Quick Thought......

A friend of mine who has her teenaged daughter in an online virtual school has this conversation she shared with me:

Friend asks her daughter: Do you want to go to the high school next year?
Daughter: You mean the one with security cameras and metal detectors?

End of discussion.

Juxtaposition of Life

We have some issues here in our town. If you aren't on the side of the city council, as a business owner, well then....oh well!

Long story short. A couple of years ago a well established, deep rooted, family business, Schumacher's Furs, had a business in down town Portland. The animal rights activists took them on as a target and harassed, badgered, vandalized, etc. this store right out of business. Absolutely no help from the Portland police or the city council. In fact, Randy Leonard (you know, the one I said was really the mayor a few months ago) told this company to go to an indoor mall where they would have better protection. Randy was blowing smoke. The same freaky activists also targeted and harassed a local pet shop inside a local mall and put them out of business.

Well no matter what you think about the fur trade, to harass a business out of business with some of the obscene and disgusting tactics these groups used is horrible. So here is what hit my headlines yesterday.

Olympic skater, Johnny Weir, has white fox fur on his costume! Gasp! No joke, the dude should be so lucky to not live in Portland. And his statement to the activists? Phhhht! He takes on causes that address human suffering, not animal suffering, because humans matter. Click here. I like this guy! Finally someone with the fortitude to say it like it is, and take on these folks. I am not joking, he is very lucky he isn't here. His house would become activist central, and he would be a target, for a very very long time.

And then we have this guy. Here's how ignorant I am, I had no idea another fur store would have the courage to stay open in this city after what happened to the Schumacher's. Apparently, there is. Yesterday, an apparent extremist decides to douse himself with gasoline, screaming "animals are dying", lights himself on fire and attempts to enter the store while in flames only to find it locked. Local police chased him around the sidewalk with a fire extinguisher. He later dies from his injuries. Click here. Only if you are in a kind of macabre, funky, slightly disturbed state of humor.....read the comments from the local community in this article. I have to admit, a little sleep deprived, I was laughing at some of them last night. It is extremely sad, and someone has lost their life for such a senseless reason. Someone who has parents, siblings, and close friends now have to live with senseless loss.

There you have it. We have people starving in Haiti. Just read the headline this morning that the homeless kids on the streets of Haiti are already being targeted by icky people for human trafficking. We have our men and women living in the sand in the Middle East to defend our rights and protect our country. Our country is in economic depression and there is no fast solution. People are losing their jobs and homes.

And yet for some reason there is a faction of our communities that think animals go to the top of the list, to the point of taking their own life.

I don't get it.

UPDATE:
And to add to the insanity, here is what the anti-fur people emailed to a local news outlet just today. Do I see an outcry as to the tragedy of this young man? Nope. Do I see a grief at the loss of a human life? Nope. I see them saying, "If you feel you must set yourself on fire, then do it!" They are as crazy as this young man was disturbed. It also shows their relentless harassment ('continued their bloody business despite protests for three years now') is fully intended to be constant and won't stop until the business shuts down, and the city doesn't do diddly to help them from such frightening extremism.

Every day is a battle for this legal business to be opened. I still contend, if this were an abortion clinic (and I, by no means, advocate for violent or harassing demonstration like this as a staunch pro-life person) and a protester stepped on one blade of grass on the wrong side of the sidewalk, the Portland police would have them arrested for trespassing. Instantly. I have sat in on a silent, vigil type, peaceful, sit in type of protest at a local abortion clinic. I was quickly schooled in where I was allowed to walk, not walk, stand, sit, etc. I was warned if I crossed those boundaries and was seen, I would be arrested. Those boundaries were very far from the front door. Yet these extremists can break windows, vandalize the building, spray red paint, bang on doors, block doors (seriously that is a huge no-no for abortion clinics--don't block the door), and the police don't do a thing, and refuse to by direction of the city council.

"This unedited email was received by KATU News before Daniel Shaull's death was announced.

The Portland Anti Fur Campaign was just alerted to the action outside Nicholas Ungar Furs earlier today [Wednesday].

We do not know who this person was nor do we know what his intentions were. If his intentions were to raise awareness of unnecessary animal suffering and killing done in the fur industry, and by businesses like Ungar Furs, then we wish him well.We are not saying that we want people to light themselves on fire and run into fur shops, but we do understand that sometimes you have to make noise and make a scene to stand up for the animals. It is really unfortunate that one would feel as if they must take such drastic measures, yet, this Fur Store has continued their bloody business despite protests outside for 3 years now.If the person's motivation was to bring media attention to the issue, they obviously achieved their goal.

