Your Opinion: A humanity poll

Sue Bower

Jefferson City

Dear Editor:

Were you raised in a one- or two-parent family?

Did you have chores when you were a child?

Were you taught to respect your parents, senior citizens, teachers, to be quiet in church, to obey the laws, to work hard at whatever you were doing?

Were you taught to be thankful for what you had and to stand up for the defenseless?

Have you ever cheated in school or broken a law or lied to your parents/friends/authorities?

Have you ever donated to a beggar in person, helped someone with groceries, given a ride to a stranger?

Have you held a door open for someone, returned money to the owner, helped anyone clean up a mess, given someone a ride to church?

Have you helped a neighbor water his yard, haul his trash, move a piece of furniture?

Do you know your neighbors' names?

Have you visited churches of different faiths, gone to a Black church or a Jewish synagogue?

Have you stood by while others made fun of someone who was poor, disheveled, disabled or unprepared for class/work/sports?

Do you want to hear both sides of an argument or do you enter a discussion only to spout your views?

Do you ever try to put yourself in the other person's shoes?

Are you a person who wants to earn his way and not take charity or a person who takes advantage of every offer/advantage out there?

Do you believe you only get one life so make the best of it, or do you believe each person is born to make a difference in this world and the next?

Would you give the "shirt off your back" or would you steal from your parents?

Are you a good person?

Do you believe some people are inherently evil or that there is good in everyone?

Do you believe our nation was founded with a belief in goodness, God, equality and justice for all?

Do you love your children or regret that they had ever been born?

Do you believe your life and the lives of others are better because you take drugs, drink to excess, bully and call others names?

Why?