I heard this quote Sunday, and considering the times we are living in, I felt it was good advice for all of us to consider.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!  It will be whatever you choose to make it.  I AM GOING TO DANCE!

Remember to be prepared, don’t wait to become a victim.  See our NEW Personal Safety FUNDRAISER at www.personal-safety.net. 

Leroycer
PERSONAL SAFETY SOLUTIONS
www.personal-safety.net

Five (5) lessons about the way you treat people.

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one:

“What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?”

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50′s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

“Absolutely,” said the professor. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello.”

I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

2 – Second Important Lesson – Pickup in the Rain

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man’s door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A
special note was attached..

It read:
“Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband’s bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others.”  Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 – Third Important Lesson – Always remember those who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?” he asked.

“Fifty cents,” replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

“Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?” he inquired.

By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient.

“Thirty-five cents,” she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins.

“I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the
table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.

You see, he couldn’t have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 – Fourth Important Lesson – The obstacle in Our Path.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by
and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had
been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!

Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

5 – Fifth Important Lesson – Giving When it Counts…

Many years ago , when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.

I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes I’ll do it if it will save her.”

Obama We Got Your Back!

     Developing security awareness is more than realizing you need to take steps to protect yourself.  It’s knowing when to be ready, when to have your defense spray or other safety device ready, and when to actually use it.

     The key to security awareness is focus.  As we go through our daily lives we all tend to focus on the important things of the moment.  Developing security awareness is nothing more than learning when to focus on our safety.  For example, when you’ve just left a restaurant with a date your focus may be on the good time you’ve had, enjoying the company of your date, or anticipating the rest of the evening.  This is the way we normally do things.  The problem is that in our increasingly violent surroundings, it makes us much more vulnerable to surprise attacks by the various predators found on today’s streets.

     Developing security awareness is nothing more than learning to focus on our safety at those times when we are even slightly vulnerable.  Usually it’s when we’re walking alone, jogging alone, or doing anything that isolates us.  Learn to think consciously about your personal safety when you’re isolated.  Learn to think consciously about your personal safety when you’re isolated – even briefly- and get used to concentrating on what and who is around you;  or potential threats.  As you can see, this is not something you have to do all the time, just when you’re alone and isolated.

     Consider carrying a pepper spray on your keychain, or some other safety device to increase your chances of getting away from an attacker.  You can find sprays and other personal safety products at www.personal-safety.net.  Stay tuned for my next post for lots more on “Developing Security Awareness”. 

