well welcome to Perspectives from WFSU Public Media I'm Tom Flanigan this program using the Zoom platform although perhaps not too much longer more on that to come we pre-recorded this on Tuesday June 15th for playback on Thursday June 17th and the show of course to be aired on WFSU fm and we also will archive it on WFSU.org here's something we love history we sure do did you know that the nation's first ever father's day was celebrated on June 19, 1910 in the state of Washington but it wasn't until 1972 which was 58 years thereafter that we had the official designation of the day and until that uh it was kind of an unofficial observance across the country but in full disclosure uh mother's day preceded it here in 1908 and it was in 1910 that many other states adopted father's day as kind of a companion observance in that regard and there are an estimated 70 million dads in the united states right now according to the latest stats that i saw from the u.s government following the most recent census well we have father's day coming up here this Sunday and to talk about the observance and also to relay some personal experiences and also the significance of this day to all of us because if we are not fathers we are all at least offspring so we have a real panel of experts to talk about it we welcome back to Perspectives award-winning family advocate Jack Levine founder of the four generations institute Jack always a pleasure to see you sir welcome back thank you the pleasure is all mine we have another very strong advocate when it comes to dads and that is our own Leon County sheriff uh Walt McNeil and sir it is wonderful to see you well hello my pleasure Tom good to see you in a great program I'm looking forward to engaging well since i know that your time with us is is kind of limited other obligations a call sheriff talk about your advocacy here because you have not just been you know a very strong guy in the law enforcement community but you've also kind of delved back into what makes for individuals to go off track get off the rails and unfortunately in too many instances wind up in the criminal justice system you have been talking about strong families ever since i've known you and re-articulate that for the audience if you will why you're such a big believer in that well Tom thank you and you know families are the crooks and and the glue that holds our nation our nation together uh it's through families that we're able to achieve uh great things and particularly fathers fathers play such a huge role in the development of their children and unfortunately Tommen and Jack there are so many children in America who don't get a chance to to feel that the true meaning of the American dream in large part because they're in families that are devoid of a a father figure there and you know i grew up in in Chicago, Illinois i was born in Laurel, Mississippi and my father uh was an alcoholic and uh was in and out of the house for various reasons but the great thing about that is and that's where community comes in i can remember mr Nicholson who lived about four houses down from us and uh we didn't have encyclopedias uh i knew nothing about uh the various books that uh uh uh that everybody reads at that at that age you know five six years of age uh didn't have a book in the house at all and uh but i could go down to mr Nicholson's house so he would uh come down and get us off the playground and say you little knucklehead boys come over here you need to learn something they take us into his house and he was the first person to introduce me to a golf club at the age of six uh never you know don't know anything about golf but he played golf and he showed the boys the boys in the neighborhood about golfing and that sort of thing so it doesn't necessarily always mean that uh that your biological father is that father figure who makes that great impact and that impression upon your life and that's why it's so important and we in the Leon County sheriff's office talk about all in uh Tom and we believe that's just simply another way of saying it takes a village uh to raise a child it means that we all have to kind of pitch in and fit in where we can and if there are kids out there you know i haven't grown up in the circumstances which i did one of my passions is trying to do everything we can to fill those voids and gaps in the lives of our children and i've had so many people who've done that for me i think back to boy scouting and i think back to little league baseball where i had a baseball coach that did more than coach me about baseball he talked to me about life issues the same thing with my swim coach when i was at the neighborhood swimming pool and i didn't have the money to get in so he would pave my way to get into the swimming pool to swim and taught me how to swim all those things that most of us get a chance to do with your fathers there are kids in this community who won't have that opportunity but there are many of us out there who can provide that opportunity for our kids or for kids if we just pitch in that's why I'm so excited about what we're doing here with Leon county sheriff's office with our scouting program we just kicked off two new scouting areas here in Tallahassee one at the griffin community center griffin heights community and another in the bun community where our deputies are partnering with fathers uh who are becoming the scout masters we're out there in fact i got to put a plug in right now because anybody that wants to be a scout master at bonn or griffin elementary or griffin heights uh community please come contact Leon County sheriff's office we are looking for people to do that kind of thing in our community and i can talk on and on about uh time about the the need to have father figures and the fathers to be engaged and i always say this people sometimes misunderstand i love my father like no other person but he was a person who went into the military had some very bad experiences while he was in the military came back what