Plant a Fruit Orchard - Vote for Manderson, South Dakota

For the past two weeks I have been voting daily for a cause that is dear to my heart and near my hometown. It is a nationwide contest for a deserving community to win a fruit orchard. A non-profit organization on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, "Sustainable Homestead Designs," has entered and needs all the votes they can get. They are up against much larger communities and have been holding their own at 4th place, which is a remarkable feat for such a small community as Manderson, SD. Chicago is in first place, with Colorado and Minnesota communities in 2nd and 3rd. Sustainable Homestead Designs is working diligently to acquire votes and have even put up a new website to help those with the voting process. I commend all who have been working on this project. You can go to their website at http://www.naturalhomes.org/ or you can go directly to the contest website at http://www.communitiestakeroot.com

Click on Vote Now, List By State, Scroll down to SD, Manderson, Plant My Vote. It will ask you to register the first time, but once you do, it takes less than a minute to vote each day. Round 1 voting is until May 31st and the finalists will go into Round 2 voting beginning June 1st. Help bring fresh fruit to the Rez! Your vote is an easy way to keep on giving year after year. Thank you!

NOTE: I am building a writing website and will be integrating my blog. I decided to do a cohesive look for both so I have changed my banner for my blog to resemble my website. My blog content will remain the same...tidbits from around the world and unsolicited opinions from yours truly.

Sexualization of Young Girls

I have never done this before in my blog, but I am reposting verbatim an article written by LZ Granderson. It is too good to pass up and he wrote it so well that nothing more needs to be said (and his writing voice is similar to my own). I am in complete agreement with Granderson's opinion. I am categorizing this post under Profound because that is how strongly I feel about the "shame on you" in this. And, by "you", I mean all who are involved in the blatant sexualization of prepubescent girls - designers, fashion buyers, retailers, and parents. If you have children or grandchildren under the age of thirteen, Puleeeeze read it! - Tracy

Editor's note: LZ Granderson writes a weekly column for CNN.com. A senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com, he has contributed to ESPN's "Sports Center," "Outside the Lines" and "First Take." He is a 2011 and 2010 nominee and the 2009 winner of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for online journalism and a 2010 and 2008 honoree of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for column writing.

Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- I saw someone at the airport the other day who really caught my eye.

Her beautiful, long blond hair was braided back a la Bo Derek in the movie "10" (or for the younger set, Christina Aguilera during her "Xtina" phase). Her lips were pink and shiny from the gloss, and her earrings dangled playfully from her lobes.

You can tell she had been vacationing somewhere warm, because you could see her deep tan around her midriff thanks to the halter top and the tight sweatpants that rested just a little low on her waist. The icing on the cake? The word "Juicy" was written on her backside.

Yeah, that 8-year-old girl was something to see all right. ... I hope her parents are proud. Their daughter was the sexiest girl in the terminal, and she's not even in middle school yet.

Abercrombie & Fitch came under fire this spring for introducing the "Ashley," a push-up bra for girls who normally are too young to have anything to push up. Originally it was marketed for girls as young as 7, but after public outcry, it raised its intended audience to the wise old age of 12. I wonder how do people initiate a conversation in the office about the undeveloped chest of elementary school girls without someone nearby thinking they're pedophiles?

What kind of PowerPoint presentation was shown to the Abercrombie executives that persuaded them to green light such a product?

That there was a demand to make little girls hot?

I mean, that is the purpose of a push-up bra, right? To enhance sex appeal by lifting up, pushing together and basically showcasing the wearer's breasts. Now, thanks to AF Kids, girls don't have to wait until high school to feel self-conscious about their, uhm, girls. They can start almost as soon as they're potty trained. Maybe this fall the retailer should consider keeping a plastic surgeon on site for free consultations.

