The Silence of the Holy Night

As the Advent of Christmas is fully on us, two of my senses are overwhelmed with the sights and sounds or Christmas: All of the blinking Christmas lights and then the music. I love Christmas music. Some of songs make me laugh and some of them make me cry but they all make me happy when I hear them. I love sitting in our van listening to the music that our Christmas lights are synchronized to. But there are some people that can’t get the full effect our light displays because they can’t hear.

I have been fortunate that throughout my life I have a wide variety of friends. Not just male or female, young and old but I have had the pleasure of friendships with people from many different cultures and backgrounds. I have learned a smattering of words in several languages and how to cook some really wonderful foods. I even have friends that are a bit out of the ordinary. I count among my friends someone who is blind and a few who are deaf or hearing impaired.

I was visiting with one of my dear friends who is hearing impaired and we were watching my lights and I realized that for her, it was just lights randomly blinking. She could not hear the pure musical tones to Silent Night so what was the huge attraction of the blinking lights?

My deaf friends live in a silent world that most of us think we long for. There are days when I just don’t want to hear anything and every little noise wakes me up or gets on my last nerve. And I suffer from Tinnitus so I always have a high pitched sound going on in my head that really gets loud at times. I never have total silence with that going off in my head.

Today, (Sunday), I had some Christmas gifts that I had to work on and this article to write and I thought I would block out everything to stop me from being distracted from people walking around overhead and dogs barking and the washing machine churning and the heater coming on and going off. Then there was a football game, the girls fixing a meal, more laundry, the sound of the hot water going through the pipes making its crazy knocking sounds and the squeak in my chair. Toss in someone upstairs singing slightly off-key at times and there is a cacophony of pure racket.

I keep earplugs handy so I popped some into my ears and blocked out the external sounds. Alas the tinny ringing is still going strong but I could not hear anything else. No cell phone, no tv, no washing machine….silence. ahhhh.

But is it really so wonderful? Just think about not being able to hear. You don’t hear everything going on around you. Unless people are directly in your line of sight and you see their lips moving, you don’t realize or catch everything that is going on around you. People behind you might say something and when you don’t respond, they don’t take the time to figure out that you don’t hear. Or even worse, they KNOW you can’t hear and they treat you like you don’t have good sense.

I have seen this happen with my dear friends. People take advantage of their deafness or say ugly things about them right in their presence knowing that they don’t understand. They don’t even try to communicate with them. That is almost too much for me to bear. I am trying to learn to better communicate with her and I am slowly learning another language called Sign because I know that I am a hard person to try and lip read. And I with help from my friend I know that I will learn more and more of her language and her silent world.

As I sit here in my self-imposed sound deprivation I realize that for my friend, Christmas has always been about the Silent Night. It is in the silence that we hear the whisper of Gods voice. My friend has been blessed to truly know the holiness of the Silent Night.

Thanksgiving gets the short end sometimes

Although sometimes it does get the short end of the wishbone where holidays are concerned, Thanksgiving is pretty high on my list of favorite holidays. There's nothing to compare with waking up to the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade with all of the huge balloons, spending a lazy day with family and gorging ourselves with the most amazing meal that we have looked forward to since last year!

Thanksgiving is another one of those things that we Americans do that no one else in the world does. Our Pilgrim forefathers were so thankful that they had survived the long year of 1621 in the New World that they celebrated the bounty that they had and gave thanks to the Lord for it. Although they did have a three-day feast in celebration of a good harvest, and the local Indians did participate, this "first Thanksgiving" was not a holiday, it was simply a gathering and it wasn’t repeated the next year.

The harvest of 1621 was a bountiful one. And the surviving colonists decided to celebrate with a feast -- including 91 Indians who had helped the Pilgrims survive their first year. It is believed that the Pilgrims would not have made it through the year without the help of the natives. The feast was more of a traditional English harvest festival than a true "thanksgiving" observance. It lasted three days. They didn’t have pumpkin pies because they would not have had flour or sugar left and large bowls of mashed potatoes would have been unheard of because the potato was thought to be poisonous at that time.

Governor William Bradford sent "four men fowling" after wild ducks and geese. It is not certain that wild turkey was part of their feast. However, it is certain that they had deer meat. The term "turkey" was used by the Pilgrims to mean any sort of wild fowl.

One of the exchange students living with us asked me, in all seriousness, when we would go and find the turkey for our thanksgiving dinner. When I said that the next time I went to the grocery I might get a turkey breast, I noticed the confused look on her face. It took a little while to register with me that she thought we would go out and hunt for turkey. I explained to her that most people ‘hunted’ their thanksgiving turkey in the frozen food section of the local grocery stores or better yet would call the stores’ deli or call Joe’s Market and order the pans of dressing and the turkey already cooked to perfection.

I know it was a big disappointment for her that our family didn’t have a turkey to carve or big drumsticks to gnaw on or the wishbone to pull because it’s our family tradition to have chicken and dressing and baked ham. We only eat Moms dressing twice a year and it is always worth the long wait. The feast was good as always and we had a good time feasting on sweet potato casserole and corn salad and other side dishes and hot rolls and then finishing off with slices of pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie or a big slab of my sisters strawberry cake.

Now that Thanksgiving is officially over, I can concentrate on Advent and getting my home ready for Christmas. I can decorate my trees and put out my Christmas village and start bringing out my figurines and light the Advent candles each week as Mary and Joseph make their way around the room for their final destination of the stable and the manger and ready our home and hearts for the coming of the Lord. I won’t need a wishbone for that.

Thankful for my Freedom

Blogging from Bruce
November 22, 2009

Vonda Keon

This is the time of year when people start thinking about what all they are thankful for in their lives. Thanksgiving is something that is truly unique that we Americans can claim as our own. I‘ve been involved in several discussions with different exchange students lately about why we do things the way we do in our country because they come to our country sometimes with a very romantic idea of what life will be like in America. Sometimes they are disappointed after they arrive because life here is not quite what they expected. But I can give them all kinds of reasons why it is good to live in the United States.

There are some things in America that give me cause to shake my head in wonder as to why our elected officials act the way they do. And there are times when I have to wonder if things will ever really change among people of different races and ethnic groups; i.e. the group of hooded protesters on the Ole Miss campus on Saturdays game day. I was glad to see photos of another group of protesters that chose expose their faces and to turn their backs on the hooded ones. The kids that turned their backs on hate were not hiding their identity. Those kids are the true future leaders. In America we have the FREEDOM to peaceful protest. We may not agree with each and every group that is protesting but at least we can protest something and make ourselves be seen and heard.

In the United States we can travel from east coast to the west coast and from the Canadian border to the Mexican border of this huge country any time we choose and we don’t have to have papers or pay bribes just to go from one state to another. We have the FREEDOM to hop in the car to go to an amusement park in another state or to travel to our nation’s capitol to see the sights.

In the US we have all extremes of terrain from the deserts to the beaches and oceans to snowcapped mountain peaks and volcanoes. We have vast rolling hills and forests and wide open spaces of green grass and fields of grain and fruit orchards. We have enormous rivers and the delta land around them and deep canyons and inland lakes.

We don’t have to worry about someone on the west side of the county shooting a rocket at the east side of the county. We don’t have to worry about land mines or suicide bombers. Let’s hope and pray that we never have to worry about that.

In the United States a kid can grow up to be anything they dream of if they work hard enough because the opportunity is there if the desire is. We aren’t stuck in some caste system where you are what your father and grandfather was. Everyone has the FREEDOM to get an education.

No, life here is not perfect by a long shot. We don’t live in Utopia. We have hungry people and homeless people and people looking for jobs. But we also help the homeless and the hungry and the unemployed. We have the FREEDOM to help those that might not have much to be thankful for. We have the FREEDOM to worship in the church of our choice. (Or for some, the FREEDOM not to worship.)

The bottom line is, in the United States of America, We have a great many things to be thankful for. But the one thing that sets us apart from other countries is that we have FREEDOM. As you gather round your Thanksgiving table look at all you have; your feast, your family, a roof over your head, a clean bed to sleep in, clothes on your back, the relative safety you live in. Be thankful for your FREEDOM.

Christmas Trees and the Exchange Students

Having two exchange students living under my roof is always a challenge. There are constant questions that I must give explanations to. Foods, culture, styles of worship, and what things mean. It’s a learning process for everyone. This past weekend was a good learning experience about Christmas in the USA.

Here we are, hot off the Halloween night of Tricks and Treats, going full speed ahead into Christmas like a runaway train on a slippery down hill slope. They want to know about Thanksgiving but its Christmas that is at the top of the list now. I took them to the different Christmas open houses in town and they were amazed at the Christmas trees. I have not given the themed trees much thought. In a past job I was the Visual Merchandising Manager for McRaes if you can remember that incarnation of Belk’s. The last year I worked there I decorated 72 Christmas trees for the Pre-Christmas Harvest Sale. I worked for weeks on those trees, wrapping the branches with hundreds of strands of lights and then coming up with a myriad of themes for the trees.

