Safety Tip – Christmas Shopping

By:NMB PD/PIO
Dec. 17, 2009

‘Tis the season to be jolly, but it is also the season to be wary of burglars, thieves, pickpockets, and other holiday grinches.

Nothing can ruin the Christmas spirit faster than becoming the victim of a crime.

Remember, whether you are leaving the house to go shopping or out for an evening of Christmas parties, lock your doors and windows! Don’t leave the drapes open with your presents in plain view.

Christmas presents displayed around your tree can be a pretty sight, but can also be quite tempting to burglars.

It’s better to scatter the gifts around the house, in closets or cupboards, where they can’t be so easily seen.

If you are leaving town for the holidays, make sure your home appears occupied. Leave inside and outside lights on timers and have your neighbors pick up newspapers, mail, and take flyers off your door.

Ask neighbors to park in your driveway. Put a timer on a talk radio station for several hours a day.

If you choose to have a live Christmas tree, make sure it is always properly watered. Never leave tree lights on when no one is at home. Remember, ornaments can also burn.

After Christmas, don’t put out empty boxes advertising your new purchases (VCR’s, microwaves, etc.). Break the boxes down and deposit them in your trash, recycle bin or dumpster away from your home.

When you’re shopping, use the trunk of your car to keep your packages out of sight. Keep your car locked at all times.

Be sure and make several trips to your car to deposit packages in the trunk. Don’t allow yourself to become so burdened down with packages that you become a tempting target.

When walking through parking lots, be sure that you are aware of your surroundings. Walk with authority. Don’t look like a victim!

If you have a garage door opener, do not leave the control openly displayed in your car.

Keep the door leading from your house to your garage locked. Try not to leave your garage door open at any time.

Be aware that thieves and pickpockets also do some of their biggest business during the holiday season. Ladies, don’t dangle your handbag from your shoulder. You are creating a perfect setup for a purse snatcher.

Instead, keep your purse tucked tightly under your arm. Better yet, don’t even carry a purse. Place your checkbook, cash, or credit cards in your front pockets.

Avoid carrying your checkbook, cash, and credit cards all together in one wallet, because if a thief gets the whole package together, they can cash checks with your identification and run up a large credit card bill in a short amount of time.

Never give your credit card number over the telephone to anyone when you did not initiate the call. And be sure that you are dealing with a reputable company when ordering merchandise over the telephone.

Don’t “flash” large rolls of money in public. You never know who’s watching! Also, spread your money around in different pockets.

That way a pickpocket can’t clean you out in one fell swoop.

If you go to an automatic teller machine, try to go during the daylight hours. If you must go at night, pick a machine that is well lighted and visible to passing traffic.

If anyone is lurking near the machine, pass it up and find another.

When dining out valet parking is nice, but don’t be too lax. Don’t leave valuables in your vehicle and never leave your house key with the attendant.

Just by using a little planning and some good common sense, most holiday crimes can be avoided.

  

Source: North Miami Beach Police Department  

 

 

Editor’s Note; We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchroicle.com

A Third Grader in New Jersey Told to Put Bible Away

By Fox News
Dec. 17, 2009 

A third grader was told by a teacher at her New Jersey elementary school that the Bible was not appropriate reading material for quiet time, MyFoxNY.com reported.

The teacher at Madison Park Elementary School in Old Bridge, N.J., ordered the girl, Mariah, to put away her Bible.

Michelle Jordat, Mariah’s mother, said her daughter was upset and confused by the incident, MyFoxNY.com reported.

“This was injustice,” Jordat said, according to MyFoxNY.com.

“No other child has to go through this again.”

The school’s principal apologized for the incident, saying school policy does in fact allow students to read the Bible during quiet time and that the teacher had simply made a mistake, MyFoxNY.com reported.

Jordat said she accepts the apology but also wants to see something in writing. She plans to talk to an attorney about the issue, according to the site.

The town’s board of education met with parents Tuesday evening to address concerns in the community.

