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Show Pleasant Grove ReviewLone Peak Press - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - Page 2 O PINION V Support family values Define family. According to an old Webster Dictionary definition, "family" in the 1930s meant "a group com prising immediate kindred especially espe-cially the group formed of parents and children constituting the fundamental fun-damental social unit of civilized societies. The family in modern societies is much more independent than in ' ancient and primitive communities communi-ties where if it existed at all, it was directly subordinate to the clan." Now define family in the 21st century. It all depends on which side of the fence you are sitting. - From the liberal stance this could be any two persons, including includ-ing same sex partners, who choose to live together. The importance of .the individual and their lifestyle .overrides any traditional definition defini-tion of family and family values in these partnerships. Never before has the institu-. tion of the family been under siege as it is today. Families are .under fire in their own homes through the media, Internet and other venues. United States grassroots organizations organ-izations embracing basic family values and a family standard are -supporting National Family Week, Nov. 21 to Nov. 28. More than 40 states have activities and programs pro-grams planned for this week. The rallying cry to protect family fam-ily values has brought together differing religious and cultural groups as never before. In north Utah County, the Lehi community has seven days of events planned for its Lehi Family Week, beginning with its nonde-nominational nonde-nominational fireside at 7 p.m. on Sunday, at Lehi High School, featuring fea-turing the Christian music group Jericho Road. A full list of events is available in today's newspaper on page nine or at www.heraldex-tra.com, www.heraldex-tra.com, link "Lehi." The Pleasant Grove community is marking the importance of families fam-ilies by observing National Family Volunteer Day with its own Pleasant Pleas-ant Grove Family Volunteer Day on Saturday. Families in the city are encouraged encour-aged to work on a volunteer service serv-ice project together on this day. The organizer, Ra'Shelle Wilson, has a list of possible projects and contact numbers for those who are interested. Her phone number is 785-6017. We encourage all communities to support family values, not only for this seven-day November observance, but throughout the year. Organize to set a standard of family values for your city. Protect against the destructive assaults invading our homes, and help strengthen families. The allure of 'right now7 A few years ago I tried an experiment with a group of 10-year-olds I was teaching. "You have a choice," I announced as I held up a bowl of M&M's. "You can either have a handful of M&M's right now, or you can each have an entire bag of M&M's tomorrow." "Why don't we try it the other way around?" Brady suggested. sug-gested. "Give us a bag of 1 M&M's now, or a handful tomorrow!" The rest of the class loved Brady's idea. But I didn't. "Nope," I said. "A handful now or the bag tomorrow. That's the way it's going to be." "How about just a few now AND the rest later?" Megan asked. "Sorry," I said. ".No compromise. compro-mise. You have to make a choice." "What if some of us want our M&M's now, and some of us want to wait?" Adam asked. - "Good idea," I said. "But no. Whatever you're going to do, you're going to do it as a group. You guys figure it out. I'm going to get a drink." - With that I stepped into the hall and wandered down to the drinking fountain, making sure to pause and stretch and meander. mean-der. 2 I wanted to give them plenty :of time to hash this out. t We were, after all, talking .about chocolate here. If there's -one thing 26 years of marriage jn.a.s taught me, it's that you liave to be very careful about . decisions that involve chocolate even if it's the kind that :jnelts in your mouth, not in "your hand. t When I finally poked my -head back into the room, the decision had been made: the :bowl of M&M's was empty, and -there were chocolate-induced miles all around. "Actually, it was pretty much a no-brainer," Nancy said of the decision. "The hardest part was 'figuring out how to divide them jup. The boys wanted to go first, but we didn't want to take a chance on the boys actually touching the M&M's before we got them. You never know -where boys' hands have been :you know?" m ,. - Nancy, I should mention, has brothers. So one of the boys out of respect for delicate feelings I won't say whom arm-wrestled Nancy for the right to go first. I didn't see the actual event, but I'm confident the end came surely and swiftly. Think "Harry