Newspaper Page Text
4A
♦ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2006
Houston ilailg
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief
Managing Editor
Squash the litterbug
How many times have you seen
this?
You’re driving down the road
following a car, truck or whatever when
all of a sudden a piece of trash comes fly
ing out the window.
It maybe doesn’t occur as often as it
used to - fines have helped - but it still
happens and here’s perhaps why.
A true story witnessed yesterday.
An ice cream truck had just made its
stop in a neighborhood.
Seven children lined up. Seven children
got ice cTeam.
Three of those children took off the
wrapper and
without a
thought let
it fall to the
ground.
When con
fronted by
the vendor,
the children
became bel
-lige r e n t
and simply
turned their
backs ' and
walked off.
He was left
to clean up
their mess
- no doubt
wishing he
were in a dif
ferent line of
work.
Like father, like son - or mom.
Parents taught these children, through
their actions or lack of, that this was an
acceptable deed, and worse, that they
were unaccountable for it.
What could the vendor do, tell their
parents? Not in a world with its hands
tied in so many ways (the potential for
the parent to go to the local media and
turn it into an issue where the ice cream
vendor is at fault is only one).
Still, there may be a bit of help on the
way.
Already, whether he wanted to or not,
Perry mayor Jim Worrall has brought
trash to the forefront - at least in terms
of locally and people/businesses roll
ing their dumpsters out of sight after
pickup.
Tougher litter laws also went into effect
in July, and now Gov. Sonny Perdue
was slated to attend the Georgia Litter
Summit Tuesday in Atlanta. There, he
was reportedly going to push for even
tougher litter laws.
Good. A child throwing down an ice
cream wrapper might seem harmless
now, but it isn't where it ends (and it’s
easily debatable in regard to these chil
dren that that’s the least of our worries
in regard to their future).
Pretty soon you’re following that same
person down the road in their car, truck
or whatever when all of a sudden a piece
of trash comes flying out of their window.
And that doesn’t take into account all
the litter - the ice cream wrappers, ham
burger wrappers, beer bottles, cigarette
butts and on and on - they’ve spread
: throughout the years and throughout the
countryside leading up to that moment.
; Let's squash the litter - little - bugs
■ now.
Worth Repeating
'• “Rebuilding New Orleans is going to challenge the
■ New Orleans and Louisiana state government, neither or
• which has been known for its efficiency or its honesty.”
David Wessel
Economic Journalist
Send your Letters to the Editor to:
The Houston Home Journal
P.O. Box 1910 • Perry, Ga 31069 or
Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Good. A child
throwing down an
ice cream wrapper
might seem harm
less now (and it's
easily debatable
in regard to these
children that that's the
least of our worries in
regard to the future)
- and we're obviously
saying it somebody is to
be punished, it should
start with the parent
- it isn't where it ends.
A powerful, necessary combination
School has started, so my house
has become the proverbial bee
hive of activity and learning.
(At least, I hope the latter is true.)
And that means homework. And home
work means, well, skirmishes here and
there. You see, most children - if left
to their own devices - will take the
path of least resistance and gravitate
toward activities that are “fun.” It
takes a parent to direct them to what
matters.
I was no different as a child. Come to
think of it, I’m not really that different
as an adult. I’d still prefer to do the
fun thing as opposed to the necessary
thing. (Ask my wife; she’ll tell you.)
The difference is one of learning and
maturity. (Okay, another difference is
that I have a loving wife who is will
ing to remind me of the “necessary
thing.”)
Anyway, last night was one of those
skirmishes over homework. One of
my sons - a good kid with a kind heart
- was being a kid. He didn’t want to do
his homework once he hit a tough spot.
And in the midst of our skirmish, I was
reminded that my objective was not
just to get my son to get his homework
done, it was to help him understand
something about perseverance, stick
to-it-iveness.
And I was reminded that the very
foundation of education is character.
Education should not just be about
learning facts, figures, people, places,
processes and proofs. It should be
about having the character to handle
the power that comes with knowledge
and skill. This is something that I run
the risk of forgetting and something
that our society may already have for
gotten.
Martin Luther King, Jr. put it this
way:
“Education which stops with effi
ciency may prove the greatest menace
to society...We must remember that
intelligence is not enough. Intelligence
plus character - that is the true goal of
education.”
King knew that knowledge constitut
ed power and that good or evil resided
in the possessor of the knowledge, not
in the knowledge itself.
The scalpel is a helpful illustration.
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Pluto news sends columnist over edge
Dear readers: This is a quick note
from Glynn Moore’s physician
because he is lying down, having
taken rather badly last week’s news
about the downfall of Pluto.
His wife called me to report that he
was jumping up and down on his sofa,
his eyes glazed over like Tom Cruise’s,
his fists clenched in rage. She said he
was screaming at the television set
that “Pluto rules!”
I have placed him on bed rest and
some horse tranquilizers, but he still
hasn’t been able to calm down enough
to compose his thoughts for this week’s
column.
Why did this happen? As you no doubt
know, the International Astronomical
Union met last week in Europe and
downgraded the status of thae ninth
planet from the sun, reclassifying it as
a “dwarf planet” instead. As a result,
it no longer is a member of the very
select planets of the solar system, the
ones we have all learned since Pluto’s
discovery in 1930.
The lAU’s vote was controversial,
of course, but most people realize that
although Pluto has lost its planetary
membership, it is still out there in
space, a rocky dot in the heavens.
