30 Sept 2026
The Six Pillars of Character
Every year, Congress recognizes National Character Counts Week, calling Americans to embrace six pillars of character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship.
In this reflection, Stephen Bauman considers the striking gap between the values our leaders publicly champion and the behavior we often witness in public life. What happens when the people calling for character fail to embody it themselves? And what responsibility do the rest of us have?
As another election approaches, Stephen invites us to take those six pillars seriously—not merely as ideals to teach our children, but as a framework for examining leadership, citizenship, and the choices we make at the ballot box.
Transcript:I just learned that since 1993 the United States congress has designated one week in mid-October as “National Character Counts Week”. Reading through past resolutions we learn that congress has a very, very deep concern for nurturing the character of the nation’s children and citizens, by (and here I’m quoting directly from the congressional record) calling upon the people of the United States to (A) embrace the (six) elements of character identified as trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship; and (B) to observe National Character Counts Week with appropriate ceremonies, programs, and activities.
Have you ever heard of this? Doing a bit of research, I discovered that in 1992 a group of philosophers and educators met in the mountains of Colorado and produced what they called the Aspen Declaration which listed the six pillars of character transcending cultural, religious and socio-economic differences; those six pillars were subsequently embraced by congress every subsequent year with a resolution -- the pillars again: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. Lest there be any confusion about what those words might mean, the originators provided clarifications. For instance, trustworthiness means: Be honest (in other words, don’t lie). Have integrity. Do what you’ll say you’ll do. Keep your promises. Be loyal by standing by your values. That’s what the U.S. congress admonishes.
Given the source, is it at all surprising that we haven’t heard about this? The astonishing congressional hypocrisy framed by the adage, “What you do screams so loud I can’t hear what you say,” is so extreme as to suggest an alternative political universe.
But thinking about this, I see an opportunity: in keeping with congress’s desire that we’ll observe National Character Counts Week with appropriate ceremonies and activities around this time of year, I suggest we all use the six pillars of character in deciding who should be serving in said congress come November 3rd and vote accordingly. Who says we’re powerless?!
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