they call back then shell shocked and so he was not able to fully engage with us as kids so other people in the neighborhood knew that and they stepped into the breach and helped us out and I'm just this is father's day is coming up and I'm calling all men to be fathers out there well that's great and and Jack Levine is the founder of four generations institute both you and i i really had a strong paternal grounding if you will going back several generations and that was kind of the genesis of what you did with the institute and the message that it brings forward today right well absolutely i i must uh pay a compliment uh sheriff McNeil you know is a modest gentleman but i will tell you the positions he has taken for the decades i have known him and the positivism that he brings to the badge to the star um is is really meritorious of a tremendous amount of recognition and the voters have recognized it i just want to make sure that our entire community understands that this is a gentleman who has chosen to devote his life work based upon those very precedents that he just articulated and it's not just here in Leon County it's statewide in fact nationally his activities with a group called fight crime invest in kids is uh really a herald of that kind of um absolute devotion so i i know i know um you know we we're we're honored to have him his support of our children's service council vote uh back in November is is just the most recent example of that and yes i think there's a similarity to what i have experienced my father was an old man back back when 60 was old uh he he uh he and my mom uh got together and um i was created he was also a blind man and um as i know you Tom know and so does the sheriff i grew up basically serving my father as his reader and his leader when it came to unfamiliar places and i didn't know for 40 years or 50 years after that that his disability his age his blindness were actually gifts to me uh they were not you know wrapped up in shiny paper and bows but they were ways that i had to perform and my interest in writing and reading and advocacy i think was rooted in those sessions of reading to my father now I'm on a campaign and it's not a political campaign don't get nervous it's a campaign of language and i am recommending uh as much as possible to convert the concept of father's day to dad's day and i'll tell you what i mean by that to me being a father is biological but being a dad is behavioral uh there are many men who can uh and are already showing that they could be dads to a to a child boys and girls by being there when they're needed most and it could be a volunteer guardian ad litem it could be a foster or adoptive parent it doesn't again have to be a bloodline but it has to be a heartfelt commitment to want to step forward and say I'm here for you now nobody's perfect and we have to be very careful in the realm of volunteerism because we certainly want to have background checks and all the necessary safeguards the sheriff knows this as well as anybody else but that said i think there was a an untapped reservoir of that kind of emotional connection that children need as mentors as guides whether it be you know again through coaching through the interests that we all have as we mature and now being a grandfather i can even double down on that because uh you know grandfathering brings that reality of legacy to bear it's not morbid to say at some point we're going to be judged by what we left behind and i think that's a very important theme not only for celebration but for real contemplation so I'm I'm pleased to be in the sheriff's presence I'm pleased to have this message go out to our WFSU fm 88.9 listenership because anybody everybody who is interested can step forward to a an array of opportunities in the community well sheriff McNeil let's talk about some of those opportunities and if you could share some of the experiences of perhaps some young lives that we're starting to get into some uh bad places that were pulled back from the brink if you will be because of the kinds of interventions that both you and Jack were just talking about i need that spring to mind again without mentioning names but some examples of how this can work in a positive direction yeah you know Tom and Jack let me start with a story that i'll work my way from the worst to the to the better outcome but i'll never forget the the the setting where our staff at when i was secretary department of corrections young man at the age of 16 sentenced to prison and had spent something about 20 years in prison and he's being released from prison and my staff i wasn't there to see it myself but Steph tells me that this young man begged and pleaded not to be released from prison going back to the community because as as Jack was saying he had become he was nurtured in the prison system and he had connected with uh the dad for him was one of the guards that worked there in the prison system he had become sort of his father figure for it and so now he's having to break away from all he's known i mean he's been imprisoned his heart entire adult life and now he's going back to a community and has nothing to go back to and uh that's just one of those horror stories and so i wanted to kind of uh set that stage to move to the other piece of this which is if we can get on in front of these with these kids in these communities i'll tell you uh one of the first things i was engaged in was the urban league where we we saw these kids and i won't call their name but i will tell one's a minister right now here in Tallahassee they were just gang bangers who were on the streets had no idea about where they were going with their lives and we sit down and we put working with the urban league through their youth program at the time we put together this was back during the days of rap of course and we put together a a uh a rap competition uh for these kids to give them something that they realize and they could relate to and uh i can tell you that uh those kids who we put