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Hi all!

As a break from our regular programming, I have to put a plug in for my wife, who is courageously doing the Susan G. Komen Three Day Walk for Breast Cancer in Phoenix this coming weekend. For those of you who don’t know my wife, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

The walk itself covers 60 miles in three days. Each day they will cover between 18-23 miles or so. Luckily for her, the weather looks like it will cooperate if it stays in the upper 70s/low 80s that is forecast.

She’s been training for the last few months, going to the gym, playing soccer (indoor and outdoor), and dieting. So I think she’s as ready as she could possibly be for this trek.

She has raised nearly all of the $2200 she needs already. She’s only $63 dollars from her goal. (Last year she and our daughters raised more than $2000 for Gabriel’s Angels, another amazing organization in Arizona.)

If you have a few extra sheckles, please consider donating to her cause. It’s totally worthwile. The Susan G Komen Walk for the Cure has been doing good works for the last several years raising money for breast cancer awareness and funding for a cure. Really it’s organizations like this and the people involved who make the biggest difference, fighting the good fight and keeping us all aware that the fight goes on.

So donate if you can, I know it’s late. The walk starts Friday this week. All donations are tax deductible.

Click here to Donate to her cause.

Thank you in advance for any and all donations!

–Fitz

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Hi all…

It’s Blog Action Day 2008 and this year’s topic is Poverty. Poverty is more than just a lack of food or money. It can also involve a lack of safe and sanitary conditions, health care, shelter, education, and information according to the UN.

According to the US Department of Health & Human Services, the 2008 Poverty Guidelines vary a little whether you’re in the 48 contiguous states, Alaska, or Hawaii and are based on the number of people in the household.

2008 HHS Poverty Guidelines

SOURCE: Federal Register, Vol. 73, No. 15, January 23, 2008, pp. 3971–3972

In 2006, the guidelines amounted to basically 36.5 million Americans (1 in living below the poverty line. With the economy slowdown in 2008, I shudder to think how many people are living below the guidelines this year.

But this just measures the monetary guidelines at a high level. It doesn’t include things like health care and education. So when you look at some of the areas of the country hit hardest by the economic downturn, it’s not just states like Michigan hit hard by job losses… Even states like Hawaii were hit hard by the lack of tourists.

What can we do to help? In my opinion, it’s time for the United States to focus our attentions at home. The unemployment rate was holding at 6.1 percent at the beginning of October according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We can only hope that it holds steady or improves soon.

First we need to stimulate the economy to encourage employers to seek qualified employees. Put America back to work.

Next we need to work on education in our country. Programs like One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) are great to spread the wealth around the world, but there are far too many places in the United States where schools can’t afford to buy books, let alone computers. Let’s put some of these OLPC computers in classrooms in Mississippi, the District of Columbia, New Mexico, and Alabama — the bottom 4 states in the 2007 ALEC education report card.

And lastly, we need to make sure that the people we put in office have our best interests in mind. Yes, there are lobbyists. Yes, there are special interests. These groups pay the money to get folks into office. Let’s make sure that the folks that get into office are smart enough to disagree with their backers from time to time and do what’s right for the country - not just right for their wallets.

In the early 2000s, I have to say I was proud of our country and how it handled 9/11 and banded together. It’s time to do the same thing and make sure that we do what’s right for the United States at home, not just abroad.

–Fitz

Hi all…

To continue the theme of poverty started by the Blogger Action Day movement, I thought I’d feature one of the short documentaries I’ve found on the web about poverty in New York.

The following is the abstract for the film at SnagFilms.

“This short film confronts America’s widening poverty gap through a creative journey along New York City streets, observing the stark contrast between the rich and the poor contained within only a few blocks. People from all walks of life, whether they live on the street or study at Columbia University, approach the glaring problem through unique perspectives. The viewer sees the honest tour of New York’s poverty gap and ideas of how to solve it, through the thoughts of everyday people and through the eyes of poverty herself.”

Let’s rise above our differences and open our eyes to see solutions to the common problems on our own streets.

–Fitz

Hi all…

Until recently, I had never really given poverty much thought. But with Blogger Action Day coming up, it’s made me think about it some.

If you go back as far as the silent movies with Charlie Chaplin, one of his best loved characters was the Tramp. He never had enough to eat and lived in hard times. But many people were facing hard times back then, so it was good to see a character you could identify with and see the humor in things.

