I pray from the depth of my heart that our election process will be fair and honest so that the people’s choices will enter office, not the choices of corrupt political operatives. Amen.
You really need to read this one
Flight Attendant Had To Give Pilot Devastating News. Gives Tearful Response.
Delta goes above and beyond
A soldier and his dog were killed. Watch what baggage handlers do with their caskets.
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Filed under Armed Forces, Veterans
Here is someone who really puts the Work into Feeding the Hungry!
A Mighty Girl – December 19, 2015
A chance encounter with a homeless veteran made 21-year-old Komal Ahmad realize that she wanted to devote her life to eradicating hunger around the world — with 356 million pounds of edible food thrown away daily, she considers hunger “the world’s dumbest problem.” Four years later, the now 25-year-old is the founder and CEO of Feeding Forward, a non-profit organization which has built a real-time, web-based platform to connect businesses with leftover food to organizations that feed the hungry. Thanks to its unique system, 780,000 pounds of high-quality, fresh food have gone to feed over 600,000 people in need instead of ending up in landfills!
Four years ago, a man approached Ahmad to ask for money for a sandwich; instead, the then undergraduate at UC Berkeley took him to lunch. “We sat and had lunch and I asked him his story and he said, ‘I just came back from my second deployment in Iraq, I was evicted from my house last week, I’ve been waiting for several weeks to have my benefits kick in, but until then, I don’t have any money and I don’t have any food,’ she recalls. “I’m sitting in front of a veteran – someone who had made the most selfless sacrifice possible and something I was planning to make myself as I was about to enter the U.S. Navy – and this guy is now quite literally on the streets begging for food.”
Determined to find a way to eradicate hunger, Ahmad started an on-campus food recovery program to donate leftover meals from the dining hall. But she quickly realized that getting perishable food to people was a huge challenge. In one memorable incident, the dining hall offered 500 sandwiches from an event that was poorly attended, but they had to be used that day since they were perishable. “I rent a Zipcar and I drive to our dining hall dock, and I’m by myself, so it takes me 30 minutes to load the food,” Ahmad says. “Then I call our entire list of recipient agencies…a third of them don’t answer the phone, a third of them said they were good for that day and the last third said they would love to take 15 sandwiches.” She remembers thinking that “It shouldn’t be this hard to do something good. It’s so frustrating and so difficult to find the people that need the food.”
To address this problem and make food donation easier and more efficient than standard food donation initiatives found in many localities, Ahmad started Feeding Forward. When a company or event planner has extra food, all they need to do is use the Feeding Forward app or website to provide details of the donation and a volunteer driver is sent to deliver the food to food banks or shelters based on those organization’s current needs. These donated meals are also often much more nutritious than organizations could provide on their own: Eric Venable, San Francisco City Director of City Team, says “They are giving us very high-quality food….With this really good donated food, there’s more protein. That just really helps those who are eating one, maybe two meals a day.” And, as in most big cities, a tremendous amount of food goes to waste in the San Francisco Bay area. After one food conference featuring celebrity chefs, Feeding Forward received over 5,000 pounds of food donations, which fed over 4,200 people in eight different shelters and food banks and diverted more than 25,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from landfills.
Feeding Forward already operates in six cities in Northern California, with a 99% pickup rate and over 780,000 pounds of food donated so far. According to Maen Mahfoud, the group’s Head of Internal Operations, there are plenty of opportunities for expansion: “We’ve gotten more than 6,000 requests from people who want to expand nationally and around the world – from Brussels to Israel to Berlin to France.” Ahmad says that’s exactly what she wants to see. “Just like you can hail an Uber, you should be able to donate your food in minutes. My dream was never for this to be just nascent here.” After all, she observes, “These are huge cities that have absurd amounts of food thrown away every day. We are trying to make the Bay Area a case study to say ‘Hey, if it works here, it can work anywhere.'”
You can learn more about Feeding Forward — or sign up to help out as a volunteer food delivery driver — on their website at https://www.feedingforward.com/ or in a recent People profile at http://bit.ly/1FjGcQh
For a heartwarming new book that addresses an issue kids rarely hear about — hunger in their local community and how they can help — we highly recommend “Maddi’s Fridge” for ages 4 to 8 at http://www.amightygirl.com/maddi-s-fridge
For more books for children and teens that explore different aspects of hardship in local communities in sensitive and compassionate ways, check out our blog post, “Cultivating Compassion: 15 Books About Financial Hardship Close to Home,” at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog/?p=10049
And, if you’d like to encourage your Mighty Girl’s interest in programming — and help her discover how she can use technology to change the world — check out the recommendations in our blog post, “Wrapped up in Science: Top 40 Science Toys for Mighty Girls” at http://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10528
Source:
facebook.com/amightygirl/photos/a.360833590619627.72897.316489315054055/942325295803784/?type=3&theater
A veteran I know emailed me the link to the article below. It made me tear up with pride in and love for our veterans, so I just had to share it here in its entirety. The original source is linked at the bottom.
