OPINION

Join us for a live chat during the Democratic Gubernatorial Debate. Bookmark this post or visit The Dallas Morning News Opinion Blog tonight at 7 p.m.

Among the best reads in recent days on our Viewpoints page was this essay by North Dallas resident/West Dallas worker Barbara B. Johnson. Some of Johnson's points are based on the 2006 book The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine. Read these excerpts and see what you think:

Studies show that, as a group, affluent teens are less likely to feel close to their parents than children in poverty. Levine stresses the importance of parental warmth, which she calls the single closest thing to a silver bullet against psychological impairment. Ironically, well-meaning, affluent parents whose greatest wish is for the success of their children are unconsciously depriving them of the most important thing they need to be successful: warmth and acceptance.

In my conversations with friends in my affluent, North Dallas world, I constantly hear of external motivations being offered to children, for example, a car for being on the honor roll or an iPhone for a 10-year-old who gets good marks.

In my conversations with the families in West Dallas, I see that such external motivations are not available. Their children are forced to look within themselves for motivation.

I am not naïve enough to suggest that all children in West Dallas will be more successful than their counterparts to the north. But we need to be attuned to the dangers of depriving our children of internal strength by indulging them externally, not internally.

Re: "Rock Bottom -- Juárez massacre is Mexico's wake-up call," Sunday Editorials.

I read The Dallas Morning News editorial with customary attention, given The News' nuanced and objective understanding of the dynamics of the bilateral relationship with Mexico. I must underscore, however, my concern and surprise as I read through the last sentence: Mexico needs to "get serious about its drug problem"? "Its" problem?

I have always emphasized that finger-pointing and mutual recrimination have never served any of our two nations well; and that for every pundit in the U.S. who says that Mexico is the springboard for the drugs coming into the U.S., there is another Mexican pundit stating that if Mexico is the springboard, then the U.S. is the swimming pool!

The challenge in Ciudad Juárez or in Tijuana can only be dealt with by taking on the safe houses, laundering operations and businesses of the drug traffickers in El Paso and San Diego, and that is what our two governments are precisely starting to do. The only way to roll back drug syndicates operating on both sides of our common border is by understanding the symbiotic connections between demand and supply and by working together.

At the end of the day, there is one simple truth: We must stop being accomplices to failure and become partners in success.

What a magical time -- living in an apartment in the '70s and early '80s -- hearing cheers all over the complex when there was a touchdown, no cars on the freeways during game time and the mood of the entire city on Monday reflected whether the Cowboys won or lost.

I don't think that very personal connection will ever be repeated. Thank you, guys, for such a special time in my life. You truly were America's Team.

Re: " 'Fulfilling a dream,' Smith goes in -- NFL's all-time rushing leader is last of Cowboys' 'Triplets'; he calls it closure for dad," Sunday news story.

Emmitt Smith is, again, a picture of gratitude and humility. With tears (real men still cry) in response to being inducted into the Hall of Fame, Emmitt doesn't disappoint us. What a guy! And, what a role model he is for us, our children and grandchildren.

He was consistent, committed and dedicated to "the star," the fans and his family. It is obvious that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Emmitt's father gave up his college career (he was a running back, too), to take care of his sick mother. What a guy, he is, too!

As Emmitt shared, he was living his father's dream, fulfilling his dream and fulfilling God's purpose for him. And, then, he gets to share this honor with fellow Super Bowl player (three times for both and Super Bowl MVPs) and special friend Jerry Rice.

Both are humble, thankful and cry. And, who says real men can't dance, too?

The current weather in Washington, D.C., is the perfect metaphor for politics as usual: a huge snow job.

Re: "Obama's down time," by Joan McGeachy, Sunday Letters.

I'm sorry that McGeachy's husband had to work during the Super Bowl, but it's unfair of her to malign President Barack Obama for taking time to spend with his family. A lot of people would argue that the perks of being the president are far outweighed by the disadvantages -- constant criticism and pressure, snippy letters to the editor -- but at least after years of campaigning away from your family, you finally get to work at home once in a while.

