Hilbert Morales
EL OBSERVADOR
It is very gratifying to see evidence that this nation’s diverse people have the ability to relate many public policy issues to their core values which are coupled to their personal moral compass!
Alabama’s Senator Richard Selby used his personal MORAL COMPASS when he wrote in the name of a prominent citizen of Alabama rather than vote for an alleged child molester, Judge Roy Moore. He was doing what he thought was right; he did not compliantly follow partisan politics.
Just what is a MORAL COMPASS?
Moral theories are large and complex things; definitions are not. The definition of morality is the question of identifying the target of moral theorizing. Identifying this target enables us to see issues and have perspectives based upon our personal moral compass’. Morality and ethics play their interactive roles.” (Source: Google-Moral Compass)
Generally, the terms ethics and morality are used interchangeably, although a few different communities (e.g., academic, legal, or religious) will occasionally make a distinction. Ethicists deal with moral compass as part of Moral Philosophy’.
Morality is subjective. People sure have strong beliefs about what’s right and wrong. Yet even though morals can vary from person to person and culture to culture, many are universal, as they result from basic human emotions (or condition). We may think of moralizing as an intellectual exercise, but more often it’s a reflection of those right and wrong core values we learned in our family home as a child. There is also a human biological basis of morality which addresses relationships between the sexes: Men and Women.
Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? Recent research suggesting we’re “naturally moral” despite all the strife going on in the world. Among other things, culture seeks to replace aggression with morals and laws as primary means to solve conflicts that inevitably arise in social life per Baumeister’s work.
What we have been taught by our parents and family members; learned from catechism; from peers and from our own experience ends up forming and shaping one’s MORAL COMPASS which serves to simplify making unconscious decisions throughout our life.
This nation’s moral compass has been assaulted by many unacceptable behaviors made public recently. Consider the following unacceptable examples:
a) The ME, TOO Movement resulted from numerous sexual harassment incidents which all women have experienced; which are not the right behavior; and which degrades women’s self-esteem. When enough girls and mature women revealed how extensive and pervasive unwanted touching and groping happens, organizations and government institutions began crafting acceptable standards of behavior for MEN by legally documenting what is not acceptable coupled with an accelerated due process schedules which minimizes sweeping these incidents under the rug where they have heretofore festered for millennia.
b) RACISM: Somehow White Supremacists assumed that only they were suitable to lead and govern the rest of us who are Black, Brown, Yellow and Red. Some of us were enslaved; others were treated as less than human; women were chattel. The race issue was partially resolved by the Civil War (1862- 64) when the North defeated the South using military force. What has survived is the notion that the South will Rise Again… which is evidence that this white superiority concept still survives in the minds of many amongst us.
The ideal is that God (Divine Providence) created no junk when humankind was biologically formed in the image of GOD. Many racist activities and behaviors continue to this day: Gerrymandering in RED states having Republican controlled state assemblies and governors. The U.S. Cognitional ideal is: ONE PERSON; ONE VOTE; legalistic actions undertaken to restrict voting rights (governed as a States Right to define voting districts) is simply WRONG & unconstitutional.
c) Economic Inequity: The current Republican effort to enact IRS Income Tax Reform is a grand example of how We, The People end up with an unfair tax burden while the top 0.1% end up not paying their fair share of taxes. Taxes end up being the revenues which underwrite many government programs such as Education & Training, Social Security; Medicare/Medicaid; Public Health; Food and drug safety (FDA), disaster relief administered by FEMA; social, mental, and behavioral health programs; public safety and security (police, FBI, prison systems), national security (the military), environmental protection (EPA), pension insurance, Federal Reserve Bank (a single currency), and many more.
d) A serious double standard exists in the financial industry: Their top executives who have done wrong (derivatives; establishment of credit and savings accounts without client permission or awareness). Many of these top executive wrong-doers have suffered no consequences for their wrongful criminal acts which have resulted in thousands of mortgage foreclosures and loss of credit- worthiness of ordinary citizens. When will each financial industry wrong-doer receive due process which determines the legal consequence (like a jail sentence)? The financial firms have been forced to make paybacks, but the financial injury to citizens remains without appropriate reparations.
e) Entitlements: This altruistic nation has established assistance programs as entitlements (Social Security, health care, social services, Veteran’s Administration, etc.) to assist those who are needy (but not greedy), impoverished, and handicapped. Why cut aid to widows with orphans to raise? Why tax scholarships and free tuition as income? Why more taxes for the working class without requiring the top 1% (very wealthy) to pay their fair share? My MORAL COMPASS tells me these actions which unfairly favor those who are already very well off is simply wrong (and destructive of the American Consumer economy).
Each citizen possesses a MORAL COMPASS. We are complicit in what is happening and will continue to happen when we do not register to vote (guided by our own personal moral compass) and realize that our vote imposes the values embedded in our personal moral compass upon those elected officials who may have the same MORAL COMPASS we have.
Recent elections such as the ones in Virginia and Alabama reflect voting actions made by citizens whose vote was based not on partisan politics, but on what was right!
This American Democracy was founded by men who acted upon their MORAL COMPASS! They embedded the ideals we all enjoy today in our U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. Over 600,000 men died during the Civil War because their moral compass told them slavery was wrong and need to be abolished. WW l and WW II were fought to defeat totalitarian concepts.
If governance By the People, For the People, and With the People is to survive and thrive, more of us must begin to use our MORAL COMPASS when we vote for our elected officials who become public servants who practice Good Samaritan Stewardship by CONDUCTING THE PEOPLE’S BUSINESS diligently. The democratic ideal is: ONE PERSON; ONE VOTE… so know that your vote is YOUR voice. Plan to SPEAK UP during the coming 2018 elections.
