Raymon Grace Foundation Joins with Emory & Henry College to sponsor River Clean Up on the North Fork of the Holston River March 26 and April 21, 2011  Howdy Folks, Once upon a time a well known news commentator, Paul Harvey, told a story that made an impression on me. It was from his ‘The rest of the story’ series. On April 13, 1800, Tom, a 57 year old man was making a list of his lifelong accomplishments and at the top of the list he wrote how he had gotten a group of people together and cleaned up the Rivanna River back in 1763. This was a man of many accomplishments including being President of the United States, and he put cleaning up a river at the top of his list. His name was Thomas Jefferson. Maybe I can understand a bit of how he felt. Today a group of over 20 volunteers from Emory & Henry College arrived to pick up trash from along the banks of the North Fork of the Holston River. This was immediately followed by Deputy Sheriff Tim Chapman driving a truck and trailer assisted by 2 inmates to haul away the trash. These efforts were the second such cleanup this year coordinated by the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable, a non-profit organization working in cooperation with Emory & Henry College, Washington County Sheriff Dept. and the Raymon Grace Foundation. This was part of Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful, the largest regional affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, which is the lead organizer for the Great American Cleanup. This is an annual national event taking place March through May with millions of volunteers participating in such events. Now Thomas Jefferson’s work crew were moving logs and rocks to clear the river for navigation for commerce. We were clearing the river from the trash that would be picked up in the next flood. Trash consisted of such things as old tires, plastic bags, stuffed animals, food containers, cans, fabric and all manner of car parts, just to name a few. For 36 years I have picked up trash, washed down from upstream where people have dumped it along the road near the river. In the past few years the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable has been working to clean up streams and we have joined forces with them to help. The Raymon Grace Foundation established a ‘Foundation Chair’ with Emory & Henry College to provide for annual cleanups of the river from now on. Our Foundation also funded a ‘water table model’ to be used in schools to show how the water table is polluted by dumping trash and chemicals on the ground. We have also funded Appalachian Sustainable Development, another non-profit organization which goes into schools with information about respect for water and growing food. My daughter April is involved with these organizations. In this area, people dump trash in the river because that is what they have seen all their lives. Trash dumpsters are located throughout the area, but people are creatures of habit. Ignorance and lack of respect are the basic causes of this type of pollution. With chemical pollution, greed is a factor. Hopefully, by going into the schools to teach kids about respect for the water and the earth will produce a generation of smarter and more respectful people. Am writing this today to show you what can be done when people work together. What we did today can be done all over the world. It just takes someone to do something rather than talk about it. I didn’t start the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable or the Washington County Sheriff Department or Emory & Henry College, all I did was join forces with them for a common cause. Over 25 years ago I set a goal to clean up water and hoped to find a way to do it throughout the world. At the time I didn’t have a clue as to how to accomplish this, so I started picking up trash from the river on my farm and at the beach. Later I learned how to change the energy in a cup of water, then to energize a swimming pool, then how to take pollutants out of a well. Now our information on how to change the energy of water and clean it up is available in 48 countries. See what can be done by setting a goal and working toward it. You can do the same thing in your community!!! Remember, if you do nothing—nothing will happen. If you do something then something will happen---SO DO SOMETHING!!! Raymon | ||
Monday, June 20, 2011
Raymon Grace...more dedicated work from him!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Obama and the Extraterrestrial Lobby ~ Utne/Bennett Gordon
12/30/2009 1:06:04 PM
Barack Obama’s “hope” and “change” campaign slogans meant many things to many people. For some UFO fanatics, Obama’s election represents the hope that the government will finally come clean about its “truth embargo” on the existence of extraterrestrials on Earth. The latest issue of The Washington Monthly profiles Stephen Bassett, Washington’s only registered UFO lobbyist. Basset and other UFO enthusiasts believe that Obama’s commitment to transparency and disclosure will lead to a formal admission that aliens have been on Earth for some time. Then the government can finally release all that alien technology—including the cures for cancer, global warming, and the engergy crisis—that it’s been sitting on for so long. Summing up the change that UFO enthusiasts have been waiting for, the Washington Monthly reports, “If Obama doesn’t announce the existence of aliens in early 2010, they say, he certainly will in the next few years.”Source: The Washington Monthly (Article not yet available online)
The Self-Compassionate Caregiver ~ Margaret Aldridge
by Margret Aldrich in the Utne Reader
Those who have taken care of a seriously ill partner, a child with special needs, or an incapacitated parent on a long-term basis know the relentless, sapping strain of it. Kristin Neff—a professor of human development and mother of an autistic son, writing for Psychology Today—opines that every caregiver should practice self-compassion to “recharge our batteries and have the emotional energy needed to serve others.”
