One of our stories this month looks at what neighborhood children are thinking during this month of Thanksgiving. It’s gratifying to read how genuinely important other people are in the lives of these children.

One person can still make a difference, these kids say, and favorite teachers, grandparents, neighbors and parents are doing so every day.

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It’s also interesting to note how much – or how little – the World Trade Center tragedy and its aftermath appear to be troubling these children. In some of their writing, the events are mentioned, but few children appear to be dwelling on the tragedy. Since children tend to think and act like their parents, it’s reasonable to conclude that most of us are acting rationally and conveying this rationality to our children.

Perhaps we’re a bit more on edge than usual, and perhaps we’re not telling our children everything we think or believe. But we’re telling them enough that they aren’t overly worried about what today’s challenges mean to their futures.

I hope you’ll give this story some thought as you as you prepare for your own Thanksgiving celebration.

Last month, a friend asked me to help debunk a much-forwarded email message concerning what appeared to be the latest flash from the terrorist campaign. The email reported that a relative at a federal agency told her that 30 U-Haul, Ryder and Verizon trucks throughout the country had been rented “by people of Arab descent,” and the trucks hadn’t been returned and were presumed stolen.

You can pretty much figure out where this is headed.

Anyway, the note had been forwarded and forwarded and forwarded and forwarded, and the question in my friend’s mind was clear: Do I have information that the government isn’t providing to the public? And what should I do with this information?

I called a friend at the Dallas Morning News to see what he knew, and he hadn’t heard about the issue. And honestly, what is the likelihood of top-secret information finding it’s way into our hands before it reaches the New York Times or ABC News?

Still, these days, it seems as if you just never know.

Anyway, I relayed this information to my friend, along with the address of the website I use for tracking news – excite.com. News and information pop up on this website just a few minutes after people at the major media outlets receive it.

Later, I realized I should have passed along an even better website: gcfl.net.

The “Good Clean Funnies List” (GCFL) offers a good, clean, usually funny joke or story every day – for free. Most of the information is funny, and it’s probably more productive for our daily lives than so much of the other email we’re receiving these days.