08-27-2004, 10:33 AM
Integrity is quite frankly a liability every now and again. Especially if you are known for it.
Loyalty on the other hand is a useful thing to be known for but make sure the person/people/group deserve it.
The closest I can think of is the ability to know when to open your mouth, and when not to. To know when fun isnt quite so harmless anymore. And to know who you are.
Take the 7/11 case. The money is insured, stealing it doesnt actually hurt them. Holding it up just gives them more evidence that its a genuine claim. Sure the insurers are hurt, and maybe itll damage the stock market in the tiniest way. But the stock market bounces back, and insurers put their premiums up, spreading the hurt to all their customers in bitesized portions.
Turning someone in for the money reflects questionable values, it shows that you value money more than friendship. So then you get another question. Say you know that someone has $20000 lying around in their house, do you take it? Do you tell the local crackheads that the person has the money, and trust them to give you a cut? Or do you even just take a little, hoping they wont miss it? Once you know that you will betray friendships for money, everything else is just haggling over the price.
Now we get to the difficult question. This isnt one that somebody else can tell you the answer to, and my heart goes out to the people who make these decisions. Obviously the friend is someone you know, someone you have presumeably valued over the years, someone who trusts you. You probably dont know the clerk, but does that make them any less real? Just because you will never know the kids doesnt mean you can't guess what is going to happen to them.
On the other hand, is telling going to make the kids feel better? I don't know. Is telling going to bring the clerk back? Definitely not, the same way that a killer apologising doesnt help the victims.
The real question is, can you stop it happening again? If you can do that without involving police, is that better? At least four lives have already been ruined by this incident, so why one more? Or don't you think you can control this friend? If that is the case, then perhaps you should turn them in. They will never forgive you, but at least nobody will be hurt again for at least the length of the prison sentance.
You cannot make these decisions without being there. Its that simple.
Feel free to steal any of this for your essay. And before anyone wonders, im not some kind of gangster. And this is what half a decapitated smurf looks like!!:smurf:
Loyalty on the other hand is a useful thing to be known for but make sure the person/people/group deserve it.
The closest I can think of is the ability to know when to open your mouth, and when not to. To know when fun isnt quite so harmless anymore. And to know who you are.
Take the 7/11 case. The money is insured, stealing it doesnt actually hurt them. Holding it up just gives them more evidence that its a genuine claim. Sure the insurers are hurt, and maybe itll damage the stock market in the tiniest way. But the stock market bounces back, and insurers put their premiums up, spreading the hurt to all their customers in bitesized portions.
Turning someone in for the money reflects questionable values, it shows that you value money more than friendship. So then you get another question. Say you know that someone has $20000 lying around in their house, do you take it? Do you tell the local crackheads that the person has the money, and trust them to give you a cut? Or do you even just take a little, hoping they wont miss it? Once you know that you will betray friendships for money, everything else is just haggling over the price.
Now we get to the difficult question. This isnt one that somebody else can tell you the answer to, and my heart goes out to the people who make these decisions. Obviously the friend is someone you know, someone you have presumeably valued over the years, someone who trusts you. You probably dont know the clerk, but does that make them any less real? Just because you will never know the kids doesnt mean you can't guess what is going to happen to them.
On the other hand, is telling going to make the kids feel better? I don't know. Is telling going to bring the clerk back? Definitely not, the same way that a killer apologising doesnt help the victims.
The real question is, can you stop it happening again? If you can do that without involving police, is that better? At least four lives have already been ruined by this incident, so why one more? Or don't you think you can control this friend? If that is the case, then perhaps you should turn them in. They will never forgive you, but at least nobody will be hurt again for at least the length of the prison sentance.
You cannot make these decisions without being there. Its that simple.
Feel free to steal any of this for your essay. And before anyone wonders, im not some kind of gangster. And this is what half a decapitated smurf looks like!!:smurf:
EEEEXCEELLEEEEEEENNT!!
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