We've been here with Abercrombie before -- if you recall, about 10 years ago they sold thongs for 10-year-olds -- but they're hardly alone in pitching inappropriate clothing to young girls. Four years ago the popular "Bratz" franchise introduced padded bras called "bralettes" for girls as young as six. That was also around the time the good folks at Wal-Mart rolled out a pair of pink panties in its junior department with the phrase "Who Needs Credit Cards" printed on the front.

I guess I've been out-of-the-loop and didn't realize there's been an ongoing stampede of 10-year-old girls driving to the mall with their tiny fists full of cash demanding sexier apparel.

What's that you say? Ten-year-olds can't drive? They don't have money, either? Well, how else are they getting ahold of these push-up bras and whore-friendly panties?

Their parents?

Noooo, couldn't be.

What adult who wants a daughter to grow up with high self-esteem would even consider purchasing such items? What parent is looking at their sweet, little girl thinking, "She would be perfect if she just had a little bit more up top."

And then I remember the little girl at the airport. And the girls we've all seen at the mall. And the kiddie beauty pageants.

And then I realize as creepy as it is to think a store like Abercrombie is offering something like the "Ashley", the fact remains that sex only sells because people are buying it. No successful retailer would consider introducing an item like a padded bikini top for kindergartners if they didn't think people would buy it.

If they didn't think parents would buy it, which raises the question: What in the hell is wrong with us?

It's easy to blast companies for introducing the sexy wear, but our ire really should be directed at the parents who think low rise jeans for a second grader is cute. They are the ones who are spending the money to fuel this budding trend. They are the ones who are suppose to decide what's appropriate for their young children to wear, not executives looking to brew up controversy or turn a profit.

I get it, Rihanna's really popular. But that's a pretty weak reason for someone to dress their little girl like her.

I don't care how popular Lil' Wayne is, my son knows I would break both of his legs long before I would allow him to walk out of the house with his pants falling off his butt. Such a stance doesn't always makes me popular -- and the house does get tense from time to time -- but I'm his father, not his friend.

Friends bow to peer pressure. Parents say, "No, and that's the end of it."

The way I see it, my son can go to therapy later if my strict rules have scarred him. But I have peace knowing he'll be able to afford therapy as an adult because I didn't allow him to wear or do whatever he wanted as a kid.

Maybe I'm a Tiger Dad.

Maybe I should mind my own business.

Or maybe I'm just a concerned parent worried about little girls like the one I saw at the airport.

In 2007, the American Psychological Association's Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls issued a report linking early sexualization with three of the most common mental-health problems of girls and women: eating disorders, low self-esteem and depression. There's nothing inherently wrong with parents wanting to appease their daughters by buying them the latest fashions. But is getting cool points today worth the harm dressing little girls like prostitutes could cause tomorrow?

A line needs to be drawn, but not by Abercrombie. Not by Britney Spears. And not by these little girls who don't know better and desperately need their parents to be parents and not 40-year-old BFFs.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-04-19/opinion/granderson

A Birth and an Assassination Attempt

Sweat. Tears. Screaming. Cursing. Excruciating, indefinable pain. The glory of natural childbirth when the mother refuses pain medication and epidural anesthesia, relying solely upon breathing exercises and the emotional support (ha) of her Lamaze partner. Alternating between blowing puffs of air into my face and watching sports on television, he had a green hospital gown tied around his bare chest as I had ripped his t-shirt in two from the neck down while in the throes of a 9.9 magnitude contraction.

The drama unfolded in a Sheridan, Wyoming hospital and culminated in the birth of a plump 9 lb. 6 oz. boy who had been stubbornly clinging to my womb for the past 59 hours. I made history that day for my obstetrician. He told me, "I have delivered thousands of babies and have never witnessed a labor like yours." You're welcome, Doctor. The joy of Nathaniel's birth was immense, the relief equally profound. They whisked my son away from me and placed him in an incubator where he remained for three days, traumatized by the arduous labor and difficult delivery. Stitched up, assured that my newborn was fine, and slipping into grateful slumber, my final thought was "tubes tied."

