National Action Day!

It's National Action Day and bloggers who committed to participate agreed that on this day, they would blog about poverty from their own personal perspective. Here is mine:

I have a background in social services working in homeless shelters, supportive housing programs and community organizations. But today, I want to talk to you about a particular period in my life. That time was when I was a single parent living in a HUD subsidized complex with my two young sons. My child support payments amounted to a whopping $75.00 per week and just barely covered my childcare expenses while I worked in a minimum wage job. At the time, minimum wage was $3.25 per hour.

There were times when money was especially tight. Times when I wasn't receiving child support at all in the days prior to child support enforcement meant that you had to pay to hire your own attorney to take your ex to court for non-payment.

I am extremely grateful to my parents who were there to help me during those difficult times. They ensured that we had enough food, the utilities stayed on and we had clothes on our backs. We were living in what is called situational poverty. Meaning poverty brought about by a particular situation and resolvable with time and the right opportunities.

In the complex I lived in and in the work I later did, I had plenty of opportunity to come in contact with people who have been raised in generational poverty. Poverty that persists through more than one generation and I can tell you this, all of the people I have worked with have had hopes and dreams and desires of their own to over come their circumstances and better their lives.

They key is access to services that truly work to help someone move ahead AND people who are willing to be mentors. Mentors are people like you and me who are willing to assist someone in succeeding. To teach them about how to handle situations differently, to overcome the tyranny of the moment and plan for the next day, the next paycheck, the next step on the next goal. I was assisted by my parents but I have to admit that there were others who believed in me as well. People who saw something in me that was worth their time. That told me I could do it. They are men and women whom I will never forget and will be grateful to always. I repay their kindness to me by turning around and giving it to someone else. From them I learned to lead by example, teach what you can, share what you know and let your faith do the guiding.

Is there someone you know who could benefit from your support? Do you want to help and don't know how? Ask them what they need, you don't have to fix it, just listen and see if there is some small step some piece of information you can give them. It may seem small to you but I promise you, it is huge to them and they will repay you by giving back to others.

The Homeless Guy Says It Better Than Me

Kevin Barbieux is The Homeless Guy who writes about life in homelessness and advocates for the homeless on his blog. Yesterday, Kevin wrote a post On Homelessness that is a must read for all advocates for the homeless, staff of homeless shelters and especially those who do not understand homelessness. Please read it, that's all I ask.

Tomorrow is National Blog Action Day and this year the topic is Poverty. I have committed to post a blog here and will also post on the Central Ohio Network Blog. If you have a blog, please consider participating.

Truth Fights Back

I found this site on the web while doing my morning web surf for news. With all of the hateful lies and smears that are flying around about Barack Obama, it's nice to find a web site dedicated to tracking those lies and telling the truth. These folks are worthy of your support.

Truth Fights Back

Sarah Palin, Please Shut Up!

Dear Sarah Palin,

You do not represent me as a woman so please shut up. Frankly, I think you are an embarrassment to women in general. I am fed up with your remarks denigrating Barack Obama and claiming that he is paling around with terrorists. You are spreading lies and hate and feeding on others fears. That is not how classy intelligent women behave, so I am guessing you aren't one.

As a woman and a mother, I believe our role is to nurture our children, to teach them right from wrong. To raise them to stand up when an injustice is being done and to find compassion for ALL human beings. It is our responsibility to teach our children that others deserve a second chance. You continue to refer to William Ayers as a terrorist even though he has redeemed himself and become a highly respected university professor. I call that hateful. Launching a smear campaign against your opponent because you can't come up with anything intelligent of your own to say is not behaving like an upstanding, patriotic christian. Through all this what I have learned about you is that you are cruel, calculating and you will work to win at any cost.

Our young people need real examples of positive leadership, human compassion and the ability to participate in the democratic process with out resorting to ugliness. You should be ashamed of yourself for the mean smear tactics that you are currently employing. This is not what we want our children to learn. In particular our daughters do not need to learn this. You should be setting a better example for them.

Irregardless of your difference of opinion with Barack Obama, he deserves to be treated with respect for all of his accomplishments and his ability to not judge another person by their past acts but by the lessons they have learned and what they have to offer to the community now. You could learn a lot from Barack Obama and I suggest you shut up and listen, because for now, you do not speak for me.

Now That's A Sweet Tweet!

So Many of you know I am on Twitter and many Twitteraties know that Whole Foods is on Twitter as well. The cool thing about having company representation on Twitter is that we get an opportunity to interact and give feed back. Whole Foods has been doing this great little activity that they call Tweet Of The Day (TOTD). The person behind the whole foods Twitter account selects their favorite tweet that mentions whole foods and the person who sent the teet gets a $25.00 gift card. So today guess what.... I was today's TOTD! I received a direct message from whole foods telling me that I will recieve a $25.00 gift card so I can buy all the honey buns I want. Now that is one Sweet Tweet. Thanks Whole Foods. You Rock!

Where Have You Been All My Life?

I have just found one of the funniest Bloggers I have ever read. This woman has me laughing so hard I can barely get through her posts! You've just got to go read this stuff for your self. Allow me to introduce you to The Bloggess. Where has this woman been all my life?

Caution, there are a few bad words so if you are easily offended, it might be better for you to just stay here in your safe little cubby. I also follow her on Twitter, where she is just as funny but in 140 charectors or less.

Natural Landscaping

I read an article yesterday on the WOSU News site about two home owners in Upper Arlington who have chosen to use natural landscaping instead of the typical manicured lawn. I like the idea of using native plants and trees on your property to create color shade and interest. The added plus is that there is less mowing to do, if at all.

My property is in need of a lot of love and this is certainly the kind of love I would like to give it. I'm all for less time spent mowing the lawn and pulling weeds. The added benefit is that you will attract an interesting variety of birds and butterflies. I would love to have a conversation with these two home owners about their process for planning and acquiring trees and plants. I could use some pointers.

Have you put any native plants in your yard or garden? If so, let me know in the comments section. I'd like to hear about it.