 

Click here for more from MyFoxNY.com

 

Source: Fox News 

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Heart Grows Three Sizes

by Jim Liebelt
Dec. 16, 2009

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will
remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of
flesh. –Ezekiel 36:26

In Dr. Seuss’ classic Christmas tale, “How the Grinch Stole
Christmas,” the Grinch suffers from having a small heart. The
source of his heart problem is his lack of understanding the
meaning of Christmas.

As the story goes, the Grinch tries to put a stop to Christmas, but in the end, he comes to understand what Christmas is all about and his heart grows three sizes!

This heart change makes a big difference in his life.

I’m not sure what Dr. Seuss’ intentions were when he wrote the
story back in 1957, but it certainly comes across as a Christian
parable to me that parallels the change that takes place in a
person’s life when he or she comes to understand the true meaning
of Christmas: the birth of Jesus, God’s Son, who was born to save
His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

When the light of the Good News of Jesus dawns upon the heart of a person, God replaces the old heart of stone, with a new, fleshy heart – and a new
person emerges.

As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

 

“Welcome Christmas – While we stand – Heart to heart – And hand
in hand.”1

It might just make all the difference in the world.

O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in;
be born in us today!
We hear the Christmas angels
the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!
    (From O Little Town of Bethlehem)

We celebrate Christmas because of the power Jesus brought to
change our hearts.

Source: Home Word

 

Editor’s Note: You can contact Jim Liebelt   contactus@homeword.com.

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

A Moral Outrage Affecting Florida’s Children That Will Make You Angry

By Leah Postelnik
YC/Staff
Dec. 16, 2009

I am writing you today about a glaring problem that no one is doing anything about.

Various state representatives have initiated educational reforms to combat some of the most egregious problems in our educational system.

Representative Dorothy Hukill, in particular, deserves high praise for her bill to ban the use of “restraining rooms” for special needs students in our schools.

Yet there is an even greater outrage that must be outlawed. Schools have taken to calling police and arresting children over classroom disruptions.

If teachers and principals cannot think of some other form of punishment, then they have no business teaching – period.

As a point of reference, here are two of the most shameful news stories on this issue:

School Arrests 6 Year Old

School Arrests 9 Year Old – Just One of Many

From the article: “According to the In 2007, Lee County’s Juvenile Assessment Center processed 19 children younger than 9 for criminal offenses.

This year, there have been nine – and 13 who were 10; 21 who were 11.”

It’s more than time for us to do something about this situation. Children can be given a host of effective disciplinary measures, all of which are more effective than the shear insanity outlined above.

Repetitive line writing has trained more than one child to follow along with the rest of the class.

Especially difficult cases can be handled by forcing the student to clean the entire schoolyard if necessary.

Both of these measures get the message through to the child and neither causes long term trauma or complete and utter hatred of school as an institution.

Arresting a child is not only dumb, it’s wantonly harmful. Is there a doubt in anyone’s mind that, by and large, those children will detest school and never again feel a desire to succeed?

Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that they will generally drop out of school at the earliest opportunity?

If we’re looking to breed a new generation criminals, then such measures are undoubtedly the way to go.

But if we’re looking to raise students, this egregious practice must be stopped.

If the situation continues, once elected, my first bill will be one to prohibit schools from requesting law enforcement for nonviolent disruptions.

But we shouldn’t wait until November and I urge you to contact current representatives throughout the state and demand that action be taken on this issue.

DCF Insanity

In other news, it has been discovered that the Department of Children and Families is allowing convicted felons to run daycare centers and to work in the field of child care.

Their excuse for this utter idiocy is that DCF believes in second chances.

Well I believe in redemption too!

I believe that recalcitrant drug felons, prostitutes and small time burglars can be given jobs in customer service, in business relations and, if need be, even be given bureaucratic jobs at DCF.

The most able of them can go on to run businesses. But I rightly draw the line at the preposterously incorrigible idea of giving them license to care for Florida’s children!

This is exactly what happens when bureaucrats are left to their own devices and I pledge to be a sledgehammer of common sense on this and other matters of importance.

Editor’s Note: We would like to know if you know of any other cases that we at the Chronicle can investigate.

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

What Goes Around Comes Around

By Dan Samaria
Publisher/GCC
Dec. 14, 2009

This was forward to me in by e-mail from an unknown reader.

