I am very sad to see that this blog has not taken off better. I thought it would. I am also pretty upset with myself because I gave myself an "out" by inviting lots of other folks to participate who obviously have not. And neither have I. Foreshame!

It is sad, really, because I have had so many good experiences, but life has been busy and it was easier to rant about the teachers nailed for bullying the autistic kid. Is that what is wrong with our society today? We are too focused on the negative?

Well, I don't want to be! I want to look at the good, the bright, the positives! Am I really too busy to share those with others? Not anymore. With or without the help of others, I will continue to write on this blog. (Though, if you would like to help, I would really appreciate it!!)

My bright story that I want to share today is about one of my Cub Scouts. Jon is African American/ Mexican American and he is the sweetest, funniest kid I have ever had the privilege of meeting.  He joined our scout pack  at the beginning of the year as part of our school drive. Coming in as a Webelo, Jon was thrown into a culture that he didn't know, and expected to achieve in a system completely foreign to him. Most of our Webelos who join at this age never achieve rank advancement before they move into Boy Scouts. But not Jon.

In March, on his 11th birthday, I had the honor of awarding Jon his Webelos badge and several activities badges.

The kid loved coming to scouts for the activities, but at Christmas time when I sat down with him and his mom and explained what he needed to do before his birthday and how it was gonna be tough, he said that it was okay because he wanted to do it. He knuckled down, spent so many days pushing to finish everything that most kids accomplish in two years, in only a matter of months. It sort of took the fun out of scouts, (at least for me. You can only do so many fun science experiments, clean up the mess, and then do another one before the cleaning up becomes tedious ;) )but he wanted that rank advancement.

It was with a proud, but sad, heart that in March I passed Jon off to his Boy Scout leader. Proud because I knew that he would achieve just as well in Boy Scouts, sad because I was gonna really miss him. I have been doing scouts for almost four years now and have passed a lot of boys on to boy scouts and they all swear they will come back and see us. Most never do. Some wave and say hi on their way to their boy scout meetings, but that is all we get.

Jon came to cub scouts yesterday after our meeting "just to say hi". I figured maybe he had come to get a treat, but he declined and then sat there with me talking about everything they were doing in boy scouts and how excited he was. He told me he missed me and wanted us to hang out. (By us he meant me and my kids come hang out with him and his mom.)

It was great to know that he was achieving just as well in a new system with new leaders, but it warmed my heart that he missed me (and my kids) and that he cared enough to let us know that he missed us and appreciated what we had done to help him achieve his rank advancement. I am looking forward to hanging out with this kid more often!

It's All Good News

Welcome, Lioness here! I imagine that you'll get sporadic updates from me, but I'll be contributing regardless...

One of my favorite things to do is edit. I always have differently colored pens (purple, green, quintessential red, pink, etc.) in my purse, because you never know when you'll need to edit something. I wish I could climb onto some billboards and fix errors... Oh, and I like COLOR! The more color in one's life, the brighter one's outlook... (Yes, I have ADD, and I'm proud of it!)

Anyway, my current post regarding good and uplifting news is that ChickAngell has graciously allowed me to edit her newest book, which should be ready for publication shortly! I'm enjoying her character development skills, and watching these characters come to life before my eyes. Of course, being an avid editor, I'm helping with that as well, where it needs a little push. I'm just completely and utterly gobsmacked ChickAngell has allowed me to take a "red pen" to one of her babies!

This is good news, in my oh-so-very humble opinion. ChickAngell has worked long and hard to produce literary works, and has found a way to do so in the competitive world of self-publishing. I am honored to be one of the first readers of her adult fiction, and soon we will most probably see some more come out of her. I just hope to continue my role as one of her most nit-picky editors and one of the people she'll continue to rely on to shove her forward! ChickAngell, you ROCK!

Welcome

So the inspiration from this blog actually came from some really negative stuff that recently took place in my community. About six weeks ago we had a police officer shot and killed in action. Then a few weeks ago another police officer was shot and killed. Our community was rocked to its core. We come from a relatively small city and violence like this is virtually unheard of. After the first incident a police friend of mine asked me to be cautious in my neighborhood because there were some people up in arms and he was concerned for us. (I live in a predominantly African American neighborhood.) I thought his concern came from the proximity of this incident to where I live.

After the second shooting I found out that I was wrong. You see, the two officers who were shot were white. The two shooters were black. What does this matter? I asked myself the same question. Even though the crimes had nothing to do with race, somehow it became a primary issue. Over the last few weeks I have found that there is a blog (The National Black Foot Soldiers for America) that was touting that our police deserved to be shot and that those black "brothas" were doing the work of the cause.

All of a sudden this article was getting passed around on Facebook and the Race debate took center stage. Some of my African American friends were very angry and had some really nasty comments made about how this incident reflected on them. One friend lamented the fact that the negative news always takes precedence to positive news and wanted to know why when a black man shoots someone it makes the whole race looks bad, but when a black man graduates college, no one talks about how it makes the black race look good.

Then another wonderful friend, Kelvin Jenkins, posted this on Facebook:

"Racism..... I hate it with a passion. We can either learn from our past or choose to be ignorant. The horrific murders of my dear friend Scott Richardson and the late Sandy Rodgers has brought out a lot of racist comments on both sides. Instead of coming together as a community some people have decided to divide us. Aiken please don't let these bastards win! One individual or a group of individuals do not represent a whole race of people. Out of respect for our HEROES let us remember their job was to protect all of us and it would be an insult to them to turn our backs on everything our police force represent. Much love to my fb family"

And with that, the concept for this blog was born. Here, I want for us as a Nation to tell the racists, the bigots, the haters that we are not all like this. I want us to celebrate our differences, shine a light on those of all ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, races, creeds and ideologies to show the great things we are doing as a Nation. I want to promote the positive. Here, the young man who is the first in his family to graduate from college will not be ignored because someone shot someone else. Here the union of two people who love one another will not be ignored because congress cannot decide what constitutes marriage. Here we will accept that the world is not black and white, but so many beautiful shades. Please, join our movement and our cause. Share your story of accomplishment. Be proud of your ethnic, religious or other background that you feel makes you unique. Tell us in your story what you have done, or others around you are doing, to make Your Nation proud!