Change Of Values

On my way home from work today I was listening to an interview with an upstanding man by the name of David Bruton. He is a safety for the Denver Broncos, and a substitute teacher. Since he has a lot of free time on his hands these days, he decided to do something worthwhile to make it go by a little faster. He applied and received a one-year substitute teaching license, and now teaches at the same high school in Ohio where he graduated back in '05.

The reason why this man caught my attention is because of the example he is setting. Today more people pay attention to Justin Bieber, Lady Ga Ga, Michael Vick and Robert Pattinson than they do Rand Paul, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel or Lyndon LaRouche. It is very important that the people that have the attention make good use of it to promote education instead of beauty, fame, wealth, sex or sports. These things all have a place in our society, but intelligence and education have a much greater value to the human race.

A society which values beauty more than education and intelligence is a society comprised of devolving individuals. From Aristotle we learn that it is our ability to speak which sets us apart from other social animals. Speech means that people have ideas to communicate, and ideas are better formed when they are created by an intelligent person. Animals do not value ideas because they do not have the capacity, however a human that has the capacity but does not value ideas is just as animalistic. There is no such thing as thinking too much. A person who does not want to think wants to be an animal.

Athletes like David Bruton are very important to our culture because they show the people who watch them that if you can't play professional football (and chances are you can't) education is what you need to focus on. Athletes need to make public statements saying that sports are entertaining, but education will improve the quality of your life and the lives of those around you.

What the rest of us need to do to fix this problem is to start praising the Einsteins of the world a little bit more, and stop praising the person going through life on nothing but physical traits such as speed or strength as much as we do. Sports and beauty are healthy in proper amounts, but when they are more important than education there is a problem. More value on education will create more educated people, earning higher incomes, making better decisions, and creating technology far beyond what exists now. These three things will make sure that the country is pointing in the right direction for our children.