This is what President Bush said when nominating Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. What did he mean? What do any of us mean when we say that a certain individual is a man of character or a woman of character? Better questions might be, “How does the listener or reader interpret that phrase when we use it? What do they envision when we speak of a man of character, and how does enormous character differ from character that comes in regular sizes?”
Answers to such questions require a working definition of the term. The self-help book entitled Character gives this definition of character in general. “Character is a consciously developed inner firmness that permeates the fiber of a person, causing him or her to firmly harness the energy of objective high moral values to the actions of everyday life.”
Working with the definition, we conclude that, if the President is correct in his assessment, Judge Samuel Alito is a man who has consciously developed this inner firmness; has allowed it to permeate his fiber, and has formed a habit of acting daily in ways that are consistent with objective, high moral values.
If this man’s character can indeed be termed “enormous,” we interpret that to mean that he is no novice at character building; has been involved in self character education for years; and has developed such a strong, consistent pattern of adhering to moral absolutes that he stands head and shoulders above most men and women of character.
In other words, Judge Alito can be expected to be a man whose daily life is a series of consistent actions based on absolute, unchanging moral standards. We would expect that he does not pick and choose from a list of character traits, but embraces them all. We assume that he does not have a definition of honesty that rules his work in court and a different definition that rules interaction with his family.
If the President defines character in the same way as the book to which we referred above defines it, we can fully expect Alito to exhibit fearlessness in the face of the attacks of his enemies, and equitableness in every case he tries. We can anticipate thoroughness and compassion, discernment and fairness.
Above all, if this is a man of enormous character, we must expect integrity. The Character Builder Newsletter defines integrity as: “The ability to live life as a consistent, complete, whole person – a person with a simple oneness that unites all actions, at all times, to core moral principles.” If Judge Alito is such a man, Washington, D.C.’s atmosphere will not change him. Senators will not tempt him to act at odds with what he believes to be right. He will have already set belief boundaries for his life, and he will fight to stay within those boundaries, even if it means personal sacrifice.
At the end of the day, Judge Samuel Alito is either an upright man who is guided by his integrity, or he is an unfaithful man who will be destroyed by his duplicity. Integrity or duplicity. That will be the test that reveals whether or not this is a man of enormous character.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?