Do It For Mom

A Note from the Editor

Don't panic, Mother's Day is still 10 days off. You haven't missed the opportunity to reflect on the contributions she made in your life. Most mothers, at least the good ones, try to instill some basic traits in their children that are critical for the growth and improvement of a better society. Honesty, integrity, respect, consideration, compassion, modesty, and responsibility leap to mind. Remember those struggles as a kid when you knew the right thing to do but didn't want to do it? Like, I remember my mom making me shovel the snow for the old lady who lived alone down the street for free when the rest of the gang were building forts for the best snowball fight of the blizzard of `78. My back ached as I walked up the street — just in time to be pelted by a barrage of snowballs from my buddies.

Moms often get a bum rap for having to resort to guilt trips to get us to do the right thing. Most of us have to admit, though, we're better people for all that they did . . . when we do the right thing, that is.

Which gets us to the little matter of responding to the SSTI Weekly Digest readers' survey. You know you should fill it out. You know you read the Digest (you're reading this). And you know the survey is going to be relatively painless. Sure, it may take five minutes of your time, but you know participating really is your responsibility if you appreciate the information in the Digest and Funding Supplement or want to see them improved.

Half of the readers may ignore our pleas for participation. But not you. Your mom didn't raise a shirker or slacker. (I'm not talking to that brother or sister who really hasn't lived up to their potential. I'm talking to you.) No, your mom helped craft you into someone with the integrity, respect and responsibility to do the right thing, to click on the link below and fill out the survey.

When you're done, you'll be able to walk with your head a little higher or sit down in the next staff meeting, feeling pretty good about yourself because you filled out the SSTI Weekly Digest survey and some of them won't have. If only their moms knew! Boy, would they be in trouble.

The survey is available online at: http://www.ssti.org/digestsurvey03.htm [expired].

And when you call, visit, send flowers or think of your mother on May 11. Thank her for us. She raised a good kid.

A couple of closing thoughts

If you already filled out the survey: I'm sorry for making you one of those great kids who had to take the heat with everyone else when it wasn't your fault (yet another time in your life probably). Hopefully you'll understand and forgive me.

And, in trying to elicit survey responses over the past 10 days, we've tried to appeal to your sense of humor and sense of duty. Now that we've resorted to playing the mom card, I promise that this is our last plea for your input in the 2003 survey.