Raise your fist, and your voice, Fox and Mink have no Choice!"


I am with Johnny on this one. I value people more than animals, and the glaring juxtaposition of these two stories is disturbing.

A Great Honor

Next week, on Wednesday the 3rd, our little virtual school is coming together with a few other virtual schools in our state and having "Capital Day". It is a fun day for the kids to come together, meet their classmates, see their teachers, have activities, take tours, etc.

Why is this a big deal for me? It was the event last year that opened my eyes. It opened my eyes to Senate Bill 767, that was about to shut our school down. It opened my eyes to the backroom deals the school board and the school unions were making.....using my kid's education as a bargaining chip. It opened my eyes to how awful it is to have a super majority in one's state legislature. It opened my eyes up to my own representative and my own senator, who by the way, has never ever returned my call or given me her ear. Capital Day, last year, put a verb in my step.

It is nostalgic to go back again. It won't be as intense this year, mainly because our school isn't standing at the precipice of the gas chamber about to be snuffed out. But, it is important because there is a special session of the legislature in session and we will need to continue to be in front of lawmakers. That is one of our tasks during these events. Build relationships with lawmakers so they can see us, hear us, and not think of us as a bargaining chip.

With that said, anyone of my Oregonian friends, you are officially invited to this event if you would like to come and bring your children. It's a great civics lesson for them with fun activities. It also shows our legislators that you can support us without having enrolled students.

And here is what brings tears to my eyes......and I mean it. I will be receiving an award from the Oregon Connections Academy Parents Association. They unanimously voted me as "Parent of the Year". Honestly, any parent who would take on the commitment of being a virtual school family is "Parent of the Year" in my mind. But I know the people on this association, and it makes me humble to know they thought of me.

It also gives me fuel. This battle isn't over. The moratorium of SB 767 is still in place. There is still an enrollment cap. The Oregon Education Assocation (OEA), better known as the fourth member of our state's government as a public employee union (yes that was sarcasm) is still in business. Once SB 767 goes away, they will come at us again. They keep going at the regular bricks and mortar charter schools. It is constant. This battle will continue until my kids graduate from high school. My thoughts? We, as non traditional schools, need to keep growing our influence, building relationships with lawmakers, showing the schmarminess of the OEA, etc. When we build our influence, we take theirs away. That has to happen in this state if we are going to have any type of quality of education. That union is insidious, and it's absolutely frightening the unchecked power they have right now.

And so we keep on fighting for a prize we cannot see......the future of our kids.

Finding Blessings in the Mundane

Jury duty. Need I say more? I was summoned last summer, and deferred. Once deferred, you must somehow serve in the next year. My time came up this last Wednesday. I got my child care lined up, got ahead in schoolwork. I brought a magazine, light paperwork, and my Blackberry with me.

I arrived downtown to one of the most overworked courts in our state. When serving jury duty, you should expect to be herded around, questioned, and kept busy. Court cases are always needing to be heard. Juries are always needed. Right?

As I am herded into the jury room, I am not joking. I am pleasantly surprised. The last time I served, probably about 8 year ago, it looked so different. Cushy office chairs have replaced hard plastic chairs. Two big screen TV's are mounted on the walls. There is a nice sound system. Who paid for this? Did our tax dollars get here? No such luck. These cushy improvements were possible because jurors signed off receiving their pay to fund all of this. Sigh......don't get me started on my feeling of that. Those of us living in Oregon right now are feeling the keen sense the state is continuing to take and take, with little in return. This just fed that feeling. Considering I am paying my childcare provider four times what I will be paid, it makes me irritated.

Anyway, we sit down. We watch fancy a Power Point presentation on how great our American jury system is, and what to expect today. I do appreciate that, because I do believe in the jury system. I also fall asleep for several moments during this presentation. Did I mention how cushy the seats are?

And we wait to be called. I watch the remainder of the "Today Show", which I haven't done since before I was married. I also watched "Days of Our Lives" and several infomercials. I played every game application on my Blackberry, made business phone calls, and did my writing I needed to get done.

