Organizations @ MindSay 
Last post for a while. After reading an article this morning about what the Army did to a Warrior and how he had to go straight to his gov't offical for help. Knowing what MY family has had to do and are still doing on behalf of my brother because of the Marines, and then rereading the article that was posted by daenarys I thought I better step up again and remind all of our Veteran's, their spouses, and their families what they can do to help our current Warriors out. Active Military personal do what I am suggesting also.
A lot of folks didn't have a family like mine that was active in an organization. Sure they aren't too active now but I and my immiadate family are becoming active again. We were active and involved in an organization called the American Legion and the American Legion Aux. It wasn't just my parents and us kids. 3 out of 4 of my Maternial Uncles are Veterans and all their families were involved also. My Parental Uncle is a Veteran and his family was involved with the VFW or the American Legion. I married into a Military family. My husband is NOW an American Legion Member at the age of 39, Fuck in law (sorry only name I will refer to hubby's dad) is the Vic Commander of his American Legion Post, and Randy's sister and brother in law are both carrerr Army.
Do you all realize that both the VFW and The American Legion and Legion Aux not only help Veterans with social, chartiable, and poltical activies? They also help current active Warriors in their area's Unit District and their home town Districts will step up to the plate also? I wouldn't be suprised if you didn't realize this. You know why. Be ready I am going to bad mouth a set of Vets here! The WWI and II Vets are dying out but before they are dying out they are causing their units to die out. They don't want to hande over control of the Units to the Korean and Veitnam Vets to take over. They are stuck in the past and can't realize the new breed of Veterans are a LOT younger than they are, they are fighing a different type of war they did, and their spouses ten to one are NOT sitting home taking care of the families but on the front lines right next to their spouses. The Korean and Veitnam Vets are slowly taking over control of these Veteran Organizations and are trying to build them back up to what they use to be and are more than HAPPY to recruit our Vet's of today so they can hand over the Organization to my husband's and my age group of Vets.
I got Randy joined up with the American Legion Post in the town our kids go to school, DeLaney and I are in the process of sending in our paperwork to reup our Legion Aux membership to the same Unit Aux and now the American Legion has another org, The Son's of the American Legion (actually the sons could have joined the American Legion Aux but this goes back to old school WWI and II mentality that men can't join a woman's org and vice versa), The Son's org is for any male family member of a Vet to join up and help the Legion and Legion Aux out. Unfortuntally our Unit is a small Inter-Tribal/County Unit and does NOT have a Son's Unit yet. But you should have seen all those Korean/Veitnam Vet's get excited that Randy stepped up at Pow Wow last year and help take down and carry the flags at the closing ceromonies each day and when he joined they got super excited. New Blood. Granted Randy has yet been able to go to a meeting (working all the time) but they know he is there and are using him as a membership driving tool. They are also using myself as a membership driving tool, ten to one from Urban area to rural area the age group between 18-50 has NEW vets that have no clue these Organizations are there to help them and that they are dying out.
I strong encourage ALL VETS both female and male to join the American Legion. The Female Vets and all female family members can join the American Legion Aux and if your area has a Son's of American Legion join up your boys. If they don't be a trend setter and join your male family members who are NOT a vet under the American Legion Aux. And they have benefits for not only the vets but their family memebers. I myself recieved a LOT of benefits as a Jr. Member of the Aux growing up. I learned about my county, state, and federal gov't processes, went to Girl's State and applied and recieved over 25 hundred in scholorship monies for college.
If you don't want to join the American Legion join the VFW and if your Pagan join the Order of the Pentacle Granted the Pagan Vet Association is directed towards Wiccans and most pagans who aren't Wiccan HATE the fact that most orgs are ONLY for Wiccans but that can be changed if more Pagan Vets join the Pagan Vet Association and make them stand up and realize that Wiccans aren't the only Pagan Vets. Hell join all three if you want! You can have more than one membership! Just remember on the VFW and the American Legion that you might be joining a dying unit or a defunt unit but don't let that stop you! Join up get it going again and go out there and get those Veterans and their families to join up and HELP them and others with situations like daenarys article and other situations that the Military is doing to our Warriors!