I awoke to the sound of hushed panic coming from the hospital hallway and I groggily struggled to comprehend what all the commotion was about. The voices I heard were a combination of concerned hospital staff and newscasters reporting groundbreaking news from television and radio. One thousand nine hundred miles away in George Washington University Hospital, skilled surgeons were hovering over President Ronald Reagan, White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and District of Columbia policeman Thomas Delaney. A .22 caliber bullet had entered President Reagan's left lung, missing his heart by a fraction of an inch. Another bullet tore into James Brady's eye, resulting in permanent brain damage and paralysis. Timothy McCartney and Thomas Delaney eventually recovered from their gunshot wounds.

The person responsible for the assassination attempt was 25-year-old John Hinckley who claimed he was recreating a scene from the movie, Taxi Driver, which starred his imaginary lover, Jodie Foster. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity - a verdict widely criticized by American citizens and resulting in the "Insanity Defense Reform Act of 1984." James Brady would later introduce, and celebrate, the successful passing of the "Brady Bill" which imposes a five-day waiting period and background check before the purchase of a firearm can be finalized.

Although a tragic day in American history, I was blessed on March 30, 1981 with a funny, extroverted, thoughtful, generous, and kind son who has presented me with a beautiful granddaughter. My tubes were tied the following day and I have never regretted that decision. Some women are built for birthing and some are not. Experiencing natural childbirth may very well be the best form of birth control.

The Arusha Manifesto

YouTube, Wildlife Management Areas in Tanzania, Promoting Community Based Conservation and Livelihoods Produced by Real2Reel Film Productions, www.real2reel.org

Today is the first International Serengeti Day. Since my January 6th post, The Road to Ruin, there has been a lot of activity, but very little gained in the campaign to stop the proposed Serengeti Highway. Speeches, petitions, newscasts, fund-raising, donations, organized protests and global pleading have not swayed President Kikwete's stance to move forward with construction of the highway. He refuses to call it a highway because "it will not be a tarmac road." Of course, the devastation to the Serengeti remains the same regardless of the road's surface. Not even a valid offer by the World Bank to fund an alternative southern route has changed Kikwete's mind.

In 1961, Tanzania's first president, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere issued a statement, the now famous "Arusha Manifesto", regarding Tanzania's commitment to wildlife conservation. His statement became an unofficial guideline for the United Republic of Tanzania and is included in "The Wildlife Policy of Tanzania", drawn up by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism.

"The survival of our wildlife is a matter of grave concern to all of us in Africa. These wild creatures amid the wild places they inhabit are not only important as a source of wonder and inspiration but are an integral part of our natural resources and of our future livelihood and well being.

In accepting the trusteeship of our wildlife we solemnly declare that we will do everything in our power to make sure that our children's grand-children will be able to enjoy this rich and precious inheritance.

The conservation of wildlife and wild places calls for specialist knowledge, trained manpower, and money, and we look to other nations to co-operate with us in this important task the success or failure of which not only affects the continent of Africa but the rest of the world as well."

- Mwalimu J.K. Nyerere 1961, The Wildlife Policy of Tanzania, March 1998

The fight to save the Serengeti continues and its proponents are dedicated and passionate about the cause. The link below will take you directly to the cafepress website where you can order t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers and totes at very reasonable prices; a small donation to help fight the road to ruin and celebrate the launch of International Serengeti Day.

Serengeti Watch - Save the Serengeti

Sheen Sheen the Winning Machine

In the late seventies, one of my favorite underdog television shows was The Gong Show produced by Chuck Barris with special guest "Gene Gene the Dancing Machine." I would imitate Gene's chug-a-chug dance step and never tired of amusing my niece and nephew with my impersonation. The Gong Show was a belly laugh for me and listening to Gene's signature dancing music after all these years put me in a happy place. The Gong Show judges were well-known comics of the decade who provided unscripted comedic chaos and combined with Barris' zany antics and the amateur talent contestants, you were presented with thirty minutes of sheer silliness.


