It's my birthday. The Clothing Sew Along will have to wait until tomorrow because it isn't ready to post and I don't plan on spending the morning getting it ready. So, sorry! Also, I changed to a 2 column layout, what do you think? Clearly I haven't centered the banner...
It has actually been a rough couple weeks around here. Between sickness and other things going on I haven't been able to accomplish the things I would have liked to. There have been a lot of things on my mind too.
Before I get to anything else, I'd like to say thank you so much to those of you who have donated to One Day's Wages for my birthday. I'm in shock that about half of those donations are from people I don't know, so THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart. Your donations will help people survive. That's a big deal. I hope you know that. There are NO administrative costs when you give to One Day's Wages.
And for everyone else, please consider donating. I'm donating $10 for every person that donates. I have sent out personal letters to friends and I've posted here and on facebook several times. If you've just been waiting to donate, well, today is the day!
I've been enjoying reading my dad's blog while he writes about his experiences in Liberia visiting my brother. It seems strange to think that some things surprise me so much. Like, imagine fishermen that can't swim, have no life jackets and no fishing nets or poles. And really, every post has something extremely interesting if you are an interesting person.
But I think the past few days my mind has been occupied by this story of these poor abused girls. The parents were followers of a certain "Christian" method of parenting that advocates for total control over your children. Spanking should be done relentlessly, and with rubber plumbing tubing, until the child is broken. I won't link to their website, because if you go there you are likely to become enraged like me. I read an article by the founder who talked about how the Bible detests "silliness" and as an example, said you should hit your 5 year old if she spills her snack because she didn't close the ziploc. WHAT? And what is worse is all the comments thanking her for her teachings. Sadly, the girl that died had been "disciplined" for mispronouncing a word. That sounds like you should beat her to death, right?
I've read a number of bloggers talk about this incident and I've become rather disgusted with the number of people defending this type of parenting. I can't understand people abusing kids and saying it is in the name of Jesus. I just can't understand that. All I have to say is that the "teachings" are supposedly derived from the Old Testament in the Bible. Jesus's words are in total contradiction from what these people teach. Matthew 7:12 says "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Laws of the Prophets." So, if this sums up the Law of the Prophets, aren't these "teachers" missing something? I'll tell you what, I would never want someone to whip me with rubber tubing if I spill something. If I don't know how to prevent the spill, I'd sure like it if you would teach me, kindly. For an excellent read on this topic, check out Tulip Girl. UPDATE: And to make this hurt worse, Liberia (where my brother lives and where they are hoping to adopt their foster daughter) is now considering not reopening adoptions. People, STOP hitting your kids!
Enough of that. Have you read Katie's last post? She titles it "my heart spilled" and oh boy did she. An excellent read, if you are up for it.
And for one last thing that has occupied my thoughts. A friend of mine posted on facebook the other day about how blessed she felt to have gotten a dishwasher. She remarked about how blessed we are in this country. I gave her the big thumbs up. Then, as is often the case on facebook, someone responded disagreeing with her. There must be one in every bunch, right? Well, this fellow thinks "we are not that blessed in this country, because, think of all the people and children that starve to death in this country". (this isn't a direct quote because my wise friend removed it from her wall)
Think about that for a moment. What would prompt someone to say this? I like to attribute it to a countrycentric attitude. You know, our country is great and therefore we are more important than others. I don't know this man from Adam, so I can only project this might have been his reasoning to say we aren't that blessed in this country. Of course, not many people die of starvation in this country. Thankfully we have a decent system of safety nets that prevents starvation. I understand that there are lots of very poor people, hungry people. People suffering without homes, without the luxuries that we have. Fortunately, thanks to WIC, the School Lunch program, Food Stamps, Soup Kitchens and Food Banks, people don't starve. Unless of course, they are abused or for some strange reason are not accessing the resources available to them.
I tried, I really tried to find statistics on the number of people in the U.S. who starve to death. I couldn't find any. None. So I asked this fellow the question on facebook. I responded simply "how many?" Of course, he graciously gave me a statistic to back up his original statement. It was something to the tune of "about as many as the number of brain cells you have left." Well, that wasn't very nice.
But I do know that over 30,000 people die from starvation related causes daily worldwide. I also saw a statistic that says 15 million children die from hunger each year. Both are bad.
So my question to you is, why, oh why, do we decide to put up a wall in our hearts, and deny that we live with excess? Why do sit back, watch the news and do nothing? I'm not really sure the answer. I grapple with it daily. I can certainly understand Katie's frustration, but I'm no Katie.
