The premise behind the Personal Ethics And Responsibility movement, or P.E.A.R., is that ethics are not just something that should be listed on some informational website. They must be actively pursued at all times. The “And” is extremely important. Having a set of ethics that we can all agree on is meaningless unless we hold ourselves responsible to those ethics, and we hold other responsible to a reasonable standard of ethics.

The word “embrace” is meant to encourage active pursuit and acceptance of these ethics, and also to embrace the taking of responsibility for one’s actions.

This is a new site, and the blog that accompanies it will include a series of thought pieces that will hopefully ultimately lead to a set of ethical values that almost everyone can agree with. These thought pieces will evolve over time, as the ideas pursued in them are explored further and are reflected upon.

No one is perfect. No one will have a perfect record of holding to any set of ethics. The goal is to adopt a mindset in which one is always trying their best to act in an ethical way, and make the most ethical choices they can. As important, we need to find ways to encourage ourselves to own our mistakes, and to act to correct them, and to try to repair whatever damage might have been done by them.

At the very core of this is truth. For everything that has ever happened, there is a truth to how it happened. To every question there is a true answer. The truth may be difficult, uncomfortable, challenging, even painful, but it is what it is. Accepting that, and adapting to it, is fundamental to ethical behavior.