Mr. Josephson, in response to your article about Eliot Spitzer: Your conclusion that the reason prostitution is illegal in most of the world is to protect women from exploitation. In fact, it is because sex work is illegal and ghettoized that women and children continue to be forced into prostitution by one circumstance or another. It is because sex work is illegal that the industry is not clean. Murder and drugs are an everyday component, and the workers sink lower on the quality of life scale. They are vicitimized by both the Johns and the Police. Please, reconsider your view on this matter.

Sir,
Integrity is a key foundation of Army character development and one of seven Army Values (loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage). I often find difficulty in explaining the importance of integrity to young Soldiers when so often senior Soldiers will forgo doing the right thing in exchange for a quick and easy solution. I commend you for your commentary into this very character-trying trait. Soldiers often find themselves in a place where nothing makes sense and stress is great. Character traits like integrity are the rock that supports and sustain Soldiers in trying times.

I would never condone, promote, participate, or approve of prostitution whether it is legalized or on the street. What Eliot Spitzer has done is a travesty that has a hurtful effect on many. In Nevada, my home state, prostitution is legalized. It is a sad day when a person is at less of a risk in a whorehouse than in a medical clinic in Las Vegas. Brothel “ladies” are medically assessed weekly and there are no reported cases of fluid-related diseases to date. Yet a group of physicians owning several endoscopy clinics in our county are charged with practicing techniques that have put 40,000 lives at risk by being exposed to hepatitis and HIV. I am one of those at-risk individuals that had to be tested. It appears that the love of money is at the root of this evil practice. I sometimes wonder if character has much of a place left in the American business world. Has our country deteriorated beyond come back due to a lack of character and ethics? As for me, I will remain in our country but will refuse to compromise my personal code of ethics as the great American ship sinks. I do now understand what I didn’t get as a child when I was taught that we may be in this world but we don’t have to be of it. We are all teachers by the models we display by our attitudes and actions. My job is to continue to hold onto and augment my healthy character and ethics, for as I change the world changes. Thank you for being a source of support, Michael.

Thanks for your article on integrity.

I was fired from my job 2 years ago for questioning the ethics of certain management decisions. While I don't regret speaking out, I regret the friends I lost who were forced by management to choose sides. Those who sided with the issues I raised lost their jobs. Those who didn't shut me out of their lives.

Does bringing up ethical issues always have to be so devisive? I wanted to incite dialogue, not disharmony. Management drew such harsh us/them lines between everyone and a blood bath ensued. Is there any way to follow one's integrity without getting so bloody, without so many toes and hearts getting stomped on?

I was once asked by my manager to pawn off some sub-standard product on a customer. I had to call my business coach to be able to get my head straight on this issue. The next day I came back to my manager and told him that the request, as I understood it, was unethical. He quickly backpedaled and alluded that I must have misunderstood the request. Shortly after that, my contact to customers was diminished and I eventually left the job. While I wish it had gone a different way, I do not regret my decision. It seems that if you hold strong ethical beliefs, you will be challenged. You can give in and find immediate reward and acceptance or stand your ground and be ostracized. I would rather be ostracized by those people than be rewarded for membership into their club.

The very institution where this initiative needed to be started, and where the emphasis and resources are being channeled, is one of the strongholds of unethicality...our public schools.
Politics has now taken a firm hold on every aspect of education: from the classroom, to the princpal's office, to human resources, to the superintendent, to the board of education. School boards are made up of fledgling politicians backed by party affiliates that gain footholds by making "extravagent" school funding (the best teachers, and reasonable class sizes) the primary issue. From there, the focus becomes efficiency rather than excellence; the jargon takes many forms to disguise the real intent, but the lack of values and ethics is nearly always the ultimate outcome in achieving political goals. For a true, moral and ethical educator who voices concern or points to unethicality, punishment and career-ending tactics are prevalent common practice. Where the excellence of a child's schooling was once the major concern of our country, we now have to realize that ANY funding for ANY initiative is liable to be channeled/funneled away from students...character education included.

There are times when the status quo is so ingrained in corruption and defensive in its position that speaking up can only get you fired, and sometimes even reputation suffers in a close-knit field. When I took a class in administrative law at the same time as stepping down as a manager in such a firm (for standing up for my employees), my law teacher said, "So you learned your lesson?" I said no, I would do it again in a heart beat! He said, "That's what I thought you'd say--you didn't disappoint me. Now get back to work for people who appreciate all you have to offer, and stop feeling sorry for yourself." I pass this on to Jennifer and others.

Here is a situation that I thought you would get a sad tear on. I had a hospital default on some contract issues and commitments made and not honored. If I would forget about the breaches, (not take legal action and keep quiet about them), a paid ethics committee post might be offered in the future. Even health-care facilities can have that terrible cancer that kills integrity.