Enquirer file/Gary Landers

Bono talks with Norman Hampton during a visit to Caracole House in Roselawn. The Irish rock star stopped during his "Heart of America Tour" to raise awareness about AIDS.

Enquirer file/Gary Landers

Patrick Moore, a student at Fort Wright Elementary School, reads a book on tape for the vision- impaired. Fort Wright students recorded books for the vision-impaired earlier this year.

Who inspired me in 2005? A rock star, a Northern Kentucky school movement, millions of American "suckers" and a neighbor. I could add others, such as Lance Armstrong or the entire volunteer U.S. Army, but those are too obvious, so I'll stick with my opening quartet.

There is a common theme - the power of improbable, world-changing ideas.

Let's take the rock star first, to set the stage for the others.

Bono - a 2005 Time "person of the year" along with Bill and Melissa Gates - visited The Enquirer Editorial Board in December 2002 to promote AIDS relief in Africa. Forget the sunglasses and leather jacket. Bono is one of those rare, unpretentious beings who can take a set of dismal facts that anyone else would make sound hopeless and he can leave us convinced: If people are given a chance, they can save themselves. He not only believes it, he's lived it.

So why the Time honor only now? Because as Time put it, this year he "charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest." Now poor nations have no excuse for not spending their interest payments on schools, health care and other needs.

This year, Children Inc. of Northern Kentucky rolled out another wild-eyed idea: They believe something called "service learning" can raise students scores and keep schools from turning out self-centered or anti-social little monsters. Like Bono's campaign against world poverty, service learning often is misunderstood. It's not community volunteering. It's a powerful way for students to learn core subjects by doing community service projects and forming habits that will lead them to be public-spirited citizens in later life. More than 250 teachers in 38 Northern Kentucky schools already are trained in the techniques, and Northern Kentucky's year-long Vision 2015 leadership group plans to adopt the strategy region-wide, including in university courses.

A few examples: When Covington canceled its school crossing guard program, students at Two Rivers Middle School researched the issue, developed a crossing guard curriculum, even made a video. The city reinstated the crossing guard program. The kids learned they could have an impact. Students at Fort Wright Elementary chose books to read, then audiotaped them so blind kids "reading" a Braille version could at the same time hear children's voices reading the texts. Covington's Fifth District Elementary took their core study on safety to a higher level by doing brochures, posters and skits on stranger danger, safe vacationing and safe biking.

It's not just kids learning to give back. After Americans gave $1.6 billion to tsunami relief, we gave $2.7 billion for hurricane relief, despite the ineptitude of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco, FEMA and the Red Cross. Dollars won't long help evacuees waiting for government to "save" them. But call us suckers or saints, we still lead with our hearts in times of crisis.

It's not about checks. It's about people who believe in improbable ideas, who live them, and keep them going even beyond death. My aptly named neighbor Mary Joy Endress who died Dec. 14 was a special ed teacher and Clifton character who tooled around in a yellow convertible. For memorials, she didn't want flowers but for people to do some kind act for a person in need. At her funeral mass, a list of 44 items was passed out. What Would Mary Joy Do? A few WWMJD examples: "Believe in everybody. Never say never. Talk to strangers. Make school or work more fun for everyone. Be a peacemaker. Invite people over. Kill 'em with kindness."