into a studio and let them cut records and they got a little competition of their own where they did their own little dance steps and they we we helped uh bring in all the acoustics and material they needed to write their songs and do all this stuff and i will tell you one of those kids uh his father uh went on to be a professional uh singer his father helped him when we got him in the right place we had one go on to be a minister most of those kids went on to go to college one went on to play football so it just tells you that so much can be done if you just step in and and try to help where you are moving forward i uh personally one of the kids that lived in the joe lewis street projects there his mother called me up and just asked if i would mentor her son and uh you know when you think about that you say mentor a kid sometimes we think about that so that's going to be a big lift we're going to spend all this time with this kid no it wasn't uh dead at all Tom and Jack it was just simply uh being able to uh talk on the telephone the kid would call you when when things were going tough just to be that person you can have a conversation with and it makes a huge difference in that child's life and that's why uh we've devoted uh again uh here in the sheriff's office we see scouting as such an opportunity in our community my son went through scouting my daughter went through uh girl scouts and we wanted to make sure that other kids had those same opportunities and that's why we're we're focusing on on doing some things for scouting i also serve on the uh boys and girls club uh here in Tallahassee and the work we're doing with the boys and girls clubs i we just uh had our our annual uh burgers and steaks uh dinner uh where we bring these kids in and you can hear their stories uh they talk about the fact that but for the boys and girls club uh they would have been in a life of drugs and crying but the boys and girls club in those interactions being able to go to a place every day after school to sit down and get your work done and see kids that are like yourself i gave them a sense of family away from family and i talked about that in the speech that i gave to the boys and girls clubs uh dinner that family isn't just your nucleus family but family can be found where you find people of common interests who care about you and really care about your life and how you're going to to progress through life and that's what the boys and girls club offers and lastly i'll talk about boys town I'm also on the board of boys town here in in Tallahassee and boys town offers housing and i my hat's off to uh the persons who work at boys down the parents who these people volunteer or i shouldn't say about they get paid to come in and become house parents for these kids and they they are able to some of those kids come in with their failing grades they've got mental health issues they've got uh anger management issues and these uh house parents are able to interact with these kids and turn their lives around and i again i see what can be done i see the commitment we have here in Leon County and as Jack said i think some of the things that we see in Leon County can be replicated in other communities around the state and around the country uh but i i think no no better time for us to talk about uh the youth of our community the youth of our nation than in father's day and i love what Jack just talked about which is uh uh you know biologically you're a father but we can all be dads i i love that that's a that's a good way of looking at it Jack well well thank you sheriff and Tom i i know our time this morning with the sheriff is limited but i just want to make sure that he hears and we know that we're not disregarding or disrespecting women the moms are really important too and some of the grand moms and so are the the the the neighbors and and the the women at church and other civic organizations we believe in teamwork in any aspect of children's lives they need to know that there is a team approach to their well-being so you know moms need support as well you know with healthy start and healthy families and other good programs and that's why I'm so excited about our recently approved children's service council because it really becomes the center of attention for innovation to supplement what is not being provided by department of children families and department of juvenile justice and it really is a citizen's way of saying I'm investing wisely in the future of our children and they're off to a roaring start uh chief judge chief judge john sostrom is the chairman and we're very excited about the children's service council so that's something that only 11 counties have have established but they're models for investment and that's what's so wonderful it's not only money investment it's time investment and those things marry together really make for a better future for our kids well Jack you mentioned the magic word time and sheriff McNeil i know that you have to slip on out of here but any final thoughts that you have it's your time to depart draws nicer well Tom i i will leave you all with a thought i'll paraphrase from Frederick Douglass which is really my anthem it is much easier to uh prepare a child and to rebuild a man thank you all and uh god bless thanks so much sheriff Walt McNeil of Leon County for being part of this very special pre-father's day Perspectives here from WFSU Public Media I'm Tom Flanigan and a reminder that you can always catch the program online if you miss it on the radio or if you hear it on the radio the first time and you'd like to go back and revisit it at any time you can just go to WFSU.org that's our website we try to have the most recent program up as soon as we can after it actually appears on the radio and you can go back and listen to it again and again Jack Levine the founder of the four generations institute remains on the air with us here as we talk about the importance of parents in general and that was a good point you just