| I was rereading "To Kill A Mockingbird" a few weeks ago -- just grabbed it off a shelf in a bored moment. Its a book you probably last came across in High School English class. Set in the South during the Great Depression, the story is about a lawyer -- Atticus -- who agrees to take a case & defend a guy, Tom, even though Atticus knows they have basically no chance of winning. One scene really hit me -- |  |
| Atticus' 6-year old daughter asks him why he is defending Tom even though its causing Atticus trouble and even though Atticus knows he'll lose in court: "For a number of reasons," said Atticus. "The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you and Jem not to do something again." "You mean if you didn't defend that man, Jem and me wouldn't have to mind you any more?" "Thats about right." "Why?" " Because I could never ask you to mind me again..." Atticus knows if he ignored his ethical obligations, he'd be an embarrassment to himself, lose credibility and give up the right to seriously expect moral behavior from other people, even his kids. This is exactly the situation we are all in as parents. If we don't have morals ourselves & act on them even when its tough, we aren't in much of a position to tell our kids to do right things. Don't we mostly all try to teach our kids a lot of the same basic stuff?
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