McNaughton Painting…
This painting, titled “National Emergency”, says it all!
The Smell of Rain
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery. Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver couple’s new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s soft words dropped like bombs.
“I don’t think she’s going to make it,” he said, as kindly as he could.
“There’s only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one”
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived.
She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.
“No! No!” was all Diana could say.
She and David, with their 5- year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away. But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Dana’s underdeveloped nervous system was essentially ‘raw’, the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn’t even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love.
All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl. There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger.
But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Dana turned two months old. her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time.
And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother’s lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin’s baseball team was practicing. As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, “Do you smell that?”
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.”
Dana closed her eyes and again asked, “Do you smell that?”
Once again, her mother replied, “Yes, I think we’re about to get wet. It smells like rain.”
Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, “No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.”
Tears blurred Diana’s eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
“I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13
TRUE as stated by snopes.com
Photo of the Year!
It was considered the best photo of this century. A lioness and her cub were crossing the Savannah but the heat was excessive and the cub was in great difficulty walking.
An elephant realized that the cub would die and carried him in his trunk to a pool of water walking beside his mother.
And we call them wild animals.
It’s a great lesson for mankind who are fighting and dying for no reason and who seem to get meaner all the time.
Our Grandparents’ Immigration Values
To the
editors of a California newspaper in response to an article written by Ernie
Lujan who suggests we should tear down the Statue of Liberty because the
immigrants of today aren’t being treated the same as those who passed through
Ellis Island and other ports of entry. The paper never printed this response,
so her husband sent it out via internet.
Maybe we should turn to our history
books and point out to people like Mr. Lujan why today’s American is not
willing to accept this new kind of immigrant any longer. Back in 1900 when
there was a rush from all areas of Europe to come to the United States, people
had to get off a ship and stand in a long line in New York and be documented.
Some would even get down on their hands
and knees and kiss the ground. They made a pledge to uphold the laws and
support their new country in good and bad times. They made learning English a
primary rule in their new American households and some even changed their names
to blend in with their new home.
They had waved goodbye to their birth
place to give their children a new life and did everything in their power to
help their children assimilate into one culture. Nothing was handed to them. No
free lunches, no welfare, no labor laws to protect them. All they had were the
skills and craftsmanship they had brought with them to trade for a future of
prosperity.
Most of their children came of
age when World War II broke out. My father fought alongside men whose parents
had come straight over from Germany, Italy, France and Japan. None of these 1st generation Americans ever
gave any thought about what country their parents had come from. They were
Americans fighting Hitler, Mussolini and the Emperor of Japan. They were
defending the United States of America as one people.
When we liberated France,
no one in those villages were looking for the French American, the German
American or the Irish American. The people of France saw only Americans. And we
carried one flag that represented one country. Not one of those immigrant sons
would have thought about picking up another country’s flag and waving it to
represent who they were. It would have been a disgrace to their parents who had
sacrificed so much to be here. These immigrants truly knew what it meant to be
an American. They stirred the melting pot into one red, white and blue bowl.
And here we are with a new kind of
immigrant who wants the same rights and privileges. Only they want to achieve
it by playing with a different set of rules; one that includes the entitlement
card and a guarantee of being faithful to their mother country.
I’m sorry, that’s not what being an
American is all about. I believe that the immigrants who landed on Ellis Island
in the early 1900’s deserve better than that for all the toil, hard work and
sacrifice in raising future generations to create a land that has become a
beacon for those legally searching
for a better life. I think they would be appalled that they are being used as
an example by those waving foreign country flags.
And for that suggestion about taking
down the Statue of Liberty, it happens to mean a lot to the citizens who are
voting on the immigration bill. I wouldn’t start talking about dismantling
the United States just yet.
By
Rosemary LaBonte
ID’s Required to Vote in Mexico…So Why Not Here?
Those voting cards are government-issued photo IDs, credentials that citizens are required to produce at polling stations in order to vote in federal elections in Mexico.
The United States has no equivalent national voter requirements or voter ID card. However, some states require voters to produce photo IDs in order to vote, while others don’t. Don’t believe us? Ask Snopes.
