WHY INTERGRITY?

Nearly every morning as my young son trundles off to catch his school bus I remind him, “Go straight to the bus stop. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to the bus stop.” I do not remind him out of habit or because he thinks it’s funny. I don’t remind him because I’m certain he will trudge dutifully and determinedly, no matter what the distraction to the bus stop. I remind him because if, when heads to the bus stop, he sees his buddy pitching stones into a puddle, he is likely to stop and partake of the fun. He will continue that activity until he sees the blue smoke of school bus exhaust headed up the road without him. Then he’ll come in and say, “I just stopped for minute and missed the bus.”

I remembered this when Kerry was telling us about what his mother told him, on her death bed no less, “Integrity, integrity, integrity!” First, I don’t believe it. I think he’s lying. I don’t believe it because Jim Rassmann uses the same line in a different context in his campaign pitch for Kerry. I don’t believe it because a dying mother is much more likely to say, “I love you.” Or “I’ll miss you.” Or “Be strong.” Or “Take care of those grandchildren.” Or one of ten million other things that don’t include the use of the word integrity three times.

But let’s say that Kerry, for the first time in his life, got the truth out on the first take without nuance or the need for further clarification. What does that say about him? What does it say about Kerry that his own mother, maybe the person who knew him best, was compelled to remind her son about the requirement for integrity. If the story is true, and I don’t believe it is, it means his mother, on her death bed, was so concerned about her son’s integrity that she needed to remind him, not once but three times. That’s creepy.