I have a friend named Cal. He is quick to smile, and quite dashing, even at 80. He’s one of those people that even after just one conversation you think, what an amazing person – I am so glad I met him! He just retired from his third career. He loves his God, he loves his wife and he loves his country – and all of this is evident in all that he does.
The funny thing about a lot of older veterans is that despite their fierce pride in the military and the men and women they served with, you might never know they are veterans. A very humble group of people – not quick to toot their own horn.
Cal’s first retirement was from the Army as a Chief Warrant Officer 3, after serving multiple tours in Vietnam.
One night, after eating dinner, my husband and I got to share our own deployment stories with him and his wife. As it turned out, a lot of the things we remembered about our own deployments were pretty much the same, whether fighting in Vietnam or Iraq. Cal’s only response was “Sometimes, it’s good to talk to Army folk.”
And he is right. It is good to talk to Army folk. It’s good to talk to people who have gone through something that no one really gets unless they have done it themselves – it’s what truly makes us brothers and sisters in arms.
My Uncle Terry is also a Vietnam veteran, he was a platoon leader and after only a few months in country, he was shot. Apparently, he almost died leading from the front and protecting his men. The doctors said that there was no logical explanation for him surviving- a real miracle. The Marines awarded him the Silver Star. But all Uncle Terry ever told me was that being a Platoon Leader was the best job he ever had.
Then there is our friend Jack and his buddy Ed. I ate dinner with Jack and Ed the day Jack’s son, my husband’s best friend, was posthumously presented with the Distinguished Service Cross for tackling a suicide bomber and saving the lives of all of his Soldiers.
I had the greatest time talking to Ed. He kept asking me questions about my time in the Army, and it never occurred to me to ask him much about himself. I found out later, Ed Freeman was a Medal of Honor recipient made famous in the movie “We Were Soldiers.”
Ed and Jack flew together in Vietnam. On the same day that Ed disobeyed a direct order and flew into the battle of Ia Drang Valley, saving the lives of many Soldiers, Jack was on a mission elsewhere in the country.
Not a word about this from either of them – both so humble.
People like Cal, Uncle Terry, Jack and Ed are who I think of when I think of Veterans. These are some of the best men I have ever known. They served their God, their family and their country with love in their hearts and no complaints. And when they think back on their military service – they remember fondly the phenomenal men and women they served alongside.
I’m not sure I will ever deserve to be lumped into the same category as them when my military career winds down, but I hope that our next generation of veterans will be able to look at me and say I lived up to this standard. If they do, then maybe I will have earned the title veteran.
https://www.txmf.us/Blog/ViewCategory.aspx?cat=7&mid=10&pageid=3
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Filed under Armed Forces, Family & Friends, Veterans
Yesterday, a group of veterans touring the Oval Office exhibit at the George W. Bush Presidential Library & Museum got a little surprise!
Veterans Day 2015
I miss this man.
Filed under George W. Bush, Veterans
This is the day first designated on November 11, 1918 as Armistice Day to commemorate the end of The Great War. It was a day that all Americans came together to honor those who served so selflessly and the many who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. I remember as a child going to the parades, seeing men and women marching down Jefferson Street, flags waving, veterans in the crowd in their old uniforms saluting, it was a source of great pride. Now the day seems relegated to selling electronics and bedsheets and free meals for veterans.
The men in my family all served at one time or another. I was drafted in 1969, but was rejected because I had asthma. I knew an awful lot of classmates who went, and some never made it home. Unless you are a blue star family, like our own Chrissy, you can’t possibly know what it’s like to have a loved one so far away, trusting in God to keep them in His care but never really knowing until they’re home safely.
I think I have figured out why most military personnel are conservatives and not democrats. It’s really pretty simple. To volunteer to serve your country out of a sense of duty, of paying back the nation which blessed you with so much takes having faith in something much higher than yourself.
IT’S CALLED GUTS
The left will never understand it. I cannot think of a single ideal they hold that they would actually pick up a weapon and defend with their very lives. Abortion? $15 minimum wage? Free phones? Food stamps? Illegal immigration?
I hardly think so. People tend to dislike or mistrust anything they don’t understand. That’s why they despise the military and do everything in their power to undermine it, from cutting their pay to denying veterans the right to the competent health care that they’ve earned. More and more good people are leaving the military rather than be commanded by someone who has never hidden is animosity toward the very men and women who have taken an oath. He took an oath, too, but to him it’s all a joke. Why put yourself in harm’s way for a man who regards your life as less than nothing.
It is fortunate that when the time came to defeat Fascism, Naziism, and Imperialism,the entire country came together. I fear it could never happen again. Fortunately we will never be attacked by any recognizable country since we have the nuclear capability to wipe them out if needs must. That in no way lessens the risk of an attack from within by a terrorist with a small nuclear device. Our president seems bent on giving our enemies all the tools to destroy us.
