CLEVELAND, Ohio — On this Valentine's Day where there are usually smiles, let us do more of that and leave - for a while - the world's problems which pepper our lives.
There will will be time enough to get back to the problems we face.
Let us turn instead to a part of Valentine's Day perhaps you may have learned long ago but have not thought about since.
Let us return to elementary school and the Valentine's Day of our youth.
I remember how each student in my second grade class brought a bunch of very inexpensive Valentine's cards we gave to each other.
Each kid got a card.
This was before any ideas of romantic love even entered our thoughts. The children's cards had phrases easily understood by those in the second grade.
We told each other "You're Awesome!" Or "Have a nice Valentine's Day." Or "You rock!" Or "You're Cool!"
On Valentine's Day we kids wished the best for each other. My old second grade elementary schoolroom is filled with my Valentine's Day memories. But every day we learned valuable lessons like don't hit people, put things back where you found them, don't take things that aren't yours.
Lessons good for life that were learned at elementary school and at home.
Think of how better the world would be if all of us grownups lived by those ideas.
On Valentine's Day, we kids were encouraged to look for the best in each other.
Long before any romantic thoughts may have entered our minds, we kids learned about a deep meeting of Valentine's Day. We learned about how we should look for the best in everyone.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if all of us in the grownup world embraced those early elementary school lessons?
We'd have a better world without bullying, hate, crime, violence, and a lot of other bad stuff.
The small schoolroom can be a teaching place for the wide wide world. During this Valentine's period, I think we all should be kids again, exchanging those second grade valentines, telling each other, "you're awesome. You're my friend. I like you."
This is Leon Bibb sending you this Happy Valentine's Day greeting: I like you. You're my friend.
Signed Leon …. Your friend.