brought up Jack you don't want to be exclusive when it comes to these kinds of influences on young people a very good friend of mine and i think you know her pretty well too Dr. Sally Carrioth over at the school of nursing and one of the nation's preeminent grief counselors whenever my gosh there's a tragedy they uh usually at places like CNN and all that it gives sally a call so she can kind of solve the the national hurt if you will but she said that young people are like nature as nature aborts a vacuum so do young people aboard the vacuum in their lives when it comes to adult care and guidance as they grow up and if they don't have any positive examples they will find the nearest one they can which very possibly might be negative and not all that good it is this is going to happen so we need to get them in a position where they have the best influencers that they possibly can have well you know i think about it through the lens of what i call the three e's Tom uh there's the emotional side the educational side and the economic side and you know back when 35 45 years ago we were talking more about investing in children we didn't really have the research we had common sense we knew that children left alone do not do well but now more than ever we have phenomenal research and the research points in the same direction the earlier the better so when we look at the emotional side you know we know actually babies start learning about their environment in utero uh i don't mean that they understand the words but they understand if there's stress in the pregnant woman that stress translates into how they actually feel and they actually uh um get ready for birth then of course there is the early months and years of relating to children and again there's a difference between discipline and punishment and i really believe that children learn discipline by really understanding the building blocks of of being satisfied not only in the food they eat but in the nurturance that is within their own environment and then of course there's the education early childhood education is indispensable in later life if if a child does not know you know the basics of alphabet and colors and proper words then that child starts kindergarten way behind so we have great research and now great investments in early childhood and you know who some of our best teammates are for that right now are the business community we've got the Florida chamber of commerce we've got Florida tax watch we've got a really spectrum of business people who say it's not whether we pay its win and we don't want to pay for failure if we know how to invest in success uh and that's the educational block and then there is the economic block again we want a generation of young people who understand commerce and understand how it is that they could invest their own education into a a profitable outcome not only to amass money but to amass a better community and again this almost sounds like a dream world but more and more we're making these steps in the right direction i think we have a lot of confidence that an action like supporting a children's service council 67 yes in November of 2020 that's called an affirmation and that means we've got to have accountable dollars we've got to have measurable outcomes but we're on the track to doing that here in Leon County and i have a feeling that we're going to become a model for that kind of accountability so Tom you know sheriff McNeil always says it best because it's he speaks from the heart which is you know let's let's not miss the opportunities because regret is a painful lesson coming off of the one of the most traumatic situations i think that most of us have endured at least since oh probably in many instances world war ii Jack the impact that the pandemic has had on children with many families forced into some pretty dire straits because of not just the economics of the situation but sometimes the emotional fallout I'm thinking of a family in particular where the father who had been an office worker and he'd go to the office every day and come back home and play with the kids and all that was put in a situation where the only viable employment open to him was essentially a long-haul truck driver because he had a cdl in his hip pocket and he was able to leverage that and so he had to be away from home for extended periods of time while mom is going through additional stress and all and that isn't just an isolated incident many families have gone through those sorts of situations with the pandemic what do you think the out flow from that is going to be on a longer term basis that we'll have to deal with when it comes to kids and and their future well obviously Tom you know we're dealing with a situation that from the very beginning was kind of out of our control and then there was some appropriate um medical that did its best to both research and produce a vaccine now it's not the be-all and end-all to the stress and to the proliferation of the problem but it is in fact a tried and true preventive policy however we've got large populations in our communities right here in Tallahassee Leon County and throughout Florida who have not taken the opportunity to be vaccinated now you know some people call that a controversial standpoint that everyone should take this opportunity and I'm not saying throw people in sheriff McNeil's jail if they don't but i am saying how dare we not take the preventative step of going through full vaccination because it is proven that it is a preventative not only for the individual but for the community so we're kind of well on our way um from the presidential level uh we are seeing a tremendous amount of guidance but but i think that's very important now to to your point specifically on the impact of children honesty is the best policy when it comes to children but not to be scaring them not to be afraid of others what we have to do i think is is listen to our psychologists and listen to our professionals who say open up a conversation