I stumbled on a story online
sometimes ago, and the morals embedded in the story wouldn’t let go of my mind:
“FOR WE CAN DO NOTHING AGAINST THE TRUTH, BUT FOR THE TRUTH” and here is an
excerpt from the whole story;
Sherry Hunt, a country girl, raised in
rural Michigan by a dad who taught her to fish and a mom who taught her how to
pick wild mushrooms. She got married at the age of 16 and didn’t go to college.
In 1975, a friend helped her find a job, home loans processing at a small bank
in Alaska, and over the next 30 years, she moved up the ladder to mortgage-banking
positions in Indiana, Minnesota and Missouri.
In November 2004, Sherry Hunt, now 55,
joined Citigroup Inc. as a Vice president in the mortgage unit. It looked like
a great career move. The housing market was booming and the New York-based
bank, the sixth-largest lender in the U.S. at the time, was responsible for 3.5
percent of all home loans.
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Hunt’s team was responsible for
protecting Citigroup from fraud and bad investments, she and her colleagues
inspected loans Citi wanted to buy from outside brokers and lenders to see
whether they met the bank’s standard.
By 2006, the bank was buying mortgages
from outside lenders with doctored tax forms, phony appraisals and missing
signatures, it was Hunt’s job to find these defects and she did, in regular reports
to her bosses, but the executives buried her findings, she was even asked to
overlook it or she would lose her job.
Sherry Hunt wouldn’t play along,
instead, she took her employer to court and won. The group didn’t deny the
charges and they agreed to pay $158.3 million to the U.S. government to settle
the case. And as a reward for blowing the whistle on her employer, Hunt, the
country girl turned banker, got $31 million out of the settlement paid by
Citigroup. (Source:
Bloomberg, Bloomberg Market Magazine; Woman Who Couldn’t Be Intimidated by
Citigroup Wins $31 million – By Bob Ivry; May 13, 2012 5:01 AM GMT +0100)
Well, TRUTHFULNESS is the
greatest and most important of all human virtues. The truth draws strength from
itself and not from the number of votes in its favour, that is to say that the
truth is not diminished by the number of those who refuses to believe it, but
it is strengthened through the support of those standing in its favour.
From the statements above, it
suffices to say that the truth is self-sufficient, it is self-sustaining, no
matter how long it takes as long as its course is still in existence, it will
survive. The truth cannot be sought because it comes to you and with it comes
an obligation to uphold it, it now depends on either the bearer is willing to
stand by it.
Imagine if Sherry Hunt had
decided not to reveal the truth, the truth will still prevail though, but she
will forever live with the regrets, troubles, accusations and condemnations
from her conscience and the atrocities will continue until the truth gets
another bearer, and by then, you can only imagine the extent of damage that
would have been caused.
The truth will do well enough if
left to fight for itself, it seldom has received much aid from the power of
great men, to whom it is rarely known and seldom welcomed. It has no need of
force to procure entrance into the minds of men, such is the irresistible
nature of truth, that all it asks and all it wants, is the liberty of
appearing. The sun needs no inscription to distinguish itself from darkness.
Error indeed has often prevailed by the assistance of power or force, the truth
is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error.
You shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free; there is a kind of joy that comes with the truth, it
sets one free, free from regret, it gives strength and confidence. Over the
years, a lot of people have devised several means to conceal the truth; from
killing innocent people to eradicating valuable information, but just like the
flow of water from a hill, you block its path, it will create another one for
itself, the truth will always find its way to the surface eventually.
So, in the knowledge of this
truth – that the truth will always prevail in all circumstances – the onus is
on us to stand by the truth, and since it has been established that come what
may, the truth will always survive, it is great foolishness for anyone to think
standing against it will amount to anything. For whatever it is that one cannot
overcome by whatever means tried, it is only reasonable to join force with it.
And as expedient as the truth may
seem, there is a very big responsibility attached to it, to stand with and for
the truth is to defy the “norms” of this present world, a world where darkness
makes more sense than light, a world where demons are seen as angels and angels
are considered to be demonic, a world where heat is preferred to cold, where
putting on rags is more appreciated than decent clothes, a place where people
will do anything to hide and even run away from the truth because it makes them
uncomfortable and will see those standing by it as stupid, foolish, archaic,
obsolete and uncivilized, a world where even the truths written in the Bible
seem to be too harsh and are proposing to rewrite it to suit them and their
life-style, where engaging in immoral and unethical activities are more
adventurous and a cultured life-style is considered boring, a world where
negativity is now the order of the day!
The fact that CitiGroup admitted
wrongdoing and did not deny the allegations after Sherry Hunt had filed the
lawsuit – no testimony, no trial – only serve to reiterate the fact that
nothing can truly be done against the truth, but for the truth!
