Integrity was sorely missing from Donald Trump’s bid for reelection. His consistent lies about most anything made me revisit the meaning of the word. Below are two quotes relative to what integrity is and what it is not. The first is a simple definition of the word, the second was the essence of the Trump campaign.

Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain. www.walled-in-berlin.com

What Integrity is

Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain.

–Anonymous

What Interity is not

Integrity DOES NOT involve feeding people’s egos in an attempt to manipulate them into getting something you want. Integrity is not being nice with the expectation of reward. Integrity is not preying on people’s weaknesses to meet your own needs. Integrity is not making promises you cannot keep. Integrity is not withholding key information until you have won someone over by fueling their desires. Integrity is not waiting until they’ve signed on the dotted line to reveal the fine print or legally manipulative part of the contract.

What those things encompass can be described quite simply as inauthentic, offensive, and manipulative.

— Zero Dean

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.