Tag Archives: #WATWB

A Safe Harbor

The LA County Public Library system has closed its doors to patrons during the pandemic but still provide so many services to support the community. People can still borrow books, physical and digital. It’s just that the process has changed. Patrons must pick up their reserved books outside the library, masks are worn by the staff and public, the books are even quarantined between release to the next borrower. Through it all the library continues to provide online book groups, classes for adults and children, from cooking to Storytime to literacy for new immigrants. Nita Lelyveld from the LA Times took a virtual tour of the county’s libraries and shared what she found in her article, ‘Libraries remain vital despite pandemic—and because of it.’

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, is a monthly blog group created to share positive stories in dark times. To learn more about it and how to join in click here. This month’s hosts are Eric Lahti, Roshan Radhakrishnan , Shilpa Garg, Peter Nena and Sylvia Stein.

A Treatment From The Past Century May Help People Survive Coronavirus

5 Replies

An article in the LA Times today ‘An Old remedy for new contagion‘ discusses the long history of the use of convalescent plasma in the treatment of deadly diseases before the development of vaccines in the 1940s. Convalescent serum is taken from the blood of people who have been infected and recovered. There are antibodies in their blood serum that will fight the disease. This treatment was used for diphtheria, smallpox, measles, polio, and tetanus successfully before vaccines. Immunologists in the US have come together to create “the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project, a consortium of 260 doctors and scientists from 57 institutions around the country. Members of their coalition have launched more than 50 laboratory studies and clinical trials…” (LA Times). The early results will be out soon. Let’s hope the results will show positive outcomes and can help save lives before we are able to have an effective vaccine.

Featured image of Dr. Emil Adolph Von Behring who won the Nobel Prize in 1901 for his work on convalescent serum in the treatment of diphtheria via Wikimedia.org

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, is a monthly blogfest dedicated to “positive stories no matter where they’re found. It is all about spreading peace and humanity on social media.” Co-hosts for this month, Susan Scott, Peter Nena, Shilpa Garg, Inderpreet Kaur Uppal, and Eric Lahti welcome participants and encourage all to join in.

Los Angeles Unified School District Feeding The Community

7 Replies

When the Los Angeles Unified School District had to close due to the coronavirus pandemic many worried about what would happen to all the students who depended on the schools not just for their education but for their food. LAUSD provided free meals for students who qualified from low income families in the district. Where would the children get food now? So the Governor of California and Mayor of Los Angeles announced that the schools would continue to provide meals for the students. The school meal preparation would continue and the families could pick up the food.

This expanded to giving food to anyone in need that shows up. In partnership with the Red Cross and the regional food bank the LAUSD has provided 10 million ‘grab and go’ meals since March 18 from 63 campuses across the district. (reported in the LA Times).

Featured image of LAUSD seal via Wikimedia.org, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank image from Walmart on Flickr.com

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, “seeks to promote positive news. There are many an oasis of love and light out there, stories that show compassion and the resilience of the human spirit. Sharing these stories increases our awareness of hope in our increasingly dark world.”

The cohosts are: Eric Lahti, Susan Scott, Dan Antion, Damyanti Biswas, Inderpreet Kaur Uppal.

Creativity Can Last A Lifetime

17 Replies

There are many negative stereotypes that can discourage us as we get older and they are very destructive. They paint a picture of diminishment and decline, but many artists demonstrate that our creativity can continue up to the end. Their stories always inspire me. Here is one story about a woman who is writing poetry at 101 and was recently published. “At age 101, this woman released her first collection of poems,” by Tara Bahrampour in the Washington Post. She explores this topic further in her article, “Creativity can last well into old age, as long as creators stay open to new ideas.”

Featured image of artist ‘Carmen Herrera laying out a new piece’ by Adam Reich/Lisson Gallery via wikipedia.org

This post is part of the We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB. The cohosts for this month are: Shilpa Garg, Simon Falk , Damyanti Biswas, Lizbeth Hartz and Eric Lahti.

