We All Should Care

Accept the call for a deeper purpose.

This rant is brought to you by Damien, Spider’s 6 year old son. He is the most passionate, caring person that I know. Young and old alike.

Out of somewhere (he has a train of thought, I can’t say nowhere) he says to Spider and I quote:

“Everything is made in China, and although stuff made in China is cute,the way they treat kids and other people is NOT cute.”

Do you ever think to pick up a product and look at the label, to see where it’s made?

Do you even know how badly people and especially the children, who work in those “sweat shops” making a lot of these products that we frequently buy, are treated?

Have you ever even given a second thought to it?

Damien has.

So, look forward to more posts from him, “Rants By Damien” is the newest addition to We All Should Care,next time under his name.

His mom may have to help him type it, but the tangent will belong solely to him.

Damien, you ROCK.

In my search of morning gossip to go with my coffee, I stumbled upon something quite disturbing, yet amazing at the same time. Now, with everything that I’ve seen in my short 24-years on this planet, I am not easily shocked and although this didn’t shock me, per se, it sure as hell surprised me.

A Los Angeles based sperm bank, California Cryobank, has separated their sperm donors into celebrity look-a-likes. So now you can have the baby you always dreamed of having!

How superficial.

I am really on the fence on how I feel about this. Part of me says that it’s fabulous. That people day dream of having, say, Justin Timberlake’s, baby all the time so now, they can have a little bundle of joy with those signature curls, bone structure and of course, the baby blue eyes.

At the same time, should you really be so shallow about your babies looks? Especially if you’re going to a sperm bank to get impregnated (let it be known that I do not judge those who do, the thought has crossed my mind a time or two, actually.) shouldn’t you be happy to have a baby that is yours and healthy? No, that’s not enough… now the baby has to look like your favorite star too.

On the list of names, some are rather disturbing. Why you would want to have a baby that looks like Bob Saget or Tom Green is beyond me. Anton Yelchin is on the list, and here I didn’t think anyone knew who he was… apparently he’s famous enough for you to have a baby that looks just like him! How adorable!

Names that I was surprised to see on the list? DJ AM and Heath Ledger. No matter how adorable those babies would be, I think that’s a little tactless.

What do you think about this service? Would you do it or recommend it to a friend?

[[image courtesy of google.com/images and yes, that's really Justin Timberlake as a baby. Too cute, right?]]

I do not understand how a speech aimed at students encouraging them to stay in school and reminding them of the importance of an education can be construed as an attempt to brainwash them or glorify President Obama. It is not as though they do not hear this countless times throughout their lives and I doubt they will listen any more to the president (no offense) than they do to their parents and teachers that cram it down their throats on a regular basis. Furthermore, Reagan gave a commencement speech and Bush, Sr. an anti-drug speech both targeted at students that was televised in classrooms across the country. Viewing President Obama’s speech is NOT required and many schools are not equipped to view the broadcast (WOW, the lack of funding for schools SHOULD be the controversy). Besides, how many times while you were in school did educators attempt to force you to watch an inaugural, state of the union, or other speech given by a president and you spend that time napping or writing letters (I am not delusional enough to hope you were interested or used to the time to work on homework)?

Jim Greer, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida states:

“The address scheduled for September 8, 2009, does not allow for healthy debate on the President’s agenda, but rather obligates the youngest children in our public school system to agree with our President’s initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates.”

My question to him is, “How is that any different than anything taught in public schools. In most schools, there is no room for discussion or questioning and students are taught to blindly follow and accept, but I digress… Why aren’t our educators (or any of the people bitching about this) intelligent enough to think of having the students discuss the speech afterwards and write letters to the president voicing their opinions on his speech? The SAMPLE lesson plans are SUGGESTIONS nothing more. If you do not like the way something is worded, stop bitching and moaning and write your own lesson plan.

Why Bush Sr.’s and Reagan’s speeches were not tinder for controversy (Although, in all probability, there should have been but my rants and opinions of them and the injudicious war on drugs are best saved for another post.) some speculate is as simple as their being conservative, republicans, and white.

Read the article.

Recently I was surfing the internet, chatting a bit, checking email and browsing various forums that I infrequently frequent and I happened upon a thread someone had started which points to an article,which can be found here , concerning a U.N. report which advocated mandatory sexual education which, among other things, would teach children as young as five about masturbation.

I felt the need to reply to said thread and for the sake of ease, I shall now dazzle you with my copy/paste skills!