Potter Meets Xena, Warrior Princess." A battle of wits would have been competitive, but this wasn't was-n't about brain power. This was about brute strength. Advantage Nancy. The next day when I came home from work several of the kids from my class were hanging hang-ing out around my front lawn. "We were just sort of thinking think-ing that . . . you know . . . maybe we should have waited to get a whole bag of M&M's today," Brady said. "And we were sort of wondering . . . you know ... if it is, like, too late to change our minds?" I smiled. "Yeah, it is," I said. "Sorry!" "But the girls ate most of the M&M's in the bowl," Colton said. "We hardly got any." "That's too bad," I said. "If you had waited not only would you have received more M&M's today than you got yesterday, but you would have received your own bag, and you wouldn't have had to worry about how to divide them. "But you decided not to wait, so you're pretty, much stuck with what you got," I said. They didn't like that answer, but brought new insight to our Bible class the next Sunday when we talked about how important it is to always stay focused on our ultimate, long-term long-term goals and priorities no matter how alluring and intoxicating intoxi-cating the diversions right now may be. You know, the story of Jacob, Laban, Leah, Rachel and the M&M's. Where has Thanksgiving gone? So, really where has Thanksgiving Thanks-giving gone anyway? According to any store around here, its only a little resting point between Halloween and Christmas. Christ-mas. See, my son and I went out the Monday after Halloween to look for Thanksgiving decorations. decora-tions. He loved the ones we made for Halloween and was excited to put up some for the next holiday, but after dragging ourselves through three stores, we found only those "Harvest" type of decorations. Pilgrims or Native Americans? Nope, the closest we got to that was one or two really ugly ceramic turkeys wearing pilgrim-ish hats. What we did see, however, was a plethora of Christmas decorations and trimmings. The stores had changed overnight from an orangeblack spookfest, to awash in green and red, and Santas and snowmen. snow-men. So, according to all the shopping shop-ping places out there, including Robert's, Wal-Mart, and Big Lots, we all just skip directly zmmmmmmam. from celebrating all that is fearful, wallowing in candy gluttony, to all that is gift getting get-ting and giving and joyful excess. Is that right? No. Thanksgiving is an important impor-tant holiday, and one much needed in today's society. We Americans are so spoiled, with such a sense of material entitlement, that we need this one holiday centered on gratitude. grati-tude. Gratitude. That's a word almost forgotten forgot-ten in today's culture of acquisition acqui-sition and conquest of the next newest, biggest, bestest thing. It's a sad comment on how the American Dream has gone so awfully amuck, that we're so busy getting and living the Dream, we forget to step back and be thankful for n . . have. -""iatWe Maybe if we had more tude for the abundance fe have, there would be less -'I0 biness bankruptcy, and b" sumer debt. on- Maybe if we had more tude for those people whoh helped us along the Way tW would be more aid forVtt who are on the bottom Maybe if we had more grati tude for the profusion of fre ' doms we enjoy in this country" there would be less and we d be more active in our communities and around the world, reaching out those mi hons of people who know only oppression. Maybe, just maybe, if We remembered to celebrate Thanksgiving, and literally gave thanks for the individual blessings we all have, whether big or small, tangible or intangible, intan-gible, we'd be better prepared to actually share and live the Christmas spirit, and share of ourselves, and maybe even our possessions with those in need. Maybe. Growth of city brings hard work al It's easy sometimes to think you know somebody. Most of the time we go about our daily activities, rubbing shoulders with the same individuals. indi-viduals. We get to know them and learn certain information about them. We don't seem to change much from the days we spent in college. Each time we met a new person, the same three questions ques-tions would surface. What's your name? Where are you from? What's your major? ( It's very logical that these three pieces of information are the first we learn about a person. per-son. They are very vital and in a few words usually offer important impor-tant clues about that person's makeup. As we grow up, we meet people peo-ple on a different plane. The initial ini-tial questions are done away with and we get to know other things about them first. Many times we learn about people by working side by side with them. Still, the initial impressions remain. We