Prayer
Always pray to have Eyes that see the best in people,
A Heart that forgive the worst,
A Mind that forgets the bad,
And a Soul that never loses faith in God!!
Latest Tappan Zee Developments – Monroe Mann
JAN 5, 2018 — Happy New Year all!
Here’s the latest:
-bank account open and financials handled
-IRS paperwork (over 40 pages) nearly complete and ready to send off to IRS for tax exemption
-I just had another interview with the media, this time the Middletown Times Union
-I’ve created an online community for the group. You can join for free at www.SaveOurTappanZee.org
-the website is nearly finished
-we’ve begun designing advertising and promotional materials which we will be offering for sale in a couple of weeks
-we’ve started a new fundraiser on Change.org and have raised $125 from 6 other supporters
-and the list goes on
If you can help us get to $9,000, it would help. The board and I are working hard to get everything officially launched and in the media’s eye by the end of January.
Please continue spreading the word.
Dr. Monroe Mann, PhD, Esq, MBA
Executive Director
Save Our Tappan Zee, Inc.
www.SaveOurTappanZee.org
Save Our Tapan Zee Update
Reposted from www.SaveOurTappanZee.org
Jan 5, 2018 — Happy New Year all!
Here’s the latest:
-bank account open and financials handled
-IRS paperwork (over 40 pages) nearly complete and ready to send off to IRS for tax exemption
-I just had another interview with the media, this time the Middletown Times Union
-I’ve created an online community for the group. You can join for free at www.SaveOurTappanZee.org
-the website is nearly finished
-we’ve begun designing advertising and promotional materials which we will be offering for sale in a couple of weeks
-we’ve started a new fundraiser on Change.org and have raised $125 from 6 other supporters
-and the list goes on
If you can help us get to $9,000, it would help. The board and I are working hard to get everything officially launched and in the media’s eye by the end of January.
Please continue spreading the word.
Dr. Monroe Mann, PhD, Esq, MBA
Executive Director
Save Our Tappan Zee, Inc.
Democrats and Republicans (Different Only In Name)
We read all the jokes and forward the good ones
but I just wonder who will pass this one on.
How about you sending it on, and back to me,
if you have enough ‘chutzpah’ to do so.
I do.
And I wonder just how many I will get back?
Someone please tell me what the HELL’s wrong with
All the people that run this country!!!!!!
Both Democrats and Republicans
Say,
“We’re broke”
And can’t help our own
Seniors,
Veterans,
Orphans,
Homeless,
Etc.,?????
But, over the last several years THEY
have provided direct cash aid to….
Hamas – $351 M,
Libya $1.45 B,
Egypt – $397 M,
Mexico – $622 M,
Russia – $380 M,
Haiti – $1.4 B,
Jordan – $463 M,
Kenya – $816 M,
Sudan – $870 M,
Nigeria – $456 M,
Uganda – $451 M,
Congo – $359 M,
Ethiopia – $981 M,
Pakistan – $2 B,
South Africa – $566 M,
Senegal – $698 M,
Mozambique – $404 M,
Zambia – $331 M,
Kazakhstan – $304 M,
Iraq – $1.08 B,
Tanzania – $554 M,
…with literally Billions of Dollars
and they still hate us!!!!
But on the other hand,
Our retired seniors,
Living on a ‘fixed income,’
Receive NO aid!
Nor do they get any breaks, while our government
And religious organizations will pour
Hundreds of Billions Of $$$$$$’s
and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!
Someone needs to explain to them that
Charity begins AT HOME!!!
And another atrocity….
We have Hundreds of adoptable
American Children who are shoved aside
To make room for
The adoption of
Foreign orphans.
AMERICA: A country where we have
Countless Homeless without shelter,
Children going to bed hungry,
Elderly going without needed medication
and the Mentally ill without treatment — etc.
YET……….
They will have a ‘Benefit’ Show
For the people of Haiti, on 12 TV Stations;
Ships and planes lining up with food, water, tents
clothes, bedding, doctors and medical supplies.
Now Just Imagine if
Our own *GOVERNMENT*
Gave ‘US’ the same support they give to foreign countries.
Sad, isn’t it?