Of course, Obama could burn himself out like Jimmy Carter, or take three-week vacations like W., but I hope he may have a more effective way of doing things. Every time Obama says: I won't rest until this gets done, I want to tell him, please do.

We want a president who is refreshed, who spends time with his family and who manages his time wisely. If he can do that, he can run the country and still take time to watch the Super Bowl.

Re: "AG may decide dispute with DA -- Commissioners want Abbott's opinion in legal representation standoff," Saturday news story.

Even bad politics are local. Since the county commissioners are supposedly community leaders, they inspired me to request the attorney general to rule on the legality of paying my property taxes to the Dallas County Appraisal District.

Seems like a conflict of interest in much the same vein that the commissioners find it to be a conflict of interest to use the district attorney, and instead have gone out and purchased at taxpayers' expense legal advice taxpayers have already paid for in the job of DA.

At the least, Dallas County taxpayers should receive a "county commissioner bad politics" discount.

Re: "A Troubling Misstep -- Watkins' use of secret testimony went too far," Friday Editorials.

There are three legal reasons why Watkins' use of grand jury testimony in support of his application for an injunction was permissible: First, confidential matters can be filed under seal and looked at by the judge in his chambers and need not ever be revealed to the public; and, a judge can order counsel, under penalty of contempt of court, to not reveal the confidential information.

Second, a person can go into the grand jury and testify and come right back out and state to reporters what they testified about. So, former FBI agent Danny Defenbaugh could have testified, publicly and without restraint, on the record in the civil court where Watkins was attempting to get the injunction against the county commissioner. In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Butterworth vs. Smith that a grand jury witness has a First Amendment right to publicly disclose his grand jury testimony.

Third, even the unnamed "legal scholars" that The Dallas Morning News references apparently stated that they "are not convinced that statutes permit" Watkins' use of Defenbaugh's grand jury testimony. That means they are not sure whether the law prohibits what Watkins did.

Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Bill White says he wants to take "aggressive action against diploma mills that offer a high school diploma with little education."

What does that mean?

I hope we find out in tonight's gubernatorial debate. And come on over to The Education Front for a fuller discussion.

Those are the topics we're working on for editorials for tomorrow's paper.....

Clearly, we'll be writing live off the debate tonight, right up against deadline. This time around writer Tod Robberson and editors Sharon Grigsby and Jarrett Rush are in the hot seat....But we'll all be live blogging, too, so there won't be any shortage of commentary tonight....

The other two editorials for tomorrow will be written and edited by this afternoon, per more standard practice. Jim Mitchell is crafting our recommendation for the RR commission spot that has a GOP primary and Rodger Jones is crafting the recommendation in the Dem primary for Agriculture Commissioner.

Please let us know in the Comments section here how we can make these essays the best they can be. And let us know what other topics you think we're missing.....

Well, the big security shindig here in Munich wrapped up yesterday. This year's conference was fairly tame compared to years past (remember the time when Putin compared Bush to Hitler?), but there are some points to ponder:

Iran is even crazier than we thought. Iran was the talk of the town this weekend. The Iranian foreign minister showed up in Munich, gave a talk (at midnight) that ticked off pretty much everyone in attendance. Iran all but ignored a generous offer from the West for a compromise. Looks like it may be time for sanctions. Even the Germans were talkin' tough - the German foreign minister announced that he had met with German business leaders to tell them to get ready for sanctions on trade with Iran. The United States wasn't happy with Iran either.

Coalition of the Losing: The U.S. delegation was led by Senators John Kerry, John McCain and Joe Lieberman. In a press conference, the U.S. delegation looked very solemn and serious. I thought Lieberman was going to call for a declaration of war on Iran.

This morning, I came in to about double our usual volume of letters. Sometimes we get 2,000 letters when we get hung up in a loop with our auto-reply answering someone else's autoreply, but this wasn't that many.

It turned out that a good chunk of the extra letters were advocating that Congress "finish the job" on health care. We always get a good deal of personal testimonials about how people are affected by the health care system -- on both sides.

Join us for a live chat during the Democratic Gubernatorial Debate. Bookmark this post or visit The Dallas Morning News Opinion Blog tonight at 7 p.m.