ON A POSITIVE NOTE FOR THE FUTURE

With all the negativity barraging us in the news, I wish to share the good I observe happening in the lives of my loved ones, as well as the many good things that are taking place in our world that don't always receive the recognition they deserve. Whatever your political views or religious affiliation, beliefs or non-beliefs, you will surely agree that we as a nation need to hear of positive happenings in our world and in our families. The children are our hope for the future. The values we teach them and the role models we set for them are so very important. Nearly every religion on earth teaches to love one another, forgiveness, peaceful resolutions, truth, and stewardship of our planet earth and all that lives or grows on it. Young people are quick to recognize the hypocrisy in adults, and even governments, who espouse war, world dominance, and materialism.

In this first blog post, I want to share these photos and brief stories of some of my grandchildren who are/will be making a difference in our world.

The first is my 6-year-old grandson, Travis, and his buddy in Cub Scouts. I've always believed that the beauty of our young children is that they have no inborn prejudices... they are color blind. Those later prejudices are taught to them, usually in the home.

The next two are of my grandson, Cameron and friends. First, he is seen campaigning for Obama in the predominantly black area of Dallas and helping folks register to vote. He was instrumental in forming the Dallas Youth for Obama and was thrilled to be included in a visit by Obama honoring his volunteers in the area.

Next, he is shown with Sen. John Kerry at a Unitarian Church meeting in Dallas, where Cameron spoke at the end of his senior year. The pastor told my son Craig that if Cameron doesn't go into politics, he certainly has a career waiting for him behind the pulpit!

As many of you know, Cameron is on a full 4-year guaranteed scholarship in voice at LSU, and is studying opera. God blessed him with this beautiful voice, and without it and the scholarships offered to him, he might not have been able to go to college. Besides having "what it takes" to have an operatic career, and eagerly looking forward to performing, Cameron intends to continue with his political activism. The combination should be extremely persuasive!

The next two are of my precious granddaughter Audrey and her wonderful boyfriend Daniel. They met at an Animal Rights group meeting. Both are vegetarians, very active in animal rights and politics. He graduated from SMU last year with a degree in voice.. he's a "counter tenor" (I'm told this is a highly desirable singing voice), but he decided he wants to go a different direction with his life, and has returned to school to become a veterinarian. Audrey, such a talented ballerina and violinist, has changed her major to Pre-med and Environmental Science at SMU, where she attends on an academic scholarship.

Audrey and Cameron were both active in the Obama campaign. Audrey even drove her college classmates back and forth to the polls on election day.

Oh, yes, Audrey's younger brother Tanner has also become a vegetarian, and has been involved with "Save the Turtles" since he was about 6 years old -- he's now 10 -- when he set up a lemonade stand and donated all the proceeds ($35) to the Save the Turtles Foundation. We all believe that he, too, will be some kind of environmental scientist. His dad is teaching him computer programming now, as he is bored in school.

Tanner and his big sister Ashlyn (right) were the ones who stood on the street corner (without my daughter's knowledge) with a sign saying Help the Katrina Victims. For a donation, together they played their violin (Ashlyn) and cello (Tanner) for the donors. This was published in the Amarillo paper and instigated a huge neighborhood garage sale with all proceeds going to the Katrina victims.

These are the children (though not all of them) of each of my three children, and I could not be prouder of the kinds of parents they have turned out to be. When I hear people moan and groan about what our society has done to our young people and culture, I cannot help but want to tell them to look to the parents of those troubled young people.

I hope this doesn't seem like unnecessary bragging, I wanted to share my reasons for seeing a better world in our future. I see nothing but positive in children such as these. God has blessed our family.

It's a wonderful world!