with our children don't ignore it they're going to be uh hearing all kinds of tales of of anguish they may see it in their own family maybe an elder who got ill with the virus so i think the honesty is necessary for children i'll give you an example of that i heard a story a friend of mine in Orlando told me the story that uh the the the child in the family a six i think a six-year-old uh started realizing that um that there were people who who he knew who could not be seen because they were in in a quarantine and uh in his mind quarantine was the next step for death and he was afraid of death there had been some experiences the family suffered with a loss so what what this friend of mine came up with was this idea she happens to be an educator is to recognize that that giving the child hope that you can get better when you get ill the idea that there is medicine or there is medical treatment to give the child a kind of more positive view now that is um not a guarantee but it helped the child to understand that we have some power we're not powerless when it comes to medical conditions and that's important on the preventive side like i mentioned the vaccine but it's also important on the curative side good nutrition recognizing that we have personal practices of hygiene that are necessary so those are lessons that i think can be taught even in pandemic time and you know I'm feeling a sense of optimism although we have a ways to go but more and more folks want to get together they they want to convene they want to be entertained they want to be absorbed in into their interests and we should not exclude children from that positivism if we could invest the time necessary that they need particularly Jackson's sadly we lost a lot of especially grandparents but also moms and dads in the course of the pandemic and there are more families now kind of rudderless and certainly grieving than we had a year and a half ago yes and you know grief is its own disability in a way because you know it it affects us physically and emotionally and what we have to do you know I'm not a psychologist but once in a while you know i i hang around with professionals who who tell me what their experience has taught them and you mentioned sally and and i i i know that um there are ways of talking things through that doesn't mean it solves the problem but holding back and being silent um and ignoring the realities are are usually not a positive path to um for child child well-being so i say we need to be open and honest um we you know we cannot disguise the fact that there are some issues that we need to address but what children need is is partners in the conversation and again you know i I'm not a big fan of too much technology for kids i i think there's a lack of reality in certain of these technologies so you know i believe that until age three we should really limit screen time for children and have much more face directed conversation and you know children they learn what they live and if our parents are too uh immersed in technology then they're not relating to their children so that's one of my pleas is to at least balance that and don't consider to the television or the computer or the handheld device to be the babysitter we need to be with our children they need to hear our voice they need to know that we want to be with them and read to them and relate to them in nature being out in the natural world is very positive but we should not have children who are you know afraid of getting a little dirty sometimes or afraid of uh commuting with nature so communing with nature sometimes it takes a commute but i mean communing with nature and that's why the the physical world is very very important to expose our children to i so vividly recall my parents essentially tossing me out of the house on a nice day and saying go play in the woods and don't come back until sunset and there was no fear of child abduction or any of these sorts of things you know the worst that could happen i don't know you skin your knee when you fall down the embankment or something like that but not to get too much back into the the past there was no golden age after all but Jack it does seem that a few generations ago there's there appeared to be more positive role models for parenthood perhaps than what we have today or at least as children we kind of looked at you know your dad my dad they knew what the heck they were doing or at least it seemed that way to us as kids and very often today it seems like there are many ostensible adults who don't really fulfill that role and don't provide that kind of role modeling for the kids um if that is in fact a need how do we i guess you know prepare people to be better parents before it actually happens is there a way to do that well yes uh i do want to take just one or two steps back though with a comment you made a moment ago because i think we need a little bit of understanding that in many ways the good old days were not so good in many ways we had barriers that we set up you know racial animosity which still exists to some degree but by no means was it the brutality and the forced segregation that we had again we have still have a long road to to travel for for that it's also true that um that the the the economics of family life it has become frankly more and more difficult it used to be that with one full-time wage earner within the house um a um a suitable um safe home ownership and if this was the interest of the family higher education was really affordable without deep debt and that's not the case anymore so in some ways we have kind of separated um the quote American dream from many many wage earners and folks who do need a second and third job just to make ends meet I'm not I'm not wringing my hands about it i think these are just economic realities that we need to understand and sometimes when you have to you know work a 60 hour week rather than a 30 or 40 hour week that's time away from our children that all said i think there's this reservoir