What, exactly, is self-compassion? Neff turns to the writings of various Buddhist scholars to draw out three main components: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. She explains:
Self-kindness refers to the tendency to be caring and understanding with oneself rather than being harshly critical or judgmental. Common humanity involves recognizing that all humans are imperfect, fail and make mistakes. Mindfulness involves being aware of one’s painful feelings in a clear and balanced manner so that one neither ignores nor obsesses about disliked aspects of oneself or one’s life.
Though we can all benefit from practicing self-compassion, Neff sees it as crucial for overburdened, and sometimes underappreciated, caregivers. “Not only will it help to get through difficult situations,” she says, “it will lead to greater happiness and peace of mind.” She continues:
As a mother of a child with autism, I can tell you what a lifesaver self-compassion was for me…. When my son screamed and screamed because his nervous system was being overloaded and I couldn’t figure out the cause, I would soothe myself with kindness. When my son lost it in the grocery store and strangers gave me nasty looks because they thought I wasn’t disciplining my child properly, I’d give myself the compassion I wasn’t receiving from others. In short, self-compassion helped me cope, and that put me in the balanced emotional mind state needed to deal skillfully with whatever new challenges confronted me.
Want to find out how much self-compassion you have? Take Neff’s online test.
Source: Psychology Today
Image by kevinpoh, licensed under Creative Commons.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
North Carolina GOP Overrides Veto, Axes Planned Parenthood Funding
North Carolina GOP Overrides Veto, Axes
Planned Parenthood Funding
First Posted: 06/15/11 12:52 PM ET Updated: 06/15/11 01:00 PM ET
Republican state representatives in North Carolina voted to override Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's veto of the state budget Wednesday morning, ensuring that a provision to strip all federal and state money from Planned Parenthood will take effect on July 1. North Carolina is now the third state, after Indiana and Kansas, to defund the family planning provider because it also provides abortions.
Planned Parenthood of North Carolina (PPNC), which has nine clinics across the state, provides affordable birth control, preventative health care and family planning services to over 25,000 men and women. Without the $434,000 a year it usually receives in state and federal funds, Planned Parenthood says it will now have to axe its teen pregnancy prevention and adolescent parenting programs and force its low-income patients to pay out of pocket.
"The biggest impact is gonna be on the men and women we serve," said Melissa Reed, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood Health Systems. "There are 12- to 14-week waits for women to get into the health department for birth control or breast cancer screenings, but we can see patients the very same week. The health department relies on Planned Parenthood to fill that gap, and now we will be prohibited from serving as that essential safety net provider."
PPNC receives funds through the Title X Family Planning Program and state-funded birth control programs as a way to provide discounted pap tests, cancer screenings and birth control for low-income, uninsured patients. The Hyde Amendment prevents state and federal money from being used to pay for abortions.
Unlike Indiana, which blocked Planned Parenthood's ability to contract with Medicaid, North Carolina clinics will continue to be able to serve Medicaid recipients. It's the low-income, uninsured patients who don't qualify for Medicaid that now be falling through the cracks, Reed said, since PPNC will no longer be able to offer them the same low-cost services.
Conservative state lawmakers have been flogging Planned Parenthood for its association with abortions this past week during debates over the defunding bill and another bill that would restrict access to abortions. Rep. Pat McElraft (R-Emerald Isle) told her colleagues on the House Floor a tearful story about her nephew and his girlfriend's experience with Planned Parenthood 14 years ago.
"She went to Planned Parenthood, asked them what her choices were," she said. "They told her she would have a deformed baby because of her drug use, her only option was abortion."