After that particular year, I would get my tree up and get the lights on it and that was about it. I could not bring myself to put another ornament on a tree. Thankfully I married a man that would decorate the tree and I would sit back and direct. As my children got older they would put the ornaments on the tree. When they were little it was very heavily decorated on the lower half of the tree until they grew taller.

A few years ago I finally found a color scheme I liked and once the tree was decorated I left it like that and put the tree on the corner or the living room behind a screen and left it up; for three years. All I had to do at Christmas was uncover it and plug it in. Then this past spring, my darling daughters undecorated my tree.

So what does this have to do with Christmas Open House and my exchange students? Well they saw all of the beautiful trees and the multitude of decorations and color schemes and themes and they were asking questions about it. Anna was looking at one tree and it had ornaments shaped like candy on it and little red shoe ornaments. She asked “what does a red high heel have to do with Christmas?” Amjaad was fascinated by the pink trees and white trees and gold trees. Both girls said back in their home countries they use live green trees. And they don’t do themes like we do. Anna said she mother might look at one of our trees with all of the decorations and ribbons and sprays and ask ‘Where is the tree?”

They came home and decided to try their hand at decorating my tree. It has a lot of lights on it already so all they have to do is start looking through all of my ornaments and deciding how they want to do it. They are really looking forward to helping Scott as he starts putting up our Christmas Light Display for this year.

We Americans just don’t realize that no one does Christmas like we do. We are a bit over the top in our country with the blending of the secular Christmas and Religious Christmas. Bright, sometimes gaudy Christmas displays sit along side the simple Christmas manager scenes. “Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer”are “Rockin a Round the Christmas Tree” right up until “Silent Night” turns into “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and “What Child is This” is born in “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.

Yes we do start earlier and earlier each year it seems. That is the secular part of it along with the stress of getting presents that eats away at the pocketbook. The Christian part of Christmas is still the same here as it is in Bethlehem, where Amjaad is from and the place of Jesus birth, and in Anna’s home country of Armenia which is the oldest Christian country. You may see Christmas Trees decorated with fruit or butterflies, or flamingos or red shoes or classic round ornaments. The trees may be traditional green or not so tradition lime green or pink or purple or white or gold. But the theme is still the celebration of the birth of The Christ

Part two of Its the Future are we there yet?

In my childhood I rode my bike all over the town of Bruce, with my parent’s blessing, and wearing a helmet never occurred to me or my parents. Now I see kids on tricycles in their own yards and they better be wearing a helmet, or his parents are guilty of child abuse. The mere notion, (that was alive and well when I was a kid), was that life is risky and certain bad things are just going to happen from time to time. Well, that thought is gone today. Now life must be safe, and anything that makes it unsafe must be done away with, or at least severely punished.

Manufacturers of anything are sued into oblivion every time one of their products is even remotely involved in an accident, because their product isn’t safe enough. The greatest cost in manufacturing a step ladder is to offset the cost of the inevitable lawsuits brought by those who hurt themselves using it. How dare ladders not be made 100% safe, no matter how it’s used or misused?

It hasn’t been that long ago that a man had the RIGHT to risk his own life and even be a damned fool about it if he so chose. Not any more. Now, every time something tragic happens as a result of adventurers doing adventurous things, such as a death or injury during a mountain climb, there follows the cry to outlaw said activity “for their own good.” Safety must be imposed on the foolish and daring for their own good.

I suppose that if the powers that be had their way and could play Big Brother Nanny, they would manipulate and work behind the scenes and fiddle with our destinies because they are totally motivated by the desire that everything be 100 percent safe. Every thing would be designed to keep everyone safe from anything that might possibly cause them harm.

If the Big Brother Nanny had his way, there would be no sharp corners or no splinters or no cracks in pavement for us to hang our toes. All cars and highways would be safe because they would be able to control our cars by computer and an alarm could go off in some far away room and warn BBN that we were going over the speed limit and they could just shut down the engine. Or better yet they might watch and see how many hours we had driven and they would decide that we might be too tired to drive so they start sending out the message that we need to pull over and sleep.

A small segment of the American people have already shown themselves to be willing to trade freedom for safety. The government already regulates us, in case we make stupid choices. We are taxed so we don’t spend our wealth in foolish pursuits. The demand to MAKE US SAFE has already created groups that will frown upon all adventurous individuals as dangerous and insane! Gone are the days when you could just go to the doctor and have surgery. Now he has to worry if he will be sued for NOT curing what ails you. We are on a terrible path to safety above all else. And that my friends means more control over our lives.

I don’t know about you, but I believe in free choice. The good Lord gave us a brain and he knows that we only come to him freely of our own will and not because he has manipulated us. I once decided to fold myself up and squeeze my rotund butt into a 55 gallon plastic drum and roll down the hill between my house and my Moms. Why? Because it seemed like it would be a fun thing to do. I broke a rib doing that but I didn’t sue the manufacturer of the plastic barrel from not putting a warning label on the thing. I just wrapped my ribs and took Tylenol and sat up very straight for a few days. Did I learn a lesson? You bet I did. I learned that I wanted to do it again but the next time I wanted padding in the barrel with me!

Is the adventurous spirit dying in people? We are in the future minus the jetpacks and flying cars and pretty soon minus the freedom to decide if we want those adventurous things. Why can’t we continue to use free choice in all aspects of our lives? If Freedom to choose is good enough for God then it ought to be good enough for the Big Brother Nanny state. I’ll be willing to bet they don’t believe. What do you think?

The moving around of foreign exchange students. It just happens

Since the rumor mill is abuzz in this little town, I am sure that everyone knows, that as a CR for a Global Youth Exchange program, I moved an exchange student this week. As a matter of fact there were 4 kids moved within the state in the last few days. Last year the same thing happened. And next year there will probably be someone that is relocated or sent home. Its not a big deal unless someone makes one of it.

The exchange student program offers these kids an opportunity to come and live with people from very different backgrounds from their own. Most of them have traveled within their continents but they all dream of coming to America. They come here to a land where there are many viewpoints and they have to adjust to a lot of things when they get here. They are using a language that is not their native language but they have learned it well enough to get here and then they find that what they learned is not nearly enough. They are hit with new tastes in foods, different weather, a different home, a different type of school system. They are away from their home church or they come from a country where they don't go to church and they are now in the heart of the Bible belt. They miss their Mom's hugs and Dad's pats on the head. They miss their festivals and celebrations. If in their country they greet each other with a hug and kiss on the cheek, they are surprised to find that here people just smile and shake hands and say hello. There are hundreds of little things that are different and they all of a sudden add up to one big culture shock.

When they first arrive here it is fun to see the differences and to learn how to do things differently. Sometimes, and its usually about the 2 month mark, they get tired of having to remember how to do so many things. They start to feel that everything is different; nothing seems familiar any longer. Nothing is comfortable. Anyone who travels, for any length of time to any place, experiences this and its called "culture shock".

Culture Shock means that your mind is tired of having to think about everything. You are tired of have to figure out if something you are doing is right or wrong. When you get tired you brain stops trying to understand and you withdraw. Instead of adjusting you become quiet and you think of home and all that you are missing. You become confused at things and maybe angry and then you feel isolated. You start to think that people don't like you. They don't seem to be treating you the way you imagined that American Moms and Dads would treat their children. You want to be a member of the new family but you feel like an outsider. Your host family is usually hitting the culture wall too and even though they should realize that you are having difficulty, they don't because they are trying to deal with their own type of shock. Thus the misunderstandings start and bad feelings can happen.

There are many signs of Culture shock. Your eating patterns change. You either eat too much or too little. You sleep more than usual. You start having headaches. You feel helpless and like you are stuck someplace far from your family and friends and time is going so slow and the end is not in sight.
You get angry for no reason or for things that really aren't worth getting angry about. You start thinking that someone might hurt you, or take your things or take advantage of you because you have heard of other students that have had bad experiences. You are horribly homesick and you just want to go back home to what is familiar.

When hosting an exchange student many things come into play. Sometimes expectations are too high on both sides. And when the culture shock hits, the host family doesn't always recognize it for what is and the child is then considered by some to be difficult. Oh I should know! I had two students last year and one of them had me climbing the walls for a little while until we worked a few things out. After we sat down and worked through the issues that both of us had, it was smooth sailing and we all had a wonderful experience. And those girls were very much considered members of our family and we felt great sadness when we put them on the planes to send them back to their families.

Now there are times when the host family and the student just won't mix like oil and water. It just happens. The function of the Community Rep is to keep close tabs on the student's progress both in the home and in the school and community. There are questions that we ask of the Host Family and the student and the schools on a regular basis and we can usually identify a problem and try to work through it before it escalates into something that can't be fixed. And we have to turn in a report after each conversation. If the incompatibility becomes too great and starts creating chaos, we are responsible for going and getting the child and moving them to another home because that is what the State Department and the Overseas Partners tell us to do. We are just doing our job.

