National Character Matters Week?

I haven't checked for the accuracy of this, but I heard that this week is "National Character Matters Week."  Well, as one who firmly believes that "character matters," I support this, well maybe.  First, is this going to merely be another one of those designated weeks or months for this favorite trendy cause or that favorite trendy agenda?  If so, don't bother.

Second, how delightful that "National Character Matters Week" was instituted, I am led to believe, by a resolution by Congress and announced by the President.  Presumably they did all this with a straight face, although keeping one must have been quite an effort.

"There is no distinctly American criminal class except Congress" wrote Mark Twain more than a century ago.  And although it might be debatable, I think it's worse now than then.  It's as if members of Congress have made careers of being dishonest, of lying.  If any group in the US surely doesn't subscribe to "character matters," it must be Congress.  BTW, I'm not letting Presidents off the hook here.  They are in the same sleazy boat, esp Clinton, Obama, Trump.

We have politicians who exude charm and concern for others ("We care!") while in reality act in the most deceiving, dishonest, and mean ways.  "Character matters" indeed.

But what about the rest of the country?  Does character still matter?  We can write off Hollywood and those types.  Movies, television, music (particularly gangsta rap), and video games hardly reflect a sense that character matters.  Quite the opposite in fact.  They, like members of Congress and Presidents, seem to make careers on sleaze.

The media include almost daily examples of their lack of character.  From omission to obfuscation to outright lies, they show their true colors.  Unless one is watching a network of one's own particular beliefs, the media are recognized for what they've become, liars playing for their own agendas, candidates, parties, etc. Ask a conservative about CNN or MSNBC.  Ask a liberal about Fox News.

We reward bad behavior.  Is that a signal that "character matters?"  After all of the lying done by Obama, is there any doubt that had he been able to run again in 2016 that he would have swamped (Yes, I am using that term with deliberation!) Trump?  Of course he would have.  Hillary Clinton, for gosh sakes, was the Democratic nominee!  Bill Clinton remains, not an outcast, a pariah for all of his despicable personal behavior, but an icon among Democrats.  Mitch McConnell has told how many bold-faced lies to his constituents in Kentucky?  And they must know it, the lying.  Yet voters there keep sending him back--and Republicans elect him to the highest position of authority in the Senate!

Che Guevara, a mass murdering thug who looked up to Stalin and Mao, is feted as a hero on tee shirts and even underwear.  Magazines and colleges, well, some of the professors, do the same (although I don't know about the professors' underwear) and they should know better.  Or is it OK, that is, of good character to mass murder depending on one's cause?

How much money do college football and basketball coaches earn?  Tell me one person who was surprised a couple of weeks ago when the FBI handed down indictments in recruiting scandals.  OK, I'll tell you one--me!  Yep, I am surprised that it took so long and also surprised that more college coaches weren't named.  But that's OK, character doesn't matter if we win in football and basketball.  We can cheat then and it's all right.  "C'mon, it's football and basketball!"

Character?  We can't even engage in civil discourse.  We name-call.  If we can't argue persuasively or if the other side has a better argument, we just turn to calling names--"bigot," "racist," "Neanderthal," or, in my specific experience, "negative."  Does character matter when this has the distinct result of shutting up people?  Who wants to be called names?  Remember how the Republicans run when the Democrats call them "mean-spirited" and "heartless?"  Heck, I had a hard time keeping running partners at the high school when the administration, unable to come up with reasonable defenses of their stupidity which I questioned, resorted to labeling me "negative."

I think technology is behind much of this loss of character.  How easy it is to hide behind the protection of a computer or I-phone and spout off.

We reward lack of character--with our votes, with our money, with our adulation.  We reward bad behavior in so very many ways.  Not only that, if someone dares criticize lack of character, bad behavior, that someone is critized--with name-calling, boycotts, etc.

Someone once wrote that character is what you do when nobody is looking.  OK, but I also think that character is what you do when everybody is looking.

"National Character Matters" Week.  I will celebrate it, at least in my mind.  I will also assume that most people, famous and otherwise, will give it lip service.