How Ethics & Moral Compasses Can Improve Our Planet

Last week I gave a major ethics presentation at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for The American College’s 2013 Knowledge Summit. The following were my opening comments:

“Good morning, thank you, and welcome. I am so excited to be with all of you today and what a crowd. I can’t believe the bright lights.

Yesterday I called home after my rehearsal and my fifteen year old son answered the phone. He asked me how things were going with my ethics presentation.

I told him the ballroom was huge, the stage was big, the set-up incredible, and the lights were so bright. He said to not worry about the bright lights and that everything would be just fine.

How are you so certain I asked my son? He said, “Dad, the bright lights are just like heaven.”

My name is Mark Faris. I am a loving husband of twenty-three years and a proud parent of two teenage boys, eighteen and fifteen years of age.

I am an active member of my local Catholic church, a small business owner, and support a number of charities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

I also have the distinction of being a convicted felon. When you look at me, you might not think that.

After all, I am well dressed, seem semi-polished, semi-poised, and am well educated. My friends, the slippery slope is an easy path for all of us to find. I wouldn’t wish my fate on any of you.

I think the single biggest problem we have today is the lack of personal ethics and significant amount of moral and systemic rot.

We can ill afford to turn a blind eye to this problem, we can ill afford to pretend the problem doesn’t exist, and we can ill afford to wait one more day and do nothing.

Failure to act is unacceptable, unaccountable, and intolerable. Our futures are at stake and our time is now.

What does it mean when sixty-five percent of our high school and college students admit to cheating? What does it mean when sixty percent don’t have a problem with it and view it as a means of getting ahead?

What does it mean when eighty percent of all resumes are fraudulent or misrepresentations?

Society is counting on us to do something. We are counting on each other to do something. Our children are looking to us to be role models and inspirational to them.

We made this mess, we can fix this mess, and our time is now.

So, I have one question for all of you……Will you help me make our planet a better place?”

The lack of ethics is everywhere. Our business leaders, politicians, educators, judges, and even church leaders disappoint us by consistently placing their own interests first and usurping power at our expense.

The idea that they can do what they want, stomp on innocent people, and arrogantly crush the hopes of those who need our help the most is comical and cannot stand.

Fairness, decency, and equality once mattered to our Founding Fathers of these United States. They didn’t write our Constitution to see whether they qualified to be in an Advanced Placement English course.

They wrote their timeless words to set the tables straight as to what our young country could be and should look like moving forward. They feared a repeat of the very tyranny they fought so hard to defeat.

Here we are approaching Thanksgiving and this week should be one of thanks and gratitude; not one of fear, punishment, and reprisals from those without ethics wielding power they shouldn’t have.

During my own transformation journey that remarkably continues, I have learned many lessons the hard way.

I have also realized that the careful construction of my moral compass in conjunction with my Christian faith and belief in God is the most powerful navigational tool I have.

Without it, I’m afraid I’m nothing more than a grain of sand on a beach and no more important that a drop of water flowing off my finger in a cup. May I always know my place.

The very essence of grace and humility is a reminder for all of us to treat others as we would have them treat us.

May your ethics and moral compass lead you into the hands of Jesus Christ.

Lastly, I have made the most important career discovery to date that I wish to share in closing. It is not how much we love, but how much we are loved by others.

Happy Thanksgiving, many blessings to all of you, and please improve our planet!!