This is not a story about hard luck, however. It is a story about neighbors, about the kindness of strangers, if you will.

While we stood in the dark, using a faint flashlight to try to see under the hood, another couple saw us. The man and his wife were headed north from Salina on their way home to Belleville. He drives a truck for a living, and the next morning, he was going to have to be on the road at 4 a.m. It would have been easy for them to drive on by, figuring somebody else would come along to help us. Instead, though, they turned around to come to our aid.

They looked at the engine, as well, and when the problem was not apparent, they took us into Concordia, and provided us with the use of a cell phone to call my father in Wichita. They then took us to a motel, and when that motel was full, they took us to another one.

There was a time when it was taken for granted that people watch out for one another, but that kind of spirit is not seen quite so readily today. It’s good to know that, at least in one family in Kansas, it is still very much alive.

Brad Pardee
Editor

Tressa Thompson is one of the top female shot-putters in this country, if not the world. She was a star member of the women’s track team at the University of Nebraska, and was looking forward to having the opportunity to be a member of the U.S. Olympic Women's Track and Field Team.

That dream, however, will now have to be put on hold. Last month, Tressa was notified that she had failed a drug test at a track meet earlier this year. She had used crank, an illegal drug, at some point in the weeks prior to the meet, and the drug test detected it.

It's always tragic when somebody makes choices that result in harm to themselves and damage to their dreams. What is particularly worth noting, however, is not the wrong choice she made to use drugs, but rather, the right choice she made to face the consequences.

You see, Tressa could have appealed the decision, which would have enabled her to compete in the Olympic Trials. But she didn't.

She could have filed a lawsuit claiming the test was unfair. But she didn't.

She could have claimed that what she did in her own personal life was nobody else's business. But she didn't.

What she did do was own up to her actions. She accepted the consequences and withdrew from the Olympic Trials. She will, in all likelihood, be banned from international competition for2 years. She now has to look ahead to the Olympic Games of 2004,and she is going to work and train with that goal in mind.

Accepting the consequences of one's actions is not as common today is it once was. The news is full of stories of people across the spectrum of society who, when caught doing something wrong, immediately blame anyone and everyone except themselves. In this regard, Tressa Thompson is bucking a trend.

We are a society which seems to take pleasure in seeing people fall, but we ought to instead take pleasure in seeing people rise from the ashes, even if they are ashes of their own making. The road ahead of Tressa will not be an easy one, but if she walks it successfully, it will serve as a lesson to others that owning up to your mistakes is the first step toward correcting them. It would be a message of hope and redemption, and the chance to send that message is something worth rooting for.