Tag Archive for children

Let Children Unearth an Old Idea

July 15, 2016 Comments Off on Let Children Unearth an Old Idea

Children of all ages love to discover things, even more so as they get older.  Tell your teenage son, for example, that it’s important to care for the earth and he’ll tell you how old and uncool you are; let him discover it for himself and he’ll think his generation invented the idea.  Here’s where books come in.  For young children, have environment-related picture and story books available for rest- and bed-times.  Later, when they’re ready for browsing the library, lead them to books emphasizing earth-friendly themes.  When it’s book-report time, suggest a paperback that’s interesting and easy to read, one that, incidentally, promotes caring for the earth.  The librarian at school or the public library can suggest titles.  Feel free to contact me for a starter-list of age-appropriate books. Maybe your children didn’t really invent the idea of caring for their planet, but they’ll become adults who will reinvent the world as a cleaner, healthier home for us all.

 

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Get Rid of those Drugs Today!

April 30, 2016 Comments Off on Get Rid of those Drugs Today!

Stop accumulating those drugs!  There are Drug Take-Back Days throughout the year, but today is the DEA’s Prescription Drug Take-Back Day–a good day to take care of this important chore.  Gather all your left-over prescriptions, those drugs that you don’t need, and ones that are outdated. Take them to a near-by collection site to be disposed of properly.  Call your local police department to find a location or ask at your favorite pharmacy.

Medications don’t have to be in their original containers.  Also, you just drop them off–no questions about who you are or where you got them.

This cleans out your medicine cabinet, safeguards young children in your family, and prevents the drugs from polluting the earth and poisoning wildlife, which happens when drugs are flushed down the toilet or tossed into the garbage (landfill).

Do this as soon as you read this, so you don’t forget.

 

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What are the Children Guilty of?

January 19, 2016 Comments Off on What are the Children Guilty of?

More ISIS and Taliban bombings in the news, killing more children.  My question for those groups is this: What have the children done to offend your god?  I ask, too, Is your concept of Allah that of a supreme being who wants you to cause suffering and death to children who have no power or say over who they are, where they live, or what the adults around them do?

My Muslim friends are as horrified as I am.

 

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Time to Enjoy

October 30, 2015 Comments Off on Time to Enjoy

This Sunday morning we turn our clocks back.  What will we do with the extra hour we’ve gained?  Why not share it with someone who doesn’t necessarily consider time a friend, like that neighbor or acquaintance who is too ill or shy to get out much.  We can spend time feeding hungry families at a kitchen, gathering food for local food pantries that serve them, visiting veterans at the VA, bringing a picnic lunch and conversation to Aunt Sally at the nursing home.  Or give that extra hour exclusively to our children, playing, reading, or just being together.  Or nurture our marriage with an uninterrupted hour together, being present to each other. Through that one hour, we won’t let stress, overwork, or other pressures interfere with our relationships. In short, rather than waste that morsel of extra time we can use it to enjoy and share the gift of life.

 

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Children in Adult Prisons

July 6, 2015 Comments Off on Children in Adult Prisons

Kids in adult prisons?  Yes, in 2013 there were 6,000+ in the U.S.  These kids have few appropriate services or support as they experience sexual assault, beatings, and psychological torture.  They are more likely to try suicide than kids detained in non-adult prisons, and once they get out are 77% more likely to commit crimes.  This does NOT sound like a way to rehabilitate them–and they’re at the age when they are very able to change.  Nor is it a way to get them ready for a productive adult life on the outside.

Read more at the Credo website.  While you’re there, sign their petition to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which simply reads, “The Department of Justice must immediately launch an investigation into the practice of trying and jailing children as adults.”

 

 

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Despite Law, Kids Can Avoid Vaccinations

July 1, 2015 Comments Off on Despite Law, Kids Can Avoid Vaccinations

My state, California, is mandating that all children be vaccinated before they can attend school.  This means that the 80,000+ kids who have claimed personal exemptions no longer can do so.  At first blush, it seems an infringement on rights.  However, most of the families sought exemptions based on a bogus report written by a now-disgraced “scientist,” saying that vaccines cause autism and other maladies (scientifically proven wrong).

