorzilla works hard every day make their tutoring services better for their clients. They are constantly evaluating their tutors to make sure they provide nothing but the best teachers and provide tutoring security for parents and students. They make sure a tutor is ready to perform before actually letting them tutor students in math, science, or many other subjects. They also make sure that the certified tutor is simply not doing the students' homework, like many online tutoring companies and private tutors, but instead teaching them the concepts in math and science.
Integrity has to start building somewhere in our society. If we as a society are drawn to people or organizations with integrity, like Tutorzilla, then perhaps we can increase not only our own moral values but also the values of others.