"He went with her to what she describes as a very dark house. In that very dark house, a nurse attended to her. My nephew asked the nurse if she could at least see the ultrasound. The nurse said, 'I can't do that, I'll get fired.'"
McElroy later admitted that the incident happened in Georgia, not North Carolina, and that the "dark house" where the abortion occurred was actually not a Planned Parenthood clinic. The family planning provider estimates that abortions account for less than 3 percent of the services it provides.
According to a recent poll, 57 percent of North Carolina voters oppose the measure to defund Planned Parenthood and teen pregnancy prevention programs, and Reed said people have already started sending donations to keep PPNC afloat.
"Beginning at 7:30 a.m. this morning, we had donations coming in," she told HuffPost. "North Carolinians really support Planned Parenthood and are stepping up to support our efforts."
Planned Parenthood of Indiana received an unprecedented $116,000 in donations from across the world after it was defunded in May, allowing it to continue serving its Medicaid patients for more than a month after the bill took effect.
Reed said PPNC is now considering all options -- including litigation against the state -- to hang onto its low-income patients. A similar lawsuit is currently being heard in Indiana.
"They are using the budget to punish Planned Parenthood for other services we provide, such as abortion care, which does not even use any of this money," Reed said. "They can't legally do that."
Like the House, the North Carolina Senate is expected to vote to override the veto. That vote is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
"Where the Hell Is Matt?"
From Wikipedia:
Matt Harding was known by his friends for a particular dance, and while video recording each other in Vietnam, his travel companion suggested he add the dance. The videos were uploaded to his website for friends and family to enjoy. Later, Harding edited together 15 dance scenes, all with him center frame, with the background music "Sweet Lullaby" by "Deep Forest". The original Song uses samples from a dying Solomon Islands language which was recorded in 1971 by a French ethnomusicologist at the Solomon Islands near Papua New Guinea. The song, "Rorogwela" was sung by a young woman named Afunakwa. According to the video "Where the Hell is Afunakwa" by Matt Harding, Afunakwa died in 1998.
The video was passed around by e-mail and eventually became viral, with his server getting 20,000 or more hits a day as it was discovered, generally country by country due to language barriers, before the launch of major video upload sites.
Harding created a second version of the video in 2006, with additional dancing scenes from subsequent travels, called "Dancing 2006". At the request of Stride, a gum brand, he accepted sponsorship[11] of this video, since he usually travels on a limited budget.
Harding released his third dancing video on June 20, 2008. The video is the product of 14 months of traveling in 42 countries. The background music/song of this video is known as "Praan" composed by Garry Schyman and sung by Palbasha Siddique, with lyrics adapted from the poem "Stream of Life," a part of the Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore.[12]
As of August 2008, Harding is represented by Creative Artists Agency.[13] His videos are viewable on YouTube, Google Video, Vimeoand his own site wherethehellismatt.com. His "Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)" video has been watched over 33,555,501 times on YouTube and Harding's YouTube channel is ranked "#83 - Most Subscribed (All Time) - Directors" as of December 22, 2010.[14][15]
Ho'oponopono: Hawaiian Form of Forgivness
Ho'Oponopono is the ancient Hawaiian art of forgiveness, loving and personal accountability. Since I was introduced to this I use it several times each week to close my day. On a whim, I used it for meditation with some of the adolescent male therapy groups I facilitate. To my great surprise they loved it, and ask for it over and over. It has become a bonding process between all of us, and a process to see All as One.... to engender empathy and create a fresh beginning for a new day.
(The breathing directions are about using EFT techniques and breathing with it, which further enhance the depth of the meditation.)
Do We Need a New Way of Living?
by Kingsley Dennis, Ph.D. (sociologist, writer)
It is no understatement to say that the human species has entered a period of profound, fundamental, and unprecedented change. As such we need to acquire new skills in order to co-exist with a world seeking to exist at a greater depth within the larger fabric of life: planetary, solar and cosmic. Every evolutionary/revolutionary change requires a change in consciousness; this has always been the case. We are slowly beginning to recognize this fact and to notice a change in our psychology and consciousness. Philosopher and humanist Ervin Laszlo has outlined what he calls the "Ten Benchmarks of an Evolved Consciousness," which includes living in ways that enable all other people to live as well; living in ways that respect the lives of others and that respect the right to the economic and cultural development of all people; to pursue personal fulfillment in harmony with the integrity of nature; and working with like-minded people to preserve or restore the essential balances of the environment.