Poverty in movies today isn’t quite as easy to see. There are a few movies here and there focusing on poverty or hardship growing up, but the blockbuster makes more money, so we see more of those from the big studios. Documentaries don’t make money (unless your name is Spurlock). And so it seems to have fallen out of the public eye.

I know I’m guilty of avoiding documentaries where I am not entertained. I go to the movie to enjoy myself, not to be educated or guilted into feeling bad. It doesn’t take much to make me feel bad at the movies. I’m a sentimental fool. And yet it’s interesting how often you see poverty slipped into even modern blockbusters.

Babylon A.D. starts in a war-torn area of Russia. People are trying to sell guns to get money for food.

Death Race is set in a world where the economy has crashed, everyone is fighting over jobs, and too many people are put in jail because they have to fight to survive.

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden focused on finding Bin Laden, but showed us some of the hardship facing people living in Afghanistan. They had to buy tents on the black market.

Even in the background of The Incredible Hulk, you got to see the poverty and crowded conditions in South America where Bruce Banner was hiding.

So though we’re not seeing “movies about poverty” from Hollywood, the writers and directors are showing us slices of the world that includes poverty. They may not talk about how to solve it. But it’s there.

It’s just sad that these “powerful” people in Hollywood can’t see their way to directing some of their resources to raising awareness of the problem as a way to help solve it.

Can you imagine if Warner Brothers Pictures took part of the $900+ million dollars raised so far by The Dark Knight and [gasp] donated it to a worthy cause?

What would happen if every studio, for one year, decided to donate 10% of the income generated by all their movies? Think about the millions of dollars that would go to worthy charities.

But the odds of that happening are slim. Movie making is a business. Giving away profits is something the little fish do for publicity, not the big fish. But it does pose an interesting what if…

So the next time you watch a movie at the theater, keep an eye out for the signs of poverty. It’s there somewhere.

–Fitz

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Hi all…

In June 2008, Governor Ritter and the Colorado Children’s Campaign worked to release a report on the current state of well being of Colorado children.

Quite literally, the information is stunning. I’ve lived in Colorado all but five years of my life and I never would have thought the following was true:

“Poverty is the biggest obstacle to opportunity for children, and between 2000 and 2006, the number of children living in poverty in Colorado increased by 73 percent - the highest increase by far of any state in the nation. At the same time, the total number of children in the state only increased six percent.

The numbers behind this statistic, and the children they represent, are even more troubling. Current estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that more than 180,000 of Colorado’s children, or 15.7 percent, live below the federal poverty line, defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as $21,200 for a family of four.”

I have never seen anything close to this statistic during my time in Colorado. I don’t debate that it’s untrue. It’s just shocking that this portion of the population, more than 1 in 8 children lives below the poverty line.

Who knew it was this big a problem in Colorado? I guess I just don’t pay enough attention to the right media channels. It’s not something that’s discussed regularly on the evening news or on the front page of the newspaper. But with the national and local economies floundering, this will only get worse.

How do we solve this problem?

According to the Colorado Children’s Campaign, we can address the problem in a number of ways:

• Make poverty and education a priority by urging our lawmakers to make it a priority and then voting on issues as we get them on the ballot.
• Stay informed through the Colorado Children’s Campaign website (it provides a number of newsletters via e-mail) and listen when stories are broadcast through the popular media - TV, radio, and newspaper sources.
• And donate! Time and money are both great to help out the CCC and other worthwhile charities in Colorado helping those affected by poverty, neglect, and health issues.

We must do what we can to try and help. Other states have seen declines in these issues over the last 6 years. Colorado isn’t one of them. Let’s fix that.

–Fitz

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Image via Wikipedia

Hi all…

Blog Action Day is a united effort for thousands of writers around the world to raise awareness on a single issue. For 2007, the issue was the environment. For this year, 2008, the issue is poverty.

Nobody has a universal answer to solve the poverty problem around the world. Individuals may have pieces of the puzzle, but there isn’t a straightforward answer. By asking thousands of people to provide their opinions, we raise not only awareness of the issue, but the spectre of hope. We can only hope that by joining voices, we can all do our part to make the poverty problem a little less of an issue. Every little bit makes a difference.

If you’re interested in some of the various resources on the web about the current poverty crisis, you can check out:

• Causes of Poverty - provides facts, statistics, and articles on the global causes and effects of poverty
• WorldBank’s Poverty Net - many additional resources on poverty management and analysis

Though Blog Action Day is not the only organization making an effort to raise awareness about the global poverty problem, it’s a good way for concerned individuals and organizations to get involved.

