Apart from the Super Bowl game itself, though, there was another thing that I took great pleasure in seeing. Before the game, the teams were announced. First, the St. Louis Rams starters were announced one by one as they ran out onto the field. Then it was time for the Patriots.

 However, at the team's request, they were not announced individually but simply as a team. It fit in very well with the way they had come together as a team and beaten other teams that may have had superior individual talent.

 In this day when so many of the stars in professional sports seem to be primarily interested in their own glory and the size of their bank account, this was a team which realized that, whatever they did individually, they would not prosper unless they worked together, supporting one another and placing the team ahead of self.

 Given the way that kids look to athletes as role models, regardless of whether or not they should, it was nice to see the example set for them by the Patriots. One can only hope that the kids took note.

 Oh, by the way, they won the game, too.

Brad Pardee
Editor

 Not surprisingly, Congress is moving toward legislation aimed at preventing this from ever happening again. However, the current system of auditing was put in place the great stock market crash of 1929, in order to prevent that from ever happening again. 

Consequently, the debate is on about what more is needed. A couple of quotes from an article in the USA Today, however, are very sobering to me. Arthur Bowman, who is the editor of Bowman's Accounting Report, said, "If we have more accountants in jail, it would be a deterrent." In a similar vein, former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt suggested, "Behavior is changed by fear and humiliation. Rulemaking and legislation keep behavior changed."

 This seems to me to be a shockingly sad commentary on the state of our national character and culture. I suppose it shouldn't be surprising, though. Surveys have shown more and more people adopting the idea that lying isn't necessarily wrong and the college campuses are being inundated with students who feel there is nothing wrong with cheating on assignments, papers, and exams.

 Whatever happened to the notion that we do what is right not by fear of jail or humiliation but simply because it is right? Our freedom, which we cherish so preciously, is based on the notion that we will choose to do what is right. When we do not choose to do what is right, then something outside ourselves has to come in to compel us to do it.

 Consider the shocking treatment of workers by businesses during the industrial revolution. The business owners had a choice to make, and they chose to place increased profits ahead of human decency. What happened? The labor movement, and now, a business can't choose to close an obsolete factory or change production processes without consulting the unions. The failure to choose what was right led to a loss of freedom.

 Or consider the discrimination that exists in the workplace. Personnel offices had a choice to make, and they chose not to hire qualified women and minorities. What happened? Equal employment opportunity laws and affirmative action requirements, and now, when an opening needs to be filled, it's not enough to say, "Who has the best skills or the most experience?" Personnel offices have to keep track of the color and gender of applicants and employees and consider those non-work related factors as well. Once again, freedom was lost because of a failure to choose what was right.

 There is a famous quote, often attributed wrongly to Alexis de Tocqueville, which says, "Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." I think that there is a great deal of truth in that quote.

 If we are going to retain our freedoms which make us a great nation, to be free to live our lives as we desire without the government watching over us like monitors on a kindergarten playground, then we are going to have to demonstrate the ability to do what is right because it IS right, needing no other reason.

 If we do not make these choices on our own, then we can expect to see our freedoms slip away, like sand through our fingers, and with them, our greatness as a nation. This is a loss that neither we nor the world around us can afford.