You and I can understand the astron
omers’ decision, but Glynn was flab
bergasted. As his doctor, I can tell you
that he has long been averse to change,
and even more averse to daily exercise,
but that is another matter entirely.
OPINION
A scalpel in the hands of a skilled sur
geon is quite different from a scalpel
in the hands of a thief. In the case of
the former, it’s a tool for healing, in
the case of the latter it’s a weapon of
destruction. The one who wields the
tool determines its usefulness, not the
tool itself.
So it is with knowledge.
It’s ironic that we often decry the
moral failings of our youth. Yet we fill
them with facts and know-how while
failing to train them in the character
that will enable them to wield the facts
and know-how we give them.
C.S. Lewis expressed a similar convic
tion and concern decades ago. Lewis,
the highly esteemed Oxford scholar,
Christian apologist and popular writer
- he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia
among other great works - said that
a society that ignores transcendent
values ignores them at its own peril.
He asserted that if we fail to pass on
specific standards of right and wrong,
of what is worthwhile or worthless,
admirable or ignoble then we must
share the blame for the consequences
in our communities.
“And all the time,” Lewis wrote,
“...we continue to clamour [sic] for
those very qualities we are render
ing impossible. You can hardly open a
periodical without coming across the
statement that what our civilization
needs is more ‘drive,’ or dynamism, or
self-reliance, or ‘creativity.’”
“In a sort of ghastly simplicity we
remove the organ and demand the
function. We make men without chests
and expect of them virtue and enter
prise. We laugh at honour [sic] and are
shocked to find traitors in our midst.
We castrate and bid the gelding be
fruitful.”
I think Lewis is dead on.
If character is that which instructs
During his more lucid moments, I
learned that he grew up studying the
night sky, reading both science and sci
ence fiction stories, dreaming one day
of becoming an astronaut. He is taking
this news personally.
While I was sedating my patient, he
was ranting wildly.
“How could they do that?” he
demanded as I eased the needle into
his arm. “Pluto still orbits our sun,
doesn’t it? It’s large enough to let its
gravitation pull it into the shape of a
ball, isn’t it? It even has at least one
moon. Has any of that changed?”
“There, there,” I advised him, wait
ing for the medicine to take effect.
“But no, that’s not good enough for
those people,” he said. “They say that
to be a real planet, a body must “clear
the neighborhood around its orbit.’
What does that mean? Tell me, Doc,
what does that mean?”
“I’m not an astronomer, Glynn,” I
told him. “From what I read, though,
it’s because Pluto has an elliptical orbit
instead of the roughly circular orbits of
Randy
Hicks
President
Georgia Family Council
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Glynn
Moore
Columnist
Morris News Service
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
our kids to make good decisions and
consider the good of others, then we
should not be surprised at the con
sequences of de-valuing character
instruction.
When we mock or fail to teach val
ues, we should-not be shocked to dis
cover that the majority of college stu
dents cheat on tests, that a ridiculously
high number of employees cheat their
employers - and vice versa.
Why should we be surprised to hear
of computer hackers - highly skilled
and knowledgeable - stealing identi
ties, shutting down businesses And
pilfering accounts? Why should we be
surprised at Enron, Global Crossings
or World Com? Or by people cheating
on their taxes?
This is what King was talking about.
“Education which stops with efficiency
may prove the greatest menace to soci
ety.” It often results in knowledge and
skill being misused to the detriment of
others.
As parents (and educators) we must
see character education as being more
important than - and intricately tied
to - every other element of education.
Most importantly, parents must be pur
poseful in imparting character to their
children. That begins by modeling
character and allowing one’s actions to
speak louder than one’s words.
In addition to modeling character,
there is a great character education
tool that I believe that both parents
and professional educators will find
helpful. It’s called Family Wise.
Family Wise offers character edu
cation resources through a few ven
ues. First, parents may choose to pur
chase a Family Times monthly program
built around the concept of developing
Wisdom, Faith and Friendship in their
children through maximizing strategic
moments in family life. Check out
www.familywise.org for more informa
tion and to subscribe.
Georgia Family Council is a non
profit organization that works to
strengthen and defend the family in
Georgia by equipping communities,
shaping laws and influencing culture.
For more information, go to www.
georgiafam.ily.org, 770-242-0001 and
greeg@gafam,org.
the other planets; so elliptical, in fact,
that Pluto actually crosses the orbit of
its neighbor Neptune, making Pluto
the eighth planet every couple of hun
dred years and Neptune the ninth.”
“Is that any reason to demote a planet
we’ve all grown up with?” Glynn said.
“So Pluto wanders - big deal. Isn’t that
what the word “planet’ means anyway
- “wanderer’?”
“I’m not sure,” I told him, but he
didn’t stop.
“It didn’t seem to bother those
astronomers that Pluto lies on its side,
instead of having its poles on the top
and bottom,” he said. “That’s because
eons ago, it got hit by something that
flopped it over and knocked off a big
chunk to make a moon. That’s how
Earth got its moon, too: a big collision
in space. Are the astronomers going to
start getting rid of moons next?”
The sedative finally kicked in, and
Glynn sank into a chair, mumbling:
“Everyone takes the planets for
granted. People even have to have
use mnemonic devices to remember
their names. The outrage! How could
they not remember Mercury, Venus,
Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune and ... Grumpy, Bashful,
Prancer, Vixen ...”
That’s where he finally nodded off.
I’m sure he’ll be back next week.
Maybe.
Reach Glynn Moore at glynn.
moore@morris.com.