These benchmarks of an evolved consciousness, as Laszlo outlines, suggest a transcendent mind that forms relations and ties both locally and globally, both physically and non-physically. These again support the precepts of a quantum-field consciousness that embraces the local field of the person as well as having non-local influence. These traits may form what is increasingly being viewed as an ecological identity; perhaps even the stirrings of the cosmic self? The person acts and behaves both as an individual and as a part of the greater connected whole. These multiple relations form a more varied, rich and complex life; what psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi terms as essential for an evolving self. Csikszentmihalyi believes that a truly fluid evolving self needs to seek out and be involved in a range of activities and relations that stretch the self; to find new challenges and the commitment to develop new skills and learning. Another trait of an evolving transcendent self, notes Csikszentmihalyi, is the "mastery of wisdom and spirituality"; meaning the ability to see beyond the appearance of things, and to see through deceptions: to "grasp the essential relationship between the forces that impinge on consciousness." Also important in Csikszentmihalyi's framework for harmonious evolution is our ability to "invest psychic energy in the future." By this he means that a person should not only have trust in what is to come, but also to actively engage with "unforeseen opportunities" to build toward a positive and constructive future.
What both Laszlo and Csikszentmihalyi are effectively saying is that a transcendent, evolving consciousness develops through those who engage in human activity that expresses both greater individuation and a greater sense of oneness and unity. An evolving consciousness would also reflect the understanding that conscious energy is primary, and be aware and open to ideas and impacts of evolutionary and spiritual thinking. The view that consciousness is a primary force/energy in our reality is the key to helping people expand their consciousness and identify with ever more non-local ties and responsibilities: from one's family and community to the world, all life on Earth, and eventually to all life in our known universe. It is our materialistic thinking that has become dysfunctional and which now forms the backbone to a form of social pathology which has little idea or social index of how to measure our quality of life. These days a country's GDP only serves to indicate a country's economic inefficiency and says nothing about the well-being of its citizens. Negative social attributes have become rewards for our global economic system and for the modern way of life. Our social relations have for too long been representative more of an exchange of economic values and goods rather than our emphatic well-being. It seems as if we have been living within a "topsy-turvy" upside-down reality.
In an interesting study that links brain science to investment behaviour, researchers concluded that people with an impaired ability to experience emotions could actually make better financial decisions than other non-impaired people. This research is part of a new academic interdisciplinary field called "neuroeconomics" that explores the role biology plays in economic decision making, by combining insights from cognitive neuroscience, psychology and economics. This new study, published in the journalPsychological Science, shows that people with brain damage that impaired their ability to experience emotions outperformed other people in an investment game. The study suggests that a lack of emotional responsiveness gives people an advantage in economic circumstances as emotionally impaired people are more willing to take high risks because they lacked fear. Players with "normal" brain wiring, however, are more cautious in their dealings and interactions. A co-author of the study has even suggested that people who are high-risk takers or good investors may possess a form of "functional psychopathy." There we have it then, neuroeconomics has confirmed that our upside-down world is partly run by people who are social psychopaths. No wonder the old systems are failing us, and our so-called "modern societies" are suffering from the effects of embedded socio-cultural disorder, disequilibrium, and disharmony. It makes us wonder how our systems of politics and economics would be different if we all accepted and understood that consciousness is primal and that our thoughts are at the root of everything that manifests in our lives. In other words, how would human life be if we shifted from being "functional psychopaths" to being transcendental evolutionary agents?
CHANGE OR DIE BY Lloyd J. Thomas
CHANGE OR DIE
If there were only two words that characterize our society over the
past 30 years, it would be "transformational change." Not unlike an
individual struck with catastrophic or long-term illness, corporate
America has been forced to transform its lifestyle or die.