I, along with the rest of the world, have been following Charlie Sheen's vulgar rantings on television, while reading about his court appearances, hospitalizations, and cocaine-fueled porn star-attending hotel trashing escapades in magazines, newspapers, and Hollywood blogs. In the beginning it was mildly entertaining. Not ha-ha-ha entertaining like watching The Gong Show, but scary entertaining like watching a flying trapeze artist perform without a net. What is happening to Sheen Sheen the "Winning" Machine is not really funny at all.

As if his media circus was not enough, he has invited us inside his "winning" world via his webcast, Sheen's Korner. After watching Episode 1 of Sheen's Korner, I was no longer entertained by any definition of the word - just bored to tears with his repetitive dialogue of winning, trolls, epic, gnarls gnarlington, tiger blood, goddesses, and more winning, winning, winning.  To make sure we got it, Charlie stated, "I'm not bi-polar, I'm bi-winning." For 50 minutes, I watched absolutely nothing happen except Charlie drinking a liquid out of a child's plastic Sippy cup, minutes later breaking into a profuse sweat that required mopping his face with a rag. Twenty-eight minutes into the video, Charlie hides behind a picture, takes off his hat, opens his desk drawer and bends over it face down, and after a long audible snort, pops back up with an exuberant, "Okay, we're back."

I had to pass on Episode 2 because I was still reeling from the stupidity of Episode 1. Five minutes into Episode 3, after viewing an unkempt Charlie who is unable to sit still for one second, his hair standing on end while he stutters about trolls and his "odyssey of epic, epic proportion," I conclude my research. I offer nothing more than my own unprofessional, unsolicited, personal opinion on Charlie's condition - it is highly likely that massive quantities of illegal substances exist in Charlie's skewed world and combined with the massive quantities that he has already consumed in his lifetime, they are taking a toll on his sanity. His erratic behavior is reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson during Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but his webcast production of Sheen's Korner bears no resemblance to Thompson's brilliant Gonzo journalism.


I will never watch another episode of Sheen's Korner. It is disturbing to watch someone expose their fragile state on video, and I sincerely hope Charlie gets the professional help that he desperately needs. I don't like to poke fun at someone whose sanity is crumbling like a wedge of Stilton Bleu Cheese on a buffet table, but Joan Rivers made a clever comparison on E! Fashion Police when she commented on the dress that Heidi Klum wore to the Oscars. "This dress is busier than Charlie Sheen's liver."

100 Years of Girl Power

Today celebrates the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. One hundred years ago, women did not have the right to work, vote, or hold public office in the United States. Thousands of dedicated women around the world have fought for gender equality and while the scale remains unbalanced even in 2011, today is the day to acknowledge the enormous strides that have been made toward women's rights. This is a global celebration of all women - past and present.

So many women have contributed to the women's rights movement throughout the years, some names are synonomous with women's rights and some are not so well known. I randomly selected four of the lesser known women to honor today. Four very different women from four countries of the world with a common goal - to obtain equal rights for women.

Alexandra Kollontai. Born in 1872 into an affluent Ukrainian family, Kollontai played a significant role in both the Russian socialist movement and women's suffrage. She organized women workers in Russia to fight against the male domination and conservatism of socialist organizations. In 1918, she was instrumental in organizing the First All-Russian Congress of Working and Peasant Women. That same year, she issued a statement following the establishment of the Central Office for Maternity and Infant Welfare. "Two million babies, tiny lights just kindled on this earth, died in Russia every year because of the ignorance of the oppressed people, because of bigotry and indifference of the class state. Two million mothers wet the Russian soil with their bitter tears each year as, with their calloused hands, they piled earth on the innocent victims of an ugly state system. Human thought has at last come out into the open vistas of the radiant epoch where the working class can build, with its own hands, forms of child care that will not deprive a child of its mother or a mother of her child." A relentless agitator for reform, Kollontai was exiled from Russia for long periods throughout her life. While exiled, she wrote numerous books, articles, and pamphlets promoting awareness of women's rights.

