to be ashamed
Examples
In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Live never to be ashamed if anything you do or say is published around the world even if what is published is not true.
There is much of economic theory which is pursued for no better reason than its intellectual attraction; it is a good game. We have no reason to be ashamed of that, since the same would hold for many branches of pure mathematics.
A grunting donkey is nothing to be ashamed of.
Not to be ashamed of sin is to sin double.