When I was a tutor with Chicago Lights Tutoring, each week I would put a quotation relating to character on a 3″ x 5″ card for my student (many from John Wooden – like those in June 16’s post). To me, the reading, writing and arithmetic are all important. But developing character is just as important.
One of my favorite books is David Brooks wonderful work The Road to Character. Brooks opens with reference to the end of World War II — a victory of epic proportion. He observes that our parents and grandparents did not go around telling each other how great they were. The collective impulse was to warn themselves against pride. And self-glorification. But Brooks observes that there has been a shift in ensuing generations. From a culture of humility to a culture of I am the center of the universe. Brooks calls it “The Big Me.” Fame and fortune used to rank low as life’s core ambitions. Today, those goals have moved to the top. Yet curiously some people push to censor the teaching of virtue, character and integrity in schools.
Walter Lippmann said that when “good” and “evil” are reduced to “how we feel” about something, then society loses the objective standards necessary for truth and order. Martin Luther King delivered a sermon in 1954 on the topic of “right” and “wrong.” “I’m here to say to you this morning that some things are right and some things are wrong. Eternally so, absolutely so. It’s wrong to hate. It always has been wrong and it always will be wrong! It’s wrong in America, it’s wrong in Germany, it’s wrong in Russia, it’s wrong in China! It was wrong in 2,000 B.C., and it’s wrong in 1954 A.D.” As both men later said – the concepts of right and wrong are woven into the fabric of the universe.
How do you feel about that?
Renaissance Hombre 
As usual Scott…great message!!Thanks so much! Turns out I have to feature Nancy C’shumor this month… but you will be soin August. Don’t remember how I leftit with you? I so appreciate you and allyour wisdom and humor! Enjoy…enjoy!!Denise
Brian and Cher Westin are visiting us here in Boston for about a week. We will be enjoying SAIL BOSTON 2026 on Saturday and Sunday….as tall ships sail into Boston from all over the world. But most importantly, we continue in a friendship that has lasted well over fifty years and over many miles. Brian forwarded on an email to us that led me to your blog site and the original essay. George and I share the same email….so here I am writing to you.
I agree that building character is very important. I suspect that most folks, on either side or anywhere in the spectrum of politics today would agree with that statement. It seems an almost universal statement. It’s in the living of it that it becomes lost/invisible/blurry? The pereception of what it means almost becomes a shape-shifter. Isn’t it interesting that our parents’ generation, those that “warned themselves against pride and self-glorification” became known as the Greatest Generation?
If there has been a shift from a “culture of humility to a culture of I am the center of the universe“, then for me, I don’t find it surprising at all that there’s a “push to censor the teaching of virtue, character, and integrity in schools.” I think hope lies in the fact there is a tension and an argument about what should be taught in schools. In other words, there are some who still espouse character, empathy, caring for others, and following the “golden rule” and they are pushing back on some of the attitudes that are occuring.
For me, I think one of the saddest things that’s happening in this country today, is the lack of listening. Real listening. Gone are the days of folks like Ted Kennedy and John McCain, working together “across the aisle.” Take it outside of Congress, to everyday conversations among family members or neighbors, and the “right or wrong” attitude that’s become embedded in folks. That “my way or the highway” attitude, as the old saying goes, means folks far too often, simply don’t listen or look for ways or points of agreement. For example, I am forever grateful to President Trump for his Operation Warp Speed that spurred on pharmaceutical companies to develop the Covid vaccine and saved millions of lives. That is a point of agreement. Perhaps we all need to find more points of agreement? Or at the very least, search for them?
I am “talking” way to much here! Very interested to find you on WordPress. I am on WordPress in a poetry blog which I’ve done for years. In my rejuvenatement (never say re-tire-ment), I took to writing and have enjoyed it immensely. https://lillianthehomepoet.com
Thanks for an intersting essay, Scott! Obviously, it caused me to think about what you’ve written…to “listen” if you will, to your thoughts here. Very happy to see MLK quoted….the man had so much to say that is applicable to today.
One last note: we belong to Old North here in Boston. It’s an Episcopal congregation that worships in Paul Revere’s church….where the lanterns were hung (One if by land, two if by sea). George and I are often ushers for church services when we are in town. Our Vicar’s sermon this past Sunday, quoted from then President Gerald Ford’s speech as he spoke at Old North on the bicentennial. His was a message of inclusion and hope. The service and glorious music and his sermon are on YouTube if you’re interested.
Lill