Kids Obama Song
Who Were Our Presidents? Part 9
By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Sept. 29, 2009
Editor’s Note: How many of us along with our children? Know who our Presidents were and what they have done in Office.
Each week we will pick a President and tell you about them and their accomplishes.
We hope that you will enjoy this series. And let us know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com
9. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON 1841
“Give him a barrel of hard cider and settle a pension of two thousand a year on him, and my word for it,” a Democratic newspaper foolishly gibed, “he will sit … by the side of a ‘sea coal’ fire, and study moral philosophy. ” The Whigs, seizing on this political misstep, in 1840 presented their candidate William Henry Harrison as a simple frontier Indian fighter, living in a log cabin and drinking cider, in sharp contrast to an aristocratic champagne-sipping Van Buren.
Harrison was in fact a scion of the Virginia planter aristocracy. He was born at Berkeley in 1773. He studied classics and history at Hampden-Sydney College, then began the study of medicine in Richmond.
Suddenly, that same year, 1791, Harrison switched interests. He obtained a commission as ensign in the First Infantry of the Regular Army, and headed to the Northwest, where he spent much of his life.
In the campaign against the Indians, Harrison served as aide-de-camp to General “Mad Anthony” Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, which opened most of the Ohio area to settlement. After resigning from the Army in 1798, he became Secretary of the Northwest Territory, was its first delegate to Congress, and helped obtain legislation dividing the Territory into the Northwest and Indiana Territories. In 1801 he became Governor of the Indiana Territory, serving 12 years.
His prime task as governor was to obtain title to Indian lands so settlers could press forward into the wilderness. When the Indians retaliated, Harrison was responsible for defending the settlements.
The threat against settlers became serious in 1809. An eloquent and energetic chieftain, Tecumseh, with his religious brother, the Prophet, began to strengthen an Indian confederation to prevent further encroachment. In 1811 Harrison received permission to attack the confederacy.
While Tecumseh was away seeking more allies, Harrison led about a thousand men toward the Prophet’s town. Suddenly, before dawn on November 7, the Indians attacked his camp on Tippecanoe River. After heavy fighting, Harrison repulsed them, but suffered 190 dead and wounded.
The Battle of Tippecanoe, upon which Harrison’s fame was to rest, disrupted Tecumseh’s confederacy but failed to diminish Indian raids. By the spring of 1812, they were again terrorizing the frontier.
In the War of 1812 Harrison won more military laurels when he was given the command of the Army in the Northwest with the rank of brigadier general. At the Battle of the Thames, north of Lake Erie, on October 5, 1813, he defeated the combined British and Indian forces, and killed Tecumseh. The Indians scattered, never again to offer serious resistance in what was then called the Northwest.
Thereafter Harrison returned to civilian life; the Whigs, in need of a national hero, nominated him for President in 1840. He won by a majority of less than 150,000, but swept the Electoral College, 234 to 60.
When he arrived in Washington in February 1841, Harrison let Daniel Webster edit his Inaugural Address, ornate with classical allusions. Webster obtained some deletions, boasting in a jolly fashion that he had killed “seventeen Roman proconsuls as dead as smelts, every one of them.”
Webster had reason to be pleased, for while Harrison was nationalistic in his outlook, he emphasized in his Inaugural that he would be obedient to the will of the people as expressed through Congress.
But before he had been in office a month, he caught a cold that developed into pneumonia. On April 4, 1841, he died–the first President to die in office–and with him died the Whig program.
Source: White House
Editor’s Note: There is a special prize if you can tell us the accomplishemts of William Henry Harrison as the 9th President of the United States. dan@youngchronicle.com
Advice to Teen
Origin Into Schools
Bikini Clip
School Indoctrination
Liberal Indoctrination Camp
Swine Flu: Truth Need To Know
by Julia Halewicz
Sept. 28, 2009
Should you be worried? And how can you protect yourself and your grandkids? We asked an expert.
Reports of widespread swine-flu infection in Mexico, Japan, and the United States, and as many as eight deaths in the U.S. — some suspected flu fatalities remain unconfirmed — have shaken parents and grandparents across the country. Pharmacies have sold out their supplies of face masks and schools have closed for disinfecting. The World Health Organization has raised this virus strain’s classification to level 5, which means it has confirmed widespread human-to-human transmission.
Grandparents.com spoke to Dr. Joseph Bocchini, chairman of the department of pediatrics at Louisiana State University Health Science Center and chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee of infectious diseases, about how grandparents and parents should prepare for the possible threat of swine flu in their families.
GP: How does the swine flu spread, and how can we protect ourselves and our grandchildren from possible infection?
Dr. Joseph Bocchini: Everyone should realize that this virus spreads the same way that other strains of influenza spread. For individuals who are sick: Don’t go to work, don’t go to school, and don’t participate in public activities. Avoid large crowds, and do frequent hand washing. Handwashing is probably the best way to protect yourself because this virus will survive on surfaces. If you touch someone who is contaminated, you get the virus on your hands, and then if you touch your eyes or your nose or your mouth you could spread the virus.
GP: What else can we do?
JB: People who are coughing or sneezing should have Kleenex and they should sneeze into the Kleenex and then throw the Kleenex in the trash. That will help reduce the spread of the organisms into the community or to the people around them.
GP: Is it safe to take grandchildren to the supermarket, to play dates, and to public parks?
JB: The Centers for Disease Control will update on a regular basis what’s happening and provide recommendations for if we need to change what we are doing. If people are staying home as they should when [they have] an acute illness, then routine things that you do in a community [including] playgrounds would be fine unless there is a high degree of activity in your area for which the public health authorities [would advise] not to. If a grandparent is in good health, has no underlying major medical problems and normally goes out, I would continue to do that unless there was some recommendation by the public-health people to avoid that.
