I realize it is difficult at times for management to get their point across to employees, to train them, to help them learn to treat customers as though they have value.  

And for those who are in that position and still trying to work with new employees, I applaud your efforts.

- But it appears some management

- But it appears management in too many businesses either do not have the skills or just do not have any better attitude than the employees they hire.

- But it appears management is holding on to employees both not qualified to learn the job or with attitudes unsuited for customer service.

And to you, I will try your business once, twice, if it appears it is just one employee trying to learn, but after that, I will drive 25 miles if necessary to avoid your business. I refuse to reward another business that just doesn’t care.

But then, the USPS, over the years I have found two many uninformed or non caring employees. I’m apt to run out of places to go.

That said, I have found a few great employees there, I just hope I find more!
 

How can we expect to win battles for peace in the world, when we do not bother to win self battles?

Perhaps, the real first step toward winning world peace is to face our war with self, to face why we:

• ignore our bodies’ overall health
• ignore our need to rest mentally
• ignore our need to balance work and pleasure
• ignore our need to help others

Those battles are notorious for being hard to win. Had we more practice fighting those battles, pulling in inner strength toward a goal so very vital to a decent life on earth, then those skills could be applied to fighting battles for peace. It all really does start within.

I am battling, they have always been weaker battles, hopefully this one will be fought longer and harder. I’d love to apply those skills to the rest of my life - and fighting for peace.

If you see it as I do, care to join me in fighting a better, smarter, more efficient battle? Or just, at least, going beyond just declaring war on bad habits, and start fighting them with the intention of winning?

I read years ago, when I was more impressionable, that negative energy is stronger than positive energy, that when in a crowd, the negative people can easily incite riots because of that. Riots scare the heck out of me, I think of them like runaway cattle, crushing and destroying, innocents killed or maimed because of. I don’t know if science still spouts that fact, but I do know that true or not, to combat negative energy it takes an inordinate amount of work and it is either do that work or be absorbed and controlled by the negative.

It is personally extremely frustrating when a point as important as living in peace is not accepted by the masses. No, in truth, it is extremely frustrating when it is not accepted by even one single human being. And it is only in writing this that I realize HOW important that one person is, for that ONE person can spread that negative energy to the many. Just as their negative energy can wear us down, why could not our positive energy, IF IN MASS, wear them down? It may not wear down those that truly hate, that have a major screw loose in their brains, that loathe themselves so much they don’t see the good in a single human life. It may not, but it will influence those that are teetering, that just need a little dose of respect, that need knowledge, that need someone to explain life and the benefits of peace and kindness in a way they understand.

That last paragraph, how to get there is both simple and so very complicated. So many ways to reach people, so many people, though, that are not reachable by normal every day words or your explanation, or mine, or his. That is where blogging comes in. There are so many millions blogging, we DON’T all think alike, one of us may have a different idea… And that is where Mimi comes in:

• she is giving us another excuse to try to get the point, even just the thought, of peace across. It is but one way, but it will get through to at least one person — and one more is more than no more — and one more tips the scale that tiny bit toward peace.
• she is using repetition, asking us to participate in peace more than once, creating a “Universal” brand, Peace Globe
• she is bringing the word, “PEACE” to our minds
• she is doing something,
• she is asking us to do something, to take a step forward, to scheme, to brainstorm toward peace

Any step forward is a good step, even if retreating comes later, or we make detours along the way. You have different strengths, different ideas, you are, like Mimi, like me, like your aunt and uncle, your neighbor, your unborn child: one of the many. Brainstorm on P e a c e, I dare you. (And if you are one that plays opposites, I dare you NOT to brainstorm on P e a c e.)

I’m flying a peace globe again on June 4th. It may mean nothing to some, it may be but an opportunity to link for others, a game for yet others, but it means the world to others, so for them, I will post mine. It is your choice to Shh? or No! Speak up! And if you chose Shh?, you can always decide later, that No! Speak up! is your new course of action. It took me a while to get there, too.

Side note: Just because some are going along with you does not mean even they have not lost respect for you - and I bet for some of you, if you took the time to look inside, you would find you have lost respect for yourself as well.

Why not earn it back? If not, get another job.

Though just normal people (ok, normal, above-average, and chickens like me), those who have attended classes and done a mock disaster drill, however tiny, earned their certificate, and many have signed up to become team members. Across the country, C.E.R.T. members have already proven their worth during natural disasters in communities for years.

In many cases they become the first responders, walking from house to house or business to business before the professionals can get there. Obviously there are limits to what they can do, but there is plenty they can do! They are trained:

• from basic first aid such as stopping bleeding and making splints out of whatever is available,
• to putting out small fires
• to turning off gas and water
• to removing those they can from further harm.
• Not to be left out is instruction in the basic psychology of how people, including the rescuers, may react.

Another C.E.R.T. function is to get information to the command center on what the needs are of their local areas and how many people are in such dangerous situations that they need be rescued by professionals, when heavy equipment is needed.Leon and I took the classes and earned our certificates. For him to learn it is just a normal thing. For me to even consider taking it has probably completely thrown the universe, for I am a complete chicken who gets nauseous at just about anything — and it was my idea to take the classes. Yes, I was probably the weakest link in the class, and yes, I mainly took it so that I could, at least, know enough not to need rescuing! And honestly, I am sure several members of our class were glad I didn’t live in their neighborhood or that at least when Leon was home one of us would be coordinated enough. . . but!

