I could go on for pages about ethics and integrity, but will give you the short version. If you would like to learn more, that's where a philosophy/ethics class comes into play, for now, I'm just going to give you a gentle reminder.
Ethics and integrity combine to create something that many these days are very sadly lacking, and that is honor. Now, we've all seen honor portrayed in the media as some kind of strange, 8-headed monster that destroys lives and generations, and that is not honor. Just because someone way back when killed the pet frog of another clan, doesn't mean you need to pay for the sins of the frog-killer, it means that someone somewhere out there might step on your foot to hurt your foot and mean it because they can't put their big-girl pants on and grow the hell up.
With honor, you need to understand that you cannot change the past, you can't change people, but you can influence what you do, how you do it, and what you say. Those around you will change in accordance. Every family has it's own concept of honor, unfortunately, many families have a very weak of concept of anything resembling honor, and you can't do much about them except avoid them.
They're no good anyway.
If you happen to belong to one of the above-mentioned families with an unfortunate honor concept, consider starting with you. You are the first generation on which to build honor and integrity. If where you came from is no good, remember where you came from, and go to a different place on the map. Build your family reputation at that ground level.
When you practice your ethics, it means looking at the overall picture of what is right and what is wrong and doing the right thing, even if it is unconventional to do so. If someone comes to you for help, places their trust in you, believes in you, you are in a position to help, you help them. Helping the person in need doesn't mean turning your back on them, lying to them, cheating them or in many other ways I can't think of, violating their trust. It also doesn't mean killing yourself to do it, always save yourself, so you can save other people. If you are not capable of making the commitment to help another grow and stand on their own feet, you have no business engaging.
Ethics means not hurting another person needlessly, it means looking down the long road to see if what you are doing NOW will adversely affect them later. It means giving your soul a workout. Every day.
Integrity is strength, integrity means you will not betray your dearest held beliefs to accommodate someone with no honor. Take integrity out of a human context and speak of "structural integrity of a building", if it's high, it will hold up to storms, if it is not, it will collapse. Bring human context back in, if your integrity is high, you will survive, if it is gone, you will collapse.
When your back is against the wall, and the zombies are approaching, do you want to be with others that will protect you as fiercely as you protect them? Now think about the people you surround yourself with, think of yourself; are you the type of person people want on their team?
Our family has it's own standard of honor, we're not exactly Klingons in our passion for it, but our honorable name means the world to us, and we protect it by being what we expect our family to be. That is honor. We protect and guard our own, even the far-reaching ones we don't see. Sometimes we do unconventional things to achieve our ends, but it is mostly done with ethics, integrity, and most of all, honor.
Keep your honor, give your soul a workout everyday, do the right thing, even if it makes people wonder what in hell you're up to. Some day, (and, by the way, you're soaking in it...) the zombies are going to come, the GOONS aren't going to protect you, and you're going to be up against a wall. Who are you going to be up against a wall with, and are you a good enough person that they'll want to keep you with them?
Think about it.
