What is honesty? To most people, honesty is just about telling the truth, but to me, honesty means much more. It means that you do not lie to anybody, even if you think that you might get in trouble. It also means that you don’t steal things and don’t cheat on anything even if it’s as little as borrowing someone’s vocab book to turn in because you don’t have the assignment ready. Whether we admit it or not, all of us are dishonest sometimes, but we all know that dishonesty is wrong.

          Abraham Lincoln was famous for his honesty. Before he became president, he was the manager of a country store. He always gave correct change, and always kept his prices fair. One day, when he was checking his cash register he found that he had charged a man a few cents too much for an item. He closed his shop down for the night, and walked many miles to the man’s house to give him his change back.

          What if everyone was as honest as Abe Lincoln? What if you didn’t have to wonder if people were telling the truth? This would be a much better world to live in, much better than the world we live in today.

When most of our grandparents were growing up most people had good, old fashioned honesty. People hardly knew how to lie, and cheating was unheard of. Some people would even leave their cars and houses unlocked, because the thought had never crossed their mind that someone might take something that belonged to them. People believed everything that was told to them, because everybody else was always truthful.

          But something has changed since those days. Today, people have decided that it is ok to do what they want, rather than to do what is right. Today, there are hardly any “Abe Lincolns” left in the world.

          There are many examples of kids and even adults being dishonest in the world today. Almost every single politician tells lies just so he can be elected into office, such as making false promises that the voters will like, and many students cheat on homework or tests. Even smaller things, such as copying someone’s homework in homeroom, or asking someone for an answer to a test are dishonest, as little as they seem.

          I think that this problem of dishonesty may be caused by parents and other adults, and not necessarily by the children. Parents may set bad examples, such as lying to their children or stealing, and kids observe this at an early age and believe it to be ok. Then, as they grow older, the children start doing these things, and they are very hard habits to break.

          I think that we can put a stop to this dishonesty problem by having adults set better examples. If kids learn from early on that it is bad to lie to someone or do other dishonest things, then they will be a lot less likely to do these things as they get older.

          If adults in the community start realizing what a problem that dishonesty is becoming, I hope they will do something about it. It is a problem that not only needs to be fixed, but can be fixed.