Incompatibility is not a sin. It is no one's fault. The kids are not ungrateful. They are usually extremely sad and feel that they have failed at trying to fit in and be a member of the host family. It causes them great pain and shame. Incompatiblity just happens folks.

And the truth be told, when the child is moved it's usually an unspoken relief for everyone involved. So let's just leave it at that and put this to rest and shut down the rumor mill. That is best for all parties concerned. The children that I have placed are my first concern and responsiblity.

Its the Future. Are we there yet?

Do you remember all those interesting books and comics and movies of your youth about what the future would be like? At Disney Land in California there was a section called Tomorrowland and it had the ‘House of the Future” and what an interesting sight that modular unit was. Then there were the jet packs and flying cars and instant foods.

There was real talk of traveling to the far reaches of Outer Space and building colonies and living there while all we were sitting at home watching Science Fiction cartoons like the Jetsons and other programs like Star Trek and later on Battle Star Galactica and now there is a complete channel devoted to Sci-Fi.

So I ponder this thought. Have we not arrived in the future if we don’t have jetpacks and flying cars and household personal robots? THEY told us we would have these things in the future so when do we get to the future?

As I pondered this dilemma I started thinking that on the one hand we have these wonderful new devices called lap tops and flat computer screens you can play games on, just like they did in the Legion of Superheroes — which is definitely in the future, and we are already blessed (and/or cursed) with so many other technological wonders probably were not imagined by those who designed our future so long ago, but we don’t still don’t have the jetpacks and the flying cars. So does that mean we are not in the future yet? Are we just stuck in the perpetual now waiting for permission to say or go into the ‘future?

As I thought long and hard (and that squeaking, creaking high pitched whining sound you have been hearing is my thoughts) the realization that we have arrived in the future hit. The jetpacks and flying cars are out there as promised. There is the Moller Skycar. In 2007, Moller announced that the M200G Volantor a precursor to the Moller Skycar, capable of hovering 10 feet above the ground using 70% ethanol and 30% water for fuel and traveling up to 50 MPH would hopefully be on the market in the United States by early 2008. Depending on demand, Moller says, the M200G Volantor could cost under $100,000 and I will tell you right now it is never going to put on the market.

Why? Where are they? Why isn’t there one in every driveway? Well here is the depressing part, folks. We don’t have them, NOT because there isn’t any entrepreneur willing to make them. We don’t have them because “Some body” rejected them. “Some body” collectively said, “No thanks.” And why is that? Because “Some body” said they’re not safe.

I grew up with a “Crop Duster” Dad and lived around all manner of flying aircraft all of my life. I studied airplanes and have always had an interest in flying and the earlier airplanes and cars of our past were everything but safe. But airplanes and motor cars were invented and introduced to the public in a more adventurous age; when people didn’t think or stress about safety to such an obsessive degree. We want more safety, Nay! we expect and demand it now more than we did then. If cars and airplanes were introduced for the first time today they’d never get government approval. They’d never be able to jump through all of the regulatory hoops any new product has to overcome today because “Some body” would be out there braying about how unsafe and dangerous they are!

Need any more examples? I’ve got a few more of them. I show you in Part Two next week.

Words Can and Will Come Back to Haunt you. (Oct.12 blog)

Have you ever seen an old photo of yourself and been embarrassed at the way you looked? Did we actually dress like that? Well yeah we did and to matters worse, we had no clue as to how silly we looked. Dressing oddly gets you laughed at, can get you fired, ostracized, imprisoned, or even killed. It's the nature of fashion to be invisible, just like we are unaware that the earth moves but is invisible to all of us riding on it. That’s a haunting thought.

If I could travel back in a time machine, one thing would be true no matter where I went: I would have to watch what I said. Opinions we consider harmless could cause big trouble. I've already said at least one thing that would have gotten me in big trouble in most of Europe in the seventeenth century, and did get Galileo in major trouble when he said it-- that the earth moves. It took him centuries before poor old Galileo was forgiven for what he was right about and had the courage to talk about!

There are times that you should just hush up and keep your opinions to yourself just as there are times when you should bite the bullet and speak up and for some people that is where the hard part begins. How do you know when you should speak what is on your mind and how do you determine when to keep your mouth shut and your thoughts to yourself? I have struggled with that daily all of my life and there are days when I just throw caution to the wind and ‘let ‘er rip!’

So here are some examples of things that I think should not be said.

If someone has lost their full time job, as I did back in March, don’t say ‘everything happens for a reason’ or ‘don’t take it personally’ or my personal favorite, ‘Don’t worry. You’ll find something right away.’ Guess what? I did take it personally and jobs don’t grow on trees just like money doesn’t.

Having trouble with customer service at a business or a medical facility etc? Don’t go in and tell them that you will never shop, come there again, etc. They don’t care because it means they won’t have to deal with you again. Don’t go in cursing, accusing, badgering. (See the statement before) don’t go in and threaten to get them fired or threaten bodily harm (they have just called security on you and you will be goose stepped out of the business) and don’t threaten them with a lawyer because they will go into CYA mode and clam up and ignore you from them on!

Recently I was working some store resets with another woman and at one of our last stops, the chains District Manager was present. He watched us as we were doing the reset and asked my work partner how much longer she was going to continue to work. We thought it a bit strange until he asked when her baby was due. Men! Not all women with tummies are pregnant. Some of us are over weight and are aware of it.

Another example of what not to say happened to me years ago when I was in a meeting with a school administrator. I was not happy with a situation involving my daughters at school. The administrator made the remark that “parents didn’t always know what was right for their child” implying that he, as a school teacher and administrator knew more about raising a child than I did. He later said he knew he had blown that meeting the second those words left his mouth. I pulled my daughters out of school a month later and homeschooled them for the next 8 years.

I like to keep abreast of the goings on in local city government. At a recent city board meeting, some questions were posed to the mayor and after a heated discussion the mayor said, “I think…I think…I am a lawyer and I think I understand that ordinance a lot better than you do.” Now my question is does he think because he has a law degree that he is smarter than most people? Since I have heard that statement before I think he really does think he is superior to others and that is sad because he is not the only person that has an education or better yet that has common sense and intelligence which counts a lot more than a sheep skin parchment hanging in a study.

A disabled child was attacked by a couple of bully’s at school and no one from the school called the mother to tell her. The mom found out when her child came home from school with a knot on his head. When confronted, school officials said they had taken care of the situation. A child is attacked on school property during school hours and no one called the parent? That is definitely a time that someone should have spoken out. Bully’s have no place in our schools and the schools should not perceived as trying to downplay the incident. Parents have the right to know when things happen immediately.

Saying the things that we think can be taboo at times. So we just have to pick and choose and analyze each situation before speaking. Just like those horrendous fashion and hair faux pas of our younger days, everyone has an opinion and in America we have the freedom to express it. We just need to be careful in each instance and express it the proper way so things won’t be misunderstood. Words have a way of coming back to haunt us.

An Ill Wind is Blowing from the UN

The weather debate is about to reach pandemic proportions. How many of you really honestly believe we are in the middle of global warming? Now come on people, really think about it because our president is about to go to Copenhagen in December and sign the United Nations Climate Change Treaty that would cede US sovereignty. You need to look up that treaty and read what it says. Then go and look up The Supremacy Clause in the US Constitution (Article VI, paragraph 2). This clause establishes the Constitution, Federal Statutes, and U.S. TREATIES as the supreme law of the land. Concerns have been raised in the past that a particularly ambitious treaty may supersede the US Constitution. That time is coming pretty fast.

I’m 56 and I can remember all of the textbooks and teachers and scientists of the time saying we were headed toward a mini-ice age again. Then somewhere along the line during the eighty’s I suspect, the word got out that we were in the midst of global warming. The temperatures are rising, the ice caps are melting, there is a hole in the ozone. There is the greenhouse effect with carbon dioxide.

Guess what! When YOU breathe in oxygen YOU exhale (GASP!) CO2! Trees and other plants absorb the CO2 and they produce (GASP!) oxygen! All of God’s creatures breathe in oxygen and exhale CO2. Now with all of this talk about ‘carbon footprints’ just what is the government going to do? Tax the human race for breathing?

I was reading several papers (that were inadvertently humorous) about the amount of methane gas that one single cow produces in a day. It was astonishing. One standard full grown cow ‘emits’ up to 1000 liters of gas. So there is now talk being bandied about in Washington and in the Green Circles of taxing the cattle owners because their animals are contributing to the green house effect. What about the parents of little boys? Are they going to tax them because the kid has gone on a school trip and ate a bunch of hotdogs or whatever and spent the rest of the time grossing out the other kids with their gaseous emissions?

