When we were attacked on Sept. 11, we knew the main reason for the attack was that Islamists hated our way of life, our virtues, our freedoms. What we never imagined was that the free press - an institution at the heart of those virtues and freedoms - would be among the first to surrender.

If there is one thing educators can agree on, it's this: children do better in school when their parents get involved in their learning.

Have we come to the point where it is now considered a secular blasphemy to acknowledge the name of God at all?

Loving your homeland is just as natural as loving your father or mother - after all, your country nourishes you, protects you, and in many ways makes you who you are. Just as it's a virtue to honor your parents, it's a good and admirable thing to honor the land you call home.

There is nothing more influential in a child's life than the moral power of quiet example. For children to take morality seriously they must see adults take morality seriously.

I do not suggest that you should not have an open mind ... but don't keep your mind so open that your brains fall out.

It is our character that supports the promise of our future - far more than particular government programs or policies.