My first recollection of community service started with my older brother Scott. One of the services that he did was bring unsold food from the loading dock of Delicious Orchids onto waiting trucks that would then deliver them to various organizations that fed the poor or ill. Since Delicious Orchids was far, he needed to be driven so my whole family would go. Many times it was cold and dark but it was fun because we would get to take the perishable items home with us. It was only when I started my own community service that I realized what community service was all about.
It has been almost two years since we first heard of this financial meltdown. We now know that so many people from Wall Street to Main Street had a hand in this almost financial collapse. Of course the Wall Street elite, greedy at any cost, were just looking to see how much money they could make. They knew what they were doing was wrong. NO ETHICS! Mortgage brokers on Main Street, signing people for home loans knowing too well that most had no money and no way to pay for these mortgages. It was easy money. NO ETHICS! Banks across the country selling these home loans making huge fees, easy money. NO ETHICS! Even the U.S. Congress, putting pressure on banks to approve mortgages for people who did not have the resources to pay for these homes. For what? Votes? NO ETHICS!
What has all this greed done to this country? Misery, despair and high unemployment. This year, 4.5 million homes are expected to be foreclosed. Many thousands of others already have been foreclosed. Families having to move to other parts of the U.S., children having to change schools. The economy still has not come back to where it was before this financial crisis happened. We do not know how long it will take for our economy to come back. Even in our town of Marlboro, there have been homes foreclosed and home prices are down. This financial crisis was created by man and by people who knew what they were doing was eventually going to cause major harm to us all, but they kept on doing this. I believe these people were not behaving with the kind of ethics that I think a person should live their life with.
Living in these times, and seeing how so many people are hurting from the greed and poor ethics of a few, has made me realize how important it is to live my life in a way I can be proud of. I know now that a few people who act with poor ethics can effect so many. I also realize that as I continue my education and eventually go into the workplace, my decisions and my ethics can have a major effect on so many peoples’ lives.
Ethics, a set of moral principles that govern a person’s life. For me, these are not just words but a way of life. You cannot live with these moral principles sometimes; you must live with these moral principles all the time. I realize, as the years go on, I will come across situations that will test my ethics. These decisions can affect my entire life. I am confident that all I have learned will allow me to make decisions with the highest ethics. This is how I will live my entire life.