It’s been a clash of rights:  for some families it’s freedom of choice vs., for other families, freedom from spreading disease (especially by unvaccinated children).

The 80,000+ still have ways to pursue their beliefs, however.  They can home-school their kids or put them into off-campus independent studies.

I’m afraid there will be an additional avenue for people so inclined.  Children with medical problems that make vaccinating harmful or impossible to them are still exempt.  Therefore, if parents look hard enough, they’ll find an unscrupulous doctor who, for a price, will give his medical opinion that their child should not be vaccinated.

Can’t happen?  How about all those doctors making a healthy living off of issuing medical marijuana cards to anyone who merely claims a debilitating condition?

 

 

 

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Hoarding Drugs

April 27, 2015 Comments Off on Hoarding Drugs

Stop accumulating those drugs!  There are National Drug Take-Back Days throughout the year, but today is as good as any day to take care of this important chore.  Gather all your left-over prescriptions, drugs that you don’t need, and ones that are outdated. Take them to a near-by collection site to be disposed of properly.  Call your local police department to find a location or ask at your favorite pharmacy.

Medications don’t have to be in their original containers.  Also, you just drop them off–no questions about who you are or where you got them.

This cleans out your medicine cabinet, safeguards young children in your family, and prevents the drugs from polluting the earth and poisoning wuildlife, which happens when drugs are flushed down the toilet or tossed into the garbage.

Do this as soon as you read this, so you don’t forget.

 

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The Execution of Children

March 18, 2015 Comments Off on The Execution of Children

He had an IQ of only 71, reading skills of a 4th grader, an actual hole in his head, and the loss of 8% of his brain due to a sawmill accident long before he committed the crime.  Doctors said the portion of his brain lost included 1/5 of the frontal lobe, the portion that maintains judgment and impulse control. That means he didn’t have the mental capacity to understand why he was being executed or even the crime he committed.  But the state of Missouri executed 74-year-old Cecil Clayton anyway.  Maybe because it was a sheriff’s deputy he killed?

When will our “civilized” country stop killing children who happen to have adult bodies?

 

 

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A Positive Look Back and Forward via UC Berkeley

December 30, 2014 Comments Off on A Positive Look Back and Forward via UC Berkeley

The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley has published its 2014 “Top 10 Insights from The Science of a Meaningful Life.”  For an explanation of each, click on their article cited above. Meanwhile, here’s the list:

  1. Mindfulness can reduce racial prejudice—and possibly its effects on victims.
  2. Gratitude makes us smarter in how we spend money.
  3. It’s possible to teach gratitude to young children, with lasting effects.
  4. Having more variety in our emotions—positive or negative—can make us happier and healthier.
  5. Natural selection favors happy people, which is why there are so many of them.
  6. Activities from positive psychology don’t just make happy people happier—they can also help alleviate suffering.
  7. People with a “growth mindset” are more likely to overcome barriers to empathy.
  8. To get people to take action against climate change, talk to them about birds.
  9. Feelings of well-being might spur extraordinary acts of altruism.
  10. Extreme altruism is motivated by intuition—our compassionate instincts.

I think there’s a lot to chew on as we finish one year and embark on a brand new one.

 

 

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What Kind of People ARE They?!

December 16, 2014 Comments Off on What Kind of People ARE They?!

Why kill children?  I know the Taliban wanted revenge and they believe they’re fighting a holy war.  What god might they be following who would approve of going room-to-room in a school to kill children of senior military officials and any other students who got in the way?  Certainly not the peace-loving Allah!  What did the youngsters, aged 6-18, do “wrong,” except be born into military families?  If the bombers and gunmen made their “point,” why continue to endanger others by taking hostages and planting explosives around the perimeter of the school?  Yes, those IEDs did prevent outside help from Pakistani police and soldiers from coming to the rescue of the children; but how many more people will stumble on them and be killed?  That must be their plan.

What kind of people are these killers of more than a hundred innocents?  And how do we revoke their membership in the human race?

 

 

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