Is the New World Order going to tax the countries or states that have volcanoes and hot springs? When Mount St. Helens erupted in May of 1980 it blew a hole in the ozone that was phenomenal and the CO2 it belched out was record breaking! So is all of Washington state and all of Hawaii going to have to pay for being in the ring of fire?

So what happened to Global Warming? I am sure you are wearing long sleeves this week as I am, and probably have turned the heater on in the early morning. The hot cup of coffee is probably warming your hands as you read this. This may come as a bit of a surprise, the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998! And before that, the hottest years on record were 1921, 1931 and 1934. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures and the climate models put out by the climate warming gurus did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.

The people in the state of Montana were probably wondering about global warming just last week when why were watching the temps plummet and the snow fall as they were standing in front of their fireplaces wearing their thermals.
So what on Earth is going on with our Earth? Climate change skeptics, who passionately and consistently argue that man’s influence on our climate is overstated, say they saw it coming. They argue that there are natural cycles, over which we have no control, that dictate how warm the planet is.

So I throw this challenge out to you, go to your library, grab an encyclopedia, get on the internet, call your congressman, I don’t care which, but check into the UN Climate Change Treaty. It is a nasty bit of business and does not have your best interest at the heart of it.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t recycle, you should. I’m not saying you should be wasteful and harm your environment. But you better wake up and smell that hot coffee you are holding in your cold hands because an ill wind is blowing and it is not the perfect storm.

Arthritis and Banks are both causes of Pain

As I sit here listening to the rain pouring down outside and hitting something with a loud insistent drip drop DRIP DROP!, I am feeling the pain. I have never felt so icky and not been sick. As the old folks say, the ‘Arthur’ is messing with my bones and ‘Ben’ and ‘Ty’ and ‘Mo” are my only friends. I have discovered that Tylenol will take the edge off the arthritis pain but it’s the Ben Gay and the extra little Motrin that will keep me pain free long enough to get some work done.

Arthritis is one of those things that only ‘old’ people get. Funny how 56 was so OLD when I was much younger and now that I AM 56, my brain doesn’t want to come to terms with my aching joints and muscles! My mother is getting a chuckle over all of this and my sister commented that I now walk like our grandmother did! Mamaw fell a few times in her life time as I have and I understand her fear of falling!

I read a lot and came across some articles about the Consumer Checking Account Fairness Act, which brings up another big pain! Have you ever found yourself waiting to get access to your money after you deposit a check? Banks commonly “hold” a deposited check for several days before crediting the money to your account. You could deposit a big check on Friday (even direct deposit), write a check later that same day, and have your check bounce because the funds from your deposit aren’t made available to you until Tuesday (for a local check) or much later (for a non-local check).

A federal law called Check 21 which went into effect in October of 2004, helps banks, savings and loans, and credit unions to process the checks you write faster, but it doesn’t require banks to shorten those inconvenient check holds. Banks don’t even have to count weekends toward the number of days a check is held, even though they clear checks on the weekends. So who exactly reaps the benefits from Check 21? Not necessarily you nor I, the average Joe banking consumer. The new law does not require banks to process deposited checks any more quickly than they do now. Thus, consumers did gain fast access to cash or the ability to pay bills in a timely manner. just yet.

Just what is this Check 21? Check 21 is sweeping federal law that takes away your ability to get back your original paper checks. Under this law, consumers are more likely to bounce checks and may find themselves paying higher bank fees. The complicated law gives some rights, but those rights depend on a variety of factors, including how the merchant and the bank decide to process your check.

It's frustrating to me when I get paid by direct deposit only from out of state banks. I do contract work and they pay me electronically. The money is supposed to be in my account on Thursday. I will check and it says it there but the funds are not accessible to me for 3 more days. Banks do handsprings to speed up the check-clearing and funds-transfer process on their side, but then treat their customers as if the bank has to wait for the horse drawn stagecoach to get there with the money.

I once had a bank tell me it was going to put a three-day hold on a cashier's check drawn on that very same bank. Another time that stands out in my memory was when we sold our house in Tupelo. The realtor wrote us a check on the exact same bank we were using and when we went in to deposit the check at a branch that we had used for nearly 20 years, we had to prove who we were! Plus they called the real estate agent that had issued the check to us! In the mean time, the mortgage company was waiting on their money and even though we ‘had it’ we didn’t have it because the bank would not release it until the prerequisite 5 business days had passed and they didn’t count the weekend.

Banks are a mystery to me and a necessary evil. They assume that everyone is kiting checks and bouncing and defaulting. But holding on to the consumer’s money in this electronic day and age of swiping a plastic debit card and it is immediately out of your account and into another is ridiculous. It’s just another way of keeping the consumers money for a little while longer and racking up those fees.

Too bad Tylenol and Motrin won’t clear that pain up!

Flapping my 'right' wings

The week before September 7th, several things happened that I thought I should write about. Some of it I started on and then hit the delete key and did away with it. It was cathartic action. Now that is a great word isn’t it? Catharsis…from the Greek language meaning to cleanse and purge. A more up to date definition in Webster’s Dictionary is 2 a : purification or purgation of the emotions (as pity and fear) primarily through art b : a purification or purgation that brings about spiritual renewal or release from tension 3 : elimination of a complex by bringing it to consciousness and affording it expression.

It seems that many people need a little catharsis when it comes to politics and our present administration, and I am including myself in this so don’t everyone jump on my little wagon at once to start beating me in the head. It is no secret that I am conservative about a lot of things. It is also no secret that I did not vote for the present administration. That was my right the last time I checked that I could vote for whomever or against whomever and I have exercised that right many times since I was 18 years old.

Last week I received an e-mail calling me a self indulgent right wing leaning writer and one of my friends accused me of being racist when I made the statement that if I had younger children in school that I would probably not send them on Tuesday, when the POTUS will be speaking. I have read the speech and it’s all well and good. He isn’t saying anything that any parent, teacher or school administrator has not been saying for years. And for that matter, if more parents would take on more responsibility for their kids education, Mr. Obama would not feel the need to go on television to speak to the kids. The government is not a baby sitter. The government should not the one that is responsible to make sure a child gets a meal and gets their school work done. The government should not have to be the one that teaches you that you need to wash your hands when you go to the bathroom or to cover your mouth when you sneeze or to stay at home when you are running a fever. What I took issue with was the poorly worded agenda of lesson plans that were sent down the pike. The White House has even said that it was poor worded so I was not making anything up.

The fact that our president is of mixed race is not an issue with me. Or have people forgotten that he is of mixed parentage. He is a man. And apparently he is surrounded by people that need to go back to school and learn how to write things in a more non-threatening way. Mr. Obama’s plan to make a speech to students is not new – President George H.W. Bush did the same in 1991, in a move that was opposed by Democrats. So opposition to things that sitting presidents do really does cross over the party lines.

Then there is this health care reform. I have had times of no health care especially when I was a small business owner and my husband was without a job. We just held our breath and paid the bills and tightened up the belt until we didn’t have any more holes in the belt! Then we have had had health insurance that wasn’t worth a penny that we paid into it because it didn’t cover anything we needed it to cover. And then companies put caps on how much they will pay. So if you are in a bad accident or are hit with a catastrophic illness, you better learn to suck up on the pain and heal yourself from within because they will be sending your sick butt home.

Do we need health care reform? YES WE DO? Do we need the government to run our healthcare? HELL NO! Since when did the government do a good job at running a business? Just think back to Katrina? How well did they do with that? People are still living in limbo waiting for the government help on that one. The other problem I have with the House health care bill H.R. 3200 is the government agency that will be given the authority to implement and enforce will be the IRS. Just what we need.

Think I am flapping my right wing leaning self-indulgent conservative self about that? Look up the bill and read it. It’s close to 1000 pages and you read for yourself what your congress probably has not read. You will find out exactly what having a catharsis means then. And while you’re at it, call up your old teachers and thank them for having the patience to teach you how to read and think for yourself and for knowing when to wash your hands.

The Demise of the Small town newspaper is at hand.

So my time as a writer for the Monitor is running out. The proverbial clock is ticking on the life span of the paper and the word has finally come down that when the clock strikes midnight of December 31 the Monitor Herald will become extinct. That is sad for a newspaper that is so old. And it’s sad for me and the other columnists that have been given the privilege of having our stories published week after week.

What exactly does a newspaper do anyway? What is its purpose in the grand scheme of things? To deliver the news to your doorstep…correct? Wrong! Perhaps decades ago that was the intent and purpose but the advancement of the electronic age took care of that. There is news to be found on every television station at most any time of the day now. There is the internet that gives even more up to date news information. The Newspapers are not in the business of selling you, the reader, the NEWS. They are about selling advertising and writers like me are just filling in white space between those ads.

