Integrity for Sale

I'm an observer. I love to people watch. I find the interactions and behaviors of people to be quite interesting. The other night I went to my daughters powder puff football game and observed an interesting scenario. I sat in the bleachers on the side of the field that was least crowded. HaHa...less crowded....it was practically empty. The game had been postponed from it's original time the previous week and even on the night they played it had been raining so not many people were there, especially on the side I was on. As I sat there I saw out of the corner of my eye two teenage boys walking around the edge of the field. As they came around to the side I was on, they jump the fence into the spectator area. As they jumped over, a yellow cheerleaders pompom fell out of the back pocket of one of the boys. They didn't notice and continued to walk down the walkway a bit farther where they stopped to watch the game as the leaned on the fence. While THEY may not have noticed the lost pompom, a young girl (about 10 or so) did notice. She had been on the inside of the fence talking with an older boy, I assumed an older brother or relative. When she say the pompom lying on the ground, she walked down to where it was but because it was on the other side of the fence, she couldn't get it. She called out to a women sitting in the stand, asking her to get it for her. I think this women may also have been a relative or possibly mother of the girl. Although I couldn't hear the conversation between the two of them, the women did not get it and seemed to give the girl a no response. But, the boy she had been talking to did walk over and get it for her (they were on opposite sides of the fence). So now the girl had the pompom and she began to wave it around. The boy who the pom pom belonged to glanced down in that direction and must have seen her but made no acknowledgement. When the girl realized that the boy wasn't coming to get it from her, she very cautiously slid the pompom into her coat pocket where it was out of sight. She seemed very pleased with herself. The older boy she was with knew what she had done and although he seemed to be telling her it wasn't hers, he also seemed amused by it and made no attempt to stop her. Meanwhile, another young man who had been sitting in the stands with his hoodie pulled over his head got up and went down to the two boys leaning on the fence (the ones who had dropped the pom pom). He did not stand right next to them but kept his distance a bit. He appeared to be telling them about their lost pompom in a rather covert way. The boy who had dropped it, very nonchalantly check his back pocket and looked around a bit and in the direction of the girl. At this point the girl had taken it back out of her pocket. Her and her brother clearly knew what the hooded young man had gone over there for and they were feeling a bit guilty. So now, even though the pom pom is clearly visible the young man whom it belong to acted as though he didn't see it. So once again, the girl put it back into her pocket. What was most interesting to me was that no one made an attempt to either get the pompom or to give it back. The girl clearly knew it wasn't hers and that she should give it back, I mean really they were only standing a few yards away from each other. But she did not take one step closer to give it back or even to say "I think this is yours". Neither did the older brother make any attempt to encourage her in that direction. And the mother in the stand just sat there and never said anything about it. The girl seemed quite happy with herself and the brother seemed quite amused. I suppose by waving it around a little bit without any response from the boys made them feel like it was their right to keep it. I guess I was rather stunned to see how easy it was for this young girl to very blatantly take something that wasn't hers and then make no attempt what so ever to return it to the rightful owner even though this would have been so incredibly easy and simple. But I was also surprised at the lack of effort on the boys part to get it back. You could tell they wanted it back just by their expressions but their lack of action was somewhat puzzling. They finally did get it back as they walked back around the way they had come and passing the girl (who now had it out but was not flashing it around too much) asked for it back. The incident was an interesting observation that left me wondering about the integrity of our society when even young children are not strongly encouraged (or made) to do the right thing. If they think we, the adult figure or older example is amused by their actions, and we don't enforce doing the right thing, we will end up with a society that lacks integrity and honesty. I find it to be a shame.