Here are the links to the organazations:
VFW (for the Aux of VFW you will have to request your district unit information from them)
The Order of the Pentacle (again request infor for the Aux-Also check with your local Pagan Orgs and Groups to see if they have any of their own groups for Pagan Veterans-this is a new organization and not near a LOT of Vets and geared towards Wiccans-they take other Pagan paths but if your NOT Wiccan it could be very irritating to have to deal with Wiccan beliefs constantly)
LIFE’S ULTIMATE TEST
Life isn’t always easy. Some say life is a struggle, a challenge. We often hear the saying "up a creek without a paddle." Life can be a test, you’re either prepared or unprepared. Who we become as adults is greatly influenced by the way we are raised as children. The abilities and skills to survive and excel in this test of life are forever ingrained in us by our parents and educators. In this fast-paced ever evolving world, the prepared are able to rise to the challenges of life and fortune of success. For the unprepared, life is not so. I believe that living a sheltered life at home and home-schooling is not the best way to raise your children. I was a sheltered child at home and attended a private school. Private schools have since improved in time, with legislation to accredit the institution and greater attendance. Home-schooling, however, has been left on the back burner without much legislation to monitor it and has turned into the private schools of the past. Who is ensuring that the home-schooled children are receiving an education that will enable them to be socially acceptable? I wrote The Torments of the Modest, Secluded Farm Life with three main purposes: to show the bonds of living a pure, simple, moral life, to display of the wake-up call of entering the cruel, harsh, world, and to serve as a learning tool for our officials holding office on the subject of home-schooling and the detrimental effects of such an upbringing.
My book paints a very clear picture of the closeness of families who live a protective, sheltered life going to a private school(Which is not the home-schools of today). One’s only friends are those also living under that protective blanket, or in my case, only my siblings. One is raised to believe the whole world lives this way. Individuals only speak the truth because one is taught a person is only as good as his word. It is also emphasized that everyone treats others with kindness as that is the pure moral way to live life. I give details of how my life was lived year after year. Readers will clearly see that what is instilled in a child be it right, wrong, or naive, becomes a permanent and lasting part of one’s being. No matter the direction life may take, make no mistake, one’s childhood mentally follows him or her throughout life, causing doubt in every move because one knows how naive he or she was raised and things are just not the same in the world he or she now must live in.
Which takes me to the second reason for writing The Torments of the Modest, Secluded Farm Life: the mental trauma of having lived a protective, sheltered life and entering the cruel, dishonest, harsh world as an independent adult. One is first hit with harsh language he and mostly she can not begin to understand. The lying and cruelness of how people treat each other is enough to make him and mostly she wants to run back under that umbrella of protection. Just think for a moment, if you were raised with no conflicts in child’s play. How does one expect you to have developed the skills needed to handle adult conflict? Do you do as you were raised and just shut up and become victims in this harsh society? Do you just run home in fear and cry? That life style creates fear and fear is a powerful thing, especially for women. An individual gets confused as to what is right and wrong in life because the world is not what he or she was raised to believe. He or she feels like there must be two different worlds and one needs to find the other kinder one as this other world scares them to the point of total disbelief. My book, The Torments of the Modest, Secluded Farm Life, shows us all as parents the need for proper transition from one world to the other, what our home-schooled children need from us in order to not only grow up physically, but also mentally. A proper transition of such would save the children from an adult life of mental therapy.
Finally, the third reason for writing my book is based on the fact home-schooling rules differ from state-to-state. Some states have no regulations at all, and with the No Child Left Behind law I feel that these rules contradict each other. Where the states fail our children with proper accountability of education for home-schoolers, the government needs to take notice, step in, and make a change. I had a conversation on one of the political sites on Myspace where a man said "I quit school at 16 because school was nothing but a waste of my time." This same man said he was going to home-school his children. Can you just imagine the education his children are going to receive? And how are they going to adjust into society when they turn eighteen? Schools are all being academically measured up, but what are we going to have for these failing parents? What kind of society are we creating?
In the year 2003 there were over one million children being home-schooled and various forms of unschooled. Yes, you heard me right "unschooled," where counting eggs while picking them is math. That was 2003 and the numbers have more then doubled since that time. We as a nation need to wake up fast and take a real hard look at this area of education. Let my book in part be a wake-up call to the society being created and let us worry much less about stepping on toes and let us as a nation do what is morally right for the children in our nation. Every child deserves an equal shot to an education and for this education to allow growth, not only physically, but also mentally. Read my book, The Torments of the Modest, Secluded Farm Life, for the heads-up on the society that is being created and as a good starting point for making changes to help the children here at home in America.
