It is trite to say that it is a great honor to receive an honorary degree from Carleton, but that is nevertheless the truth. And it is about the truth that I wish to talk to you today by telling you a true story that happened to me.

In 1970, Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago -- the first Mayor Daley, considered the most powerful mayor in America -- was in political trouble. His hand-picked assessor for Cook County had been accused of reducing the assessed values of big properties in return for fat campaign contributions. The assessor ran for office in November and won narrowly. But the Mayor had to run the next April, and he wanted this scandal removed from his campaign. So he hired my father's real estate research firm to analyze the assessor's office and implement reforms.

I worked for my father, and he gave me this highly visible assignment. The Mayor put his arm around me and said, "Do the job right -- even if you have to fire everybody in the Assessor's Office." And I believed him -- if I hadn't, I wouldn't have taken the job.

The Assessor's Office was a disaster. Its top people were aging political hacks who used obsolete methods that systematically over-valued property in the city's poorest neighborhoods and undervalued it in the wealthiest ones, causing severe injustice. Corruption was rampant.

Among other things, I found that the assessment ratios used in the Mayor's and Assessor's own wards -- the ratio of assessed values to true market values -- were half the levels of those in the rest of the County. Therefore, to do the job right, we were going to have to double the property tax rates -- and thus the taxes -- in their neighborhoods. The Mayor was furious. He demanded that I do no such thing. But I did it anyway, because it was the only honest way to proceed.

The Mayor never forgave me. He ordered the city not to hire our firm again, even though it had been our largest client. Previously, we had sold our firm to the First National Bank of Chicago, and the Bank's new president pressured me to leave so he could regain city business. Eventually I did leave. I was fortunate enough to go to the Brookings Institution, which holds the truth in higher regard than most politicians. Over time, this move has been very rewarding to me, though I did not know that when I "did the Assessor's job right" over the Mayor's protests.

This story has several morals relevant to your future careers. First, pursue the truth, wherever it leads you. Truth is not highly valued in today's American culture. Especially in the media, entertainment takes precedent over facts and spin conquers true objectivity. Even much of the academic community eschews the idea that objective truth exists independent of each person's own viewpoint. "If it works for you, it must be true for you" is a widely-held opinion on many campuses. I hope Carleton is not one of them.

I believe there is a such a thing as the real truth, concerning both describing the world and making moral decisions. The real truth is often complex and hard to discern; and there are frequently conflicting views about it. But trying to discover, to express, and to follow what you believe is the real truth in your own lives is greatly worth doing.

The second moral is use the power that knowledge of the truth gives you to achieve honest results, rather than self aggrandizement. I could have called a press conference and made headlines by denouncing Mayor Daley and the Assessor for manipulating assessments for their own benefit. But then I would have been fired from the job and lost the chance to reform a major public institution that was corrupt. Right judgments about such matters require delicately balancing full disclosure vs. ability to act honestly. There is no simple or easy way to resolve such tensions.

The third moral is do the honest thing, even if it costs you dearly. Honestly analyzing and acting in real-world situations is often threatening to many stakeholders. But in the long run, my reputation for being objective and honest and refusing to suppress unpleasant or unpopular realities has been far more valuable than the detractions I received from doing so. And I feel a lot better about it too.

A. Sooner or later, you are all going to run into your own versions of Mayor Daley. Whether acting as parents, or on the job, or as President of the United States, you will be tempted or pressured to bend the truth from a little nudge to a giant lie. Telling the truth is not always easy, but if you do so, you can always feel good about yourself. As the Greek philosopher Epictetus said, "If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth, you will become invincible."