Robin Miller: For a moment, Jessica made our world less weary

I've been thinking a lot about Willy Wonka for the past few days. The fictional chocolate factory owner didn't cross my mind because of the mounds of candy that seem to be never ending in our newsroom. Nor was it because someone brought delicious chocolate brownies in for a birthday celebration.

Instead, a single line from the 1971 hit "Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory" movie staring Gene Wilder kept seeping into my memory as I read the story of a 7-year-old girl named Jessica Gutierrez in Dixon.

Jessica captured the attention of her school, community and media across the region when she remembered a simple lesson her mother taught her and then applied it to her real-life situation.

Jessica was walking to school recently and found a wallet loaded with cash. Hundreds of dollars were packed into that wallet and it was just laying there for her to take.

Jessica was confronted with a choice, as most people are at some in their lives. She could do what was right and honest and good. Or she could do was was wrong, dishonest and selfish.

She could have pocketed the money and used it to help her family with bills or to purchase toys, candy and other enticing things -- but she didn't.

Jessica remembered what her mother taught her about not keeping or taking things that don't belong to you. So, when she got to school, she turned that wallet over to authorities.

I wonder how many of us would have made the choice Jessica did?

How many of us have forgotten the basic lessons of honesty and respect for others that we learned when we were Jessica's age? How many of us would allow the difficulties of life, economic woes and so forth to justify pocketing the cash?

We like to complain in this country about the problem of crime and lament the problems with today's youth. I submit that Jessica and her decision to do what is right are at the heart of what needs to be done to deal with both issues.

All crime, if you think about it, involves and revolves around stealing. Obviously, if you hold up a bank or rob someone, it involves stealing but so does assault or even murder. When you assault a person, you rob them of their well-being and when you kill someone, you rob them of their life. You are taking from them what isn't yours to take.

So understanding and remembering the importance of honesty and respect for others is at the heart of how we build character in our children. That character will show in what they do when no one is looking. Jessica's shone so brightly, the whole community noticed. It was a credit to her and her family.

Imagine if everyone brought those types of lessons into their homes and into the hearts of their children. Imagine what it would be like to live in a world where turning in lost cash was commonplace and not a situation where special awards needed to be handed out.

Instead, we live in a Willy Wonka world where Charlie, faced with expulsion from the factory and loss of a year's worth of chocolate, is encouraged by his grandpa to go find Slugworth and turn over the Everlasting Gobstopper, makes a different choice.

Like Jessica, he chooses not to keep what isn't his and he places the Gobstopper on the desk next to Willy Wonka's hand.

And that's when Gene Wilder delivers the line that has been weaving through my mind when I think of little Jessica Gutierrez and her choice: "So shines a good deed in a weary world."

