Sympathy Pain

This is not the post I was about to write, but I just had a random moment. I was sitting here watching a news story about a toddler who had fallen from a 3 story window and was caught by passerby’s…that in a moment.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone. I thought they were watching the video…a co-worker. I’m at lunch, so it’s not a big deal that I’m watching news. Then I see they are sliding something onto my desk. I think it’s very nice that they are trying to not disturb me, but why not just say something…

It was actually a deaf person who had somehow found their way into the office. He had a small heart pendant with the following message attached to a card:

“Let’s be friends! I am a deaf person selling these cards and pins for a living. Donation: Any price you wish. Thanks for your kindness.”

I normally have no cash on me, but today I did. So I gave him what I could.

Then, thanks to Blue’s Clues, I understood him saying “thank you” in sign language. I answer back, in sign language, and he walked away.

It was just a strange and random thing that happened in a day that was starting to over whelm me. It was nice to have that moment of clarity to calm me down.

And now, the story about the toddler. I can’t imagine looking up 3 stories and seeing a toddler dangling from a window and having the reactions to save her. I hope I would, but I don’t want to find out.

And because I hate the Crocs…

LONDON, England (CNN) — Parents who choose a stroller that seats their baby facing away from them could risk long-term development problems in their children, according to a study published Friday.

The research found that children not facing the person pushing them were significantly less likely to talk, laugh and interact with their parents.

Based on a study of 2,722 parents and children, the study by Dundee University’s School of Psychology calls into question the designs of many of the world’s most popular baby strollers.

“Our experimental study showed that, simply by turning the buggy around, parents’ rate of talking to their baby doubled,” said developmental psychologist Suzanne Zeedyk, who led the research.

Zeedyk’s study, published by British charity National Literacy Trust, included an experiment in which 20 babies were wheeled in buggies for a mile, spending half the trip facing their parents and the other half facing away,

Parents using face-to-face strollers were more likely to talk to their children, who were less likely to exhibit signs of stress, the study said.

“Our data suggests that for many babies today, life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and possibly stressful,” Zeedyk said.

“Stressed babies grow into anxious adults.”

I was sitting at lunch…eating a cheesburger…feeling pretty good about my mornig accomplishments…when this came on CNN.

What strength and courage. What wisdom out of the mouth of a baby. I have no words to describe how this made me feel, only that I wanted to share.

It was about mid day Tuesday when I began to feel uneasiness. There was something wrong in the universe. I felt as if my marriage was beginning to crumble and my morality was being attacked. I couldn’t figure it out. Then I saw the news…

“Gay marriage makes history in Kern County, California, dozens of gay couples wed”

Oh wait…it was just gas. Nothing cosmically horrible occurred. The ground didn’t open up and swallow the human race. Life as we know it didn’t come to an end. Gay couples just had their relationship recognized legally.

Now I try not to talk about things political here, but this is a story that relates to families and parenting. I have always felt that if you are lucky enough to find happiness, grab on to it. If that happiness is with someone of the same sex, who am I to judge. It’s not a question of religion, it a question of law. How does the law see these couples. It should see them in the same way that it sees all questions of sex and race, blindly.

I was raised in a very conservative home. I then went into theatre, which is one of the most liberal fields. I have met many gay men and women. I have been accused of being one myself. I have to say, some of the greatest and most influential people in my life have been gay. Some of the best parents I know are gay. They are happy, in love, and bring up a child with 2 loving parents.

Also, why do we, the straight, think we’ve got the corner on marriage? It seems to me that we breeders have been the ones screwing up the idea of marriage for hundreds of years.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year’s supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday.

Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.

The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.

“Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable,” Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.

About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.

The first sunrise will occur on August 20 and McMurdo’s population will start to increase again in September when supply flights resume, peaking at more than 1,000 during the summer period.

(Reporting by Kazunori Takada, editing by Miral Fahmy)

Wow. I am amazed almost daily at the amount of parents who don’t buckle their child in. I wish I had the power to call them in for a ticket. That would be awesome…they get a citation in the mail that starts…”Dear stupid breeder”.
Now, honestly I didn’t wear a seat belt regularly until I was 10 or 12, and the worse that happened to me was a broken jaw and a scar on my forhead. I mean, that was back in the 70’s and 80’s when children were tougher…I guess. But now, we know better.

But this kills me…I hope that was some good beer. Just another pet peeve of mine.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - Police have arrested a motorist they say had a 24-pack of beer strapped in with a seat belt but had a 16-month-old girl unrestrained in the back seat with the toddler’s mother.

Tina D. Williams was pulled over in St. Augustine on Sunday for allegedly running a red light.

A 24-pack of Busch beer was strapped in with the passenger-side seat belt, according to an arrest report. The girl was in the back seat with 20-year-old Amber Tedrick, who is the toddler’s mother.

Williams, 46, said she didn’t know why the child wasn’t restrained.

Williams refused to take a breath test and a deputy found two metal pipes commonly used to smoke drugs in her purse, authorities said.