Man Brings Hope To Poor Communities Of Chicago

4 Replies

Jahmal Cole started his organization ‘My Block My Hood My City’ to uplift some of the neighborhoods and youth in Chicago. The organization volunteers have worked on various community improvement projects like clearing trash, mowing overgrown lots, trimming trees, and shoveling snow on a block where elderly people live. Cole wants to expose disadvantaged young people to the world outside their neighborhoods as well. He started an ‘explorations’ program of “twice-a-week trips that take teenagers to different parts of the city, sometimes to learn about a business or profession, sometimes to visit an ethnic neighborhood and sample the food” (Christian Science Montior). The kids know they can rely on Jahmal Cole to care about them.

You can read the full article ‘Block by block, a community activist builds a better Chicago’by Richard Mertens, here. And here is ‘My Block My Hood My City’ website.

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, is a monthly blogfest that “seeks to promote positive news. There are many an oasis of love and light out there, stories that show compassion and the resilience of the human spirit. Sharing these stories increases our awareness of hope in our increasingly dark world. ” To learn more about #WATWB and sign up to participate.

The cohosts for this month are: Shilpa Garg, Inderpreet Uppal, Peter Nena, Lizbeth Hartz and Eric Lahti.

Featured image of ‘South Side of Chicago’ photo of 1973 from US National Archives on Flickr.com

Let’s End Ageism

5 Replies

In America there is a big elephant in the room that no one wants to acknowledge. All the talk of booming economy and reduced unemployment that completely leaves out a large segment of our society who have not fallen through the cracks but down a humongous sinkhole.

ProPublica did a report in December 2018 focusing on a big elephant: ” If You’re Over 50, Chances Are the Decision to Leave a Job Won’t be Yours.”

ProPublica and The Urban Institute analyzed date from the Health and Retirement Study that followed ” a nationally representative sample of about 20,000 people from the time they turn 50 through the rest of their lives.” Their findings were “that between the time older workers enter the study and when they leave paid employment, 56 percent are laid off at least once or leave jobs under such financially damaging circumstances that it’s likely they were pushed out rather than choosing to go voluntarily ….only one in 10 of these workers ever again earns as much as they did before their employment setbacks.”

Here is another story about someone feeling the effects of the above reality and how the ‘gig economy’ is not such a wonderful panacea for us all, “Surviving on $3 a Day and Hope, the seven lessons I’ve learned living in poverty.”

Age discrimination is the parent of this elephant and I don’t think it helps to get new skills or a new hairstyle without efforts to change attitudes of employers and society toward older people. I do think policymakers need to take a realistic look at this and what policies might help like lowering the Medicare enrollment age so employers would not use the excuse that older workers will cost them more with their health problems, (which is an ageist stereotype), and people who are unable to find secure employment would not lose their health coverage. While I was looking for programs offering solutions, I came across an article from American Society on Aging, “Ageism in Action! Ageism Inaction!”

In it the author mentioned an organization, Boomers Leading Change, that states, “We mobilize, connect and empower Adults 50+ to utilize your skills, passion and energy to create positive, lasting social change.” This organization based in Denver, Colorado, recruits people 50+ to utilize their skills to help their community.

“Our volunteers receive highly valuable education and training and then are connected with service opportunities in one of our programs – The Volunteer Program, our AmeriCorps Encore Program or our Boomers Advocacy Academy. In addition, our Connect for Health Coverage Guides help individuals and families learn about health insurance that fits their needs then find coverage through Colorado’s insurance marketplace.” (Boomers Leading Change)

The AmeriCorps Encore Program is probably the only paid position, and probably low paying, but I like their approach to volunteering for older adults, not just stuffing envelopes. Boomers Leading Change wants to “change the world’s view about aging.” We need more organizations dedicated to this.

We Are The World Blogfest, #WATWB, is a monthly series dedicated to shining some light into our world.