That is a harsh thing for me to say about myself and other writers but it is the cold ugly truth. The consumers that buy newspapers don’t pay for news. They have never paid for the news. Newspapers make their money not from delivering the news but from delivering advertising on newsprint into people’s homes. Just like television stations don’t make money off of those weekly programs that we all love to watch and are addicted too. It’s those pesky ads that intrude upon our senses and plant the idea that we need to run to J.C. Penny’s and get some new linens for our beds or to go to Kroger for their 10 for 10 deals of the week. I used to work at both of the TV stations in our area and for a national advertising agency and I had to churn out creative story boards for commercials on a daily basis. It is a dog eat dog world in the world of advertising in both the video and print genre.

Now I can’t say what it costs to print a paper and deliver it to the paper boxes and to the post office but I dare say it’s a lot more than the .25 cents or .50 cents people have been paying. Think about it for a moment, and you will realize those paltry sums couldn’t come close to making up the cost of merely printing a newspaper and then delivering it by hand to a subscriber’s doorstep seven times a week, 365 days a year.

Nor can a company make money in 50-cent increments by sending employees out in gas-guzzling trucks down country roads each day or once a week distributing to hundreds of newspaper boxes over scores, perhaps hundreds, of square miles. I dare to offer that it may actually cost $25 to $40 dollars a paper to print and deliver just one paper that we have all had the luxury of paying about $21 to $28 dollars a year for.

I realized a few years back that times were getting tight with newspapers when they started going to a smaller type and a slightly smaller size and format. Little by little our newspapers and magazines have been shrinking. The comics, the way to lure younger people into reading a paper, started getting smaller. Then some papers, in the hopes that they would not offend anyone, started reporting what I call the ‘happy talk news’. Nothing too too controversial. After all, you don’t want to tick off the advertisers. The advertisers are the bread and butter of the papers. And I don’t want this to seem like I am attacking the businesse’s that buy advertising. Heavens NO! I used to be a business owner and I had to advertise to get new customers. I can’t begin to tell you how much I spent on print advertising trying to target my market.

Newspapers don’t have the comfortable monopoly position any longer. People get their news in many different ways now and that is what is leading to the demise of the smaller local papers. Young people don’t read any more like the past generations. Try as we might, it’s hard to grab the attention of some people unless its in a video format.

What will become of papers and journalists and writers in general? I don’t have a clue. I just know that I am a dinosaur that continues to evolve and I am not too technologically challenged. Perhaps the papers and reporters and journalists that survive will come out on the other side of the technology universe and be the better for it.

As for my writing, I may not be appearing in ink on newsprint for much longer but I will still have my internet blog and I thank the Monitor for giving me the venue to express my opinions. It has been a great learning and growing experience for me.

Now is anyone out there looking for a feature writer?

I read Banned Books and they are good!

September 14, 2009

A few weeks ago one of my fellow Food Pantry volunteer ‘buds’ started playfully badgering me to get back to writing about controversial subjects. And I finally did with last week’s column. Thanks to all that decided to respond. I appreciate any and all feed back and last week was no exception. E-mail started pouring in at 6 AM Thursday morning. Some of them I answered. Some I just read and laughed and hit the delete key.

As I said last week, it’s no secret that I am a conservative. Yes, that may be a bit hard for some people to believe but I am about a lot of things and I an entitled to my opinions and beliefs just like the people that are liberal are entitled to theirs. I don’t get all bent out of shape and start yelling at my friends just because they vote a different way than I do. It’s a free country folks. We can vote for whom ever we please. We still have freedom of speech in this country of ours and if you want to be informed there are many ways now days to get all the information that you need so you can make up your own mind about things.

It distresses me to hear about things and one source reports it one way and another reports it a different way and yet another will give a totally different spin. But folks, that is why I read every thing I can get my hands on and hear every report I can so I can figure things out. I learned a long time ago that I did not want to be a ‘sheeple’ and silently follow someone down the path of no return.

Take books for instance. Banned books have always been a bugaboo for me. I discovered that there is an actually week called Banned Book Week. People will ban books for various reasons, mainly out of fear of something. In the US of A we have a much freer press than most country’s do although there are times I wonder if the people doing the reporting were at the same event I was attending! Our legal system does sometimes suppress legitimate expression, for a time at least, in the name of security, copyright, or “the children”. (And sometimes the threat of criminal violence can suppress books when the law does not.) It is worth remembering that books can be published thanks to free and independent publishers. Anyone can get a book published now. It’s just not always going to be on the NYT best sellers list right away.

As far as I know, I don’t think there have ever been any banned books our library at Bruce or in the schools. Or if a book did appear on a banned list, the librarian and school officials had enough common sense to chuck the list in the round file 13 and leave the book where it belonged. Some books I have heard that are banned in some states is laughable. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee; The Living Bible by William C. Bower; The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain; Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman;
Little Red Riding Hood by The Brothers Grimm; As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner; The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Even history is ‘sanitized’ in some textbooks.

There have been some popular books in recent years and talk of banning the books and not letting the children read them. After I had heard this for a while I starting asking people what was so bad about the books. No one I asked had actually read them. They were simply repeating what someone else had said. Always being the defiant one, I decided to read the books. After all, my children might one day want to read them and it has always been my policy to read whatever my children did. That is what my mother did to me when I was a kid. I found nothing wrong with the books and they are now a part of my extensive library. They are right up there along with all my Shakespeare, Faulkner and the other books that have been banned and unbanned through time!

Banning books isn't something that was done centuries or decades ago. It happens nearly every week somewhere in the United States. Often people take notice of banned books, protest, and the proscription is lifted. Sometimes nobody notices and the banned book stays lost to a school or country. I may be a conservative person but I do NOT believe in banning books. There are times for censorship and we all know exactly when and what should be censored and not placed where young impressionable minds can be exposed.
Thankfully we still have the freedom to write about what matters to us, and the freedom to read about what matters to us. And if you get anything out of this column, I hope it is that you grow to better appreciate these freedoms and the power of books and ideas. Go to you local library and check out the great books they have. Start with some Faulkner. He is not my favorite but As I Lay Dying is quite thought provoking! And ask the Librarian what she recommends. They always know a good read!

The Swine Flu and Sweet Potatoes

will have problems. if we eat too much fiber….well you know what happens when you eat too much fiber! Don’t eat sugar. Wait! You need to eat some sugar, just make sure it’s the not the white processed kind. Don’t eat fat. Oops you need to have a some fat.

Now we are hearing about swine flu. H1N1 or the hinney flu or, as someone brilliantly dubbed it, the government flu. I am not going to say that it doesn’t exist. But the more I read and hear about it, the more I get skeptical. Now number one, I am not fond of vaccinations. Born in 1953, I had most of the things that kids get shots for. I even survived the polio epidemic of the summer of 1954. Any time I have blood drawn, the labs always come back with the question ‘Have you recently been vaccinated?’ The antibodies in my blood are exceptionally strong.

The first time I heard of the Swine flu was in 1976. I was one of the first to get the experimental flu vaccine developed just for the H1N1. President Gerald Ford even went on television and was given the shot so I thought why not. I wasn’t allergic to eggs and it was produced in the US at the time. I took the shot and was violently ill within 12 hours.
I was later diagnosed with Swine Flu.

I am not going to tell you that I breezed through it. It was probably one of the roughest things I have ever had to deal with. And you must bear in mind that I don’t let many things stop me from going. Since 1976, I have had one other case of the flu and I didn’t even try to find out what the strain of it was. But I felt like the newspaper in the bottom of a bird cage! (just think about that one for a few minutes)

So now we are hearing about the H1N1 virus and the word Pandemic is being bandied about. IF and when the purported vaccine is available, I will not take it for several reasons. Mainly, the last time I took a flu shot, I had a reaction. I don’t like reactions and neither did the doctor. On his advice, I will not take another one. Secondly, since no one seems to want to tell exactly where in the world this vaccine is being produced, I am suspicious. It’s apparently not being made in the USA. I don’t like that. And last but not least I want to see all of congress and the president himself line up and be the first to take the shots. It’s only fair that the people that were elected by the people should be the first to lay their lives on the line for the rest of us.

As for me and my household, we will be going the natural way for now since this flu seems to not be seasonal and so many people are walking around in public with no regard for others and are coughing and wheezing and touching things. I take lots of vitamins and supplements and wash my hands obsessively and use hand sanitizer. As a disclaimer, I am not in the medical profession, I don’t profess to be a medical guru. But I believe in taking a common sense approach to this swine flu brouhaha.

To ramp up your immune system, take 2000-5000 mg a day of Vitamin D. The best form of Vitamin D to use is D3 if you can’t get out in the sunshine. Exposure to the sun is the best way to produce Vitamin D.

Take Vitamin C as it not only boosts levels of infection fighting white blood cells, but it also increases the number of interferon antibodies which work to keep the swine flu from even entering cells. Aim for 200 mg ingested over the course of day either in food or supplements. I love orange juice and eating the fruit! Sweet potatoes also have Vitamin C!

