New York City Has Goodhearted Citizens

While scavenging through news articles, looking for something to blog 
about it is easy to say "I'll wait until later to post, none of these 
look interesting..." obviously I am guilty of that. However, of all of 
our website options I typically find something I like on the new york 
times website, when nothing looks appealing there I look through the 
health section, and today I did exactly that. Today the title "A City 
of Strangers and Kindness" caught my attention because I'm a sucker 
for an uplifting story, and this was just that!

This story was about a man named Marty living with Parkinson's Disease in
New York City. I was surprised to hear that New York City has kind strangers, but
I was more surprised to hear the testimonial of Darcy Heller Sternberg
and her husband Marty who has witnessed so much compassion on the streets
of a city with a bad reputation.

In the article she mentions a time when Marty was at the check out at a Radio Shack
and when he reached to his pocket for his wallet, he realized it was missing. He
explained to the clerk his problem and she said she would see him the following day.
When he returned the next day he explained that he had dropped it on the closet
floor, the clerk told him she had prayed for him to St. Anthony for him. Maybe I'm
just a softy, but this sentiment might have meant as much to me as it did Marty.
Also, there was one time when Marty was out and about, when an awful rain storm came.
He was far from home, and his Parkinson's disease wouldn't get him there any faster.
A woman hailed a taxi for him and insisted he take it, and asked the cab driver to
deliver him to his doorman.

I appreciate the news and I do like to be informed on the current events, no matter
how gruesome it is. However stories like this give me some sort of hope for our
future. I'm not naive, I realize that most are not like this kindhearted, but when
you do hear about it, somehow it inspires you. It makes you believe in man-kind. 



"How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes,
frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?" - Paul Sweeney

Snip Snip into the Recession

In today's recession coupons are not the only things being cut out in the American household in order to save money; clinics all over the country from California to New York are seeing an increase in vasectomies. This article from the New York Times "Uptick in Vasectomies Seen as Sign of Recession" sheds some light on this phenomenon explaining that men are seeking the procedure more recently because of our recent economic status.

Reasons given explain the "vasectomy boom" include the recession, and job loss. Many are taking advantage of health insurance while they have the chance, for fear of losing their jobs because insurance almost always covers it. It is considered one of the best methods of birth control because it is almost 100 percent effective, it can be done within minutes, and recovery only lasts a couple of days.

This recent trend impressed me! I was humbled to learn that our nation's people are being so responsible with our family planning, as opposed with our spending and savings. It seems that every other woman I know is pregnant and I just keep thinking "Whoa! Who wants to bring a child into this madness?" apparently I'm not the only one thinking so because as the article says: "In Seattle, Dr. Charles Wilson of the Vasectomy Clinic says that in the last half-year he has performed an average of 123 of the procedures each month — 13 percent above the year-earlier average." and "...visits to Vasectomy.com — a 10-year-old informational site that also markets doctors to patients — were up 17.5 percent in the first quarter, compared with the first three months of last year."

I suppose I found this article so interesting because I am so interested in our financial situation as well as sociology, this article is so appealing because it explains the trends amongst such a large and broad group of people, all made up of different backgrounds, religions, and creed, right here in the "world's mixing pot". I think it would be interesting to know what the statistics of vasectomies in different cultures are. In a country where abortion is supported or so strongly opposed I wouldn't have thought that vasectomies were so accepted, and desired.

Michelle Obama is the new "It Girl"!

Am I the only one who hasn't noticed Michelle Obama's arms? Apparently the media has and apprently, Michelle is a very fit woman. Katha Pollitt, author of the article "Mad About Michelle" has a very interesting oppinion on the popularity of our new first lady. In said article Pollitt compares Michelle to Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush and implies a question: Why are Hillary and Laura held admired like Michelle? Pollitt never says that Michelle isn't deserving of the world's admiration, but she does imply that she's not completely impressed with our 6ft, curvy, out-going, super mom, by saying things like: "She went to excellent schools, got decent grades, stayed away from too much intellectual heavy lifting, and held a series of practical, modestly salaried jobs while accommodating her husband's wilder dreams and raising two lovely daughters."

Pollitt continues to make very good points about how we as a society tend to still think that women role-models should wear an apron and drive a mini-van to all ocassions even if they have already proven their intellectual levels with docterates and degrees. Michelle Obama went from an "accomplished professional and outspoken social critic to new-traditionalist homebody." says Pollitt.

I found this article not only interesting but also entertaining. While reading this piece I found myself amused with her sarcastic and to-the-point writing style, and distracted of "feminist" thoughts about what it is to be a sucessful, educated woman in today's lime light and the pressures that go with it. Women must be everything, in order to be "sucessful" or admirable; we must be educated, sociable, motherly, polite yet we must stand our ground when necessary and we must be able to graciously take a back seat to the men we love.

If Pollitt has any problems with Michelle Obama, I certainly do not agree! She has it all together far more than I ever would even if this is just an act that first ladies must put on for the media. In which case I am on the fence, on one hand kudos to her for being able to be comfortable with her new "role", and on the other shouldn't a woman role-model feel free to be herself as our past female mover and shakers like Elenore Roosevelt or Hillary Clinton?

