Still Spitting

First, if you go to change.gov, you will find everything in order there. I don't know why the other day I got the "unavailable" message, but that evening, despite aforementioned hesitation, I went on the site and shared my vision, and as Stephen Colbert might say, "I shared my vision, and so are you!" (Or maybe not)

Second, I just learned that my good friend Kathy had to put her dog Shadow to sleep on Veterans Day. Shadow was more than 15 years old and had lived a quality life until very recently. Kathy chose Tuesday because Shadow was a veteran dog. I didn't mention anything about honoring the veterans who have served this country on Tuesday, so I will do so belatedly. Veterans Day is traditionally set aside to recognize those who have served in a military capacity, and I for one am thankful that there are people who sign on to protect and defend us and abhor when those who wield political power put those men's and women's lives on the line for less than necessary reasons.

When I consider the term "veterans", I also think of other veterans, for example myself, a battle-scarred veteran educator who has gone into certain other trenches, and I believe those people, who have served the country's citizens and future, deserve recognition as well. It set me on edge to be working in the prep station at the museum the other day and to watch the young man in the General Biology class spit down from the balcony rail of the second floor onto the first floor where we were working, where people were milling around the exhibits... I'm wondering still, who raises a child to do such a thing? And don't forget who has to work with those kids, encourage, motivate, teach, coach, them for a good part of the day, with very little in the way of recourse anymore for addressing behavior like I saw.

It's like asking teachers to be Jesus, turn the other cheek, then watch the world burn down around because people have no respect.

OK, next and last subject for today: I just got the November BlogCatalog newsletter. Read this, and please check out the site and help spread the word:

Bloggers Unite For RefugeesOn

Monday November 10th, the BlogCatalog community came together like never before. According to BlogPulse, blog posts about refugees nearly doubled. According to Google search, more than 12,000 bloggers wrote about Bloggers Unite For Refugees. More than 2,500 included our program partner Refugees United (refunite.org), which provides refugees with an anonymous forum to reconnect with missing family.

With the average contributing blogger reaching 200 readers, the plight of refugees may have reached as many 2.5 million readers, many of whom took action on Monday by writing letters to government officials and making donations to several worthwhile nonprofit organizations. The volume of posts also attracted the attention from Ode Magazine in California to the blog of Raju Nrisettiof, who writes for the The Wall Street Journal in India. This excludes the ongoing coverage of refugees by traditional media, which has been covering the estimated 100,000 refugees currently trapped in the Congo.

Today's pic is of Rocky Mountain National Park, as promised.