Archive for July 31, 2015

Can You be Sued for Helping?

You’re at the scene of an accident and are a medical professional, or a non-medical person, or a shopper seeing a child in a closed-up car in the parking lot.  If you help, can you be arrested or sued for coming to the aid of a trapped or bleeding victim or for smashing in a window to save a child?  In some states, yes.

Some (not enough) states have “Good Samaritan Laws” which protect you.  Does your state have such a law?  Go to Safe Kids Worldwide and find out.

If your state isn’t listed, contact your governmental representatives and ask why not.

Whether a child is left on purpose or by a rushed, otherwise-good parent, there is no reason that 38 kids die each year after being left in a hot car. Our precious babies need everyone to look after their safety.

 

What a Face Shows

Today’s Thursday Thought tells the power of just looking at someone:

“To gaze into another person’s face is to do two things: to recognize their humanity and to assert your own.” —  Lawrence Hill

 

 

A New Native American Tragedy

Our government is doing it again to Native Americans.  Congress is giving away their land to a large foreign mining company.  Not just any land, though; it’s a a beautiful, forested land AND a sacred site.  The Apache tribe reveres this Oak Flat, Arizona, site–it’s holy land to them.  It will be destroyed by the upcoming copper mining.

Imagine a government deciding to ravish land that your religion considers holy.

There is still time to stop this.  Go to http://act.credoaction.com/sign/Apache_land?t=2&akid=15087.3296984.sK6NQq and sign the petition to congress that’s simple and direct:  “Repeal the Oak Flat land exchange and stop the transfer of this sacred Native American land to a foreign mining giant.”

 

 

A Fridge-d Suggestion

Use up to 6% less energy by not making your fridge work so hard.  Just clean the built-up dust off the coils a couple times a year.  (They’re usually behind that panel at the bottom.)  For safety, unplug it first.

Leaf 6

[For more easy, money-saving, earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. Or download a free copy from your favorite e-book seller.]

 

 

Are You a Unique Strand?

Today’s Thursday Thought expresses the distinctive importance of each individual.

“EACH OF US IS A UNIQUE STRAND IN THE INTRICATE WEB OF LIFE AND HERE TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION.”  —  DEEPAK CHOPRA

Another Quirky Question

If you’re a regular reader, you know that my mind sometimes wanders into the Twilight Zone and quirky questions pop into my head.  Today’s comes from the news that brilliant Steven Hawkings is part of a 10-year, $100 million effort to find intelligent life somewhere in the universe.  Here’s my question:

If we find living beings on another planet, how will ICE handle immigration issues with them?

 

Free Shade

Plant a tree. A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Shade provided by trees can reduce your air conditioning bill by 10-15%. Grow a fruit tree.  Then you can relax with a fresh piece of fruit in your own, free shade.

Leaf 6

[For more easy, money-saving, earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. Or download a free copy from your favorite e-book seller.]

Thursday on Friday

Oooops.  My mental calendar is off.  Because I didn’t offer a Thursday Thought yesterday, I’m doing it today.  This one is funny but true.

 

 

Bill Cosby’s Medal of Freedom

I’m going to say something very unpopular here: Bill Cosby should keep his Medal of Freedom.  For one thing, under the criteria for the medal, he earned it.  The criteria is that recipients must be “Americans who have contributed richly to the national life some way.”  There is no morals clause.  Cosby did contribute, by making us laugh–often at ourselves–and by making many people forget that the family man on TV, who was so much like us, was actually Black.

Remember that year, 2002?  The U.S. invaded Afghanistan; there were constant news stories of Israelis and Palestinians killing off masses of men, women, and children; the Pope brought priest child abuse fully into the open; an asteroid came close to crashing into the earth; floods ravaged our relatives and friends in Eastern Europe; stories of the carnage of the Beltway bomber filled our newspapers and magazines; a Chinese plane crashed and another disintegrated, killing hundreds.  We needed some laughter to release the tension.  Cosby gave us that laugh.

The other reason he should keep the medal is that he has been accused but not convicted of some horrible acts.  Admittedly, he looks as guilty as Satan.  However, all people are protected under our law and are innocent until proven guilty.  We don’t get to apply that rule of law selectively, even if we feel down to our toes that a person is guilty.

All this is academic, of course, because whoever thought up the award didn’t conceive of a time when they’d regret giving it to someone.  Therefore, there’s no way established to take it back.

 

 

 

Warning About Walmart Meat

If you shop at Walmart (I wish you wouldn’t) and buy meat there, you need to know the change that the corporation has made.  You may still see people dressed like butchers there, but they are not the ones cutting the meat, and they won’t, even if you ask for a special cut.  That’s because Walmart has moved to pre-packaged, display-case ready meats.  You know, in a tray that covers all but the top, which has cellophane on it.

What this means for you:  Because the suppliers are doing the cutting and packaging, often in far-away cities, the meat is not as fresh as if cut on-site by butchers.  It also means that you aren’t the only one guessing at what’s under the visible top; Walmart butchers don’t know, either, unless they were to unwrap and re-wrap each package, which, of course, they won’t do because it costs too much. Since the butchers have no quality control, you may end up opening the package to find more fat than you expected or brownish, aging meat.

Walmart says they’ve changed their procedure to ensure “the highest quality [they] can provide.”  Employees find the timing suspicious–right after the butchers at a Texas Walmart successfully joined the first ever independent trade union in a Walmart.

Whatever the reason, Walmart shopper, beware.