The James Logan Courier

By Jack Z. Smith
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

``Where is there dignity unless there is honesty?'
—Marcus Tullius Cicero

``Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.''
—Thomas Jefferson

``There's one way to find out if a man is honest — ask him. If he says, "Yes," you know he is a crook.''
—Groucho Marx.

Diogenes, the Greek philosopher who is said to have searched in daylight with a lantern for an honest man, might become quite discouraged in today's world — especially if he were regularly reading newspaper headlines or watching CNN.

The world always has been amply endowed with liars and crooks. But it seems we're exceeding historical norms in today's troubled times— and wherever we're finding brazen dishonesty, its companion is unbridled greed.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (March 28, 1793–December 10, 1864) was an American geographer, geologist, and ethnologist, noted for his early studies of Native American cultures, as well as for his discovery in 1832 of the source of the Mississippi River. His wife's knowledge on Native American legends shared with Schoolcraft formed in part the source material for Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha.

Read Henry Schoolcraft's Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers, free from Project Gutenberg.