Hi Ric,

How are you today? I hope you are having a really wonderful beautiful day today, and everyday. After reading your articles and giving it a lot of thought, I wanted to write and tell you what I believe.

We humans learn new things everyday but sometimes I think we forget them twice as fast. I do certainly admire your point. Yes, very much so, especially your emphasis on Ethics.

The Importance of Being Ethical

Without ethics where would we all be? The whole world is in crisis and suffering because of the lack of ethics.

Think of all those banks that lost so much money gambling; if they had ethics do you think we would have had the Global Financial Crisis? Would so many ordinary people have lost their home, their job and in some cases their family? If BP had ethics would the terrible disaster that is happening off the coast of Florida have occurred? If George Bush and his cronies had ethics, would we have invaded Iraq?

Ethics come from within but it needs to be nurtured. It should be something children learn as part of their upbringing. Ethics are teachable. We can live an ethic because we can learn it. We are not born ethically made people. If we were, the whole world would have existed in heaven and we didn’t know about it.

The Importance of Being a Role Model

We are born with the natural instinct and intuition for ethics. This natural instinct has to be shown the road to goodness and be alerted against wickedness. This is why God sent his many messengers on earth to show his servants (people) the path to goodness.

Those messengers took the responsibility on their shoulders, to teaching ethics of God and many of them lost their lives or were about to, just doing their job.

Role modeling is one of many forms of ethics teaching. A parent, for example, can create a role model for his child by being honest at all times and not break that rule for example, when the telephone rings, and he tells his child to answer saying to the  caller that his dad is not home yet.

Role modeling is the practical umbrella under which all other forms of teaching ethics fall. Coaching, mentoring, fostering, enforcing, and embracing are all good examples of how to give people a good ethical education. Develop a good set of ethical rules and as a result ethical behaviors contribute to the existence of an ethical society, where crime rates drop considerably because we respect each other.

However, one can not force ethics on a person. You can’t force someone to behave ethically you can only be a role model for them to follow. This type of teaching ethics can be a long, painful and emotionally costly path. It is certainly not easy.

Ethics in Marriage

Mutual respect in the marriage is the first casualty if one of the partners is ethical and the other is not. Without mutual respect it is impossible to achieve harmony and love in the home and allows restlessness to enter that is neither satisfying or productive.

Meaning, such ethical values as we are passionate about should be discussed at the beginning of the marriage and both partners should make a commitment to it.

Mutual respect leads to and includes loyalty, fidelity, dependability, faithfulness, and long term commitment. If one partner ceases to act in this way the immediate consequence is that the other partner pays the price if they want to maintain the marriage responsibilities. This can work for a short term and there is time to work out the issues but here begins the inevitable road to separation and when they one day ask, how did we grow so far apart, they need only look back to this day.

An Ethical Society is Not an Impossible Dream

An ethical marriage or an ethical society may sound like an impossible mission or a dream too good to come true, unless in a Utopian society, but, we are for ever held responsible, not only in the eyes of the beholder, but also in the eyes of the coming generations, for creating a platform that gives emphasis to the theme and the purpose of the whole education system.

The rule of the thumb should be to instill the well regarded and highly valued ethics in our society into the coming generations from a very young age. Furthermore, we are obliged to examine about our own values honestly. Is our goal the real creation of an ethical, prosperous, healthy, and advanced society that strides with the principles of the advanced first world countries? Are we contributing to that goal, no matter in how small a way?

The Responsibilities of Parents

Parents’ responsibilities in life are not limited to accountability for providing bread and butter for the table but also providing something equally as imperative, love, compassion, and appreciation of their children’s needs and talents.

Respect and care are very important ingredients in the formula of Ethics. When a son sees that his father opens the door for his mother to proceed, when the older brother takes off his hat and bends his back a little to greet his fiancé, when a young girl’s mother welcomes the husband with a soft kiss at the door after a hard day’s work; and when all children gather to show thankfulness to their parents by bringing a symbolic present of gratitude, that’s all respect.

Say No to Violence

Ethics teaches us to say no to violence, if you believe it is wrong to beat your wife or your children you will be less likely to resort to violence against others as well. You will negotiate rather than invade, you will give rather than take, you will win over by good actions and deeds rather than by force.

An ethical person will respect the country in which one lives and not wish to see it harmed. Australia is the most wonderful and beautiful country on earth that is doing its best to make its people first class citizens despite some mishaps in some of our systems, but who is perfect?

Our citizens of Australia live like humans in paradise and many people are very wishful of having the same opportunity.

Anyway, certainly I do congratulate you for bringing up this issue of ‘Ethics’. I think it is definitely a valid point that we all should consider in our perspectives.

The richness in a human is the richness in his mind and heart. Materialism did nothing for the world but lead to more greed and more damage. I am sure you may have been affected one way or another by this financial crisis. Unfortunately this is not the first time; it has happened more than once in the last century alone. it is as if we never ‘learn’ from our mistakes!! Education again!

Believe me; I am greatly thankful for raising the point of ethics. I hope as you are a writer yourself, you can write and publish a lot about this issue in as many areas as possible concerning not only education, but all other aspects of life.

I believe that no matter where you are, and no matter what kind of a job you are doing you can be the educator, the teacher, and the mentor who can make a difference in the world, and can help the world be a better place. This will affect not only those close to you but the whole globe.

Our Legacy to the Future

Let’s leave a legacy to the future generations that make them proud to include us as their ancestors, and talk about us in their school history books. Let’s not have future  generations curse us for making their future lives bitter, or damn us for leaving them a heritage to be ashamed of, or swear at us because we abused our planet earth so badly that their lives have become much more miserable than when we first came in.

Honestly, I often ask myself, what bookmark are we leaving in the pages of history – all nations I mean? One must ask where are we heading to?

I am sure there are many respectable people like you who share the same point of view who would like to see Australia and the whole world become a better place to live in and enjoy it greenly and very healthy.

Blue Ocean