People get things easily or for free. Without any sacrifice there can be no appreciation of how precious your freedom is. The media and the left have lost every war since Korea by undermining the efforts of those on the front lines. I went to college with the maggot-infested hippie protesters and the ex-GIs who had come back and were getting an education. They could not have been more different, as you can well imagine. If there were ever a fight, I can tell you who I’d side with.
I’ve put together just a few things as my way of thanking all the warriors who have protected my freedom to write and think and do as I wish.
History of Veterans Day
World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” – officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles, France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”
Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and
Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and
Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.
http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp
Veterans fire a volley prior to the playing of taps at the Waukesha Allied Veterans Council Veterans Day program at Veterans Park in downtown Waukesha Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014.
WITH EVERY PASSING DAY I MISS THIS MAN MORE
THE INCOMPARABLE PAUL HARVEY…THERE WILL NEVER BE ANOTHER
Filed under Armed Forces, Veterans
In 2013, the LA Times chronicled the unsuccessful efforts of former Army Staff Sergeant Jonathan Warren to heal from with post-traumatic stress disorder. Today, Warren says he is finally free of symptoms, because of an experimental treatment called magnetic resonance therapy, or MRT.
This procedure pulses energy from magnetic coils into the cortex. Warren and scores of other combat vets have been drawn by word of mouth to private clinics for what some of them call “brain zapping.” They and their loved ones rave about the positive results.
The FDA approved MRT for drug-resistant major depression in 2008.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): What is it and how does it work?
Off-label use of MRT for disorders such as PTSD, autism, arthritis, sports injuries and osteoporosis are available at some private clinics. Studies of how, why and whether it really works on these conditions are in their infancy.
Magnetic Resonance Therapy: Is it making a difference? Ask Dr Anna
MRT is not covered by insurance. It is offered free of charge at the Brain Treatment Center to former service members.
Read more @
Or google “magnetic resonance therapy” … it’s a hot topic right now. 🙂
Much is written on this day about remembering and honoring those who are wearing or have worn the uniform by people much smarter and more gifted than I. My feeling is that we should honor those with the sense of devotion to duty that defend our freedoms every day. 99% of us will never have to endure the hardships and privations they do and for that we should be humble and grateful.
I had to do a separate post for this solemn commemoration.I could not sully their service by including it with the dreck I post from the cesspool of politics every day.
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as “the Great War.” Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all wars.
Veterans Day: Let’s thank our veterans by standing with their families
Over the past several years, over 2 million veterans from the post-9/11 generation have returned to civilian life and our communities. Many faced the immense stress of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our nation owes them enormous gratitude, which we must demonstrate in far more than words or symbols. Our veterans deserve the opportunity for personal and professional success long after their military service.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/11/10/veterans-day-let-thank-our-veterans-by-standing-with-their-families/
I THINK THIS IS MY FAVORITE
Happy Veteran’s Day: Sacrifice and Courage in Our Veterans’ Own Words
Every November 11, Americans observe Veterans Day by honoring the sacrifices and courage of the U.S. Armed Forces.
For veterans themselves, this day takes on an even more special significance.
On October 28 and 29, Washington Free Beacon outreach coordinator Rae-Lynn Ziegler spoke to veterans of foreign wars visiting Washington on Honor Flights, asking for their reflections on the day, how their military service has affected their lives and the legacy they hope to leave for future generations.
Free Meals and Deals to Vets, Military on Veterans Day: The List
We patronize some of these businesses;we will do business with more.
Dozens of businesses are offering free services and reduced prices to veterans on Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11, and, in some cases, beyond. Some require a military ID. The list is not comprehensive.
http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/11/10/free-meals-and-deals-vets-military-veterans-day-list
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
A HISTORY OF VETERANS DAY FROM HISTORY.COM
The Great War & Armistice Day
Though the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, November 11 remained in the public imagination as the date that marked the end of the Great War. In November 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. The day’s observation included parades and public gatherings, as well as a brief pause in business activities at 11 a.m. On November 11, 1921, an unidentified American soldier killed in the war was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.; the U.S. Congress had declared the day a legal federal holiday in honor of all those who participated in the war. On the same day, unidentified soldiers were laid to rest at Westminster Abbey in London and at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/history-of-veterans-day
Why pronouns matter on Veterans Day
We can agree to disagree about why, when, where and how to use the U.S. military.
But we all should agree about the fundamental flaw of this sentence: “We should fight the Islamic State.”
We?
How about they?
How about remembering that on this Veterans Day or any other day, when we send them into harm’s way, they are the Americans at fatal risk.
That’s “they” as in the brave men and women of our Army, Marines, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard, and yes, our National Guard.
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20141111/PC16/141119914/1177
Filed under Armed Forces, Veterans
ADDED BY PP:
I was going to do a post on this,but Warrior Mom beat me to it!
This tribute to the Marines was recorded by Madison Rising 3 days ago.I think you’ll enjoy it.
Watch a precision drill team thats been honed to a razors edge:
I pray that one day they will once again be led by a commander worthy of their heart, skill, sense of honor, their sheer courage and discipline.
Filed under Armed Forces, Veterans
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