often categorize people peo-ple by the jobs they have, the v education they have received, or other information. And those impressions often remain with us for years. The other day I went to a retreat of the American Fork City Council. During the first half of the meeting, the group heard reports from most of the department heads in the city. I thought I knew these people. peo-ple. Through the years' I have worked with them, asking questions ques-tions about their endeavors, helping the public to know what is happening in their community communi-ty because of what they do on their jobs. As they spoke, I glanced around the room. In almost every case I had some other kind of contact with the individuals. individ-uals. I had visited some of their homes, volunteered with others on certain boards or committees, commit-tees, and cheered in the stands with yet others as our children participated in events together. I thought I knew what they did on their jobs, but it turns out that I was somewhat wrong. Each individual reported the triumphs they had and the challenges chal-lenges they faced. Many of those challenges were similar. As our community has grown, most of our employees have had to do more with the same amount of help. Certainly technology has helped, but growth has added a huge burden. For example, city engineer and public works director Howard Denney reported that in the 11 years he has worked for the city, he has signed more subdivisions than had been approved since the city was founded. Now, that's growth. My hat is off to those who serve our residents. For the most part, they work hard and are truly dedicated public servants. ser-vants. Thanks. SARATOGA SPRINGS At the Saratoga Springs City Council meeting, Nov. 9, Mayor Tim Parker said it was a real pleasure working with Councilman Council-man John Kimball, who is stepping step-ping down after five years on the council, and wished him the best. Council agreed and guests in the room applauded his service. He will officially resign Nov. 15. Applications to fill his seat are being taken at the city offices, 2015 S. Redwood Road. SARATOGA SPRINGS The Saratoga Springs City Council appointed resident Lydia Havanski Moody to the Administrative Control Board for the North Utah Valley Animal Ani-mal Services Special District Nov. 9. Moody goes to dog shows around the country and said she was eager to serve as a representative. represen-tative. City Manager Ken Leetham said this was a county-wide county-wide district the city is part of and previously there was an agency part of Utah County and Suzie McCue was the last representative. repre-sentative. SARATOGA SPRIGNS Jacob's Ranch Plat G, property located at 2300 South Redwood Road with 18.45 acres, was approved at the Nov. 9 City Council meeting. The only issue was to make sure there was a second access, before the building could begin. The second access would be shared with property owned by the city. City manager Ken Leetham said staff would work with the applicant in regards to the second access and would work with the Jacobs to finish the road. SARATOGA SPRINGS Saratoga Springs City Council authorized the final payment request for Wasatch Environmental, Environ-mental, contractor for the main sewer lift station upgrade, Nov. 9. The amount would be $13,808.55. Public Works Director Direc-tor Mark Edwards told the council coun-cil Wasatch Environmental has completed the lift station and needed to be paid. SARATOGA SPRINGS Saratoga Springs is now $1.3 million in debt with the council's approval of the city building lease at the Oct. 26 Saratoga Springs City Council meeting. The city approved the lease of $1,367,000 for their new city building, at the crossroads, with Zions First National Bank of Salt Lake. The loan includes the building and completion of the building, furniture and issuance of the bond. ,. i Extra funds would be applied to the principal of the loan. The monthly payment would be $8,838.97 and will reset after the fifth year and adjust three tinies through the life of the loan. There would not be a cap on how much it could adjust during that time. SARATOGA SPRINGS Saratoga Springs is set to have a second credit union come to the city if the developer meets the UDC, Urban Design Committee Commit-tee requirements. At their Nov. 3 meeting, planning commission apprve the design but it is now up to te UDC to also approve the design, which Councilman Scott Kahn part of, before any building I" mits are issued. The proUc according to City Planning Director Dave Anderson was ti UDC not liking the bm planned for the exterior. They wanted stone rock 1 more of a flow of the crossroad- jildi til .lost ';ral :&l ;(fas ';Cer le -or c ide: -:3en riC It i dp; ca re: tfin -29 'Jre, lo .isfo 'Jed -no St for for tit "it ft jPit |