Person of the Week: Any & all children affected by war

This is lil Fatima Jbouri, a 10-month old survivor of war. A death squad in Saydia (a war-ravaged suburb of Baghdad) raided her home, killed her mother & uncle, then left her for dead in the garbage out back. In 118 degree heat. Under a metal sheet. Her 7-yr old brother flagged down the Iraqi police, they gave her to US soldiers, & the pic you see is of her being held by US military at a combat support hospital in the green zone.

They say she most likely would never have survived in an Iraqi hospital. She has a Shi'ite name of Fatima and a Sunni name of Jbouri. Moqtada al-Sadr controls the health ministry/hospitals; he believes in the "ethnic cleansing of Sunnis", & most likely she would have died before receiving any treatment.

Eventually, she'll be re-united with her 5 brothers & sisters who are in an orphanage. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. I mean, most orphanages (esp in some other countries) aren't all that; if ya know what I mean. If she does go on into hiding with her Shi'ite relatives in the south, who knows what happens then. I mean, we're still talking about her being in hiding in a hostile environment.

She was featured on World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson, Monday night. That's when I 1st saw her. But I got to thinking about all the kids that we don't hear of b/c they were found in the trash dead. Or just thrown around somewhere. All the kids that grow up in war-torn countries; if they're lucky to survive. And some would prob rather not have survived all the atrocities they'd witnessed.

And I def don't want to leave out the kids here in the States. The ones who's mommies & daddies went off to serve us. Sure, they are told that their parents love them; even by the parents who are overseas themselves. But it's just not the same, not having them there.

Search for stories on Fatima Jbouri.

Person of the Week: Joe Pa

I’ve decided that every week, I’m going to have a person that kicks ass. I’ll likely post this at the end of the week; Thurs, Fri, or Sat. But I’m not promising. I can’t handle that kind of commitment.

I thought of this b/c I read these stories about ppl who I think just rule in the best way possible.

Our 1st Person is Joe Paterno. Joe Pa, as he’s called, is not gonna stand for any BS. He is the coach of the Penn State football team. A couple of his guys were punks; so he decided that the whole team’s gonna clean up Beaver Stadium after each home game. Everyone. B/c they’re a team, & he will not have them called trash.

"We're all going to do it, everybody. Not just the kids that were involved. 'Cause we're all in it together. This is a team embarrassment. I wouldn't call it anything much other than that."

"I just thought that, hey, we had 14, 15 kids – I don't even know how many – that were involved in something embarrassing, and I think that we need to prove to people that we're not a bunch of hoodlums."

In addition to cleaning up the humongo stadium, they're also gonna build a house for Habitat for Humanity, & volunteer over SUMMER for the Special Olympics.

Most football coaches let things slide. "Boys will be boys." That sorta thing. But if you just let boys be boys, then how will they EVER become MEN?!

This is a man, a real man, to admire. He has character & principles & ideals. He knows right is right, & wrong is wrong. He will not have ppl talk trash about HIS ppl. He'll chase down a ref if he thinks he's wronged his ppl.

He will teach his ppl to rise above. And that makes him good ppl in my book.

Um, did I also mention that he's 80, has been the coach or assistant coach there for 57 years. AND, Penn State has never been under NCAA probation, and has never been under any serious investigation for wrong-doing since he's been there. Why? Uh, b/c he RULES!

the military, the gays, San Fran, & Milk

You know how when ppl think of San Fran, they think of the gays? The city’s got the highest concentration of homosexuals in the country (maybe the world, mu-hahahaha). Sorry, that just came out. It’s also got the highest concentration of Chinese folks outside the mother-land (being China, duh!); but that’s a story for another day. Or not, we’ll see.

So, San Fran holds the whatever-title in terms of number of gay ppls. Mama must be so proud. Well, ever wonder why? I did & I found out! So whether you wanted to know or not, I’m gonna tell you. If you didn’t want to know, you don’t have to keep reading the rest of this. But I’ll leave you w/ one thought – the military.

Intrigued? Ah, then you’re my kinda person. So, here’s how it all went down. The time was World War II. The US gov’t was discoverin all the gays in the military. The military decided they would seek out & dishonorably discharge all the gays. The San Francisco base is where most of the dismissed men were processed. So, most of them just ended up staying there & settlin; instead of returning to their homes.

I mean, have you eva been to San Fran!?! Well, have you?! It’s amazing, I’d highly recommend it. If you haven’t seen my pics from there, go into my Nov 2005 archive. I’ll put up a link to it later. Maybe. I’m pretty lazy though, remember? So, we’ll see what happens.

Wanna see more? This site has a timeline of the history of the movement in San Fran. If you want to explore gay San Fran, you’ll wanna hit up the Castro. And go here to go on a photo-tour of the Castro Neighborhood. It's just amazing how much we share online, isn't it? I've learned so much about a neighborhood so far away from me just online!

The one thing I really think you should all read about is Harvey Milk. I don’t know if you know who he is or not, but he most certainly led an interesting life. They made a documentary about him. I haven’t seen it yet so I can't say if it's good or not, but it’s on my "to see" list. Anyway, he settled in the Fran after being (honorably) discharged from the military, & became a city supervisor. Another city supervisor, Dan White, who was against Milk’s gay rights bill, stepped down, & returned to City Hall w/ a gun & 10 extra rounds of ammo. He went to see Mayor Moscone, & went to town on him. He reloaded, walked clear to the other side of the building to where Milk was, shot him in the chest, then point-blank in the head for good measure. White got less than 8 years in prison for these two murders.

Anyway, Harvey Milk is on Time Magazine’s top 100 ppl of the century list & they have a great write-up on him. You can also find more info on him at wikipedia, of course.

I hated history when I was in school, but now I find myself fascinated w/ the ppl & events & places of times past. So, I have decided that every time I stumble across something like this, I’ll post it here. To share w/ y’all, & so I have a ref point where I can come back to. It’ll be just like the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler!

Aside: Photo of Goldengate Bridge was taken by bmdoty. I decided that I think it's amazing how many absolutely incredible shots that we as an internet community take & are willing to share. I'm thinking of joining too; cause I do love to take pics & I like the idea of sharing them as long as you give the pic-taker the credit. I also 'hotlinked' the pic itself so that if you click on it above, you can see his/her stuff & even leave comments for him/her if you want. Just sharin the love!