Ever heard of Paris Welch Romero?
Me neither.
But I just read about her in the Wall Street Journal and thought she was a perfect example of someone with real courage. The link to the article can be found here.
She called out the mortgage mess long before it happened and wrote a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) sounding the alarm. Her concerns fell on deaf ears, both with the OCC and her employer.
Ms. Romero went on questioning loans made to borrowers who could show no income, had lousy credit, or didn’t put a nickel own. But she was rebuffed by her employer and eventually laid off. Her comments to the OCC had little impact on her life. (WSJ article)
She goes on to say that mortgage CEOs “lied”. Of course they did. But it took the collusion of a lot of folks with no courage to let them get away with it. People that should have spoken up did not. Yea, I know they were under pressure, just like Ms. Romero, but that is no excuse.
At the end of the article she is quoted as saying: “We have a complicated world structure that we are undermining. We need to impart integrity into our economy,” she said.
Our economy won’t get integrity until our leaders get integrity.
And our leaders won’t get integrity until WE get integrity. We must accept responsibility and hold our leaders and ourselves accountable.
There is no one to blame (Peter Senge).
You should follow me on twitter here.
Bret,
I had cause to re-read this today. Something new struck me when I did. That Courage that you speak of – “But it took the collusion of a lot of folks with no courage to let them get away with it. People that should have spoken up did not. Yea, I know they were under pressure, just like Ms. Romero, but that is no excuse.” – this caused me to think about the foundation of that courage. My grandfather, (Frank) Leo Bornhoft, who served in the Danish Underground during WWII. I asked him what “the war” was – he drew me a picture of Kilroy and said that’s all I needed to know about “the war”, but later, he explained to me the danger of keeping silent when you know something is wrong. He explained that to me when I was 5 years old, somehow, I was able to understand it in the content in which he intended.
My father was another example of that courage for me. He was in the Air Force – was sent to Alaska for not remaining silent. Later, he was sent to Turkey for the same reason. He did not let the fear of reassignment prevent him for speaking out.
My mother raised me during the “woman’s revolution” of the 1960’s. She taught me that it’s ok for me to speak out, even though I am a female. She learned leadership from her mother, who ran a hotel business with my grandfather. She was remarkable. She was way ahead of her generation. She taught the females in our family that we can be strong women without giving up our femininity.
These are the people that shaped me. This is the courage that I strive to honor.
Thank you again, Bret – your words provide me encouragement.
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Bret L. Simmons Reply:
October 15th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Paris, I really appreciate you sharing this! I’m sure that the vast majority of folks like you that have courage never think of themselves that way. They just have it and it is ready to be put to use when they need it. Courage was nothing unique in your experience, just the way things were. Wish that were true for more. Thanks for taking the time to share this! Bret
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