I hope you will enjoy it and pass it on to your friends. It is so true and so Priceless!

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

 

By Unknown

One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help.

So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out.

His Pinto was still sputtering when he approached her.
Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe, he looked poor and hungry. 

He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill which only fears can put in you. 

He said, ‘I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.’ 

Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two.

Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt. 

As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him.

She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.

Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed him.

Any amount would have been all right with her she already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped.
Bryan never thought twice about being paid.
This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty, who had given him a hand in the past.

He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way 

He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added, ‘And think of me..’ 

He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight. 

A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant.

Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair.

She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude.

The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan.  

After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door.

She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin. 

There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: ‘You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too.

Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.’ 

Under the napkin were four more $100 bills. 

Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day.

That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the Money and what the lady had written.

How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard. 

She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, ‘Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson.’ 

There is an old saying…….’What goes around comes around.’ Today I sent you this story and I’m asking you to pass it on. Let this light shine. 

Don’t delete it, don’t return it. Simply, pass this on to a friend 

Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they are always there.

~GOD BLESS! ~

This is wrong: Our Children Singing about Allah

By Todd Starnes
Dec. 14, 2009

A battle over religion is brewing in central Indiana after a public school wanted second graders to sing a song declaring, “Allah is God.”

The phrase was removed just before the performance after a national conservative group launched a protest.

The principal of Lantern Road Elementary School in Fishers, IN, said they were trying to teach inclusiveness through their holiday production.

It included references to Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Las Posadas and Kwanzaa. However, no other deity, other than Allah, was referenced in the show.

“It went off…without a hitch,” Danielle Thompson told the Indianapolis Star. “Several families thought it was a nice program.”

But others did not – especially David Hogan. His daughter came home with a copy of the lyrics just days before the production.

Hogan, a Christian, told the American Family Association, a conservative advocacy group, that he was deeply concerned to learn that his daughter had been singing, “Allah is God.”

Here’s what the children were assigned to sing:

 

“Allah is God, we recall at dawn,
praying ‘til night during Ramadan
At this joyful time we pray happiness for you,
Allah be with you all your life through.”

 

But when it came time to perform the “Christian” part of Christmas, children were assigned to say:

 

“I didn’t know there was a little boy at the manger. What child is this?
I’m not sure if there was a little boy or not.
Then why did you paint one on your nativity window?
I just thought if there was a little boy, I’d like to know exactly what he (sic) say.

 

Micah Clark, executive director of the Indiana AFA, launched an Internet protest once he heard about the allegations.

“What surprised me here is that we’ve had a secular scrubbing of Christmas for so long and the school apparently didn’t see the problem with kids singing to Allah,” he told FOX News Radio.

“You won’t even mention Jesus and you’re going to force my child to sing about Allah?

In email correspondence the school initially defended the reference as a way to be inclusive of all religions.

However, once complaints starting rolling in, school leaders decided to eliminate the Allah reference.

That drew the ire of the Muslim Alliance of Indiana. “It’s unfortunate if that was removed from the program just because of Islam phobic feelings,” Shariq Siddiqui told the Indianapolis Star.

“Schools are a place where we should learn more about each other rather than exclude each other based on stereotypes and misconceptions.”

But Clark said having children bow and pray is problematic for non-Muslim families. “(This show) affirmed Islam and negated Christianity.

I wouldn’t have had a problem if it had been equal to all faiths.”

At least one Christian family approved of the Allah reference. “I’m a Christian and I was in no way offended by the program at Lantern Road,” said Judy Grasso to The Star.

 

Be sure to join Todd’s Twitter by clicking here and check out his book by clicking here.

Source: Fox News Radio 

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Deployed Father Son Spend Time Together

By Cpl. Triah Pendracki
Dec. 13, 2009

One of the most stressful parts of any deployment for service members is their separation from family and friends.

Col. James O’Meara, commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 26 (Reinforced), was joined by his son, Chris O’Meara, for the Thanksgiving weekend aboard Al Asad Air Base, Iraq.

Chris is an Army private first class currently deployed as a field artilleryman to Joint Security Station Muthana located near Baghdad.