What do you notice? No one is being called.....at all. I am hitting boredom levels. It's that boredom that is most irritating. You can't just relax. You know you have ten thousand things you could be doing at home, but because you have to sit in this room, you can't do them. Yet, you're doing nothing in this room and could be so productive if you could just be freed! I am leaving irritating messages on my facebook page on my boredom. It's hitting a level I don't like.

11:30 am. Lunch is normally at noon, but our room monitor gal let's us know that the trials for that day have been bumped to the afternoon, so we can leave early for lunch and be back by 1:30 pm. We are allowed to leave the building. Freedom!

I am in downtown. I love Portland's downtown. I have been in a lot of downtowns. I like ours because it is a nice mix of everything. Shopping, food, office spaces, coffee shops, open spaces, green spaces, etc. I like Atlanta, but their downtown is almost all hotels and office space. Very little shopping or touristy things to do. St. Louis is very trashed. Lots of homeless people, good shopping and good food, and very run down. Portland has it all and it is appealing.

I find a Borders bookstore and I am determined to find a book that will capture my attention. Okay, I had to think. What was the last kind of book that I read that made time go by fast. True crime. Ann Rule. Bingo.

I am about to find some lunch, but I am standing outside of Borders looking at their bargain racks. I turn and a woman who had just passed me whizzed around and pointed her finger at me and said, "Hey!" She completely startled me and I didn't recognize her.

One aside here......that skill of recognizing people no longer exists for me. I mean it. With my job, I meet up to 50 new people a week, no joke. After almost ten years of this, I honestly don't remember where I may have met you once before, and pretty soon people start to look familiar who aren't and people really do resemble each other. So when she did this, I get a feeling of "oh no.....now I have to figure out which candle party in the last 10 years I met her at!" I did over 200 candle parties just last year alone. See the problem?

I say, as I always say, "I am sorry, you'll have to help me. I don't remember you." She is about to jump out of her skin, she is so excited. She is Julie. And as soon as she said that, I remembered. She is Julie and her daughter is Sierra, and my family delivered her entire Christmas to her just about three weeks ago. Click here to remember that story.

She hugged me fiercely. I asked how she was and where she was living. I also told her she looked great! I am not kidding. She looked great. You could tell in three weeks, things were looking good for her. She has her housing now, and she really wants to start coming to our church. I reminded her where we were and to please come. Many of us would love to see her. Another fiercely strong hug and a genuine goodbye with a "see you soon!"

Jury duty just became really meaningful. I was on the light rail a few hours later.....not called to a jury in the busiest court in the state. However, I knew I was supposed to be in downtown Portland on Wednesday even if only to reconnect with a special woman.

Stop and Listen to the Music

I just returned from a meeting tonight. And yes, it's been a hectic last few weeks. Sorry my regularity of posting has suffered, I'll try and make it up to you with my first post since my hiatus.

I heard someone refer to this story as an introduction to their point of what they were talking about. And it struck me. I love to blog because it forces me to stop for a moment and find those subtle things in life that are missed if you're moving too fast.

Click here for the whole article, and be sure to listen to the amazing music.

I have some major projects coming down the pike here in the next few weeks. I am somewhat daunted by the magnitude of them. I'll share them soon.

I just hope I never miss the opportunity to listen to the music when the chance arrives.

We Are Still in the Christmas Season.....

Our church did it again. We do a children's Christmas pageant every year, and every year, it gets better and better. I have a preliminary slide show for us to enjoy. I am working on a masterpiece, so hold on for more, but I know several parents are excited to see something.

For those not involved, but love to watch kids. I need to make a few highlights. You might remember last year my tearful typing of a post about the wonderful Burmese family that came to our church.....with no English. After months and months of trying to include them in things, yet only having blanks stares to exchange....we offered (couldn't speak so we held up ratty costumes to show them we wanted them to join us) the kids to join us in our Christmas pageant. I still get choked up remembering that magical day. Please click here for a refresher.

This year....that same Burmese family was an integral part of our pageant. But even better. They have immersed themselves in their schooling and had English speaking parts. Kwa Too, one of the few young boys of this family, had a speaking part as Joseph. Several of the sisters were angels, that had English speaking songs to sing, including hand motions. What a joy to see them this year!

Also, I won't point out who....but it was also quite special since another one of the angels is also a leukemia patient and has had a tough year. Her hair grew back, there is color and a spark in her face. What a joy that she could participate in the pageant this year, last year she couldn't.

Yes, Joy to the World seemed an appropriate song this year.