Thank You
Doris Anne Beaulieu
www.lifesultimatetest.com
So it is 8 am and my kids aren't at Mass with Grandma. Why? A) The kids don't know how to put their coats and snow pants up on the rack and threw them right next to the cat box. Can you say soaking in oxiclean and soap before being washed! B) Kids are now cleaning said mudporch
I was out side at 10 after 7 this morning. I woke up at 7. I was scopping my small lil piece of sidewalk that leads to my van. After I got that scopped, got a path all around the van scopped; I then threw out salt on the sidewalk.
Called my mom and said I could crawl right on out of the lane with the van and I am goign to have to because Randy and I stupidly forgot the no gel for the diesel tank for the truck. I need to pick some of that up and put in before I start the truck up. But the boy spawn of mine doesn't have a coat till I get it washed. She told me not a problem and don't worry about it, the kids will be at church Wensday twice no less.
In college, friends and I would talk about faith and money all the time. See my b/f at the time, his best friend, and I were non practicing Catholics. I was starting to really study the Celtic Spiritualities at that time and D and Mike just never went to church unless one of their mothers guilted me into making them go. My mom stopped badgering my brother and I after we were confirmed to go to Mass. Anyway, D, Mike, and I rarely put any money in the gift basket. And the few times our Baptist friends would come with us they were shocked and appalled that we never put money in the basket. All three of us, even though raised in totally different areas of the midwest, we raised by women who were very Devout Catholic but ALWAYS put family first. Meaning, if you were broke and struggling to pay your bills, you do NOT give to the church. You only put money in the basket if your bills were paid and you might have a few bucks in your wallet or purse. Well the three of us were broke ass college students. D and Mike's family's out in Shy Town and my family 4 hours to the south. Not like we could call the parental units up and ask for money and have them just hand it over to us. We tried explaining this to our friends. We had one friend T1 (three of our friends names started wtih T so thus 1 and such) gave all his cash to the gift basket even after we told him NOT to! He said that it was going in and staying in. We were boggled. The Priests don't shake us down at Church to give and give and give. Especially knowing that a lot of parishners are broke ass sturggling middleclass folks!
The three Ts, and N explained that you walk into any Baptist Church and the preacher knows you, they will pin point you and basically bagger you to give as much as you can during the service. Even knowning you might be broke ass! Tried explained to the three of us, that their churchs and preachers expect a certain amount of their parishner's income each year. D, Mike, and I were flabbergasted! That isn't how it works for a LOT of people. I do know some of the richer parishners and even D said is Granny and Step Grandpa put massive amounts of money into the gift basket, but usually how Catholics divy out their money to their Church is this:
1. They give what they can while living.
2. They get old, make out a will.
3. And no matter what money they get a 1/3 of that money from their Will goes to their parish.
This is exactly what my grandpa that I didn't get to meet did. Even though he still had one of my uncles home in jr high. Out of the money left in the Will, a 1/3 of it went to the Parish and the rest went to my Grandma and Uncle. When my Granny died last year at Thanksgiving time, 1/3 of her inheritance went to her Parish and then the rest was divied up between my Mom and her brothers. A lot of small town and rural area Christians no matter what faith does this. After they die a 1/3 of their inheritance goes to their church. Even if they only have 100 dollars! A 1/3 goes to their church! My dad is livid because my parents made out their wills after my dad was dignosied with Guillium Barrers Syndrome. To be on the safe side. My dad is a non practicing protstant and will NOT give to his Church because he doesn't go and he doesn't like anyone at the Church. The reason why he is livid is because my mom has specificated a 1/3 of her money that is left after burial expensese and such (which really isn't that much) will go to her Church and if her Church is shut down by the time she dies, it goes to the Mission School were my kids go to. My dad doesn't want her to give any money to the church, he says they don't need it and the family does.
Which brings me to what I really wanted to blog about and got off topic! Do you give to the church when you die or even while alive? Do you buy religious items even knowing that there is a good chance they aren't really religoius? Do you buy items that may be blessed but are kind of shady? A lot of people do! Just last month, my kids and my mom bought a few wood carving items from a gentleman after Mass. The reason why I didn't get to bent out of shape with my kids spending their 5 bucks was because this gentleman was known by the main Mission Priest and it was verified that the wood and the gentleman are from the Middleeast and is raising money for his Parish back home in the "holy land". Plus DeLaney bought a couple of broach type wooden doves (not necessarily a Christian thing) and Coltin choose out a cross and handed it over to Grandma to have. DeLaney is keeping the doves to give to Randy's mom next time we see her.