Williams was charged with driving under the influence, child abuse, possession of drug paraphernalia and driving without a license, a jail official said. She remained in the St. Johns County jail Tuesday after bail was set at $31,000.

The jail did not have the name of her attorney. It was not clear if Tedrick would face any charges, but the child was released to her care, according to The Florida Times-Union.

When I was growing up, there was a ta bu about talking real politics with my parents. I think I may have ask them who they were voting for once, and the reply was “You shouldn’t talk about that. It’s a private decision.” We would talk about it in high school, amongst my peers, but never directly to an adult.

So last week, my son ask me who I was voting for…

It seems that that stigma stayed with me.

“I don’t know.” I replied.

“My mom and step dad are voting for …”AHHH!!! I wanted to cover my ears and start humming loudly. I shouldn’t be hearing this from a child. It was a weird, almost physical, reaction.

My wife and I talked about that yesterday. She had the same reaction to his asking her. It was just something not talked about between children and adults.

Then I saw this article. I think it’s kinda creepy to have your child wear a sandwich board at 10 years old for any candidate…other than class president.

Is it a southern thing? I don’t fully understand it, because I want my kids to grow up understanding this democratic system we live in, so why shouldn’t we talk. It just feels…dirty. Next time, I’m just going to by him a Hustler and send him to his room.

I was driving in, listening to the radio, when I heard this story. It got to me, so I wanted to share alittle world view today…

In Kabul’s trendy Shahre-Naw neighborhood, Jamal, a waif of a salesman in faded pink boots, is hawking gum for about 20 cents. Determined to score a sale, no matter what, he chases after pedestrians and darts in and out of snarled traffic.

“I’m a little scared of the cars,” he says. “One hit me coming the wrong way down the street. But I wasn’t hurt too bad.”

Jamal says he has worked on this corner for four years.

Kabul is the capital and largest city in Afghanistan. It has a population of about 3 million. So street salesman shouldn’t be surprising, right? Now consider that Jamal is 10 years old. He’s been selling on this street corner since he was 6. My son, at 6, was only concerned about his spelling homework, baseball, and getting ready for a new brother.

“Majority of them, they are not going to the school because they are working full time,” says Mohammad Yousef, who heads Aschiana, a nonprofit group that helps street kids. “Early in the morning, they are starting, they are working. Until evening they are working to have a piece of bread or something for their families.”

There are estimated to be over 600,000 kids hawking anything from gum to plastic bags or simply begging for alms. Some of them are the only means of income for there families who have been the victim of almost a quarter century of war. They have no education, and probably will only continue the cycle when they are adults.

Groups like Aschiana are trying to break the cycle by providing a few hours of education a day. Street kids can come in and learn to read, different skills, and musical instruments. The group hopes to get some sense of a better future into these children’s’ head. But none of them can give up there “day jobs”

Ahmad Zia, 14, learned to play the accordion-like Armonia and wants to become a famous musician. But he has no plans to give up his day job.

“Why should I be upset about having to work the streets?” he says. “I have no choice. My father is old, my mother is weak and only I can make the household run. So I need to sell plastic bags.”

NPR Morning Edition

3 million to go…

I feel a sort of vengeance as I read this. It felt as if I wasn’t just shouting in the wind. I have the law on my side…how often does that happen?

Police in Clearwater, Florida arrested 75-year-old Jean Merola because she wouldn’t pull her car forward at a McDonald’s drive-thru, despite being ordered to do so by an officer. She had ordered coffee and french fries and was waiting for them.
Merola said the McDonald’s employees told her to wait there for her food.

Merola was handcuffed behind her back and put in the cruiser.

Another officer arrived and took her to the Pinellas County Jail.

Merola said she was searched, photographed and fingerprinted.

Tongue firmly in cheek there…

LONDON (Reuters) - A British bus company has apologized to a girl who is led around on a leash by her boyfriend and describes herself as a human pet after one of its drivers threw her off a bus.

Tasha Maltby, 19, told British newspapers she was the “pet” of her 25-year-old fiance Dani Graves.

She told the Daily Mail newspaper Wednesday she was thrown off and told: “We don’t let freaks and dogs like you on.”

Arriva would not comment on specifics but said it apologized if the couple felt they had been discriminated against. It added, however, that the driver was worried about safety and the company told Maltby to take the leash off in the future.

“We have spoken to the driver who has talked about health and safety,” a spokesman said. “Should she be attached to a chain and something happens on the bus, that could be dangerous. All we are saying is that she is very welcome to use the buses but not when she is on her lead.”

Maltby — who lives on state benefits and got engaged in November — said her choice of lifestyle might seem unusual but was harmless.

“I am a pet,” she told the Daily Mail. “I generally act animal-like and I lead a really easy life. I don’t cook or clean and I don’t go anywhere without Dani. It might seem strange but it makes us both happy. It’s my culture and my choice. It isn’t hurting anyone.”

I love that she lives on State Benefits…I wonder if there is a special amount paid to house pets…I got 3.