During Chris’ visit, the two enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner at one of the dining facilities on base, watched football games and went for a ride around base.

“We took a ride in the [CH-47 Chinook] around the base,” said Chris, as he sat in his father’s office. “It was pretty cool.”

 “He’s been all around the base, but mostly hangs around my office while I’m working,” added O’Meara, “like a ‘take your son to work day’ that lasts a whole weekend.”

 “I like the VIP badge, though,” said Chris. “I think I’m going to keep it.”

 Chris and his father spent as much time together as possible, remembering past experiences and joking as only a father and son do.

“I remember when he graduated from his basic training. It was at Ft. Sill [Oklahoma], which is in the middle of nowhere,” joked O’Meara. “Before I knew it, I had driven past the base because there were so many cows I missed the entrance!”

“It was great to see him there in his uniform though,” added Chris. “I joined the Army because, well, think about how hard [Marine Corps] recruit training would have been for me if they knew my dad was a colonel. The sign-on bonus for the Army also helped.”

During a football game, the two discussed their plans for the rest of the long weekend.

“We’re going to try to get him on a [CH-46 Sea Knight] and maybe something else,” said O’Meara.

“Maybe I can get on a Cobra,” exclaimed Chris.

“Don’t push it, kid,” joked O’Meara, with a slight grin as they turned back to the game on the television.

Source: Our Military 

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Treats for Military Families

By Elaine Wilson
American Forces Press Service
 Dec. 13, 2009

More than 3,000 military families will have a few extra presents under the tree this year thanks to the generous efforts of Operation Home front and The Wal-Mart Foundation.

Operation Home front, a troop-support organization, invited spouses of deployed service members to shop for free today in six make-shift toy stores stocked with toys and books donated by Wal-Mart and set up in locations near military installations throughout the country, said Jim Knotts, Operation Home front chief executive officer.

“This has been an especially difficult year for our military families and their children. They’re not only dealing with deployments but also the economic recession,” Knotts said.

“Through the generosity of Wal-Mart, these donated toys and books will allow the military families to provide a happy holiday for their children while using their limited resources on the vital basic needs.”

Each family had the opportunity to choose three toys and one book per child, Knotts said, with a total of about 10,000 military children served.

The toy shops were set up near Fort Hood and Fort Bliss in Texas; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Campbell, Ky.; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Camp Pendleton, Calif. – markets that top the Pentagon’s list of cities with the highest troop deployments, according to an Operation Home front release.

Catherine Fontanez shopped today at the toy store in the National Guard Armory gymnasium in Fayetteville, N.C., near Fort Bragg.

Her husband, Army Sgt. Nelson Fontanez, is deployed, and she said events like this are a big help to military families.

“The toys are great; very educational,” said the mother of three. “This will definitely help me out a lot financially.”

Knotts said many of the military spouses he met with today were grateful for the financial help during tough economic times.

“I met a spouse with six kids; her husband is on his first deployment in Afghanistan,” he said. “They only have $25 of disposable income for the month left over for Christmas gifts. This is a huge benefit for these families.”

The toy giveaway today was just one part of a month-long effort to help military families, Knotts said. Over the next two weeks, Operation Home front will give a $1,000 Wal-Mart gift card to five military families in 10 locations.

Home front also will distribute, through 30 of its chapters, an additional $225,000 worth of Wal-Mart gift cards to help military families meet unmet needs.

And, finally, the organization will provide caregivers of wounded warriors with 1,000 special gift packages.
Source: Our Military

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Gift of New Baby

By Beverly Beckham
Dec. 12, 2009

They came from short and long distances to meet him. They came before work and after work, and in between commitments and appointments and all the things that everyone has to do every day.

They stopped doing these things, took a break, and showed up at my door smiling, walked in, sat down, held out their arms and oohed and aahed.

It’s the universal language. Smiles and oohs and aahs.

Babies do this. They make people slow down. They bring people together. They make people happy.

My grandson, Luke, is seven months old, not an infant anymore, but he lives in Manhattan so none of my friends had met him.

To them he was just a photograph in my wallet, a story I’d tell, an imagined baby, a small, male version of his 2-year-old sister, Megan.

