Tess Hinnenkamp has &uot;it&uot; What I am referring to is that zest for life and learning that will be with her for a long time.

I know the reason &uot;it&uot; will be with her for her whole life is because her parents have &uot;it.&uot; Now

I probably have you

wondering what &uot;it&uot; is.

You see as I was reading last Monday’s Albert Lea Tribune article on the 17th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast. &uot;It&uot; hit me. Tess, a 16-year-old ALHS junior was quoted as saying &uot;So many people hear about the breakfast and go, but I wanted to be a part of

it and share peace and justice through myself.&uot;

I needed to read it again. Tess wanted to be a part of it and share peace and justice through herself. Wow.

When my son was 16, he just wanted to be left alone and I had to drive him to the garbage can to empty it. I would not say he was afraid of work, he could watch me do it for hours and it wouldn’t bother him at all.

Now Tess and her parents have

been going to the breakfast since she was a baby. That is why I know that her parents have &uot;it.&uot;

You see &uot;it&uot; is comprised of many factors. You need to have energy, a quest for knowledge, roots, and of course, wings.

I also believe that

love, tolerance, education, moral consistency, and courage are major factors in &uot;it.&uot;

My father was a great man who lead his life the way that many of the &uot;greatest generation&uot; have led their life. They believed in hard work and a commitment to try to better your life, and the life of others, but not to be better than anyone or envy someone because of their life. This is how I was brought up. We had six children in my family and my father, who was in the Army for 20 years, and my mother, who is the most courageous women I have ever met, raised three boys and three girls on a shoestring budget and a prayer.

I look back and remember our family never having a new car, or every toy that Fisher Price ever made, but we had &uot;it.&uot;

I believe a big part of &uot;it&uot; is the knowledge of a lifetime of mistakes and the integrity to overcome the mistakes and go forward with

the new lessons that those mistakes have taught you.

To be a leader

just by the way you carry yourself and hold your head up, even when there is many unseen

misjustices and prejudices in the world.

I really hope that I am teaching my own children these lessons.

My wish in life is that I am half the parent that my mother and father were, and

since my father passed on when I was in high school, I always have had the one thought that has guided me most of my life &045; would my father approve of the way I have lived my life, raised my children, spoken up for the less fortunate, and most of all kept my family close.

To this I say, I sure have tried my best, Dad. I have stumbled at times, been knocked down by life at times, but I kept on getting back up and have learned from the past.

I truly think that is what &uot;it&uot; is all about.

To all the people that attended this breakfast, and

to all the children who wrote poems, sang, and took in the goodness, I thank you.

To Tess and her family, I know these words are not thanks enough for reminding me of how we should live our lives, so I am extending a invitation for dinner to you.

Please give me call at the paper and we can set it up. I would be honored to dine with the people

that woke up the &uot;it&uot; in me.