Quiver Full of Good in the World

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[fraurosena 56,375]

Please take the time to read this thread. You won’t regret it.

 

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This thread made me happy. 

 

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Bringing people closer together can be so easy.

 

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo? 32,575]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Bringing people closer together can be so easy.

 

Just don't give Jill Rodrigues any ideas!  (Isn't it fortunate that the Rods can't afford to fly? )

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I know this is an ad, and more cynical minds would say they're only in it for the money. But.
They are getting a message out there. And if that changes minds, changes attitudes, then that's a the best a company can be.

 

[Audrey2 21,378]

1 hour ago, fraurosena said:

I know this is an ad, and more cynical minds would say they're only in it for the money. But.
They are getting a message out there. And if that changes minds, changes attitudes, then that's a the best a company can be.

 

It looks like there is finally a thought-provoking commercial geared toward men, as the Like a Girl campaign by Always was a few years ago for women. Sure, both are selling product, but the message given by both of these ads transcends any products that they are trying to sell. I will admit it- my eyes got a little damp.

[CTRLZero 10,073]

I went to the musical "On Your Feet!  The Story of Emilio & Gloria Estefan" last night.  The musical follows the Estefans' ties to the Cuban community after fleeing to Miami, etc. 

It opened with the sponsor, the Tennessee Latino Chamber of Commerce*, making a short introduction in Spanish and English.  As backstory, there were campaign ads and rallies in Tennessee chanting "Build the wall" and commercials showing Mexico spewing a firehose of illegal immigrants (all criminals, natch) directly towards Nashville.  So, I wasn't sure how the audience would react, but there was polite applause, etc., and the musical begins.

Anyway, there was one powerful scene where Emilio is being hindered because he is told by record producers that he is too Cuban/Latino for the American markets and too American for the Latino markets.  He goes off in typical Emilio fashion and ends up, "this is the face of an American!"  Almost a standing ovation.  I was so proud of my fellow theatergoers!

These are strange times we live in, but this gave me a boost in spirits.  Good musical, too.

*Hope I got that name right, but similar.

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This made me smile. What a wonderful dad.

 

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This got me. A veteran who served in Afghanistan and lost his legs helped General Colin Powell change his tire.

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/hope-never-forget-today-veteran-lost-leg-afghanistan-helps-colin-powell-change-flat-tire-223417323.html

Spoiler

The retired four-star general of the United States Army was on his way to an appointment at the Walter Reed military hospital for an exam when the front left tire of his vehicle blew out. Powell, a “car guy,” knew how to change the tire and immediately set to work. However, due to the cold, the lug bolts were extremely tight.

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YahooLIFESTYLE

Halle Berry reveals her 'ageless' beauty secret

'I hope I never forget today': Veteran who lost leg in Afghanistan helps Colin Powell change his flat tire

Hope Schreiber

Yahoo LifestyleJanuary 24, 2019, 2:34 PM PST

Retired Gen. Colin Powell shared a heartwarming story about a veteran, who lost a leg in Afghanistan, helping him change his flat tire. (Photo: Facebook)

More

Colin Powell took to Facebook on Thursday to share a heartwarming story that involved a veteran and a flat tire.

The retired four-star general of the United States Army was on his way to an appointment at the Walter Reed military hospital for an exam when the front left tire of his vehicle blew out. Powell, a “car guy,” knew how to change the tire and immediately set to work. However, due to the cold, the lug bolts were extremely tight.

Powell jacked up his car and was working on the stubborn bolts when he realized that a car had pulled over in front of his car, and the man inside was hopeful he could help.

“As the man got out of his car, I could see that he had an artificial leg,” Powell wrote. “He said he recognized me and wanted to help me.”

Powell, 81, learned that the man, a veteran, lost his leg in Afghanistan where he worked as a civilian employee. “He grabbed the lug wrench and finished the job as I put the tools away,” Powell wrote. “Then we both hurriedly headed off to appointments at Walter Reed.” Although Powell didn’t get the man’s name or address to thank him personally, the two did take a selfie together.

 

[LeftCoastLurker 1,431]

Just found this thread. Used up several tissues watching and reading.

Thank you to everyone who have posted these instances of what is beautiful about humanity.

[CTRLZero 10,073]

I've been learning to paint over the last couple of years, which mostly consists of mixing colors and painting odd cubist sorts of sci-fi landscapes.  It tickled me to read the story of this woman who painted an egret, had a photo taken of her holding the painting, which then went viral.  The basic story:  an artist painted the woman holding her egret  painting.  Another artist painted the artist who painted the woman holding the egret picture.  The next artist painted the artist who painted the artist who painted the woman holding the egret picture.  And so on.  Heartwarming and fun story.  (WaPo article linked below.)

Paint a picture and pass it on.

 

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By Rick Wilson

If you’re still working for Trump, his stink won’t ever wash off

A juicy tell-all can’t absolve you now, ex-Trumpers. You’ll be remembered as enablers.

