Monday, February 9, 2009

Listen!!

I heard about peotry day after the fact and wanted to post something, but I couldnt think of a poem that i knew that would be good enough for me to post and really think about it. I found this in my Fundamentals of Speech book. I love it.

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice,
you have not dont what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problems,
you have failed me, strange as that may seem.
Listen!
All I asked was that you listen.
Not talk or do-just hear me.
Advice is cheap:50 cents will get you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself;
I'm not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering,
but not helpless.
When you do somethign for me that I can and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and weakness.
But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel,
no matter how irrational,
then I quit trying to convince you and can get about the business of
understanding what's behind this irrational feeling.
And when that's clear, the answers are obvious and I don't need advice.
Irrational feelings make sence when we understand what's behind them.
Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes, for some people,
because God is mute, and doesn't give advice or try to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work iit out for yourself.
So, please listen and just hear me, and, if you want to talk,
wait a minute for your turn; and I'll listen to
you.

I'm not sure if this peom is about God, or the opposite, but I like it.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Life and Death

The Japanese government conducts 'research expeditions'. On the expeditions they plan on killing marine wildlife. Whales. In 2007 they illegally and inhumanely used grenade tipped harpoons to brutally kill more than 1,000 whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary near Antarctica, using a loophole in the international moratorium on whaling that allows catching whales for so called "research" purposes.

50 endangered fin whales - the world's second largest animal & oldest living Mammal - as well as 935 smaller minke whales.

This article is dated but provides a starting point for this movement.


Don’t buy the argument that Japan’s motivation to continue whaling is about maintaining their culture or conducting scientific research as they claim……

QUOTE: “The Japanese have no tradition of crossing 3 oceans and two hemispheres in factory ships to slaughter these highly intelligent and defenceless creatures. The Japanese tradition was no different to that of many maritime nations (including Australia) in previous centuries that conducted whaling off their coasts and used the whale product for fuel and food”.

- Quote by Ian Campbell (Former environment minister of Australia - 19th August 2008)

This facebook group, while slightly racist, has the right idea.

I believe that if we get enough people, in enough circles of friends, on enough websites and gather these people and push this cause into the public eye, we can stop this inhumane practice. We can solve this problem. If mass media would devote air time to this cause, our government and governments around the world would hear us and the average person could push this out front. I ask you to please type a short email, write a letter, or make a phone call and repost this. Add to it and find things to help support this worthy cause. If everyone did something, there would be a lot of somethings out there. One voice gets lost in the crowd, 100 voices can be heard. The more people we get to back this cause, the louder it will be until we cannot ignore it anymore


I am a college student studying Marine Biology. I want to one day find the breeding grounds for the elusive blue whales. Now they are hunting Humpbacks and Fins, will they continue to more
endangered species next? When will this stop if we don't make them? My heart breaks for these
giants of the sea, these beautiful creature most people never even get to see. You cannot put a
humpback whale in a zoo or create an exhibit at Sea World for a Fin or Sperm whale. These
creatures must stay in their homes and since it is our fault that home is being destroyed, it is only right that we should take the steps necessary to ensure that they are not killed. Japanese Whaling Ships have been known to find pods of Sperm whales and wait for the adults to submerge to the deep so they can hunt and attack the babies. This is outright slaughter, cutting re-population efforts short right where it is most important. If this cause got the media attention if deserves, people all across the world would stand up and demand that this inhumane practice be stopped. I ask that leaders and followers alike demand that this issue be pushed into the public eye.

Do not sugar coat this issue, it is a matter of life and death.

Brandi

Every little girl wants a horse, I'm sure if you ask him, my Daddy would have plenty of 'cute' stories of me as a little girl, dressed up in a stuffed horse for Halloween, pretending my bicycle has a name and listens to me, her name was Starlight, she was a Palomino. I am not sure if you have heard about Junior, my uncle, but he is very ill in the hospital(I will elaborate in another post). Well one of Grandma's best friends, Martha, called my mom the other day because of all of this.

My mom, in turn, then called me. "Water Baby, do you remember a few years ago when Grandma bought that horse for Brandon?" Yes, I did, but I had all but forgotten about it. "Well Martha called and wanted to know if you wanted that horse, Brandon has never gone to see it, and Grandma won't mind."

And so I have a horse. My own horse. A horse that I can go see. Whenever I want!

Brandi is chestnut, kind of, she also has sploches of white, like she is greying, on her rump and shoulders. She has big brown eyes with blue rims and you can see the whites of her eyes. Martha thinks she is an appaloosa. Brandi hasn't been trained and barely walks on a lead rope without nipping at you. She is three years old and Martha spoils her like a baby. I hope that going to see her will help her stop nipping and maybe I can help train her.