Away From Home

8 Replies

My great-grandmother saw 4 sons leave their home for faraway lands never to return. The family would say no one knows what became of them. Well, I know some of what became of them. My grandfather and his brother emigrated to the US and settled in California. The two oldest sons emigrated to Australia. I have been able to piece together the outline of the lives of my grandfather and his brother. The brothers who emigrated to Australia may exist in a collection of government records, but so far I am unable to find them. The oldest went first then sent money for his younger brother to come by ship with a younger sister. In the New South Wales, Australia, Assisted Immigrant passenger list of the ship it says that Thomas was 28 years old, his mother Rachel in Tipperary, and he was going to his older brother Pat in Sydney. The New South Wales, Australia, Immigration Deposit Journal states that Patrick paid toward the passage of Thomas, 25 years old,a laborer, and Catherine, 23 years old, a domestic servant. Their prior address listed in the journal as c/o my great-grandfather in Tipperary, Ireland. I hope I can find what happened to them but I may never know.

The story of immigrants is repeated over and over. People traveling away from home looking for a better life. They leave behind part of themselves and families sometimes wondering what became of them. Immigration is a major topic in the United States once again. There must be better solutions for assisting immigrants and working to improve conditions in their home countries so they are not forced to flee.

I found an article by Marisa Peñaloza of NPR ‘A Guatemalan Village Tells The Story Of Immigration To The US’ which describes a family’s situation and what motivated a man to try to get to the US. There are many organizations in this country and international that are working to help immigrants. I just picked one, KIND, but I leave it up to you to decide which organizations to support. KIND works to provide legal representation for children appearing in court alone, children who have entered the US alone.

Another perspective in this article, ‘The Case for Getting Rid of Borders–Completely.’

Featured image Image of Solidarity March for Immigrants and Refugees by Fibonacci Blue on Flickr. We Are The World blogfest, #WATWB cohosts for this month are: Eric Lahti , Inderpreet Uppal, Shilpa Garg, Peter Nena, Damyanti Biswas.

Images Of Kindness

8 Replies

A father a son, Jesse and David Fryburg, M.D., started an organization called ‘Envision Kindness’ to capture images of kindness that can have a positive effect on us all. It seems like we could all use some positive news and images to counteract all the very negative news we have been exposed to. People who worked with this program found that creating photos about kindness did inspire them to carry on doing good for others. You can read about it here.

Viewing images of kindness may help us all heal.

We Are The World blog #WATWB, is a monthly blog hop to share positive news. This month’s hosts are: Eric Lahti, Inderpreet Uppal, Shilpa Garg, Mary Gieseand Roshan Radhakrishnan

The idea is to spread #positivity and #light to counterbalance the #negativity and #darkness in #socialmedia

An Underground Railroad For Women Coming Out of Prison

5 Replies

The path of ex-prison inmates can often be a dark one. It is difficult to reintegrate into society and find people willing to give you a second chance. This month’s story is from the LA Times by Gale Holland about a woman, Susan Burton, who had been in prison 6 times in 20 years and is now dedicating herself to preventing other women from following the same path with her organization “A NewWay of Life Re-entry Project.” Her group has “thrown a lifeline to about 1,000 other women to interrupt the incarceration cycle that held her for 20 years; the project operates homes to help women leaving prison get back on their feet.”

You can read more about this remarkable woman and the work she is doing here: Turning prison past into a life’s calling

This story is part of the monthly We Are The World Blogfest #WATWB. This month’s edition is hosted by Shilpa Garg, Simon Falk, Mary J Giese, Dan Antion , Damyanti Biswas.

People Making A Difference

22 Replies

The title of this month’s blog for We Are The World Blogfest is from the Christian Science Monitor’s online section on people who are working to make the world a better place. I go to this site often to find stories for my monthly posts. This month I am sharing a story about a non-profit organization in San Francisco called Miracle Messages. It was founded by Kevin Adler who was inspired to create his non-profit to help homeless people make contact with family members because of his late Uncle Mark who had been homeless for 30 years. The story “He helps homeless people reconnect with loved ones through video messages,” by Bailey Bischoff describes how he has been able to reunite 100 individuals with friends and family and helped some of them to secure stable housing. It is very touching to read some of their stories like Mr. Spires who had lost touch with his daughter when his wife moved away and had not seen her since she was 3 years old. Miracle Messages was able to locate the daughter and reunite them online.

Kevin Adler wants to eliminate the stigma surrounding homeless people.