How can you help many without leaving your chair and NOT opening up your checkbook? Next time you’re on the Internet, go to www.thebreastcancersite.com and look at the topics listed across the top. Choose to support any or all of these: hunger, breast cancer, animal rescue, veterans, autism, child health, literacy, and the rainforest. Pick a cause, then, when it opens, press “Click Here to Give—It’s Free!” Various sponsors give money for each click we do, supporting reputable groups which work toward helping others or our environment. You don’t give any information, so nobody will solicit funds from you or send you spam. You can continue to contribute by clicking on any or all once a day, or at least each time you sign onto the internet. Stick the site into your “Favorites,” or send yourself a weekly reminder email with the address to link you quickly to the site. How easy is that!
Tag Archive for child
Bedtime Story
A friend sent me this video. I thought you might enjoy it. It’s a bedtime story a dad tells his child about the world he foresees.
Free Book to Help Kids Deal with the Covidvirus
What a great idea! Adults are struggling with answering the questions from kids and explaining what they can do to be a Superhero in this pandemic. Because children respond better to stories than they often do to parental explanations and dictates, a creature named Arlo was created. He captivates a child’s attention, explaining this confusing world and what the child can do to become a superhero (always a child’s big dream).
This storybook was put together by a United Nations group after finding out what kids are thinking and feeling. It has been translated into multiple languages and distributed throughout the world. It’s available for free as a PDF. Go to https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/system/files/2020-04/My%20Hero%20is%20You%2C%20Storybook%20for%20Children%20on%20COVID-19.pdf and download My Hero is You right now.
Let Some People Die?
The news is shocking–in New York it has been suggested that medical teams think carefully about who they give their limited number of life-saving ventilators to. If it likely won’t save the person’s life, the argument goes, why not give it to someone who has a real chance to live?
This sounds heartless, especially if the sick person is someone you love. But this is nothing new. It goes on in hospitals often, when equipment is scarce or prolonging life just for the sake of prolonging life, no matter what quality of life will result, is questioned.
I’m a product of that decision. In the 1940s, polio gripped our nation. I was 3 years old. I was very sick, because I had all three types of polio at once (we found out later, since nobody knew back then that there actually were three types). Iron lungs were scarce. It was fairly certain that I would die. So they gave the iron lung to another child who would clearly benefit from it.
Obviously, I survived. The ordeal was very hard on my parents, but I feel it was the right decision. Otherwise, it could have meant not just my death, despite my use of the iron lung, but also the death of the other child who was deprived of it.
My message is this: medical teams, along with putting their own lives in danger treating patients with the coronavirus, have to make quick, difficult decisions. They’re doing all they can do to save as many people as possible. I don’t judge their actions, because I’m thankful for all they’re doing.
An Autumn Thought
Here’s an Autumn idea for this week’s Thursday Thought.
Child Health–a Good Day
It’s the First Monday in October, meaning it’s National Child Health Day. It’s a day established in 1928 to promote our children’s physical health, but why not focus on their mental and emotional well-being, too? We can play a few active games with them, take a walk or bike ride together, or team up to clean up the garden. We can also spend some extra time with them, maybe having a little picnic in the backyard, doing some chores together and complementing them on their help, giving them a few extra hugs, talking to them, one-on-one, about friends, school, activities they’re involved in or a movie you saw together or an incident when you both saw someone acting as a bully. Yes, these are things we should be doing every day with our children. But this is a great day to redouble our efforts–for the good of our children.
Grow an Environmentalist
Because today’s children seldom get out of the city, when they grow up, not many choose environmental careers, resulting in fewer people to care for our planet. Help reverse the trend and have family fun doing it. Plant a garden with your kids. Watch it grow. Enjoy the colors, smells, and textures. If you grow vegetables, cook them together to enjoy at a family meal. Or take the family on walks. Many cities boast of several beautiful easy-walk trails where you can share nature’s sounds, sights, and smells. Probably, there are parks nearby, too, for picnics or just experiencing the wonders around you. While on your outings, pick up trash you see and explain to the kids that, even if we didn’t cause it, we should show respect for our lovely surroundings. That night your children should be tired enough to sleep soundly—and dream happy dreams of butterflies and forests.
Is Child Abuse a National Pastime?
80% of the child abuse cases within the Boy Scouts of America between 1970 and 1991 went unreported. Churches (Catholic and Protestant and other faiths) have hidden cases involving their clergy, youth leaders, and other members of their staffs. School administrations have quietly moved accused offenders to other schools and positions. Coaches of youth teams carry on abuse in locker rooms while others look the other way. The perpetrators are not strangers. In fact, more than 90% of the children who suffer sexual abuse know their abusers.
A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds. What about all the other, unreported instances?
Why do so many people feel it’s okay to harm our vulnerable children? Apparently, many people do feel this way, because there are so many abusers and so many people and organizations that cover it up. When we hear about it, we act shocked, shake our heads in dismay, then go on with our lives. In effect, those of us who do nothing to stop it are helping to perpetuate it.
Has this national shame become a national pastime, simply another tolerated violence like boxing and hunting? I hope not.
Where Were the Adults?
The following scene, told from the point of view of a young girl, actually took place in a neighborhood supermarket pharmacy. No one helped the girls. Their father, worried that they were gone so long, went to the store to check on them. He is the one who finally confronted store management. He is the one who called police. Why him? Why not someone else much sooner?)
I’M SO SCARED. I heard that guy tell the pharmacist he’s 19. Guess I look older than 12, ‘cuz he smiled at me. At first I thought he was kinda cute. But I don’t know him, so he shouldn’t have rubbed my back. He’s touching me some more now and is saying bad things to me. I yelled, “Stop it! Leave me alone!” Now my 6-year-old sister is crying. I’m yelling louder. People are all around me, but nobody’s doing anything. Why won’t they help? There are lots of people, lot of adults. Won’t they do something? They’re just standing there. I feel so alone.
How to Offer Respect this Memorial Day
Remember. Respect. Work toward the world they fought and died for.
