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 veterans
In Memory……
A simple message but from the heart:
And thank you to all their families for their sacrifices.
Who Cares if They’re Veterans?
An estimated 8,000 non-citizen residents enlist in the U.S. military each year. Yet a number of these veterans each year are deported for offenses such as non-violent marijuana possession. Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva introduced a bill to allow “eligible deported veterans to permanently return to the United States as Lawful Permanent Residents eligible for naturalization.”
[Read the rest of this short Change.org article. Then sign their petition. Who cares about veterans who put their lives on the line to protect America? We do!
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.
A Remembrance for Today
A few years ago I experienced the Arizona Memorial in Hawaii. The visit began with a film showing the horrors of the attack on Pearl Harbor. My eyes blurred with tears. Then there was the choppy boat trip to the monument, a short distance from other coffin-ships which suffered the same fate as the Arizona. So many names filled the wall behind the altar-like steps, and the hush of the crowd echoed the silent voices trapped deep beneath us. Little was said on the trip back to land, but one absurd, disturbing comment shocked me into realizing that we’ve learned so little since then: “At least we got even when we hit Hiroshima.”
This Veterans Day I’m thinking the Canadians are right to call it “Remembrance Day.” It’s important to remember and honor our veterans, those who fought for our way of life. It’s even more important to remember that, as a human family, we should work toward a time when the reason for such occasions, and comments like that woman’s, are only adistant bad memory.
Hug a veteran, and pray for peace.
Help for Homeless Vets
Kudos to the VA! Their Palo Alto facility now has an Employment and Housing Resource Center to serve homeless vets (remember that at least 20% of the homeless in our country are veterans). It’s part of their five-year plan to end homelessness among vets. The Center, open to all vets enrolled in VA healthcare, has free electronics that are essential in job-hunting–computer, Internet, and printers–along with staff help and employment guidance. In addition, it offers resources related to finding affordable housing.
Many of these services aren’t new with the VA. What is new is the fact that they’ve been consolidated into one Center where a person can go to get help in rebuilding his or her life after putting it on hold to serve our country. Good going, VA!