If I get too lazy and need to bless or cleanse my house and I don't want to bless my own water, I go into the Catholic Church and take a small bottle from their holy water stash that sits in the back of all Catholic Churchs for the parishners or anyone who wants some. My mom keeps a few bottles at all times as does a lot of the older Indian folks. I actually have two bottles of holy water from the Mission. One my mom gave me and one that F. Mike gave me when DeLaney told him we are getting ready for Winter Solstice and Feast of Fionn. I have no problem using holy water blessed by someone outside my faith. Doesn't mean it is straight Christian, just means that it was blessed and has protection in it. I have seen ppl take gallons of holy water to drink even. This really shocked a D and Mike when they came home with me one time! D called his mom and told her and she started laughing and told him that it was and is still common in areas that a lot of old customes survived. And told him to talk to my mom about it. Now mind ya D was already a bit nervous because he had a city boys tude about coming to a rural area and he kept claiming to be a lone black man in the country(which he promptly found out he wasn't and that there were a few black families in the area and the city has a large black population! That was fun rubbing his face in that one!) and now he had to go have a religious talk with his g/f's mom! My mom explained that water is a basic healing, cleansing, and blessing element amoung many tribal and older cultures so it is just natural that people would take the holy water to drink and to bless their homes with. A lot of the peyote ceromonies with older people are done with the peyote in water. It gives it a double blessing and makes it easier for the older people to consume the peyote and ten to one they use either blessed water from one of two churchs in the area. Either the Catholic or the NA Indian Church.
Which now finally brings me to what some companies are doing! Sorry it took me a bit to get to this! Some water bottling companies are selling "Holy Water"! I am not shitting you! They are bringing in Roman Catholic and Epsicpallion Priest and blessing the water, bottling it, and then slapping Christian pictures on the bottle and selling holy drinking water! To me this is going a bit far in the commercialism of our society! some of the advertising is not only is it good for you but it will make you a good person! PLEASE!
At first I was like oh that isn't to bad, but then it got me thinking about how a lot of Chruchs bagder their parishners in giving money they don't have, how everytime you turn around when you go to church they are asking for money to be sent here, money to be sent there, money for their parish, money for that parish and when something terrible does happen people are so tired of handing out money they don't want to give when it is needed! And now a companies not even apart of a Chruch are realizing the money potentional out there by decent Christian people and marketing "holy water". I feel bad for these people. They are buying water that has been blessed by a priest so a company NOT a church can make money! They can easily go into a church and get their on holy water with out paying for it or heck even ask their local preist/preacher to come bless their sink if they wanted! A lot of people around my area have that done on their wells! My mom did! When my folks had to have their well pump redone and put in a different spot, my mom asked her Priest to come out and bless the well! When older Indian folks have their homes recedard and saged they ask their Holy Men to bless their wells or their water lines! Why spend good money that can be given to other causes or used for household goods on "holy water" that your local or national church affilation isn't making any money on!
It is bad enough that Chruchs and Parishes shake down families and individuals for more and more money but now you have Christian based companies doing it to them also! This really irritates me and makes me 100% glad that I am no longer a Christian! A lot of "pagans" may be broke ass individuals but we don't care what faith organizatoin is in charge of something, if it is a good cause we give to them. Only after our families are taken care of! It makes no sense to be selling blessed water when a person can go to their local priest/preacher/holy person and have their own water blessed! But it also does show why Pagan organizations usually don't last the course also! We don't give to our organizations because we have our own families to take care of and if there is already an organization out there doing what we suggest it makes more sense to give to that organization instead! Counting that the Christian Org will take our money! Which is usually our problem, our money isn't good enough to a lot of Christian Orgs! Oh Well.
So if you are one of these people that are thinking about buying the Blessed Drinking Water, Stop! Think about the money you are wasting and could possibly give to your own Chruch and just have your preist/preacher/holy man come out and bless your water lines in stead!
I read this article in my home newspaper and about gagged! I swear that some of these so called Christians really need to concentrate on their own dayum families instead of going after everyone else. So what someone is Gay! They bleed the same, they have the same issues as other people, and they pay bills and taxes! A family is a family no matter how if it is a mommy and daddy or a daddy and daddy or a mommy and a mommy! Parents love their children no matter what and the same goes for the children loving their parents no matter what!
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- About 1,000 churchgoers and others were told at a weekend conference that gay people can become straight by turning to support, counseling and God.
