Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month! Since I was a victim of domestic violence, I will be working on informing everyone of different events that are currently going on in order to help support this cause because it is so very important. First, is Mutual Ground, which is located in Aurora. They played a huge part in my life and have recently had their funding cut and can no longer provide a residential aspect of their program. On October 17th, they will be having a Walk for Hope. I would attend but I have school. Please consider walking with them or supporting a walker. Mutual Ground has done good for so many women. Please read this song and think about what women all over the world are going through. It's a pretty hard core song, but the anger and hate that we feel sometimes is so overwhelmingly full of rage that this is the exact type of music that would come out.

Bottled Up by Korn

It ain't fading

Man I got to let it out

Am I crazy?

Screaming nothing ever comes out

I keep feeling lost

Ill never find my way out

I'm not thanking them

Unless the truth can pour out

Give me some courage

Beating me down now for sometime

Are you laughing?

Am I funny?

I hate inside

I hate inside

I take this time

To let out whats inside

Cause I will break

Sometimes I wish you'd die

Full of sorrow

You raped and stole my pride

And all this hate is bottled up inside

My heart is breaking

Man you really ripped it out

You take pleasure watching as I claw my way out

The hurt rising

Soon its going to tear my soul out

Its not kosher feeling like I'm on my way out

Give me some courage

Beating me down for sometime

Are you laughing?

Am I funny?

I hate inside

I hate inside

Fortitude

Yesterday in my kid's CCD class, we talked about Fortitude and what it means to have fortitude. What a difficult concept for a child to understand. Standing up in the face of adversity. Not only standing up but standing up for things that you really believe in. I pray that this is exactly what I am teaching my kids. Being able to find passion in something (positive) and doing your part to support it.
How many of us walk down the street and see an injustice and step in. Probably not many. It takes a very strong person to be able to stop something that is happening. Perhaps, we have helped, scared off someone who was vandalizing or spoke to someone who was protesting something we didn't believe in. For that matter, how many of us have protested for something that we do believe. Fortunately, it is a rare circumstance to see something that will move you to action, especially in the suburbs.
There are so many people who would feel moved to action if they were walking down the street and saw a man beating his wife, or an adult hurting a child. At this point the mild mannered Clark Kent types would temporarily turn into Superman.
Why then when we see even more deplorable crimes happening on television via another country, we no nothing more than perhaps sigh heavily before changing the channel because it is too much to handle. I am guilty of the same thing.
I am sure that many of you feel it is wrong to abuse women, rape them, and steal their children only then to turn the children into prostitutes for some American businessman to have sex with. Why then do we see this on TV and in the newspaper and shake our heads thinking man I feel sorry for those other countries.
In America it is so easy to ignore what is happening but why should it be? Shouldn't the Government and media shove this stuff in faces on a daily basis until everyone is moved to action? The concept for fortitude does not end at the borders at the United States. If something is so vile and reprehensible here, why isn't the same there. Do we really think that changing the channel or closing the newspaper is going to make it go away?
It is time to be moved! It is time to at the very least support organizations and laws that are working to stop this.
I challenge everyone to research an organization, a law, or at the very least a current war in another country. Hint, hint there is currently one going on in Congo.

Thistle Farms

Anyone who has known me and spoken to me in depth about what I want to happen with my life, knows that I have plans! The closer and closer I get to getting out of college, the more that these plans and dreams are coming to the forefront. One thing that I would love to do, it open up a facility that assists women who are coming off of the streets after being prostitutes. At this facility, we would work on rehab, counseling, family reconciliation, job training, and working on a more positive, independent life.

There is an organization that I have known about for awhile, that is phenomenal. It is very similar to what I want to do. Magdalene is located in Tennessee, it is a two year residential facility. The women who are there work at their organization called Thistle Farms. Thistle Farms makes bath and body products and then all of the proceeds go back to help the women.

