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Free eBook on Healing Herbs
I’ve downloaded it myself–it really is free! MountainRoseblog FREE healing herbs book
(If you’re quick, you might be in time to get the free cookbook, too. :))
While you’re there, check out the rest of the site: Learningherbs.com
A tiny thing
A friend of my son’s is serving over in Afghanistan. He’s young, about 23, and he’s in peril every day. I can only imagine what he’s already seen, and I can’t help but think of my son in his shoes one day. It terrifies me.
I don’t know this young man except through email. My first intro to him was a request from my son that I send him a copy of my memoir when I was done. This seemed odd to me, given that I’ve always imagined my audience to be women, but it made him stick in my head, and I started sending him boxes of stuff I hoped would be helpful: razors, wet wipes, Q-Tips, books (of course!), and hygienic stuff.
It’s so easy and inexpensive to do, so I’ve wondered how adequate it really was. I’ve felt like I can’t send enough for it to make a real difference. Today I realized that this is far from the truth. I don’t know why that hit me today, but I’m glad it did because it feels good.
Here’s what I know: it doesn’t matter, really, how much you give, or how many people you can reach. One person is all that matters. I’m making a difference that feels small and inadequate on my end, but feels big on his end. It’s not about the gift but about the time and effort to go out of one’s way. And it’s about the human connection.
He’s on the other side of the world, and he knows that someone in the US thinks about him. Sure, there’s mom and family, but this is different. He doesn’t know me, yet there’s that box. A virtual stranger gives a shit that he’s alive.
This is good for me, too. I need to know that I make a difference somewhere, that I’m not just taking up space and oxygen that could be better used by someone who is making the world a better place.
TSA, enhancement ought to mean ENHANCEMENT
Perhaps if zooming in magnified matters the guy wouldn’t have unloaded his baton on his co-workers? Either way, the invasion is troubling.
Alison Des Forges’ death gives Congo rebels breathing room
Alison Des Forges, senior adviser for Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division for nearly twenty years, was most recently working on a report on the killings in eastern Congo, according to this CNN article.
This video from the New York Times gives more information about what’s going on in Congo. What I found both disturbing and interesting was that the UN peacekeepers did nothing about it.
From the UN Peacekeeper site:
“The term “peacekeeping” is not found in the United Nations Charter and defies simple definition. Dag Hammarskjöld, the second UN Secretary-General, referred to it as belonging to “Chapter Six and a Half” of the Charter, placing it between traditional methods of resolving disputes peacefully, such as negotiation and mediation under Chapter VI, and more forceful action as authorized under Chapter VII.”
It was past the time for mediation, so…where were they? What did they do? They ran away.
The NYTimes video says they were caught off-guard; what I want to know is how. The soldiers had been there already, and the killings have been going on long enough for Alison to have been working on a report.
Pity she died when she was working on something so important.
D5 Creation