By David Hegg

“How did that happen?” I find myself asking that question far too often these days. How did a good guy get involved in illegal activity? How did a great company forget its moorings and slide into unethical behavior? How did an honored university get carried away from its foundations by the current of culture? And how did incivility, vile insults and threats, and outright lies become such a staple in our national discourse?

To find an answer, I started thinking about the times in my own life when I ended up being and doing things I never intended, making assertions and behaving in ways I knew, down deep, weren’t best or even right. Here’s what I found.

Our moral convictions and ethical standards act as guardrails to keep our thoughts and actions from bringing about a reputational smash-up, or worse, a fiery descent into the valley of disqualification. The stronger the guardrails, the more authentic the accountability, the more ethically ordered the life.

But what about when the ethical guardrails are allowed to decay, to shift, to drift, or become soft and easily pushed aside? What happens when convenience or pragmatism or greed or pride or lust – or........

© Santa Clarita Valley Signal