This is the easiest way to support one of these organizations, just buy a bottle of lotion or lip balm. It's good for you and a good cause.

www.thistlefarms.org

Not For Sale

October 8-9 there is going to be a global forum on human trafficking taking place in California. This is an event that needs everyones support. 27 million people are currently being trafficked as slaves all over the world and those are just the numbers that people are aware about. Since it is not a commonly discussed topic, the figures are probably staggeringly higher. Please check out the video at http://vimeo.com/4504085

Life's little sacrifices

Last week during class, a man came to speak to us about Stuff for the Poor, which collects used shoes to raise money for the poor in Africa. Right there during class, we all gave him our shoes as a sign that we support his organization. I was wearing my flip flops, which I love and would wear every day. Since then, every day I have woken up completely irritated that I cannot just throw on my flip flops and walk around the house. I now have to put on socks and shoes, choosing from the other 15 pairs of footwear that I have available. Yet day after day, I have felt unrest about not having my beloved flip flops. All because I chose to send my shoes to Africa to support people who are way less fortunate. It saddens me that the small amount of sacrifice that I have is to not have flip flops. Now mind you it is not the complete lack sock less foot apparel because I do have others, it's just casual flip flops that I am lacking.
I am living in a society where I am drive within 5 minutes any direction from my house and find not only several Walmarts and Targets but also an array of shoe stores. Also, I do currently have the funds to purchase myself additional footwear. The issue here is that I rather enjoy knowing that every morning I will not have these shoes. In fact, if I could give all of my shoes, I would. I will be giving away almost all of my shoes, leaving myself with 1 pair of gym shoes and 1 pair of dress shoes. I will not be replacing these shoes either! I want to constantly be upset by my lack of shoes.
May this serve as a constant reminder to me to continue to make even larger sacrifices, because I have lived my life in such a spoiled manner. People in the United States have an abundance of resources and yet several people even complain when it comes time to tithe 10% to God. How would they ever think to give the shirt off their back or the shoes off their feet? These small steps are igniting a life long trail for me.
Now what can the rest of you do to make your heart uneasy enough to make a change?

The Grey Man

The Grey Man is an organization that rescues children who are forced into child prostitution and sex slavery in Thailand. They are based out of Australia. This is a wonderful organization that does not want much publicity because they try to help these children as discretely as possible. The problem is that they need more resources. It cost money to help the children that they rescue. They are also working on educating families on the dangers of selling their children. I cannot do this organization justice trying to describe the wonders that they do. Please check them out at www.thegreyman.org So the constant question of today is, why are people in America so willing to overlook atrocities that are not only happening internationally but also right here in America? Look at www.childrenofthenight.org This is a real problem that is not going to change anytime soon.

Keeping Me Up At Night

For class, I am reading the book Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza and I watched the move Hotel Rwanda for the first time. It is very difficult to sleep at night knowing that this type of stuff happened and I had no idea. Also, that it is most likely happening right now in other countries and none of us know. How can a country wipe out almost an entire population and we know nothing about it. It is sad! After talking with several people, there are maybe a handful that actually knew about the genocide prior to the movie coming out. Why was this kept a secret? Why did the United States not get involved, they choose to involve themselves in the lives of every other country.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting a man name Providence, who survived the Rwandan genocide and is now in America, because he spoke out against the Government. He spoke with such passion about what happened in Rwanda and has been spending his time in America, working on how to help people who are still in Africa suffering. He runs an organization called Stuff for the Poor. They collect used shoes, bikes, and toys and raise money for the poor and orphaned in Africa. Please check out this organization.

We all need to become more aware so that a travisty like this does not happen again.

This is the beginning...

As I sit here and research all of the significant things that are wrong with this world, I pause and glance at the reality that is my life and wonder...what am I doing? That is the constant question! As with everything, there are millions of blogs out there but hopefully I can use this one to challenge everyone to step out of their own selfishness and look around. How may times do we sit around and whine about the most trivial matters in life, when there are people with major struggles. I will try not to be too preachy with this space but if you managed to meander onto this site, be aware that you will most likely be inundated with my own personal doctrine on how life is. Hopefully, people can find the things that I talk about educational and at times entertaining. For now, I will leave you with this to start...every year more than 200,000 women and children are taken from their homes in hopes of a better life and are being forced into prostitution.