Thursday, May 29, 2008
Friendship Circle
Last night, I attended a "Friendship Circle Volunteer Appreciation Night" in Greenwich, CT. The Friendship Circle, an organization that matches special needs kids with High-School age volunteers for one-on-one playtime (an hour per week). Over 100 kids with issues ranging from autism to down's syndrome to other disabilities are visited weekly by over 300 dedicated teens - and one of those teens is my son, Jacob. Jacob "hangs" with Spencer every Friday afternoon after school. With Aspberger's,...
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Saturday, May 24, 2008
Oh Lord, Won't You Buy Me A Socialist Movement
Back in the 1960’s and early 70’s, my Uncle Fred owned a bar in Port Chester, NY right next to the venerable Capitol Theatre, where the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and the like would fill seats to overflowing. After the show, the bar would be a hangout for many of these musicians and, according to Yolen Family lore, Janis Joplin wrote her famous, “Oh Lord Won’t You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz” on a Freddie’s Place cocktail napkin. I thought of this when my young socialist Israeli friend, Leor,...
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Received by email from a friend
You always hear the usual stories of pennies on the sidewalk being good luck, gifts from angels, etc. This is the first time I've ever heard this twist on the story. Gives ou something to think about. Several years ago, a friend of mine and her husband were invited to spend the weekend at the husband's employer's home. My friend, Arlene, was nervous about the weekend. The boss was very wealthy, with a fine home on the waterway, and cars costing more than their house. The first day and evening...
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Monday, May 19, 2008
Doc in this article was guest in my house two weeks ago
Israeli Army Doctors Heal the Enemy Medicine trumps politics for the Israeli army doctors serving on a West Bank military base near Ramallah who run an emergency clinic for local Palestinian villagers. May 19, 2008 - by Stephanie L. Freid Blech. Cheezy. This feels like too much of a public relations plug for Israel. …these were my thoughts as I hung up the phone after I was briefed on a potential story involving Israeli army doctors and their benevolence toward Palestinians. The media will never...
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Power to the Person
“I’d be surprised if we humans are around in a hundred years,” Pete Seeger said to me during an interview a few years ago, a sentiment echoed recently by super-brain physicist, Steven Hawking. Why are these two men, one who once believed that there wasn’t a protest song that couldn’t save the world, and the other who routinely delves into the wonders of the universe so pessimistic about the human race? Well, look around. Polar bears are drowning, children are murdered in their classrooms,...
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