Spoiler

 

Rick Wilson is a Republican political consultant, a Daily Beast columnist and the author of "Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever."

February 1 at 12:16 PM

Twenty months ago — four months into President Trump’s tenure — I tried my best to warn members of his team that even at that early stage, if you worked for Trump, it was time to quit. Whatever initial enthusiasm you had for the man, whatever your ambitions, however indispensable you thought you were in the attempt to smooth his rough edges, the smart move was to get out.

“Do it now,” I wrote, to preserve your professional reputation or a semblance of dignity.

But if, at this stage, you’re like former White House aide Cliff Sims, recently out with a book about Trump’s discombobulated “Team of Vipers” — but still telling interviewers how “proud” you were to work for him — you’re too late.

If you’re former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R), currently on the talk-show circuit, regaling us with tales of Trump’s hubris — mere weeks after interviewing for the White House chief of staff job — you’re too late. If you’re former congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), and you just accepted the job of acting White House chief of staff — your third Trump administration gig — the word “acting” in your title is an insufficient fig leaf. You’re definitely acting, just not in the way you think.

If you’re former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R), flailing as you leverage your past credibility to mount Trump’s legal defense, you’re not just too late, you’re pathetic. If you’re national security adviser John Bolton, at this point you’re a prop. If you seek redemption some day, after leaving the administration, I hope you have a verifiable story to tell about persuading Trump to stand down from an ill-advised missile strike.

There was a window of time during which giving Trump a chance was justifiable out of a sense of duty to country. You might have been vindicated for doing so if Trump had surprised us all and made good on his boast that, “with the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office.” But that window closed. You had ample opportunity to see, up close, the capriciousness, vainglory and allergic reaction to facts that the rest of us saw from afar. If you’re just now disavowing Trump, or explaining away your support for him, don’t bother. You own it. Leaving 2016 to 2019 blank on your LinkedIn page won’t save you from disgrace.

Sure, you might get a book deal. And you’ll probably find private sector employment — K Street is still a cozy hideout for plenty of Washington rejects. But history will remember you as an enabler, not a truth-teller. If you were still employed by the president or tap dancing on his behalf at any time in recent months, his stink is on you, and it won’t wash off.

[If you work for Trump, it's time to quit]

There are exceptions, of course: The civil servants who staffed government departments before Trump’s time in office, and who will remain after he leaves, certainly deserve no blame. Economic adviser Gary Cohn left the White House after fighting a losing, but noble, battle to rein in the White House’s delusional trade-war faction. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis performed a public service by writing a resignation letter that cut ties with Trump in the clearest possible terms: “You have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours” is Cabinet-speak for take this job and shove it.

At best, though, most of the rest are Omarosas, passing off the obvious as insight: When Omarosa Manigault Newman left the White House staff, we didn’t need her to tell us that Trump spouts race-baiting drivel. He’s done it out in the open for years.

At worst, they are like Sims: He served in the administration for well over a year, then found a way to distance himself just enough to sell a juicy tell-all, but he still can’t come clean about the president’s foulest tendencies. When the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner pressed Sims to assess Trump’s both-sides-ism in the wake of torch-lit Charlottesville chants of “Jews will not replace us,” Sims hedged: “I would love to see the president use his bully pulpit for that more effectively.” When asked to explain the genesis of Trump’s birtherism, all Sims had to say was: “I have no idea.”

In the words of Ed Lover: C’mon, son. Lack of self-awareness is a terrible quality, even for a toady.

From this point on, any freshly departed Trump staffer’s public postmortem will only help fill in the blanks. It will add nothing to the by-now-plain-as-day big picture: Trump is the worst president ever. Only a suck-up won’t admit it.

[Trump could’ve ruined Bush’s funeral. Bush didn’t let him.]

If you’re the next press secretary, policy adviser or White House counsel contemplating a melodramatic, self-absolving throwing-in of your Trump-caddying towel, don’t expect hosannas from the public in return for your pseudo-courage. You might hope Trump’s stench will fade, but I’ll still smell it. If there’s any justice left, everybody else will, too. Like a bad ‘80s haircut, your political cowardice will be forever preserved on the Interwebs. Your 15 minutes of shame won’t rehabilitate you, because selling out your Trump-world cronies can’t erase your original sin: selling out your country.

So peddle your fictional nonfiction. Write your anonymous op-eds. It won’t matter. For a year, or two, or more, you stood athwart history yelling: “Thank you, sir! May I have another?” You served a man bent on division and distraction. You helped him make America grate again. Even after he leaves office, you won’t be able to live it down.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/01/if-youre-still-working-trump-his-stink-wont-ever-wash-off/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ad6eed20c491

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Oh man. This one had me bawling. What a courageous and loving human being!

 

[fraurosena 56,375]

With a little help from your fr— ... total strangers!

