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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. ~ — I QS soon as all these candidates \ w started writing to me. Now they ) CjCJ %m) \ think they know me well enough / V to f° r rooneyl 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 \ v ' I jjKms%^ f ® ,r <>££ 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.