Another "amen." Here's especially where parents are pivotal and significantly determinant. Those of us who have been blessed with parents and other major adult role models in our childhood and youth owe it to this life to, in our own way, do what you are doing with "Character Counts." Each of us has a talent or characteristic that has value for any youth we can reach with tenderness through civility and all the way to tough love. It can instantly be seen as genuine or not by the vast majority of youth regardless of their previous/simultaneous adult role models. Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Boys & Girls Clubs, Scouting, Youth Athletics and Arts all offer multiple opportunities to impart the truism that each of us are both immediately and ultimately responsible for our actions and choices.

Senator Bob Bennett of Utah voted against funding for SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program), thinks that the reason insurance companies keep raising premiums is due to the fact that they are taxed too much and opposes any effort from the government to help get the uninsured covered.

We know that thousands of our citizens die every year because they are uninsured and cannot afford healthcare.

Many more go into bankruptcy due to medical bills; even those who have coverage end up in bankruptcy after a major illness due to high deductibles.

I'm sorry, but I just don't see much character being displayed by Senator Bennett when he seems not to care about what happens to the least among us.

All of your comments are powerful. However, where my students are located today, this message was especially powerful. I will use it next week in school.

What this is trying to say is that if u have problems answering choice, that means you're not taking control. A lot of people don't make the right choices. Some people have control and really make the right choices. What I am trying to say is this if we take control, we have control.

Sometimes people can't control their own emotions. Sometimes people say some things by accident. Sometimes people might say something that will hurt someone's feelings by accident. It happens to everybody because sometimes their anger gets control of what they do and what they say. If everybody can control what they do or what they say, they won't ever lose control of their own self when they are really mad. What also might happen if you don't take control of yourself is that you might cause a fight, so it is better if you can control yourself.

Taking control of yourself is a good thing because if you don't take control of yourself, people will try to overpower you like if you're a slave or something.

If we take control of our life and make the right choices, that means we do have control of our life. When you do not control your life properly, you really get into trouble if you say something wrong to someone like a teacher. I sometimes do the wrong mistakes and some other words come out of my mouth that I did not want to say, but later on I fix my mistakes. Control is something we have in our body that sometimes come out when we are very angry at someone like a friend or a teacher. I think if we have control, we are the pilot of our body.

We have many choices to make in life. Some choices can be good for you but others may be harmful to not only you but others as well. People, mostly teenagers, usually make certain decisions. Because their friends make those decisions. They make those decisions because they think it's cool, or something else is choosing to do but in reality it's probably a bad thing to do or it harms you and/or others. That's why I envy anyone who would/could stand up to their friends and say "Hey, this is wrong and if you continue to make these types of decisions, you're not my friend anymore." Following the crowd is overrated. I'd rather be by myself if everyone else is making wrong choices. That's what taking control means, making your own choices and not letting people make you do things that you don't want to do.

Control... There is something much greater inside of ourselves that allows us to exercise control. Control is a behavior that constantly needs to be nurtured on a daily basis. It is so simple and quite easy to lose control of ourselves and life situations. As the saying goes, "It's so much easier to do what's wrong than what's right." The same as it is to lose control than to remain in control. Majority of humans find that control is a force of nature and things just happen as they happen and that life itself is the controller. However, until people can look deep inside themselves and measure their choices with their actions (no longer relying on their impulses), this is when the strength of control is truly in control.