But! I, at least, now know:

• how to use a fire extinguisher without having to stop to read the directions
• how not to use a fire hose
• how to turn off gas and water and electric
• how to assess who needs immediate help and who can wait (triage)
• how to use common objects to make a splint
• ways to stop bleeding
• how to move people when possible without injuring ourselves
• how to work as a team with people we don’t know

Sure, a lot of us know some of this and the other helpful things they teach, but refreshers are always a good thing. . . And I can tell you that just a few years later, I need the refresher. I can only hope, if I need the information it is lurking in my head… kind of like the self-protection moves I learned in Tae Kwon Do classes years ago. Many of you are not like me, you will retain more, especially if you go into it without fear.

For the record, C.E.R.T. members are reminded to put themselves first again and again, because if they try to do something they are not able to do with their skills they become not ONLY just one more person for the professionals to rescue, but one less person to rescue/help the many. That is something we all, as everyday people need to remember even in life’s daily emergencies.

By the way, those large X’s with writing you have seen on doors in disaster news clips. . . they give a lot of needed information to the professionals, including triage information. . . and many of those were made by C.E.R.T. volunteers as they got to their neighbors and friends.

Check it out, even if you are just a chicken like me. . . you may be the very chicken that makes a difference and people may then find out the answer to, “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

——-

Just put C.E.R.T. in your search engine of choice or call your local community’s emergency management group. . . Our small town just had two classes of 17 people each. . . that is 34 more people who now are part of the solution rather than the problem that year - and each year is similar.

Thank you to:

• the Department of Emergency Management of Monroe, Washington, for offering the classes to us
  and teaching much of the class — and answering and repeating the answers - and explaining with patience
• the members of the Police and Fire Departments who shared their time and patiently answered all of our questions
• all those that have attended in an attempt to better themselves, prepare to help others, and encourage each other

C.E.R.T. is a good thing. A very good thing.

Family: it is well known family time is important and working for a living to a point interferes with that process, but it is a necessary and for the most part good evil. There is much to be gained other than money by spending hours working “together”!

Those who can afford it spend money on toll roads to get where they are going faster, many times the place they are heading is home, home to their families.

Many of the working poor work two jobs to make ends meet - just to get bare necessities. They weave through side streets, the long way home, because they have no money for tolls. They miss those few extra moments with their families.

Society leans toward the rich. More and more, government is pushing for toll roads. Shame, isn’t it that being rich affords more than just luxuries?

That said money to fix roads has to come from somewhere… wouldn’t taxing by percentage be more fair?

I know I went from point A - tolls affect families to Point B - taxing by percentage. Just the way my mind works. Everything affects something else. It is not easy coming up with solutions that do right for everyone. I doubt I could do it - well.

My last post here, I wrote that “hearts are expandable” — it was one of my “One Nice Thought” posts, short and sweet. That thought has been in my head and heart a lot lately. Many of you may have heard of Shelly’s Share A Square Project (SAS) - for those that haven’t she commandeered our hearts and received 10,000 squares knitted or crocheted - since June, 2007. She only needed 6,720, so the extras are also being made into afghans for children not attending camp.

Already volunteers, including Shelly, have put together 100 afghans to distribute to the 140 kids who will attend Camp Sanguinity, near Fort Worth, Texas this July. It is a special camp!! But it is told well by Shelly. People came through to make one dream come true… one that will, and has already, affect so many people in a positive way.

But Shelly is an experienced dreamer.

She now wants the blogging community and their family, friends, and assorted strangers to band together and PAY the 150 dollars per child for 140 children to attend this year - and she wants to raise that money in just THREE short months. And you know, we want it, too. I want it, he wants, it she, over there, all who have participated in this project from the beginning or just read about it with a grin on their faces — they want the project to succeed. So, how about it. Take a few minutes to read her post… and take a gander at the gallery of the 100 afghans already completed… (Just follow the link above and at the bottom of the page.)

Don’t stop there! Head on over to twelve year old Mr. T’s blog, Young Warrior, lovingly typed by his grandmother, Matty. No, he is not a Camp Sanguinity camper, but he was the recipient of the first afghan created - when the project was in its infancy, just last year. Check out his reaction, see his afghans with all the tags still intact — and see how important it is to him today.

You will be so glad you stopped by.

And if your checkbook is not empty, why not help us finance the kids weeks at camp this July — Money talks — and the cool thing about raising money this way — it doesn’t take huge amounts from few people — Think about it like feeding a piggy bank — it all adds up! Click here to read the details of the fund raising.

And by the way, they still need little tiny bags to hold the tags so the kids can look at them again and again… they will love seeing how many people helped make their afghans, and their families will be just as excited about it, I am sure! So, after you have read all of the above, click one of the two links below for simple ideas about making the bags and where to send them. — I still have to make some this week, too.

Now, I have to get back to work — but thank you for reading and pulling the kids into your heart.