What you say shows your character

Recently, I observed two events ... that were relatively small and unrelated. However, both drove home the point of how important "character" is in defining who we are as individuals, and how what we do individually affects others.

Marshall Elementary School hosted career day recently and introduced students to jobs they had expressed an interest in learning about. I had the pleasure of addressing three different fifth grade classes about journalism.

The students were eager to learn about what classes and subjects they should study to prepare themselves in becoming the next Hemingway or Murrow.

Like sponges, they absorbed what I said and asked astute questions, particularly for a group of 10- and 11-year-olds.

From our interaction, I could tell that an impression was being made.

My responsibility was to be truthful and accurate in the information I provided. Based upon hearing so many of them reciting things I'd said as they departed the classroom, I gathered the impression was favorable.

Fast forward now to lunch. In line at an on-post, drive-thru window, I noticed a message posted on the back of a young Soldier's car.

He was a couple of vehicles ahead of me, and the message explicitly told me what I should do to myself.

The message was apparently intentional as it looked to be professionally applied with vinyl letters to the back edge of the trunk.

My self esteem is strong enough that I didn't take the message personally.

My sense of humor is timely and well-tuned, but my sensibilities allow me discern what is and is not appropriate.

Upon seeing the message, my first thought returned to the fifth graders I'd just spoken to. What if they saw that message? Also, the young Soldier was in uniform.

What would other people - those not in the military ... think of the Army and/or any fort if they saw that, coming from a Soldier in uniform?

Admittedly, I broke a post regulation and called the military police dispatcher on my cell phone while in my car and it wasn't hands-free, although I wasn't on a real thoroughfare either.

I reported where I was, what I was seeing and gave a full description of the vehicle and Soldier.

Multi-tasking, I also ordered lunch, but not from the dispatcher who told me what I had seen on the Soldier's car was, in fact, illegal in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee.

A short time later, I got a return call from the dispatcher who said the notorious villain had been caught and made to remove the dastardly message.

You can't pick up a newspaper, read an on-line news report or watch a television newscast without reading about some scandal, or listen to music on the radio or dialogue on TV without being bombarded with obscenities and vulgarity.

Have our tolerances really gotten so accommodating? In accepting this lack of sensibility, what are we teaching our young?

If someone professes, "I don't care what others think of me," and holds that as a sincere conviction, acting out with disregard for others, that person has a gross misconception of what most view as common decency, and is self absorbed.

Simply put, it conveys a lack of maturity and self awareness.

So, it is incumbent upon those in positions of leadership and authority to impart this wisdom upon those who are in need.

It is our responsibility.

Mind you, I am a retired Sailor and can cuss a blue streak with the best of them ... so I'm not saying I'm better than the young, potty-mouthed Soldier.

However, I choose not to because of how I want to represent myself, which I hope is as a professional, competent, well-spoken leader ... one of the good guys.

I feel no remorse or shame in reporting the Soldier.

What I do feel shame about is that someone within his direct chain of command didn't have him remove the message. The senior NCO in me is, apparently, alive and well.

When speaking to the fifth graders, I emphasized how important being a good communicator is in being a good journalist.

As prospective journalists, they will send messages to receivers who, in turn, provide feedback to complete the basic communication process.

To the young Soldier I ratted out, I would say be careful of the message you chose to communicate because someone might just do it to you, and that's not the kind of feedback you want.

Editor's note: The writer is command information officer at Fort Campbell, Ky. This commentary originally was printed in May in the Fort Campbell Courier.