Jeannette Rankin. Born in Missoula, Montana Territory in 1880. In 1912, Rankin was hired by the New York Women's Suffrage Party and became the field secretary for the National American Women Suffrage Association. She was the first woman elected to United States Congress in 1916. Elected again in 1940, she made history as the only legislator to vote against the United States entering World Wars I and II. She was a respected leader and influential voice for women's suffrage and emancipation and an unapologetic pacifist. In 1968, at the age of 88, she led an organized group of over 5,000 women in Washington, DC to protest the Vietnam War.

Asma Khader. Born in 1952 in Jordanian controlled West bank, Khader is an attorney and human rights activist, focusing on women's and children's rights. Her staggering list of accomplishments include: two-term president of the Jordanian Women's Union, founder of the Sisterhood Is Global Institute - an international organization that assists Muslim women in learning technology, developer of legal literacy and legal assistance programs for Jordanian women, adviser for Human Rights Watch's Women Rights Division, and election to the Permanent Arab Court on Violence Against Women. As an author, she wrote Questions and Answers about Women's Rights in Jordanian Law and Law and the Future of Palestinian Women. She is responsible for generating global interest in the plight of women living in male-dominated Arab and Islamic countries.

Malalai Kakar. Born in Afghanistan in 1967, Kakar wore a traditional burka each day when she left the house, but underneath her burka was a uniform bearing the ranking of lieutenat colonel in the Kandahar police force. She was the first woman to graduate from the Kandahar police academy and first woman to become an investigator within the police department. As the head of Kandahar's department of crimes against women, she was the one called to examine crime scenes involving domestic abuse. Kakar was married to a man who was proud of his wife's role in helping their country. A devoted mother to their six children, she was shot dead by the Taliban in 2008 while on her way to work. The Taliban did not approve of a female police officer.

"Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done." - Susan B Anthony

Sources: en.wikipedia.org, encyclopedia.jrak.org, spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk., womenshistory.about.com, biography.com, journeyman.tv, brainyquote.com

The Power of Social Media

Protestors gather at Tahrir Square in Cairo ([EPA]

I don't like to delve too deeply into political issues because politics is not my strong suit and international politics are a conundrum, but I feel compelled to address the 18-day revolution in Egypt and the significance of social media in this movement.

President Obama touched on the global impact of Egypt's liberation in his February 11th speech - "There are very few moments in our lives where we have the privilege to witness history taking place." People around the world were able to experience this revolution on a personal level because of Twitter and Facebook. While the necessity for professional foreign correspondents must not be downplayed, average citizens were able to keep abreast of the revolution, moment by enthralling moment, with a tweet and a facebook check. Toward the end of his speech, President Obama declared, "This is the power of human dignity, and it can never be denied."

Yes, it certainly is the power of human dignity. It is also the power of social media. Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim stated,"This revolution started on Facebook", referring to the Facebook page We are all Khaled Said. The brutal torture and death of Khaled Said at the hands of Egyptian police added fuel to the already growing fire spread by Egyptian revolutionaries. Khaled's face became the symbol of a country desperate for change. Human Rights activists in Egypt have been protesting police brutality for years, but Facebook and Twitter gave them the opportunity to mainstream their protest and their cries of indignation were heard around the world. Uncensored videos were recorded by amateurs, downloaded on YouTube, and viewed my millions.

Would President Mubarak have stepped down if technology hadn't broadcast Egypt's desire for democracy? I think it is doubtful. Dictators rely on suppression and censorship to keep their regimes in place. After thirty years, the voice of Egypt was no longer silent and the entire world was listening. Their euphoric liberation is only the first step and the future of Egypt is uncertain at this point, but I will continue to watch and listen with the assistance of social media.