Posted on: Tuesday, October 16, 2001

Editorial
Charity extends from Afghanistan to home

President Bush's call to the children of America to give their hard-earned chore money to the needy children of Afghanistan struck a chord across the country.

As an image, it has everything going for it: the smallest and most vulnerable victims of the Taliban and the U.S. bombing campaign getting assistance from America's children.

Give $1, Bush urged, calling it "an opportunity to help others while teaching our own children a valuable lesson about service and character."

While we would like to shield our children from evil, we cannot guard them from images of planes crashing into buildings and fanatics who hate us.

How then to teach our children to respond? Perform random acts of kindness. Let's teach our children — and ourselves, while we're at it — to perform precise acts of kindness.

But if we truly want to instill character in our children, make service for others a part of their lives.

Yes, the children of Afghanistan need our help. So, too, do the children of America who go to bed hungry, who are victims of violence or are homeless.

Send contributions to the children of Afghanistan in care of the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500.

And then find a charity at home that needs your help.