But the more finagling we see in high places, the poorer we somehow feel. Ethics these days, somebody at the table said, is whatever you can pull off. Maybe because the idea it followed was so cynical, the word honor hung in the air. Hmmm, someone finally said. Now, there's a word you don't hear much anymore.
Scouts say it.
Maybe honor is one of those concepts that went out with Romanticism and the blasts of dueling pistols. If so, then it is best forgotten. We could stand some more of it. Honor from the president and from the partisan hounds who dog him. Honor from our state lawmakers and from our virtue-preaching governor.