Legalities and Technicalities

Ms. Libby Jordan spoke to the Honors Forum on the twenty-third of October about honesty in the business world, and honesty in values.

We made a chart comparing values which are legal vs. illegal crossed with ethical vs. unethical. The examples included murder; Hard Times magazine, which features people who have attended juvenile detention and prison for various reasons; rights and privileges.

I figured, why not make my own table based on my values for this week?

               Legal                                         Illegal                              

*volunteerism *voting *earning a job	*high school students praying before a football game *saying the pledge of allegiance in schools
*drunkenness, even if the person is over 21. *political lies	* murder *illegal drugs/substances *theft

    

 Ethical

Unethical

There are many more values I could consider when adding to the list, but the truth is, I do not often consider my values in terms of say, illegal but ethical values. I was raised to follow the law set forth by the American government, and live by the values set in the Bible, because I am a Christian and follow God's word as best I can. 

This makes me wonder how criminals would place their values in this chart. Of course, some have no respect for the law to begin with, but other have a different state of mind that me, a different values system altogether.  I can't help but wonder, if criminals placed in prison could place all of their crimes in this chart, based on their belief about these crimes and their reason for committing the crimes, where would things such as robbery, adultery, and murder place? 

I suppose our values systems are based on legalities and technicalities, the lines in between, and the choices we make.