of opportunity in our retirees one of the reasons i founded four generations institute is is the demography of living longer also gives us a certain openness in our calendar now that's not true for everybody but if we look at the 55 65 75 85 year olds as long as they're healthy and and eager can be tremendous resources for our children one of the campaigns that I'm pulling together now right here in Leon County is building that inter intergenerational bridge we're gonna you know start in areas like helping foster kids understand that higher ed is a very very important option for them we've got great programs now at FSU with unconquered scholars we have similar programs at FAMU and tcc to open the door for foster youth to imagine college five ten years ago the percentage of foster youth who actually entered higher ed was less than three percent uh now uh thankful to uh several great leaders statewide uh our organization called educate Tomorrow is the is the ringleader for that and the Florida college access network we're seeing more young people realize at age 12 and 13 not waiting till they're 17 and 18 that higher education is a possibility we have passed laws that have allowed them free tuition as long as they keep a certain number of credits and even a living stipend i give you that as an example what they need also though is connections with some experienced adults who have an interest not only in helping young people but an interest in what they did during their active work life it could be science it could be the arts it could be a an array it could be broadcasting whatever folks have done in their professional life chances are they're interested in sharing that anything from woodworking all the way through high technology so tapping into the experience of older adults is our great threshold that i think we we need to build and create again Tom it's not for everybody but frankly we might not need everybody but we've got 70 000 Leon countians uh under age 20 years old and we have 70 000 Leon countians over age 50. it's it's it's symmetrical so what about 10 of each of those groups getting 7 000 teens and 7 000 over 50 year olds connected again with the right background uh checks and the right plan of supervision not 50 hours a week maybe it's only five hours a month but those could be quality hours so i call it time philanthropy Tom that's my word for it it's a giving of your lifelong treasury of time and experience for the youth generation and stay tuned we're going to make this happen and the children's service council i believe will like to be one of the repositories of that use of time you can only play so many games of golf before it becomes oppressively boring Jack i think that's a great idea and to give a shout out to our former colleague our morning edition anchor for 17 years on WFSU Ronald J. Evan he was in his uh late 70s when he hooked up with i believe it was big brother's big sisters and he adopted a young man from the city's south side and that was his little brother and he a couple hours a week would go over to the young man's house and sit down and they would read books together and ronald j told me that was one of the most fulfilling enjoyable activities that he had ever been involved with and he highly recommended it to anyone who had a few extra hours a week to invest in a young life you know Tom uh that brings up such a very important point i'd like to underline in a moment or two which is this is about mutuality um all relationships are about giving and getting and and the intergenerational bridge is a two-way bridge it not only assists those who are young it assists we who are experienced because again it's uplifting and the idea of being a spectator in life or as you say uh playing golf a couple of times a week but maybe not five times a week that's just one example not to dis uh those who enjoy a golf game but i would say like the sheriff said uh how about doing a little golf instruction um and and or taking lessons together uh as an opportunity we have a great library system in Leon County you know those books are ready to be handled and opened in red and life experience you know in literature in the history of how things were created i think is is phenomenally fascinating you know Tom um so we've got these two granddaughters and now they're three and a half uh Julianne in in seven months of molly joy and it is absolutely even though they live way way on the west coast of the united states it is phenomenal how much joy and presence they bring even in in technology speaking to them over face time and and the reason charlotte and i really really have embraced grandparenting is we were warned uh we were warned for decades you know we've been together as a couple for 45 years but we were warned someday when you get those grandchildren uh hopefully of course they'll be healthy and well is is that will be a kind of a a new ticket to ride um into your senior years and and i am telling you there's almost nothing we wouldn't do for them uh not only of course uh in the physical sense but in the emotional sense and and i think there are a whole lot of grandparents out there who know what I'm talking about and uh and the gift of time for children is an irreplaceable gift it's so essential uh in both directions so that's my urgency and that's my plea is let's invest time in each other and it will pay great dividends disney's lion king is not the only situation in which the great circle of life is illustrated with such a beauty uh yeah they are they are a blessing for sure and to see your legacy pass on from one generation to another or in your case four generations there Jack we reference back to the institute it's a an incomparable kind of experience what's a good father or grandfather present coming up here on this observance so many people again we're not going to the office as much as we used to so the obligatory tie is probably out but what do you think it would be a more meaningful kind of present to accompany the observance