These days it’s difficult to find men and women you can point to and say to your kids...that’s the kind of person I want you to be.
No matter what your politics, Washington offers no role models.
In sports, and music...players and performers more often get noticed for doing wrong than right. But perhaps the problem isn’t that they are no people to admire...we’re just looking in the wrong places.
Paulette Johnson owns Trucker’s cafe in southern Dallas, once homeless, living in battered women’s shelter. This week 700 kids and their families waited hours in line in the rain to pick up the free backpacks, uniforms, and school supplies...Paulette bought for them.
A now successful business owner who never forgot where she came from… “Just to see all these people out here that needs my help and I'm able to help them, it makes me feel so good," she said.
Then there’s the folks at Texas Elite Barbers, encouraging kids to show up for a free back-to-school cuts, spreading the blessings they’ve had in their lives….
And it’s not just businesses. This past school year, when Dade Middle School in Dallas asked for 50 men to mentor young men…600 showed up. They’re expecting something similar at the Young Men’s Leadership Academy this year.
Some young people clearly get the message...11-year-old Jaxson Turner spent the summer gathering donations for supplies for schoolmates whose families are as not fortunate as his.
And finally, there are these police officers and citizens in Red Oak this week, strangers pulling a man contemplating suicide from the edge of an interstate overpass.
So, take heart. The heroes are out there...but sometimes in life... as the old saying goes: you can’t see the forest for the trees.