Take Vitamin E which fosters production of natural killer cells that seek out and destroy swine flu germs. It’s hard to eat enough food to reach therapeutic levels of Vitamin E, so consider a supplemental dose between 100-400 mg.

Eat foods rich in Vitamin A to boost immune response, however, avoid supplements and eat your carrots and sweet potatoes.

Eat foods rich in bioflavonoids because they fill up cell receptor sites so H1N1 flu germs can’t get into your cells and cause infection. Bioflavonoids are found in white and green teas, wine, dark chocolate, peppers, garlic, blueberries, and citrus fruits.

Take a zinc supplement. Zinc doesn’t just increase immune response, it makes it fight the swine flu more aggressively. Supplement with 15 to 25 mg a day and don’t go over 75 mg as that can actually weaken your immune system.

I have my order in for some sweet potatoes a surgical mask and a 55 gallon drum of hand sanitizer. How about you?

Moms are Moms around the world!

Ema from Serbia, the last of my exchange students, arrived at the Jackson aiport Friday night at almost the stroke of midnight. Donna Williams, the Regional Director of AYUSA here in Mississippi, picked her up at the airport and they spent the night in Jackson to get some much needed sleep. Ema finally met her host family Gina and Rickey Baker Saturday afternoon. Grayce and Jake, Gina and Rickey’s daughter and son, fell in love with Ema’s sweet personality immediately. They made the mad dash to Tupelo for all the important things that Ema would need for her stay here in the USA for the academic school year.

So another adventure begins for a student from halfway round the world and a host family as the two learn about each other personally and about the customs of both countrys and how the two can mesh and learn to co-exist. This is diplomacy at its best.

Our student Anna has just fit into our family like she has always been here. She is bubbly and happy and full of questions and will answer anything that we ask. She misses her parents and talks to her mom frequently on the internet. She told me her Mom tried to bribe her with a new puppy if she would not come to America. Her Mom and Dad miss her a lot but they have to place their trust in us to provide their child with a good, safe, loving home. Marina, Anna's mother, saw the pictures of Anna's bedroom that I decorated just for her on my facebook page. She was surprised that we would go to such trouble as to make a special room for her daughter. It eased her mind about her daughter's decision to come.

I have nightly conversations with Amjaad’s Mom, Wijdan in Bethlehem. She told me that it was very difficult for her because Amjaad is her youngest child. But seeing the photos that I have put up on my page for her to see has made her feel much better. Amjaad is very happy being the big sister to 3 little boys. And she is very happy to be on the basketball team at school. I don’t know anything about basketball except the goal of game is to put that ball in the basket. And it seems Amjaad has that talent.

Wijdan said that all of the women told her that life was dangerous here but she felt that God would provide the perfect home and loving family for her child and that she would be safe. I believe that also. Donna and I prayed about finding the perfect placement for Amjaad and we found it with Gina and Michael. Wijdan says that seeing Amjaad’s happy face with her beloved American family has given her assurance that her daughter is going to be well taken care of.

As Host Parents we have to cope with the adjustments to new foods, new schools, new customs, a different language and all new people. We have to be on the look out for signs of homesickness and culture shock. While on the other side of the world, parents and other family members are dealing with the worries of all the things that they hear about that are bad about America. They worry that their sons and daughters will be made fun of or bullied. They worry that they might not be living in a safe environment. They worry that they won’t have enough to eat. They worry that if their child is ill that there will be no one to comfort them and take them to the doctor.

As a parent, I understand and feel their fears. These people have placed their trust and faith in my lap that I will keep a watch over their precious daughters. As one of the mom’s told me, She has given me her heart to love and care for. I will do for their children what I hope would be done for mine if either of my daughters’ were exchange students in their care.

So I will take many photos and post them on my computer for their moms to see and write about their lives as their year of living in an southern American home progresses. Each student will have a different yet similar experience and I will watch it through 7 pairs of eyes and record it every step of the way with my camera.

A friend to man

Let me live in the house by the side of the road where the race of men go by;
The men who are good and the men who are bad, as good and as bad as I;
I would not sit in the scorner's seat, or hurl the cynic's ban;
Let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.
-- Sam Walter Foss

I like the above quote. It pretty much sums up what I think the exchange student program is all about…living on the side of the road and being a friend to man.
For two days last week we were working very hard to make sure the airline finally found Julia’s long lost luggage. After many exasperating phone calls her traveling luggage finally arrived Tuesday in Tupelo and then it was delivered to our home and I took it from there out to her Host home. With the school open house that evening I suspect that she really wanted and needed her clothes.

Julia and her Host family and our student Anna and I, along with Ariel and Erin went to BHS to introduce the exchange students to the teachers and to get familiar with the school. Amjaad’s Host mom Gina met up with me so that she would be able to talk to some teachers because Amjaad had not arrived yet.

The rest of the week was exciting as Gina and her family were in the count down awaiting the arrival of Amjaad. She arrived in Washington DC on Thursday and would be arriving in Memphis Saturday morning. In the meantime, I was busy working on getting everything ready for another family to hear from their pending exchange student.
Ema from Serbia is approved to come to Calhoun City and live with Gina and Rickey Baker for the school year. Gina and Gracye (and Rickey too I suspect) had gone into the same high gear mode the rest of us did when we realized that a new person would be coming to live in our homes.

Saturday morning, the Schmitz family, my family and Donna and Roger Williams were all up before the sun getting ready to make the drive to Memphis. Donna was meeting two YES girls from Pakistan that were going to live in Grenada. I was there along with the Schmitz family to finally meet Amjaad. We all stood on the mezzanine and watched the planes landing and taking off. As the time of her arrival drew near the planes were landing back to back with perhaps one minute between them. As the plane we thought she might be on was being guided to one of the far off gates, we made our way back to a spot where we could see the passengers coming down the concourse.

I knew that Amjaad was tall and that was what I was looking for. Pretty soon I saw three girls wearing bright red YES t-shirts and one of them was very tall. I started waving wildly and taking pictures. Gina’s son Gregory was holding his orange sign that said Welcome Amjaad up. Her other little ones were eagerly looking at the girls approaching our group.

Donna and one of the Host families from Grenada greeted the Pakistani girls and I introduced Amjaad to her host family and to mine. It was so good to finally meet her in person after talking with her for weeks on facebook. We were sending messages to her mother in Bethlehem to let her know that her child was safely in our hands. After we went down to the baggage claim area and retrieved her luggage, (and it all arrived thankfully!) She left with Gina and Michael and the boys to begin her new life adventure.

Donna had to go to Tupelo with one of the Pakistani girls because her luggage went on to Tupelo. After they picked up her luggage then they were able to go on to deliver her to her host family in Grenada.

Now I am waiting to go to the airport one more time with Gina and Rickey Baker to greet Ema. Hopefully she will arrive in the same airport as her luggage and will be ready to hit the road running because she won’t have any time to get over the jet lag!

This is going to be an exciting year for the high schools in Bruce, Calhoun City and Vardaman. Donna and I are here to answer any questions that the students and faculty will have and to help out in any way that we can. For the community at large, these students are required to give presentations about their countries. Give us a call or get in touch with their host families and make arrangements for them to come and speak to your club or organization or church group. We are planning International Tasting luncheons serving traditional foods from their home countries in each community to help raise funds so we can take these kids on a special trip or two.

Let us show them how welcoming our communities and schools are and lets learn to be “a friend to man’

Julia is finally here. Luggage is lost SNAFU!

"I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day & I believe in miracles" -Audrey Hepburn

This past weekend has been a long one for me and for one of my charges. Saturday was the day that Cindy arrived from France and Julia was coming from Germany. Cindy’s flight was to arrive in Jackson at 7:55 and Julia was scheduled to arrive in Tupelo at 9:05. As the Community Representative for AYUSA I try to be at the arrival of all the students I have placed. That was not going to be the case. Brother Scott and Denise and their brood headed down to Jackson to get Cindy. I would be picking up Julia because her host family was still on their way back from a week of competing in the Little Britches Rodeo in Colorado.

So nothing could go wrong could it? We took Anna shopping for school clothes and then to see the Harry Potter movie. After the movie we were going to the airport to wait. The second I walked out of the theater, my phone started vibrating and messages started hitting. All of them saying “urgent” and “call me”. Then the call came from California and the AYUSA offices. Julia’s flight leaving Frankfurt Germany was delayed and that made her late getting into Washington, D.C. That late flight meant she missed flight to Atlanta and would not be coming into Tupelo. But no one seemed to know where she actually was. She had not called anyone and by now everyone was going into full blown panic mode.