“i guess in one way i could see this as a way to help children not feel ashamed of their bodies or their naturally occurring processes. after all, in the not so distant past, generations of people were raised to feel shame for their bodies, as sex was considered “sin-a-liscious”. i think that was part of its charm for me as a youth and early teen. it all seemed so…dirty…and that was what drew my thoughts toward it. geez i probably sound like a total pervert but i’m really not. lol

also it makes sense in another way that children are, now more than ever, within easy reach of adult materials and information. i’m quite sure the age that children are able to view and understand sexual acts has dramatically decreased over the past few decades and i think because of this, something has to be done on this level to sort of take some of the dirty out of sex. after all, once something isn’t taboo it sort of loses its luster. i think that’s human nature.

then maybe we and our schools can progress toward teaching our children more worthwhile things, like advanced mathematics and sciences in addition to arts and culture so that possibly future generations will do something more with its modern technology than look up pron and get caught up in this web of illusion that we call “modern life”.

on the other hand(which may be a poor time to use any phrase involving the word “hand” during a discussion about masturbation),i think its something that should be up to the child and their parents to decide when the time is right to learn.

from my own personal experience, i wouldn’t have been ready to learn about something like that at such a young age. don’t get me wrong, i loved looking at beautiful women, as my mother can attest to. i used to go get her lingere catalogs as a child and just look through them and stare at all the pretty girls. btw, no you cannot look up the skirt of a 2 dimensional image, (as my early “scientific” endeavors failed to yield any form of success) but even at the darkest of my childhood days, it wasn’t a sexual feeling as much as it was the idea that i was doing something i wasn’t supposed to do. i had to grow and mature and it was a gradual, natural process into adulthood and all the crap and drama that goes with it.

i’ve admitted too much and actually said very little so i suppose now i shall seep back into the shadows.”

I put that in italics for dramatic effect. It really jumps off the page, eh?

Anyway, that pretty much sums up how I feel about it. There are plenty of good reasons for teaching subjects such as this to children so young but I know no matter what, it is a very delicate subject and should be handled properly.  In a way, I sort of feel like this takes away from the child, as if it is stealing a part of their innocence and yet again, I am reminded that maybe it’s just how I was raised that causes me to feel this way.

When I was asked to write for this self-proclaimed “soap box” site, I wondered if I would be able to keep up and be up to par with Willow Raine, one of the best writers I have ever had the honor of knowing personally. I wondered if I would be able to even come up with topics. Willow is a plethora of topics to “soap box” about. I thought that I would mostly complain about tap water, glitter on strippers, the music industry… but today a topic I love to “soap box” about struck me.

It’s not so much that I “love” to “soap box” about this topic, it’s just that it’s very important to me.

My entire life I sat back and watched people get hurt and I didn’t do a damn thing about it. I would be ashamed to admit that now if I didn’t do everything in my power to right the wronged ways of my past. When I was a child I watched as my friends told me of their abusive parents and I felt trapped and unable to help them. I watched as my best friends brother was cruel to an animal…

Now? Now I do not stand for that. Now I will not allow it.

I have child protective services and animal shelters on my speed dial and if someone so much as raises a hand at a child or animal I am already dialing. Admittedly, I am more trigger happy with animal shelters and abuse towards dogs than I am with children. It’s mostly because animals don’t have a voice of their own, and if I don’t speak up for the, let’s say, dog, then who will? No one. People will watch a dog get smacked around by it’s owner and not think anything of it. Think, “it’s their dog, they can do with it what they want to.” Except that they CAN’T. Animals have rights, needs and feelings too.

My Grandmother tried to tell me that dogs don’t have a soul. So doesn’t that mean that when my 3-year-old teacup Chihuahua, Bella, dies that she’ll not go onto a better life? Tell me how in the world I could think that of her when she cries because I travel, she gets excited and loves me when I come home and she was the one who sat there worrying about me, trying to lick away my tears when DJ AM passed away? Does that sound like something with no soul?

I fight for animal rights and I call animal shelters and protective services because of Bella. Because I am lucky that I got her and she’s lucky that she got me. She could have gone to a home where she wouldn’t be fawned over and completely pampered, she could have gone to a bad home. To a home that wouldn’t love her and worship her tiny little paws.

Now children? They have no choice over the home that they go to.

I have a very low tolerance for child abuse. It makes me absolutely sick. Twice I have called child protective services and twice children have been removed from abusive homes because of it. I feel both proud and guilty for that statement.

Making a call to DCFS is easy but it’s painful. You know that neither the child, nor the parents life will ever be the same again. Animals are easier; they get removed and they go to a [no kill] shelter where someone new adopts them and they have a happy life. Children get removed and put into foster homes, therapy… Parents can get arrested. Lives can be torn apart.

