Page 175 - YOU CAN WIN - SHIV KHERA

RokZRooM Special ! You Can Win by Shiv Khera

4. Drugs
5. Fear of violent death, murder, guns, and knives in school

Try not to be a man of success but rather try to be a man of value.

--Albert Einstein
* smoking Choices by Peter Kreeft, pp. 1Ä2.

OLD VALUES ARE NOT OBSOLETE

Values such as responsibility, integrity, commitment, and patriotism are considered old
by some. These may be old values but they are certainly not obsolete. They have stood
the test of time and will be here forever. These values have the same meaning in New
York as in New Delhi or New Zealand. They are universal. I don't know of any time or
culture in history which does not respect these values.

VALUES ARE AT AN ALL-TIME LOW

In any society, basic immorality and injustice lead to despair. The greedy and
inconsiderate who seek immoral pleasures must be stopped by those committed with
values. We have strayed in the process of change.
Any society that has lost its moral bearing is heading for disaster because all failures in
history have been moral failures.
More than half a century ago, America was in the middle of a wrenching depression.
One-third of our nation's wealth vanished in a matter of months. Manufacturing declined
77%. One-fourth of the labor force was left idle. Many cities could not afford to keep
schools open. Twenty percent of New York schoolchildren were malnourished. At one
point, 34 million men, women, and children were without any income at all.
Yet in the depths of that hardship, with its soup kitchens, bank closings, and hunger,
Franklin Roosevelt could tell the nation in a radio address, "Our difficulties, thank God,
concern only material things."*

WHAT IS GOODNESS?

If we took a survey, asking people one question, "Are you good?" most people would
respond, "Yes!" Ask them, "What makes you good?" Responses will be:

♦ I don't cheat so I'm good.
♦ I don't lie so that makes me good.
♦ I don't steal, so I'm good.

If you analyze the above rationales, there is not much substance in them. Just think of
the person who says, "I don't cheat." Well, that only means that he is not a cheat. And the
persons who say they don't lie and steal, only mean that they are not liars and thieves.
But that doesn't make them good. A person becomes good when he actually does good
rather than not doing wrong. A person of values would be one who has qualities such as
fairness, compassion, courage, integrity, empathy, humility, loyalty and courtesy. What

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