 

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[Audrey2 21,378]

This article made my eyes leak. My Grandfather was a WW2 vet. I love the way the community came together, to honor this man who had no family left.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/hundreds-attend-funeral-wwii-veteran-no-surviving-family-212509668--abc-news-topstories.html

Quote

Scores of strangers came out for the funeral of James McCue, a 97-year-old World War II veteran with no surviving family members, in Lawrence, Massachusetts on Thursday.

"James has no surviving family to witness the Military Funeral Honors," Massachusetts Secretary of Veterans’ Service Francisco Urena said in a tweet on Monday. "Community members are asked to attend his services."

The community seemed to have heard Urena's call. Hundreds, including several veterans' organizations, attended McCue's funeral, with many people bringing flowers and balloons, ABC affiliate WCVB reported.

 

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Nothing to do with politics and division etc, just wanted to share because it made me laugh.

 

[GreyhoundFan 139,790]

"A bookstore owner was in the hospital. So his competitors came and kept his shop open."

Spoiler

Hearing that your husband needs immediate open-heart surgery is terrifying, especially when he’s been healthy his whole life.

When Jennifer Powell heard the sudden news about her husband, Seth Marko, 43, she spun into action. First, she found care for their 3-year-old daughter, Josephine, so she could be at the hospital for her husband’s 10-hour surgery.

Then Powell’s mind went to their “second kid” — the Book Catapult — the small independent bookstore the couple owns and runs in San Diego. Their only employee had the swine flu and would be out for at least a week.

Powell, 40, closed the store to be with her husband in the hospital. She didn’t know for how long.

Her close friend Scott Ehrig-Burgess and his wife were watching Josephine. But Ehrig-Burress, who works at another bookstore in town, wanted to help more.

“We were all sort of overwhelmed and in shock,” Ehrig-Burgess said.

He thought maybe he could help with the Book Catapult. He had worked there a few times when his friends first opened the store, in late 2017. He still had the keys, he knew how to work the register. He could try to keep it afloat.

“I thought, ‘I’ll pretend this is my store for the week,’ ” Ehrig-Burgess said.

He started calling mutual friends in the book-selling community to tell them that Marko was in surgery.

“People were like, ‘What can I do to help? Do you need somebody to be in the store?’ ” Ehrig-Burgess recalled. “I called four booksellers and had four volunteers.”

Within a day of Marko’s Jan. 27 surgery, Ehrig-Burgess had eight volunteers to help him keep the store open. They all worked at competing bookstores in the San Diego area and were willing to juggle their schedules or work during their free time to pitch in. One couple came down from Los Angeles.

“Once I started to tell our book-selling friends what was going on, I had an entire roster,” Ehrig-Burgess said.

Each morning, he would go to the bookstore he manages, the Library Shop. Then at noon, he’d race across town to the Book Catapult to open it and give instructions to the volunteer. Then he’d head back to work.

“I’d train them how to use the point of sale, wait a few minutes to be sure nothing caught on fire, then leave,” he said. “I’d call every hour to be sure everything was okay.”

Then he’d return at 6 p.m. to close up.

“The customers didn’t even know,” Ehrig-Burgess said.

Marko’s surgery was a success. Ehrig-Burgess went to visit his friend in the intensive care unit and told him the Book Catapult was open.

Marko said he was overwhelmed.

“I probably cried a little bit,” he said. “The bookstore is like having a kid. You put so much into it.”

After about a week, the Book Catapult’s full-time employee, Vanessa Diaz, recovered from the swine flu and came back. Powell and Marko’s parents flew in to help out.

Marko was in the hospital for 11 days and is now home recuperating. He fatigues easily and is unable to lift more than a few pounds, so the friend-volunteers are still around when needed. Marko plans to return to his second job, as a sales representative for a book publisher, in April.

“We’re slowly pivoting toward putting it back on them,” said Ehrig-Burgess, who also started a GoFundMe for Powell and Marko. “They’re doing 80 percent now.”

Julie Slavinsky, 57, who works at the independent bookstore Warwick’s, is one of the volunteers who helped out. Slavinsky said when Ehrig-Burgess called to let her know about Marko’s heart, she offered to volunteer at the Book Catapult that Saturday. She and Marko used to work together at Warwick’s.

“People don’t like to ask for help. You have to say, ‘Hey, I have a few hours, do you need me?’ ” Slavinsky said.

While she was volunteering at the store, she rang up some customers and suggested titles to others. When a rainstorm caused water to leak through a window, she moved book displays around. Then she came back the following week to run an event, a reading from an author.

Slavinsky said although the Book Catapult is, strictly speaking, a competitor to her employer, she doesn’t see things that way.

“The book world is a little bit different,” she said. “I see this as helping somebody in the community. It’s the community coming together.”

Powell said she can’t offer enough thanks to all those who have helped her and her husband.

“Seth is the guy who is always the reliable one,” she said. “It’s bouncing back to him when he most needs it. It’s nice to see that happen.”

Powell also said the past few weeks have been an affirmation that she and her husband “did the right thing.”

“Maybe opening a bookstore wasn’t as crazy as we thought,” she said.

 

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