But what is worse? Knowing that you did everything in your power and someday that kid will grow up and think, “wow, someone actually cared enough about me to take me away from that.” Or sitting there and doing nothing, knowing that someone – a CHILD – is being abused?

I think that if you sit there and do nothing to help the child then you are just as bad as the one doing the abusing. You aren’t doing anything to stop it, you know it’s going on… it’s wrong. You have the power to do something and you don’t? Why? You’re a coward? You’re scared of what will happen to the family? But what happens to that child if you don’t? Mommy comes home from work extra mad and hits her baby extra hard and then what? Then you feel guilty for the rest of your life knowing that you could have done something to help… but you didn’t.

Do something. Help.

Call this number if you know of a child being abused: 1-800-4-A-CHILD
Domestic violence hotline: 1−800−799−SAFE
And check out http://www.pet-abuse.com/ to see how you can help stop cruelty towards animals.

[[photo copyright property of Jen Platz]]

There are many reasons why I should write this post, and I know there are going to be an equal amount of people who agree and disagree with all that I’m about to say. In a basic statement: Children should not be objectified and put into beauty pageants so young.

I don’t have an issue with Miss America, Miss Universe and not even so much an issue with Miss Teen USA. All of the ladies that enter those contests are more than able to make up their mind and do as they choose, however, these children that are 3 and 4 years old that are getting shoved into beauty pageants do not have a say.

There are many shows on television devoted to following around pageant moms and their “trophy babies” during competition. Some of the children complain and cry about doing these events and some of them, I feel, have been so brainwashed by their parents that they actually believe at 4 years old that this is what they want to do. I am willing to bet that if you gave these young women the opportunity to play with a brand new Barbie doll or to get fitted for a new dress, they would choose the doll. The parents of these children are taking away their childhood.

These children enter several competitions a year and when you’re busy coming up with new baton routines for your showcase, when is there time to draw, play with sidewalk chalk, do cartwheels with your friends or learn to play with your imagination? There isn’t. So these children rush through their childhood. Not to mention, all the while they’re rushing they’re learning that in the world beauty is on the outside and that they will forever be judged by their looks. What an awful thing to imprint on a child at such an impressionable age. They are preparing them for an unrealistic world where everyone is beautiful and if you’re not? You lose.

Objectifying these small children and making them look far too adult for their innocent age. Caking on makeup on their delicate skin. Screaming at them to get them to stand still and smile. Stealing their childhood from them just so they can have a few trophies and crowns and grow up to be an anorexic teenager with self esteem issues… that’s not what we should teach our children. That’s not the kind of goals we should have for our daughters. Of course we want them to be beautiful, but we want them to know that beauty comes within, that everyone has something beautiful about them. We want them to be intelligent and creative. We should want them to have their own dreams and goals they want to achieve.

I leave you with a quote from Gia, a 1980’s supermodel. “I ain’t good at this. And even if you are good at this, what exactly are you good at?”

[[image courtesy of google.com/images]]

We all know Jackson Rathbone from his role as Jasper Hale in the pop culture phenomenon TWILIGHT, or his roles on The Cleaner and Criminal Minds. Possibly you’re even aware that he is also an amazing musician and is in a band, 100 Monkeys,but are you aware of the softness of his heart? Since I decided to do this “post a day for celebrity charity” I have come to know our celebs on a more personal level. As I write this, I have realized that I no longer have a girlie crush on Jackson, no, I am in complete awe and admiration with him. When skimming pictures to post of him for my last Jackson Rathbone post, I happened upon a picture that was of course gorgeous, and captivating, no doubt. What I noticed other than that, was the blue puzzle piece on his lapel. I am very familiar with the charity that it represents AUTISM SPEAKS. I am raising my god daughter (who is mildly autistic), and helping to raise my god son (who is severely autistic,and living with his grandparents), so anyone that is involved with this cause, has my utmost respect. I started searching, and what I found surprised me, he wasn’t bragging about any of his charity work, with this cause or any other. But he did attend the Autism Speaks 6th Annual Acts of Love event. The only thing I can even find on it, is his picture, which tells me, when he gives, he doesn’t just give out of pocket, but from the heart.
That is what brought tears to my eyes. Jackson has also been linked to supporting another cause that touches the deepest place in my heart CUPCAKES FOR CANCER which was started by a brave cancer survivor, 13 year old, Blakely Colvin . After having lost so many family members TO this disease, and seeing how many lives it affects first hand, it is so beautiful to see even the youngest survivors and supporters working to do their part to help find a cure.
Jackson Rathbone has been added to my list of my real life’s quiet heroes.

[Image by Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos]

[[This article of mine was originally posted at TEN GOSSIP]]