Thumbs up YouTube Videos

I watched some very interesting videos tonight and wanted to share them. The first one is called The Money Tree... my observation with this video is how accustomed we've become to our environment. We've learned not to look out at the world around us and we just go, go, go. We no longer stop to appreciate the unusual because we don't see it... SO, for this one, go to YouTube and search The Money Tree.

The next one is a portion of a church sermon. It's about 10 minutes long, but I really enjoyed the message this woman had. This video is called Pecking Order-Dealing with Islamophobia. I was in tears...

Well, to be honest I was anyway. We watched two documentaries with live footage from 9/11 and they were absolutely heart wrenching. It's horrible to see people standing in this same location many years later, protesting and burning religious (though it may not be OUR religion) books, and yelling profanities. We need to remember the people on the planes... the fear they must have felt. We need to remember the people hanging from the sides of the building, begging for help from emergency phone operators... We need to remember the fire fighters and the sound of fear in their voices as they tried to rescue people. We need to remember them and respect their memories. Turning the tragic events of 9/11 into an excuse to preach hate is not respecting those who lost their lives.

The skyline from the ferry this past March:


Can you see the face on the grave marker? This was in the cemetary of a church close to Ground Zero...


This was inside the church that served as a haven for the rescue workers for months to come...


Inside the church...a memorial


What we did to remember 9/11

Today the whole family went to a nursing home to visit with the residents. We took Tallulah again and they just loved her. The kids were shadows as usual, but the girl actually surprised me by taking charge of the list and leading us through the halls. The boy was having an allergic reaction to the dog another volunteer brought, so I'll not be so hard on him this time. I do want to see more interaction from him next time though. I loved going to the nursing home. Those people love visits, and appreciate the little gifts of soft socks with no-slip bottoms and big-print crosswords.

Tomorrow we will go to the Salvation Army and feed the homeless. This will be very good for the kids and I'm excited about it. I'm really trying to encourage feelings of empathy within our children. We shall see.