The rapid advancement of technology has required all of us to change
or at best, fall far behind in fully functioning within our
society/culture. For the individual, corporate downsizing and the
associated employee layoffs have destroyed the concept of lifetime
employment. Likewise, heart disease and cancer (which accounts for
over 70 percent of premature deaths) shatters one's concept of
permanent health and immortality. Excluding accidents,
lifestyle-driven illnesses account for over 85 percent of deaths
occurring before age 63. The essential shift from manufacturing to
informational and service companies accounts for over 65 percent of
business failure before the enterprise is three years old.
In their relentless search for more and more profit, many
corporations have neglected their greatest assets that generate that
profit...the people employed in the business. With a survival
mentality, employees are now seen as financial liabilities and are the
first to go when the economy of the corporate culture turns downward.
In our greedy and insecure drive to accumulate money and material
goods, many of us have neglected our greatest assets in creating
maximum health as well as material success...ourselves and our
relationships to those around us.
Failing to recognize the transformational value of interdependence,
we continue to depend on others to take care of us, both on the level
of personal health as well as personal income. Most of us depend on
healthcare providers to fix us after we become ill, rather than work
interdependently to prevent illness from occurring in the first place.
In precisely the same manner, we look to businesses, corporations and
unions to take care of our personal income and benefits, rather than
working interdependently with business leaders and managers to prevent
personal and corporate illness and create financial success for both.
Most of us have never focused on developing the personal skills we
each have to prevent illness or to be successful in a business
enterprise. The health of the individual is precisely the same as the
health of a business. The skills required to be well in all aspects
of your life are the same as those needed to be successful in any
business enterprise.
The basic and most important aspect of success in creating a well
individual, group or business is self-awareness. Any coping with
change requires an awareness of the potential (usually hidden) in the
self. Within each of us are the seeds for ongoing mastery of the
business, family, body, mind, emotions and spirit. Becoming
acquainted with, and empowered by, this self, (its talents and
abilities), is the single most essential activity for creating
wellness within all aspects of your lifestyle.
Some of these assets for wellness include: ability to learn; to
discriminate between what is true or real and what is false and
delusion; a positive mental attitude; personal integrity; eagerness to
take full responsibility for your choices, decisions and behavior; a
sense of humor; openness and willingness to change; self-discipline
(the willingness to practice those necessary activities when you don't
feel like it); habitual behavior based on time-honored principles
rather than reaction to the immediate situation; ability to take
moderate and realistic risks; curiosity and openness to feedback from
others; planning ahead and carrying out your plans; acknowledging the
value of every individual including yourself; self-caring so as to be
able to effectively care for others; vision of a desired future;
reverence for all life; appreciation and gratefulness for who you are,
what you have, and the people with whom you are interdependent; desire
to understand others; desire for interdependent intimacy.
All of these assets you have used at least once in your life. They
are the seeds, which if nurtured and developed, lead to creating a
healthy self as well as a healthy business. Like the chief executive
officer of a business, you are the CEO of your life. Recognize your
own power to change, and use your inherent talents to create both your
own health and your own wealth.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. Thomas is a licensed psychologist, author, speaker, and life
coach. He serves on the faculty of the International University of
Professional Studies. He recently co-authored (with Patrick Williams)
the book: "Total Life Coaching: 50+ Life Lessons, Skills and
Techniques for Enhancing Your Practice...and Your Life!" (W.W. Norton
2005) It is available at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com.
If there were only two words that characterize our society over the
past 30 years, it would be "transformational change." Not unlike an
individual struck with catastrophic or long-term illness, corporate
America has been forced to transform its lifestyle or die.
The rapid advancement of technology has required all of us to change
or at best, fall far behind in fully functioning within our
society/culture. For the individual, corporate downsizing and the
associated employee layoffs have destroyed the concept of lifetime
employment. Likewise, heart disease and cancer (which accounts for
over 70 percent of premature deaths) shatters one's concept of
permanent health and immortality. Excluding accidents,
lifestyle-driven illnesses account for over 85 percent of deaths
occurring before age 63. The essential shift from manufacturing to
informational and service companies accounts for over 65 percent of
business failure before the enterprise is three years old.
