Bob McCarty Writes

While the headline of a post I published eight days ago gave passing eyes an idea of the direction that post would take, it was the first paragraph (below) that offered more details:

I find myself especially thankful that all three of my sons are old enough that they no longer require toys with every fast-food meal they order.  Why?  Because fast-food purveyors are now including politically-correct reading material — as a toy substitute — in their kid’s meal offerings.  Case in point: Taco Bell®.

Among the 200-plus words used in the remainder of the piece, I expressed my chief concern about the book, “Todd and the Talking Pinata Talks Tolerance” by Professor R.H. Fuller, in one sentence:

I’m not as concerned about the content of this book as I am with the fast-food company’s thinly-veiled effort to supplant the role of parents in teaching values to their children.

The day after I published the piece, Fuller replied to an e-mail I had sent him the previous day and we began an exchange of nearly  a dozen e-mail messages that concluded with me offering the author of the book — actually, a series of books — a forum to speak his mind.  Below is the message he wanted to share:

Virtue. Every parent wants their children to embrace it.  Every country wants it for their citizens. Every culture honors it. Every religion teaches it. Somehow, we all know that living a virtuous life is living a good life. Even the most-jaded and calloused among us would agree.  Take some of our elected officials as an example.

They talk about honesty and hope and faithfulness and courage because even they know this is something to aspire to. The problem is, their lives do not live up to their well-crafted speeches. They say things like,”I did not have sex with that woman…” But they did.

They promise not to raise taxes, then they do. Every other month, another one of them holds a press conference with his wife at his side. The pain on her face and the humiliation in her eyes are evident to us all as her disgraced husband speaks of his unfaithfulness.

Because virtue is good and because we all know that it is good, the evil among us will try and attach themselves to different virtues. Some have taken a virtue like tolerance and twisted it’s meaning or intention.

Tolerance does NOT mean that we need to accept anything that anyone is doing for any reason. The message of tolerance is that we be accepting of people and recognize that their beliefs or ideas may be different than our own. This acceptance should be granted so long as what they believe is in line with the common good and our laws. So, I will accept the fact that you wear a turban and I will respect you, but I will not accept a different person who sacrifices dogs in his back yard because it is something that gives him joy. We are not called to tolerate evil.

If we can all agree that virtue is good, then we can move on.

Next question:  Who should be the teachers of virtue?

It is obvious from the lesson above that words can distort the truth, so let’s choose wisely.

I know! How about parents? That’s my vote, because parents care more about their individual kids than any other person or group or organization.  More than schools and teachers. More than religious institutions. More than the government, too (sorry big government fans, but it’s true).

Parents care more, have more invested and understand their child better than any one or any thing. But what about the parents that don’t spend a lot of their time teaching their kids about virtue or don’t know how to or have trouble explaining things?  Do their kids get lost along the way and end up reprobates? What chance does a kid who is inundated with negative images and ideas all daylong have in becoming a person of character?

Perhaps they could use a little help.  Maybe a tool to assist them in passing on these truths to their progeny? Ok…

How about a children’s book series? One that systematically teaches timeless classic American virtues to elementary school-age kids.

Let’s check the bookstores. Nope, nothing at Barnes or Borders. What!? Is this really possible? I mean, come on, we all agreed that teaching virtue was important. Isn’t there one book series out there to help parents open up discussions on doing good?

Enter “Todd And The Talking Piñata”, a children’s book series that follows Todd, a nine-year-old boy, and his papier-mâché friend.  Together, they share adventures that define and demonstrate a different virtue in each of the series of 20 books.

I wrote the stories to be a help and a tool for parents wanting to teach their children life’s most important lessons.

As the father of six, I recognized the need for books on virtue when I discovered that my local bookstore offered nothing. I spent around a year trying to get companies to help me fund the books or provide money to publish them. I finally met with a company that saw the value of doing good for children. A fast-food company!

Taco Bell® agreed to include a small-sized but full-story version of four of my books in their kid’s meals. The response was overwhelmingly positive, so they decided to feature four new titles the following year. To date, they have put my little books into the hands of around four million children.

Today, I am looking for other companies or individuals who believe that teaching virtue is important so we can complete the illustrations of the other twelve books and get them printed.

Virtue, and the teaching and training of virtue is quite possibly one of the most important things we can do for our children, our nation and our world. To those of you who are tired or saddened or angry about the steady moral decline of our country, I ask you to join me in making a difference and close with the words of Albert Einstein.

Though he said, “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value,” I would change one word:  “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of virtue.”

While I still hold reservations about fast-food outfits dispensing books, I stand corrected when it comes to Professor Fuller’s efforts.  Learn more about him at here and stay tuned to future posts in which I review his book series.