Discussions at the "Love Won Out" conference held by national group Focus on the Family included how religious parents can love a gay child without changing beliefs and how those who have gay desires can overcome them.
"We know that God does not make gay people," said Melissa Fryrear, one of several speakers who spoke about struggling with homosexuality.
The group has similar conferences planned this year in Irvine, Calif., and Indianapolis, according to the conference Web site.
Fryrear said she believed she was lesbian 15 years ago but fought her sexual orientation through Christianity.
"(The Lord) pushed all the counterfeit love out of my life," Fryrear said.
A group of about 25 protesters stood on an overpass with signs opposing the event, which was held at Trinity Church on Saturday.
"My viewpoint is that I don't think there is anything wrong with me," said Sarah Asher, who held up a sign that read, "Love wins when you come out."
"Even if there were a real fix, I would not change who I am," said Asher, 23.
During the conference, two church members brought a box of sandwiches and bottled water to the protesters, which Asher called a kind but probably insincere gesture.
"The heart of the (conference) message is still, 'We think you're wrong, we think you need to change, we think you need to be fixed," Asher said.
A coalition of churches and gay advocacy groups also held a gay affirmation event Friday night in lieu of picketing the event.
The American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association declared in the 1970s that homosexuality was not a mental disorder and did not warrant a "cure."
Members of the clergy and others of Christian faith often point to Biblical injunctions against homosexuality. Islam is among other religions that also forbid such same-sex relationships.
Many of us grew up with the program called Book It in our schools. For those of you who aren't aware of it (shouldn't be to many of you:D) it is a reading program sponsored through many schools by Pizza Hut. My own kids have been doing the Book It program since they started school, even in kindergarden. My daughter started in Nebraska and both my children continued it in Texas and Oklahoma. Texas tried combining it with their other reading program and not many kids recieved their free pizzas. Oh yay if the kid's read so many books in a month they get a free personal pan pizza. Being back in Nebraska they are still doing Book It.
Well some parent groups, educational groups, and research groups are trying to get rid of the Book It program. These folks say that the Pizza Hunt Book It program that has been running since 1985 is bad not only for the students but for the schools! The critics say that it promotes obesity in children, corporate salesmen in teachers and is overall bad for the children's health! That parents reward their chidlren for reading by feeding them junk food.
Those who are in support of Book It say that it promotes children to read, to have family time, and is endorsed by Libraries, Teacher Unions, and a wide vareity of parents. They also say that they do NOT promote unhealthy eating in students and their families.
In my opinion as an ex Book It student and as a current parent of Book It students, the critics need to lay off the program until they come up with a better reading program. I LOVED Book It when I was in school. I earned free pizza's every month but my parents like the other smart parents didn't let me cash in my free pizza's every time I earned one. Cashing the free pizza's in was a treat! When the family would order out and one of my parents or older siblings would run to the city and get the pizzas or when the family would go out with other realitves with students. The adults would order regular pizzas and us kids each had our own. Saved the adults tons of money! And the teachers that actually cared about what their students were reading both in school and at home made a compitition out of it! The class that read the most books both in class as a group, individually, and individually at home won a class fun day at a local Pizza Hutt for a pizza party. A couple of parents and grandparents came along and after we were done eating we got to go to one of the "kewl" parks down by the river in the city to run around, play, and if we brought kites, roller blades, and fishing poles we did!
My children's classes here in Nebraska still continue the class compition! And their teachers' actually called down to OK to find out the amount of the books my two read before moving home. But instead of having a pizza party, the winning class gets to have a fun day! The choices for the fun day is the Children's Museum in Lincoln, the Zoo in Omaha, or a day up at the Art Museum and then Park in Sioux City!
I really don't care what reading program is endorsed through the nation as long as one is endorsed. It burns my ass that critics of any program can downgrade a program that has worked since 1985 and is still continuing to work in introducing children in the joys of reading! These critics can only complain about the "junk" food assoicated with the program and they can't even see the benefits of more and more children not only reading but enjoying to read! I think instead of downgrading a program that works and saying get rid of it that they look more into improving it and or coming up with a new program that will work just as well before they start hammering another program.
But again what do I expect out of people. Look at the non parent politician that was trying to pass that assinine law in California! Ten to one half the critics protesting Book It aren't parents and the other half of the critics that are parents are shit ass parents and don't know when to tell their kids NO on their eating habits!
In support of Pizza Hut, the School's using Book It, and Book It itself, I am going to write a few letters to say THANK YOU for supporting and endorsing a program that is still going strong!
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