Until he arrived for a weeklong stay a few weeks ago. Then he became real. His mom and sister were in Scotland visiting her family. And his dad, my son, brought Luke home to us.

And it was like a succession of holidays, Valentine’s Day, Easter, the Fourth of July, Christmas, New Year’s, every day a party, every day someone new at the door.

My daughter Lauren took the week off from work to be near him. She fed him. She rocked him. She sang to him, played with him, and loved him.

So did his cousins and all their little friends. It was wall-to-wall children some days, Dora on TV in the family room, Fred Penner singing his children’s songs on CD in the living room, the 5-and-6-year-olds coloring, the 2-and-3-year-olds singing and dancing, Luke the catalyst for it all.

We never read a newspaper. We never watched the news. We lived in a different world for an entire week, a world full of Fisher Price Little People and toy animals that moo and quack, and stuffed bears that sing and games of patty-cake and walks with Luke in the carriage and friends, so many friends, stopping by.

 

“Parent Redux”…

I thought when my children grew up and left home, the cacophony that is childhood had vanished along with them.

That there would never again be doors slamming and kids shouting and babies squealing and someone saying “I’m hungry!” and the doorbell ringing and toys all over the floor.

And that never again would there be a group of us, parents and friends, whose hearth had been our children, who got together because of them, who learned from them and laughed with them and enjoyed them, sitting around in a new mix, watching and learning and enjoying their children.

But here we are, parents redux, the blush never off the rose, the joy in each new child, new joy, just invented. But old joy, too. Familiar and missed and because of this, so very welcome.

Everyone wanted to hold Luke and feed Luke and watch Luke because Luke wasn’t just my son as a baby. Luke was all our babies.

Every time one of our grown-up kids comes home, we race to a house. We sit at a table. We drink tea or wine and we ooh and we aah over everything. A good grade. A chance at a job. A new love.

And when there’s a baby? We beg to hold the baby. And we smile and our hearts swell.

Luke left six days after he arrived. The doorbell stopped ringing. Lauren went back to work. The little kids went back to school. The baby toys were put away.

I look at the pictures we took, proof that I didn’t imagine the week. In every one, someone is smiling.

 

Source: Grand Parents

 

Editor’s Note: Beverly Beckham is an award-winning columnist who writes for The Boston Globe. She has five grandchildren.

We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

Welcome to Kickstart!

By Chuck Norris
Dec. 12, 2009

In August of 1990, I formed the Kick Drugs Out of America Foundation dba KICKSTART.

Today, our program operates in 44 schools in the Houston, Dallas, Galveston, and Austin areas of Texas.

We currently serve over 6,300 of today’s youth, making a positive impact in their lives. The purpose of the Foundation’s mentoring program is to help provide an alternative to drugs and gang activities related to peer pressure.

Specific goals of the program are to encourage students to resolve conflicts productively, avoid participating in gangs, choose a drug-free lifestyle, and remain in high school until they graduate.

Martial art training serves as a vehicle to instill the values and skills necessary to combat the peer pressures associated with at risk behaviors.

The core philosophy of Martial Arts stresses the vital importance of a healthy mind and body necessary to lead a productive life.

Our program is evaluated yearly, and studies have shown that KICKSTART has impacted the lives of children in a positive way.

Not only has the program helped children resist risky behaviors, the program has contributed to the development of conflict resolution skills and a reduction in youth violence, has attached youth to a caring adult, created more independence and competency, and nurtured higher aspirations.

The program targets and instills protective factors in the students, which are known to enhance resiliency by incorporating the following key strategies: 

• Teach Discipline
• Instill a sense of belonging
• Provide an opportunity for meaningful participation in communities and schools
• Set reachable goals
• Create reflective individuals
• Increase family participation
• Transfer skills
• Collaborate with faculty and administrators

 

The KICKSTART mentoring program replaces many missing elements of our students’ lives by offering a role model, a figure of authority, and chance to succeed in reaching goals, physical and mental conditioning, and most importantly a feeling of hope for their futures and an opportunity to believe in themselves.

Source: Kick Start

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think. dan@youngchronicle.com

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