The New Great Depression

Everyone is feeling the stress of our current economic times. These penny-pintching days are only a reminder of a grimmer time for many earlier generation seniors. Joyce Wadler author of "Making Ends Meet in Meet" from the New York Times suggests that we look at how people ran their households during the Great Depression for some insight as how to manage our budgets in our own homes and also to help put things in perspective.

This article caught my eye because of a very special great-grandmother I had named, Lillian Rieter, who grew up in the old country, never threw anything away, scolded me for not finishing my orange juice, and had a Sweedish flag in every room of her Chicago apartment. My "mor-far-mor" (mother's father's mother) would tell me and her other 16 great-grandchildren memories which seemed to be fictional stories of another time, back in the 1920's and the Great Depression. This article was so interesting because it was just that, six grandparents memories of how they made it through the Great Depression. Each of the six came from different parts of the United States but all had similar tales of hungry, shoeless, cold and worried families just trying to survive on love and whatever they could scrap together.

This article may not have helped me figure out how I'm going to pay my bills but it certainly fulfilled it's other objective; it did put things into perspective for me. After reading the recollection of Thomas Moon from Huntsville, Alabama who was only allowed one shower a week during the Great Depression, I realized that being two days late on my cell phone bill probably isn't a trajedy, and people have survived worse times. And that I don't really need all the features I have on my plan. I continued to read Annie Pezzillo's (from Manhattan) story; she was one of 12 children living in a three bed room house, I suddenly realized that being force to share a bathroom with my dad isn't such a huge problem. Then there was a story from a very fortunate woman named Anna Jane Nicholas who's father didn't lose his job in the Great Depression, in fact Nicholas's mother would set food out for the hungry people that would pass their house, and she always included dessert. This story reminded me that during these tough times we blessed families may feel the stress of the economy but someone out there has lost their job, someone out there needs someone like Ms. Nicholas's mother.

Walder may have intended for this article to inform us of another time, that until now we've never had a hint of. However this was a beautiful article because of the inspirational story within the story of determination and humility that our recent ancestors lived through. I not only encorage everyone to read this article, but I encourage you to talk and listen to those who have already been through what may be coming our way... and of course reconsider what you consider to be nessecary spending.

"Just because oranges grow on trees, that doesn't mean that juice was plucked from the branch for free!"

Veteran's Coming Home to a Broken America

With a new president in office promises of our far away loved ones coming home is a dream come true, and and couldn't come soon enough for the men and women that have been serving and sacrificing for our country for the past eight years in Iraq. These veteran's will be welcome home with open arms by our people, but unfortunately not so by our economy. The article I read was called "Are We Ready to Welcome the Soldiers That Obama's Bringing Home from Iraq?", this title caught my attention because of the severity of our nation's financial situation. We are living in a day of the highest unemployment rates, greatest economical debt, and the most poverty and home foreclosures we've seen in decades, so the prospect of our veteran's coming home to unemployment checks is tragic although not surprising.

Although these men and women signed up for their duties, we still owe them everything we can offer them for making a stand and sacrificing all that they have while in service. They have been far away from home, enduring 3rd world conditions (missing out on our everyday luxuries), and witnessing tragedies so that we may not have to. Foutunately this week president Obama released his budget for veterans, which appears promising for our returning tropps. This budget reveals increased spending on health care and other veteran's programs bout appromiately 11%, and, an influxe in VA funding of $25 billion over five years.

The author (Paul Rieckhoff) of this article found at alternet.org seems the be skeptical of the budget. He explains how the budget plan is optimistic but still very vague, in that it does'nt mention one of Obama's campaign promises; additional funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs. This advanced funding wouldn't cost anything, however it would help all goverment funded veterans' hospitals plan their budgets sooner, and possibly prevent "care-rationing" that many VA hospitals go through when budgeting is prepared too late.

Only time will tell if we will be able to repay our protectors for their 8 years well done. Hopefully Obama's promise was not only a "campain" promise.

I read an article called U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship on the New York Times Website. This article explains how the American Military will soon be offering citizenship to skilled immaigrants who have been living in the United States on temporary visas in as little as 6 months, by recruiting them into military possitions.

This article grabbed my attention because of the constant debate over laboring immigrants, (especailly for the area which we live in.) I think that this program will greatly enhance our already excellently skilled military by offering native knowlegde of cultures and languages that our goverment considers straigically pertinent. (Spanish will not be a language of interest). To enlist, temporary imigrants must meet specific criteria; they will be expected to prove that they have lived in the United States for a minimum of 2 years and have not left the country for more than 90 days. Prospectives will also have to pass an english exam.

Language experts will be mandated to serve in active duty for four years, and professionals in the health care career will be served three years of active duty or six years in the reserves.

Only 82 percent of the 80,000 Army recruits last year had high school diploma, so obviously the need for specialized skilled professionals is at large. This program is an excellent way to attract the skill needed and provide the dream of citizenship and a potentially life long career to those who truly want them.