Tom i i love the question because you know the idea that we honor you know it's it's it's one of the commandments honor thy father and my mother and i would go ahead and extend it to let's honor thy grandfather and grandmother is to give a gift of charity in their name in other words if if if a grandparent has a special cause it could be uh animal protection it could be feeding the homeless it could be whatever is their cause or two that they're affiliated with perhaps where they worship or where they're a member of a civic club to give a gift in someone's honor to me is so meaningful on several levels number one is it means they're having an impact in their causes and that's important but the next step is it means that we are not giving a thing we are giving a present of support for a good cause and that elevates people that makes them feel i think so um uh welcome into the community that they are hoping to improve so i say we should have a you know the healthy start folks should be giving gifts to their elders uh on behalf of the newborns uh who they may never meet uh if you are a guardian ad litem a gift to one of the foster care charities uh in their honor again if you're interested in animal protection uh or the natural world a gift to one of those charities and uh more and more that is uh you know it's it's it's not out at the store but it's it's within the the realm of of of contributions and those gifts pay great dividends so that's what i recommend and we are doing that in our own family uh now holidays as well as celebrations like mother's day and father's day what a great honor for someone to say i am going to help make the world a better place in your name how lovely is that huh yeah the tears do flow and and and and and flowers are very nice and I'm not saying instead of the tangibles so it's in complement to the tangibles uh we do want folks uh out uh you know uh being patrons to our restaurants and we we do want some tangible gifts but i think in all things balance is important and and charitable contributions is a very important way of acknowledging someone's effect on the community and their leadership in the family just a few minutes left and Jack Levine what's ahead for you uh besides father's day grandfather's day in this instance and uh the promulgation of the four generations institute what's what's next on your calendar well you know this last year and a half has given me contemplative time you know our back porch has a fan and it's screened in so you know they they say the prophets always found their space in the wilderness to figure out how they want to prophesize and uh my back porch has kind of served as that function in the last year and a half and what i've determined is despite the fact that for 44 years i've traveled the state primarily the state extensively and made friends in all 67 counties and maintained that communication through my four gen letters i decided to stay home for the next couple of years to really concentrate on this dynamic community called Tallahassee called Leon County the children's service council is getting a lot of my attention I'm doing some things on campus i have some ideas in terms of doing a little bit more writing and a little bit more speaking but the botTom line is I'm very very comfortable with our backyard garden I'm very very comfortable with the amenities of a wonderful town called Tallahassee and and i'll be participating much more locally so uh you know it's an aspiration to resist saying yes out in the other parts of Florida and my friends will understand if i recommend alternatives to my presence and yet i think there's so much that can be done which will be exemplar because if you do something in Tallahassee lots of people find out about it because they come here to get their government affairs taken care of or to you know visit one of the major universities so we'll get the word out but I'm I'm staying close to home as much as i can for the next couple of years well as you pointed out to sheriff Walt McNeil earlier in the program if we can set up some templates some things that work and work well those then can serve as examples for other parts of the state or even the nation as we wrestle with a a lot of pretty serious problems right now and uh gee the rest of the state's loss is certainly our gain Jack it'll be great to have you close to home and so involved with all the things that are going on here in the in the capital city and i hope we can continue our periodic conversations both in this venue and in others because you are certainly a font of wisdom and and great information for me and i think anyone who has ever come in contact with you anytime i i must put in a plug for public broadcasting uh i I'm a participant every single day with my both very very good working ears and eyes and i think public broadcasting is one of the true gems that deserve support so you didn't ask me to say this but i must tell you that what we have in our public radio and television networks is truly a gem worthy of our time and money well you helped to make it so with your participation and your support Jack we appreciate that more than you ever know and thank you again for coming on Perspectives happy father's day to you buddy okay happy dad's day to you Tom thanks so much Jack Levine and thanks to Leon County sheriff Walt McNeil who participated in the program a little bit earlier today Perspectives produced by WFSU Public Media in Tallahassee thanks to Taylor Cox pushing the buttons there today also Paul Dam, Amy Diaz de Villegas, Devin Bittner, Brandon Brown, Trisha Moynihan and Lydell Rawls our director of content Kim Kelling is executive producer and I'm Tom Flanigan well next week we'll get the latest on Leon County's remembrance project an effort to acknowledge a dark chapter in our community's history in the hopes that a firm grasp on our history will prevent those days from ever returning that's going to be our discussion next week on Perspectives right here from WFSU Public Media