I hope to write a number of articles over the next few months, leading up to Blog Action Day itself.

Won’t you join the effort?

–Fitz

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Hi all…

On March 14th, I was hit by the news that one of my best friends from college was diagnosed with lymphoma. It literally knocked the wind out of me, so I can’t imagine what his mind is like at the moment. I crashed into one heck of a downward spiral for about 12 hours. The next day, I was able to keep moving for one simple reason… I had to.

It’s funny (as much as any of this can be thought of as funny)… I spoke with another friend of mine from high school who lost his mother last year. Each holiday that passes has a different feeling now — and he must learn how to move on without her, yet knowing she’ll always be a part of him. He is a devout Catholic and puts his faith in the Catholic/Christian faith.

I have been telling myself for years that I am agnostic, but have recently found a lot to like about the Buddhist path, which isn’t really a revelation. The human spirit is and has always been amazing to me. We as a race are capable of such acts of beauty and at the same time capable of such violence and vile acts that it takes my breath away. Does love conquer all? I honestly don’t know. But a healthy respect for life and the thoughts and beliefs of others helps to get us through the world.

But even with such a philosophy, I have to wonder at why the world works the way it does. My friend with cancer is not a bad man. He’s had bad luck and good luck like all of us. He doesn’t deserve cancer. Nobody does. Even those we might think of as “bad” or “evil” don’t deserve cancer.

So with this thought, I’ve been struggling forward. Life is complicated. I have a wife and kids, a job, friends and family — I am rich in those respects (and poor in others, but money doesn’t solve the world’s ills — just ask Bill Gates). But through it all, I have to think that we will find a way. My friend is strong of spirit and if it’s at all physically possible, he will survive this latest trial. And that which we survive makes us and those around us stronger.

It’s not easy, but nothing worth doing ever is. I will support him in his time of need, even though he’s a distance away in California. He knows I’m here, wishing him the best. We’ll hope it’s enough to change the fabric of space and time so his doctors can work the miracles we are all hoping for.

Miracles need not be religious — they only need be faith-based. I have faith that science will one day solve the riddle of cancer and than mankind will beat it. And I have faith that my friend will survive this. May we all have such faith to help us carry on.

Thanks for listening.
–Fitz

Hi there!

This is a little off topic for my blog, but I’d like to spread the word about a great organization in Arizona dedicated to helping abused and at-risk children by connecting them with the love and affection of therapy dogs.

This info is from their website at: http://www.gabrielsangels.org

A smile where none existed… self-esteem instead of self-doubt… trust replacing betrayal-these are just some of the daily miracles Gabriel’s Angels’ Certified Pet Therapy Teams initiate each day in their work with abused and at-risk Valley children. Our loving dogs and owners offer unconditional love, teach empathy, respect and trust, all in an effort to help these children feel better about their lives. Thanks to our committed volunteers and supporters, we were able to serve over 1,500 valley children in crisis our first year. We need your help to reach this year’s goal of 10,000.

Gabriel’s Angels began innocently enough…one girl and one dog visiting with the children at the Crisis Nursery in Phoenix. With each visit we began to see remarkable changes in the children. We saw them become more empathetic when Gabe was around, they began to trust him because he kept his word and kept coming back. We knew we had something special!

With the support of family, friends and caring people who believed in us early on, we merged our love of animals and our love for children and Gabriel’s Angels was born in August of 2000.

Gabriel’s Angels has grown to nearly 90 teams volunteering at 80 facilities and agencies in the Valley. Currently all of our teams consist of owners and dogs. Cats are considered to be therapeutic to children as well, so we hope to add them to our list of teams in the future.

My family and I have been supporting this amazing organization and its purpose each year by participating in the Walk-a-Thon, a charity event where participants are sponsored in a 2 mile walk to raise money. Every year we’ve done the walk, we’ve come away knowing we’ve helped some great people help some great kids.

So if you love pets, kids, or both, and want to help out Gabriel’s Angels in its mission, we encourage you to donate (tax deductible!) your time and a few dollars a year to these wonderful people and their pets spreading wellness and love wherever they can in Arizona!

If you’d like to contribute, please go to this link to help our fundraising efforts: here

Thanks so much for your help!
–Fitz

p.s. The first picture is of founder Pam Gaber, her dog Jack, and my daughter AJ from the 2007 Walk-a-Thon. This is truly a family affair!