In their relentless search for more and more profit, many
corporations have neglected their greatest assets that generate that
profit...the people employed in the business. With a survival
mentality, employees are now seen as financial liabilities and are the
first to go when the economy of the corporate culture turns downward.
In our greedy and insecure drive to accumulate money and material
goods, many of us have neglected our greatest assets in creating
maximum health as well as material success...ourselves and our
relationships to those around us.
Failing to recognize the transformational value of interdependence,
we continue to depend on others to take care of us, both on the level
of personal health as well as personal income. Most of us depend on
healthcare providers to fix us after we become ill, rather than work
interdependently to prevent illness from occurring in the first place.
In precisely the same manner, we look to businesses, corporations and
unions to take care of our personal income and benefits, rather than
working interdependently with business leaders and managers to prevent
personal and corporate illness and create financial success for both.
Most of us have never focused on developing the personal skills we
each have to prevent illness or to be successful in a business
enterprise. The health of the individual is precisely the same as the
health of a business. The skills required to be well in all aspects
of your life are the same as those needed to be successful in any
business enterprise.
The basic and most important aspect of success in creating a well
individual, group or business is self-awareness. Any coping with
change requires an awareness of the potential (usually hidden) in the
self. Within each of us are the seeds for ongoing mastery of the
business, family, body, mind, emotions and spirit. Becoming
acquainted with, and empowered by, this self, (its talents and
abilities), is the single most essential activity for creating
wellness within all aspects of your lifestyle.
Some of these assets for wellness include: ability to learn; to
discriminate between what is true or real and what is false and
delusion; a positive mental attitude; personal integrity; eagerness to
take full responsibility for your choices, decisions and behavior; a
sense of humor; openness and willingness to change; self-discipline
(the willingness to practice those necessary activities when you don't
feel like it); habitual behavior based on time-honored principles
rather than reaction to the immediate situation; ability to take
moderate and realistic risks; curiosity and openness to feedback from
others; planning ahead and carrying out your plans; acknowledging the
value of every individual including yourself; self-caring so as to be
able to effectively care for others; vision of a desired future;
reverence for all life; appreciation and gratefulness for who you are,
what you have, and the people with whom you are interdependent; desire
to understand others; desire for interdependent intimacy.
All of these assets you have used at least once in your life. They
are the seeds, which if nurtured and developed, lead to creating a
healthy self as well as a healthy business. Like the chief executive
officer of a business, you are the CEO of your life. Recognize your
own power to change, and use your inherent talents to create both your
own health and your own wealth.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. Thomas is a licensed psychologist, author, speaker, and life
coach. He serves on the faculty of the International University of
Professional Studies. He recently co-authored (with Patrick Williams)
the book: "Total Life Coaching: 50+ Life Lessons, Skills and
Techniques for Enhancing Your Practice...and Your Life!" (W.W. Norton
2005) It is available at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Senators Want to Put People in Jail for Embedding You Tube Videos! (if this law passes!)
What is the real agenda here? I have my views. Would love to hear your views! Email me with your thoughts!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Homeowner Foreclosures on Bank of America (Yes, You Heard That Right)
By TARA-NICHOLLE NELSON – Mon Jun 6, 4:50 pm ET
In a modern-day evocation of David’s slingshot triumph over Goliath, a couple of foreclosed homeowners in Naples, Florida reportedly foreclosed on a Bank of America branch last week, their attorney actually having moving trucks pull up in front of a Naples branch to execute a foreclosure judgment against the bank.
What must have seemed to observers like a scene out of a parallel universe – you can see some video below – was actually the fair and logical conclusion to a situation which, the court had ruled, had an unfair and illogical start. In 2009, retired police officer Warren Nyerges and his wife, Maureen Collier, paid $165,000 cash for their 2,700 square foot home in the Golden Gate Estates subdivision, and never took a mortgage out on it. So imagine their surprise when, in Februrary of 2010, Bank of America initiated foreclosure proceedings against them. The Nyerges hired an attorney, Todd Allen, to defend them against the wrongful foreclosure, and the Bank eventually abandoned the matter.
(Article in its entirety may be accessed by link at top of page.)
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"there were no words, but images flooded every cell in her being ...4 and a half decades!"