Best Regards,

Leroycer
THE COMMUNITY LIGHTHOUSE

“ A Woman’s Worth
We’ve come a long way baby
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
By Goldie Taylor                                  
I have been a mother all of my adult life.  A single working mother. I put off dating, took menial jobs far beneath my qualifications and baked my share of ginger bread cookies for PTA Night, all so that three incredible children could have better. I chose their lives over mine.  I don’t have to tell you that it wasn’t easy. Unfortunately, my story, our story, is not unique.
We slept in cars, bought groceries with food stamps and prayed for a better day.  When that wasn’t enough, I put myself through school at Emory University and took a part-time job as a staff writer at the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  That was over a decade ago.
Along the way, things got better. I’ve been an executive at two Fortune 500 companies and a practice director at two multinational public relations firms. Today, I own an advertising agency and I’ve authored two novels.  A third and fourth are on the way, God willing. All of this was possible because somebody laid a brick or two on the road for me.
A few weeks ago, I woke in tears.  It was my 40th birthday and certainly not a time for sadness.  Rather, I cried in joy because for the first time I realized and could embrace the value of the struggle.  The bright little girl, who once cried in my arms because we didn’t know where we were going to live, was headed off to Brown University.  The small boy who had been the ‘man of the house’ far too soon was now truly a man.  And the tiny, angelic baby who had come to this world precious and innocent just 15 months after him was now a 16 year old girl headed out to her first job interview.
For all of this, maybe I should be proud of a woman like Sarah Palin. Maybe, just maybe, I should be rejoicing in John McCain’s selected running mate.
But I’m not.
I’m not ‘bed wetting liberal’ nor am I a ‘right-wing zealot.’ What I am is a working mother.  And I cry foul.
I won’t, for a moment, denigrate her experience or lob spit balls at her family.  I will, though, take issue with what she knows.  Or more succinctly, what she does not know.  Living in Alaska, I’m not sure how much she knows about the people living in inner city Baltimore.  I don’t know how much she cares about the 125 murders this summer in Chicago.  I have no idea what she believes about HIV/ AIDS and the havoc it wrecks on Black women or the cancer rates in East St. Louis.  She hasn’t said nary a word about Hurricane Katrina or the infant mortality rates in Appalachia.
I do know that she’s a life-time member of the NRA, a proponent of individuals who wielded the very weapons that killed my father and brother. I do know that she “lives really close to Russia,” but I’m not so certain she is ready for Putin. I know she wanted to ban books for public libraries and sex education in schools, but that her 17 year old is pregnant and preparing for a shotgun wedding.  I know that she loves her husband enough to allow him (and probably did herself) use her office to settle a personal score–one that the McCain campaign would now like to cover in under a blanket of Juneau snow.  I know that the Alaska Independent Party, and its secessionist platform, was enticing enough for her to attend its conference (and for her husband to become a card carrying member).  Does she love her country? I’m sure.  Enough to support those who want to leave it.
But I have no earthly idea what she knows (or could possibly know) about national domestic policy or foreign diplomacy.  For all of her working class values, she never once mentioned the Middle Class in her diatribe that mocked her opponent’s experience. Having been the mayor of Wasilla (pop. 6,000 at the time) and governor of Alaska (a state a smaller than the county I live in) for a little over a year, she felt she was qualified to do that. And obviously, so did John McCain.
If she’s qualified, then so am I.
But in this country I love, she has been afforded the ability to run.  The very constitution she says doesn’t apply to the men at Guantanamo says she can.  But this is about more than that.
As Gloria Steinem said in a recent Los Angeles Times editorial, ‘Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.’
The good news is thanks to Shirley Chisholm, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Angela Davis, Condoleeza Rice, Anita Hill, Madeline Albright, Maxine Waters, Kathleen Sebelius, Hilary Rodham Clinton and a slew of others, there are 18 million proverbial cracks in the ceiling. Our collective political and economic power is due to the strides (and leaps) they, and others, took on my behalf.
I am grateful.  I am deeply humbled to stand on the bricks they’d laid before me.  
But, whatever our struggle was (and is) that last thing I want is to be patronized.  Just as I cannot support just any African American who decides to offer themselves up for public service, I will not toss my vote to someone just because we share the same chromosome mix. To do so would dishonor the vow I made to my children, to myself. I did not vote for Al Sharpton, wasn’t old enough (nor would I have) voted for Jesse Jackson and I certainly will not support Sarah Palin.  Identity politics, especially in this case, are a sham of the worst order.
Whe n I cast my vote, it will be for people who will lay more bricks for people like me.  It will be for people who will put diplomacy before war, challenge us all to provide healthcare for the sick, help another child go to college, and check the special interests in Washington.  This fall, I’m not looking for a woman.
I’m looking for a brick layer.
I could care less if that person hasn’t spent ‘enough’ time in Washington or can ‘properly field dress a moose’. I could care less if that person likes hockey, soccer, football or table tennis.  I could care less if they graduated from Harvard or the University of Iowa.  I’m a Christian, but I could care less if they are down with Deuteronomy, Leviticus or Numbers. I want them to uphold the Constitution.
So no, I will not sit idly by as they attempt to suspend habeas corpus at Guantanamo Bay, engage wiretaps on American citizens without a warrant, and hide behind executive privilege when they are caught firing attorney generals based on how well they tow the Republican line.  I won’t let them cost us $12 billion a month fighting a war that should have never been authorized and never been waged.  Not while working people lose their homes to predatory lenders and watch as we bail out the financial institutions that created the housing crisis.

I will not, in the name of history, vote for a woman like Sarah Palin who does not share my values.
But here’s what I will do.
I will continue raising money for Barack Obama. I will get on the phone again and call people in distant states I’ve never met. I will e-mail, call, and knock on doors until the final vote is cast. I do this, not because he shares my skin, but because I admire his principals and he shares my values. I do this because Barack Obama is more than a community organizer, he is a bricklayer. And he sees — just as he sees the light in Michelle’s eyes — my struggle, my worth as a woman. “