I called her host family to update them and told them to stay put until I found something out. After a lot of calling and being put on hold and first being told they could not give us information, finally someone found the child and I talked to her. I can’t tell you the relief that washed over me on hearing her voice. I told her that I was going to have her flight changed because the airline was telling me that it might be THREE days before she could get to Atlanta. I started seeing red after hearing that! I had her flight changed so she would arrive in Memphis on Sunday morning and I promised her I would be standing at the gate when she disembarked from that plane.

Sunday morning arrived and we all loaded into the car and headed to Memphis on 78. Jessica and Jeff and the boys were also going north on I55. We arrived first and I started getting a little panicky when I couldn’t get the guy at the ticket counter to tell me if she was on the flight. For security reasons he could tell me the flight was on time but he could not tell me about the passenger. I showed my papers, my id, I begged but to no avail. By this time I was starting to get angry. That emotion didn’t move him either. I noticed the homeland security people were starting to close in on me so I decided I had better hush or be carted off never to be seen from again. But I knew I could take that little weasel guy out if I had to! I was pacing like a caged tiger for a while and then I went and stood where I could see down the corridor waiting for her plane to land and not knowing if she was on it. One of the security guards proceeded to strike up a not so subtle conversation with me. So I told him the whole story and he told me to go back to the ticket counter and tell them that I wanted a gate pass. So I did.

I handed my purse to Ariel and taking my camera and phone and id card and the paper with Julia’s flight information on it with me I went back to the ticket counter. This time I got a different clerk and after checking my id against the list of ‘known trouble makers and banned people” he told me that she was on the flight and then signed my pass and I went through all the check points and got to the gate about 3 minutes before her plane arrived. I saw Mr. ‘I can’t tell you anything about the passenger” while I was waiting at the gate. I just waved my pass at him.

The plane finally landed and I watched through the window and she was the last one off. I got around to the gate just in time for her to see me. We were both so relieved to see each other. I texted my daughter to tell her that I had Julia and we walked to go and meet her new host family. She was so exhausted from being up all night. Her new family immediately surrounded her and I took photos that were sent by internet to her father who was anxiously waiting in Germany for word that she had arrived. She might have been tired but her smile was beaming with happiness when she met her Host family for the first time!

Now as she gets rested and acquainted with her new family, I am still trying to track down her luggage. We recovered one bag that arrived in Tupelo but the other one is still MIA and that is just not acceptable to me. But I still believe in miracles and tomorrow is another day. And that bag had better miraculously appear!

They're Coming to America. TODAY!

Far
They've been traveling far
Far from their homes
But not without a star.

Sunday morning arrived all dark and rainy. Not the sort of day I wanted the first of the my exchange students to experience! But even tho it was raining, we headed out to Tupelo to await the arrival of Katya from Ukraine who is staying with the Scott Wright family in Calhoun City. I had a lot of thoughts while waiting with another family and the AYUSA Community Rep that was waiting there for their student from Russia to arrive.

I can’t describe the excitement that my family felt in seeing the girls exit the plane. I was feeling so much excitement and I was just picking up a child to deliver to the host family! Katya was arriving just as Bro. Scott would be getting ready to step up to his pulpit to deliver the Sunday sermon to his congregation and it was easier for me to miss church than it would be for him. So we greeted Katya and brought her to her new home in Mississippi USA!

Free
Some want to learn to be free
They huddle close
Hanging on to a dream.
Katya is a very talkative and poised young lady. Her English is fantastic and she is eager to learn our customs and way of life. We left her with her host family and new host grand parents and headed on down to Columbus to await the arrival of Anna, the student from Armenia that we are welcoming into our family. The last we saw of the Katya and her new family, she was snuggled under a blanket on the sofa flanked on each side by her new little sisters and showing them a DVD about Ukraine and its history. Bro. Scott was eating some chocolate she had brought (and he didn’t even share!) while Denise was cooking dinner

With their bags and on the planes
They're coming to America
Looking forward to adventures again
They're coming to America
Anna’s flight was running a little behind schedule and I was getting antsy, pacing the floor in the atrium looking out at the runway. My pacing was finally rewarded with the sudden appearance of the aircraft as it emerged from the clouds and lined up with the runway to touch down. I realized I was holding my breath when the wheels touched the pavement!

Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, They're traveling light today
To see for themselves
This land of the brave.
These kids are really brave to leave their homes at such a young and tender age to travel half way round the earth to places they have never heard of or seen just to experience our way of life. And their parents are very trusting to entrust their precious children to a Host family to look after and raise as their own for the academic year in a far off land.

Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
And our smiling friendly face.
Every one of us Host Moms that I know personally have been in a dither making the spare room an inviting haven for our newest family members. We want this to be a great experience for these kids that have been brave enough to come here. All of the rooms are quite colorful and quite welcoming! Anna was very excited to finally see her room. I had sent her pictures this week and she told me her Mom was very happy to see where she would be sleeping for the next 10 months.

Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America!
As we drove back to Bruce, Anna commented on how clean everything was and how much space there is. She comes from a country that is one-fourth the size of Mississippi with 3 times as many people. She was amazed at all the land devoted to trees also. We arrived home and I cooked spaghetti and garlic bread as she explored the house. She told me that her home is Armenia is only 4 rooms. I felt bad for the times that I think I don’t have enough space!

Got a dream that brings them here
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America
A new adventure has begun for my family and the Wrights. It will also begin for the Schmitz family and the Adams family of Bruce as their students will arrive next week and the next. Brother Scott and Denise also will join us in the double placement club by accepting another student. Cindy from France had been placed in another part of the state and her host family backed out at the last minute. So Katya will not be the only exchange student attending Calhoun City High School this year.

Welcome to America and Calhoun County Katya and Anna. We are so glad you came!
They’ve come to America! TODAY!!

Their coming to America

With apologies to Neil Diamond.



Far
They've been traveling far
Far from their homes
But not without a star.

Free
Some want to learn to be free
They huddle close
Hanging on to a dream

With their bags and on the planes
They're coming to America
Looking forward to adventures again
They're coming to America

Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, They're traveling light today
To see for themselves
This land of the brave.

Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
And our smiling friendly face.

Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America

Got a dream that brings them here
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America

They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
Today, today, today, today, today

My country 'tis of thee
Today
Sweet land of liberty
Today
Of thee I sing
Today
Of thee I sing
Today

FLEXible Anna and Katya

Blogging from Bruce
Vonda Keon
July 20, 2009


Let us build a new relationship with Russia and the New Independent States - one based on two peoples coming together in a common commitment to make the tough choices for the long-term health of each country and the world; two peoples aware that having stared each other to the brink of nuclear holocaust, we now have a special responsibility to find in each other and within ourselves the capacity to reconceive our possibilities as two nations, two peoples, one world.
-1992 Former US Senator Bill Bradley
The Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) is a federal government program that provides opportunities for high school age students from former Communist Bloc countries to spend a year in the United States, living with a family and attending a U.S. high school. The scholarship is awarded through a merit-based competition, to students from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.
This Sunday, July 26, a new cultural adventure begins for my family and for the family of Brother Scott Wright, the pastor of Lewis Memorial in Calhoun City. Both of our exchange students will arrive on that day. Katya fromUkraine,the student that will become a part of Bro. Scott’s family, will be arriving in Tupelo at 10:30 AM. I will be at the airport to greet her and bring her to meet her new family.
In a recent Facebook chat with Katya I asked her a few questions.
Q.What do you think will be the most exciting thing about coming to live in the USA for the school year?
A. Getting new experience, making friends, learning American culture.

Q.What do you think will be your biggest challenge when you arrive?
A. To my mind it will be sharing my own culture, mentality, habits with Americans.

Q. Why did you want to be an exchange student?
A. Because I want to know more about Americans, there culture, become more independent, meet new friends.

Q. What do you hope to achieve during your time here as an exchange student?
A. Independence, looking things from different points, being FLEXible.
After we drop Katya off in Calhoun City, we will be headed to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport to await the arrival of Anna, our own exchange student from Armenia. Anna is very excited to be coming here. Her first email to me said it all…..
“Hello Dear Family! How are you? I'm Ann, I'm going to stay with you for a year, and I believe that we'll get to spend a lot of good time together.
First of all thank you for choosing me. I was so happy to know that I was one of the first ones to be chosen. I am very excited and a little nervous at the same time. I am excited because I know that my year in the USA will be unforgettable and wonderful. And I'm a little nervous, because I know that it would be just a little hard for me in the beginning because of my English, but I'm ready to overcome all the challenges.
I have already started to imagine everything, my departure, my first day in school, the celebrations of the holidays with you, and many many other things.
I'm very happy to know a little about you. I saw the pictures, and I'm sure that I'll spend great time with you; especially with my sisters (I have no sisters, only a brother). Now I want to write a little about me, my hobbies and interests. I'm sure you know that I've played piano for 8 years. I really enjoy hearing classical music. But it’s a little crazy I like to hear rap and rock very much too. I found out that you like the series of ”Harry Potter". SO DO I!!! Here we go!!! There is already one common thing. I had mentioned that I like to read the books of "Harry Potter", but besides that I like to read historical books, because history is my favorite subject. I've read that you are interested in Armenia, and it will be a great pleasure for me to tell you about it, because it's a small country, but it has a very long history and a rich literature, and it's very ancient. The weather here goes up to 104 (F) in summer and 0 F, so I will definitely enjoy the weather in Bruce. I hope I'll be there for the first day of school. I've told my parents about you, and they are sure that you will take excellent care of me. They are little sad, but on the other hand they're very happy that I have the opportunity to learn about the US lifestyle.”
This Sunday Bro. Scott and Denise and their daughters will join in the cultural adventure along with my family as we learn to be FLEXible and become the Host Families for two extraordinary girls!

