[pollyannaish]

Good testament to the wisdom of age! Glad it went well. Bet it was still hard...but life is hard. I am often amazed at how, with the right attitude, disasters turn into great blessings.

One thing that occurred to me while I was thinking about this is, that even if everything I have was taken away from me tomorrow...because I am free, and because I am American—I would try to turn it around and make things even better the next time.

As Americans our strength should not be based in our military, our economy, our power...it should be based in our CHARACTER. If it is, then the success of those other things are a result of that—for better or for worse.

[expat_panama]

IMHO character is everything.   I voted for Dole in '96 just like I voted for McGovern in '72.   I'll pick an honest fool over a crooked genius any day of the week.   Sure, it's best to hire an honest genius whenever possible, but when we're forced against our will to pick only one, we pick character first.   Ross Perot was talking about hiring once and he pointed out that if an employee lacks character, then intelligence actually represents a liability.