GP: What possible changes would public-health authorities recommend?
JB: Public-health authorities will do things that will try to reduce contact. They will close schools, they will close daycare centers, movie theaters, and other public areas to try to reduce the risk of transmission.
GP: Should families prepare for such measures?
JB: I think what families can do right now is think about what they need to do to prepare just in case a school closes and their children will be at home, or if the daycare closes and their children will be at home. Obviously, if we closed school or a daycare, we would rather those children stay at home rather than go out into the community to malls and places where they still might be exposed to the virus. [Discover 7 ways to stay active indoors.]
GP: If grandparents are able to babysit for the grandchildren, should they offer to do so in lieu of sending the kids to daycare?
JB: Not now. I would ask those people to see what their local health authorities are proposing. Much of the response to influenza is going to be on a community-by-community basis. [Read about 5 tricks to staying well when sitting for sick grandchildren.]
GP: How long does it take for swine flu to incubate in a person?
JB: Influenza has a very short incubation period. Usually one-to-three days after exposure would be when we would expect symptoms to begin. The longest incubation period is probably a week. So if someone, for example, has come back from Mexico City and they don’t get sick within a week, they probably don’t have influenza. A week is probably the longest time.
GP: What are the signs of swine flu that we should be alert to?
JB: It is very important that if someone has the classic signs of influenza — sudden onset of chills, high fever [100.3 degrees Fahrenheit], a bad headache, cough, mild nasal congestion, mild nausea, sometimes even vomiting and diarrhea — they should seek advice from their physicians. Tests can be done to determine if they have influenza, and then if they do, they can be treated with Tamiflu or Relenza, antivirals the organism is susceptible to. Our goal would be to treat anybody with influenza early to see if we could modify the course of the infection. The influenza virus that is spreading has been tested and is susceptible to some of the antiviral drugs we normally use.
GP: How can we tell the difference between swine flu symptoms and those of the common cold?
JB: Influenza is a very characteristic illness. Most viruses that produce colds produce a very little fever, and the children who have them usually don’t feel too bad, so that they tend to be able to continue to play or do other things they normally would. Influenza is different. Influenza starts abruptly with hot fever, and the symptoms that we have talked about. Younger kids are irritable, fussy; they don’t want to do things; they want to lie around. Older children will tell you that they’ve got severe headaches, or muscle aches and pains, or lower-back pain — these patients with influenza look different from patients who just have a cold. Any child who has a respiratory illness with significant fever, that’s a patient that needs to be seen by their physician to decide whether they need to be tested for flu. [Learn more about responding to medical emergencies when you’re watching your grandchildren.]
GP: How should families prepare in case their children get infected?
JB: Having your pediatrician’s telephone number available, knowing their office and how it runs and what to do after hours is always good so that you can call and get information and make decisions about what to do for your children.
GP: If a school has been closed because cases of swine flu have been confirmed in the student body, does that mean the street or neighborhood is contaminated?
JB: The virus will survive for a short period of time on clothing or other areas [like money] but outside in the environment, after a very short period of time, the virus is not going to be viable.
GP: What is a “short period of time”?
JB: We’re talking within minutes. For example, if someone has their hand contaminated and they touch the door of a car as they enter the car, and then somebody follows that within five or ten minutes, the chances are that that virus is still viable and if they touch their eye or nose or mouth then they may transmit the virus. An hour later, that is not going to be a problem.
GP: Will wearing a face mask help protect us from swine flu?
JB: Well, that’s arguable. There is very little data on the effectiveness of face masks. If someone is coughing or sneezing, some of the virus that is in the air could be stopped. That’s a small benefit. You’re better off [washing your hands]. Certainly if someone wants to add a mask, it could offer some help but we wouldn’t recommend that as a major way to reduce infection risk.
GP: Should we avoid pork and vegetables grown in Mexico?
JB: There is no evidence of transmission from any food product.
GP: How long will it be before we know how badly the global community will be affected by swine flu?
JB: It is going to depend on whether we reach a peak of activity and it disappears or if the activity just keeps going. I think within a week we will know a lot more. Whether that’s enough to tell us the extent of severity, I wouldn’t be ready to predict.
Editor’s Note: For more of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations for responding to the swine flu scare, visit its website. The academy also has specific flu-prevention advice for childcare providers. Visit slate.com to learn about the limitations of face masks in preventing the flu.
To find out about specific swine-flu warnings that may be in place in your area (or your grandchildren’s), check the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state-government websites, or your local newspaper.
We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com
Source: Grandparents
Mom I Got My Period
By Mary L. Gavin, MD
Sept. 27, 2009
It’s a funny moment when you get your first period. You can feel a bunch of different emotions. Some girls might be thrilled that the longed-for period has finally arrived. Others might be a little weirded out by the experience. And still other girls might take it completely in stride, deal with it, and go on like nothing happened. Whichever girl you are, it’s important to tell your mom. It’ll be easier to get the supplies you need. Just remember that she was once your age, getting her first period, so she knows this territory well.
Source: Kids Health
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com
How can I talk to my mom about guy stuff?
By Mary L. Gavin, MD
Sept. 27, 2009
When you’re going through all the changes of puberty, you should have someone you can go to when you have a question or concern. That person could be your mom. (Moms know about guy stuff, too!) You could also turn to a male relative, like a grandfather, uncle, or older cousin. When you visit your doctor, you can ask him or her questions. They’re experts in how kids’ bodies grow and change.
One easy place to start is with a web site for kids (like this one!) or a good book about growing up. Your mom could help you find one or you could search the health section in your local library. Sometimes knowing a few facts can help you feel more comfortable when talking to your mom about growing up.
Source: Kids Health
Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com