Germany will meet Bruce USA in a couple of weeks!

“With an open heart and an out-stretched hand
I have met the foreigner in his own land.
And she is now my friend and he is now my brother,
and together we will build a world in which we love each other.”

The preceding quote is from a poem written by a CBYX Alumna. CBYX is the acromyn for Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange. The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange was initiated in 1983 by the United States Congress and the German Bundestag in celebration of the 300th anniversary of the first German immigration to North America. The exchange program is all about the importance of common values, mutual acceptance and lasting personal relationships to young Americans and Germans.
Since 1983, almost 15,000 German high school students have come to experience the American way of life. By extension, these numbers multiply into 15,000 hosting families. This year, a wonderful girl from German is coming to live with Jeff and Jessica Adams and their 3 boys and attend high school at Bruce. I was so excited when Jessica told me her family would love to share their home with Julia and to become a part of the growing group of Host Family’s in Calhoun County.
As with my other ‘kids’ that I have placed, Julia and I have been communicating via Facebook. The Host Moms and I are in daily contact with each other and all of the kids. I get questions about what clothes to bring and what is the weather like and which banks will work with an overseas bank, what is school like, etc.
In a recent exchange with Julia I asked her what motivated her to come to the USA to study for a year and what expectations she might have. This is her response:
“I wanted to be an exchange student because I wanted to find out if all the things you hear in Germany about the USA are right or not. I don't want to build on the things other people say about. I want to find it out by myself.
I want to live exactly like my host family and getting familiar with all the American customs they have and being a part of that family and treated as their own children. I want to try out everything I have the possibility to. I don't know which things those are but I wanted to come there to find that out.
I think the language will be a thing which will be a very strange thing at the beginning. But also all the habits we don't have in Germany. The completely different school system in the US.
I hope I can reach all those aims and won't disappoint my family!!”

Just think about the culture shock. Julia is going to go through as she discovers all the differences between our country and hers. She comes from the Bavarian region with centuries old castles and the best chocolate in the world! Things like street-signs and everything she takes for granted will suddenly just upside down. In the end her horizons will be broadened and she will feel like she has discovered a new world!
Some interesting facts about Germany are that there are no speed limits on the highways. In Germany, many people (83 million) live in a small space about the size of Montana. And the food! I love German food. You have not lived until you have eaten real German potato salad and real sauerkraut!
The Adams family is getting ready to forge a relationship with a girl and her country. In later years they may find themselves visiting her in her hometown. Both the Host Family and the student are going to be changed by this experience. Welcome to America and to Mississippi Julia. We drive slower and speak slower and we are looking forward to learning about your culture and your life and sharing ours with you!
Check out www.AYUSA.org and look at all the students that want to come to study in the US. Sign up on line or call me. I’ll be glad to help you become a Host Family!

Hosting a foreign exchange student

"My experience changed my life. My host family helped me have a great experience and they really opened my mind to everything. My host mom, she has a big deep heart, I learned from her that nothing is impossible in this life, and the important part is to make sure that you always give your best for everything."

This is what one exchange student had to say about the experience of coming to America and living with a host family for a year.

As a new school year is rapidly approaching my family has been busy getting ready to begin our second year of being a host family. And to add to that excitement, I decided to answer the call to become the Community Representative for this area and find the perfect homes for foreign exchange students wanting to come and experience our way of American Life.

One of the exchange students that will be arriving soon is Amjaad. She is a YES student from Bethlehem. YES is the acronym for Youth Exchange and Study. She has been preparing for this experience for a long time, learning English and writing essays. It is a very competitive process to go through in order to be chosen to come to America.

Bethlehem (in case you don’t know) is a city about the size of Tupelo. It is the birth place of Jesus and home to the oldest Christian community in the world. It is THE HOLYLAND. Amjaad lives there with her Mom and Dad. Her mother teaches English and her dad teaches history.

Amjaad and I have been chatting almost daily thanks to Facebook . She is half a world away but we chat a good bit. She asks questions and I answer them. I won’t be hosting her but I will be like the second Mom for her. As the Community Rep with AYUSA, the organization that I work for, I will keep close contact with the exchange students and the host families to help make the transition easier and to just be another person welcoming a student to our American ways.

Amjaad called her host Mom, Gina Schmitz of Bruce, on Sunday. She is so excited about coming and being the big sister to Gina’s three very active boys. She also is excited about starting school here and she wants to play basketball with the Lady Trojans. She plays on her country’s basketball team in Palestine. Thanks to YouTube, she has been able to see some video’s of the Lady Trojans in action.

She tells me she is a little scared about coming. Not that she is fearful of anything. But she is scared because everything will be new for her. Just imagine what it will be like! Every day will be a new adventure to cope with; new sights, new smells, new foods, new home, new family, new bed to sleep in. She will be attending a new school, meeting new teachers, having to speak a language that is not her native tongue, study History and Literature that is not familiar to her culture and meeting all sorts of new people that will be just as curious about her as she is about them.

It will also be an adjustment for her host family. Gina will finally have another female in that house full of boys and will be learning about high school subjects also. But what a wonderful time this will be for this family.

I can tell you from our previous experience that hosting an exchange student is such a wonderful learning experience. You learn about other customs and cultures. It is a wonderful sharing of ideas and values and experiences because not only is the exchange student learning something new, so does the host family, and the teachers and students at school and the community at large that the students are a part of.

All exchange students come here to learn about our leadership belief systems, our civil society principles and community service. We will be taking them to Jackson to see our State Government in action, (hopefully there will be some sort of action and lawmaking going on!). They will attend city council meetings and be making presentations about their native cultures and traditions at local churches and for the local Civic clubs. They will become part of our community and a family member in their host homes.

For a short time, Amjaad will be here learning what life in Mississippi is all about. The Schmitz family has opened their hearts and their home to a wonderful young person from another country.

We don’t want to be the only ones having all the fun. You too can say YES by opening your heart and home to a young person from another country.

Things that make me go Whaaat?

June 22, 2009

This past week has been a week of things that make me scratch my head and go “Say whaaaat?”

One such incident was Naked Hiking Day which occurred Sunday. I am as serious as a heart attack. Naked Hiking Day occurred on the Summer Solstice which was also Fathers Day this year. According to an NBC news report, every year on the first day of summer, a few outdoor enthusiasts nationwide expose virtually all of themselves to insects, scrapes and thorns for the pleasure of bonding with nature au naturel. The hikers that were interviewed said it's not about being lewd and crude and all that. It's just enjoyment.

One hiker who blogs about hiking in Mississippi's Homochitto and De Soto national forests on his Web site, theplacewithnoname.com., cited as inspiration, passages from Henry David Thoreau, naturalist John Muir and backpacking guru Colin Fletcher that suggest nudity enhances one's appreciation of nature. This strange dude said he started hiking naked as a boy after a day of skinny dipping one long hot summer.

I don’t know about you but the woods and the great outdoors can be hot enough as it is this time of year with clothes on and I am sure not going to be shagging my duds just to commune with Mother nature. Can you imagine? I shudder at the thought of seeing some Borat or Bruno type character traipsing through the woods with a pale bare bottom just a shining in the noonday sun.

What are these people thinking? Don’t they worry about ticks, chiggers and the ever present, always hungry and looking for a meal, Mississippi mosquitoes? There are just some places on the body that OFF and DEET just should not touch, if you know what I mean! Now some of the naked aficionados’ claim that there's an advantage to hiking naked in a buggy area: wood ticks on the skin are easier to spot. And they do wear hats and hiking boots and carry back packs as well as apply plenty of sunscreen and bug repellent.

Thank goodness. And here I thought they were totally naked.

Now since these folks are out there hiking in parks, which is public property, that means you or I could happen up on them. Or what about the Boy and Girl Scouts that are out on their Summer time camping trips. If I am out in the vicinity of a wooded area, I sure hope some of these naked hikers accept the responsibility that I don’t want to be surprised by them and their enjoyment of nature, and they will keep to the shadows or at least carry some shorts to slip on. And between you and me and the backpack, if I ever do see a naked hiker, I will probably just start laughing at the ridiculous sight.