Russian couple fight for their daughter!

Incredibly moving story of a "challenged" couples fight to keep their daughter.
Be sure to watch the short video.
http://news.sky.com/story/1699695/living-with-mental-health-problems-in-russia

Johnny's Story

As promised here is Johnny's story. ( June 17 -18, as part of Eclectic Theater's Fair Play Festival. Dan Niven actor will present.) 
Johnny
"I don’t think I’ve ever seen Johnny (not his real name) completely sober. He is either high on drugs or alcohol. Sometimes it’s hard to be around him, particularly if he is shifting moods. Sometimes the swing from accepting to angry occurs in the blink of an eye.
On one visit to a school he went off on a high school kid who asked him how he became infected. As his rant was beginning to climb towards the stratosphere one of the other guests interrupted telling the kids he would be happy to share his story. John sat staring at the floor for the rest of our visit. As we were wrapping up he muttered an apology to the class.
I haven’t risked inviting him to speak since, though I do see him occasionally as part of a care team that he requested as support to his battle with HIV. He is mostly maintaining with NA and AA meetings though I don’t have a lot of confidence that he can continue much longer unless he kicks his care up a notch. We all know only he can do that…
I started to feel lousy after a day of skiing in the rain. I wrote it off as a cold and tried to ride it out at home for a couple of days. Jamey didn’t feel well either. She managed to go to work telling me to rest and get better. I got worse. When the coughing hurt so much I had to bend over to manage the pain I went to the doctor. I got a pretty thorough inspection with blood and urine taken. I was given some little sticks and a mailer so I could gather up some feces for analysis.
After waiting forever in a little waiting room I was told by the nurse that I had the flu with a touch of bronchial infection. I was given a couple of prescriptions and sent home with orders to stay in bed. The pills seemed to help. In two days I was moving around pretty well with only the occasional coughing spell.
I don’t remember if it was Thursday or Friday morning when the nurse called me. It was a Thursday. I remember I called work the day after seeing the doc. The nurse told me I needed to give some more blood as they wanted to run a couple of more tests. I went in after lunch.
I was taken into a waiting room where I sat for about a half an hour. Finally, in came a doc I hadn’t seen before trailed by a nurse and some guy who was introduced as a social worker. I didn’t get it right away. The doc had to tell me a couple of times that I had tested positive for HIV.
The nurse and social worker tried to explain to me some options but I bolted out heading to the nearest bar. I remember sitting there tossing down whiskey after whiskey wondering if I had it right or had they said something completely different. Did I have AIDS? Fuck, this couldn’t be…
I kept drinking but the booze didn’t do its usual magic. Nothing happened-I was as sober as when I walked in the joint. I thought about going back to the clinic but decided to head home instead and tell Jamey.
This all occurred about seven years ago.
When I got home Jamey was laying on the couch reading a magazine. I sat down on the end and blurted out what the doctor had told me. She sat up pulling in her legs as if to get as far away as possible from me. At first she didn’t say anything. Then she screamed at me wanting to know how it was possible that I was infected. We had been tested when we first got together, as the virus was sweeping through our community and neither of us had arrived without previous experiences. We didn’t go too deeply into them at the time as neither of us wanted to hang all our laundry out anymore than was comfortable. We tested negative promising never to risk the other no matter how our relationship developed. She had been cheated on before and was adamant she would never put up with it again. I promised I would never treat her like others had no matter what.
I thought about lying but I knew I couldn’t pull it off with her. I told her about the two times I had sex with other women since we’d been together. She didn’t say a word. After a few minutes she got up, went into the bedroom for a bit and then returned wearing her coat. All she said was that she may or may not be back. I cried, pleaded and begged but I could see she had flicked the master switch closing me off, possibly forever.
She didn’t return for six days. I didn’t see her. I only saw the note she left telling me she got tested and that she was negative. She told me that there are false positives and that I should be tested again. I went to the public health clinic and had them test me. In three days I was told I was negative. I went back to the first doc and demanded some explanation. What I heard was a lot of BS on how I would need to wait and get retested in six months as I had risky behavior too close to the test to ensure it was 100% accurate. They told me to be careful and not to do anything risky until I was tested yet again.
In the meantime I had called Jamey’s friends and all our mutual friends leaving messages with all of them asking her to call. More than a week went by before I heard from her. She wanted to meet at a restaurant up the block from our place. I was planning on begging for forgiveness if she would give me the opening to do so.
She was there before me waiting at a table facing the door. As soon as I saw the look in her eyes I knew we were finished. I no sooner sat down then she told me that she loved me but would not ever again be in a situation where she had to trust someone who had been unfaithful to her. She waved away the waitress angrily, telling me she was moving her stuff out on Saturday and would be grateful if I was not there. I couldn’t help myself and began to cry begging her forgiveness. She told me she forgave me and that I would have to find a way to forgive myself. She got up saying she was sorry about the whole thing. That was the last time I saw her in person.
For the next four years Johnny unraveled in a death spiral of drugs and alcohol. He told me he started shooting smack, meth and drinking non-stop. He ran with a biker crowd that offered him all the escape he could muster as long as he helped contribute to bringing in more drugs to consume and distribute. He took part time jobs, robbed and burgled homes to feed his growing habit. He did a ninety-day stint in the county jail for possession and public intoxication. The second time he was arrested and given six months they did an HIV screening. He came up positive. This time for real!
When he got out he was offered a months free rent from one of his friends who still had some faith in him. He learned Jamey had married and was expecting her first child. He got drunk. In his drunken state he jumped off his friends lanai in a wish to end it. He hit the little green strip running along the street side of the sidewalk breaking his back and his right leg.
When he got out of hospital he realized he couldn’t face the future by himself. During his ‘reckless’ years he alienated everybody in his family, as they were the first victims of his need to have money for drugs. He either borrowed or robbed their homes for whatever he could turn into drugs.
When he was diagnosed he had already burned every bridge with his family. Some even said they were “happy he was sick, as he was nothing but blight in their lives.” Other than a couple of ‘care teams’ and his buddies at NA and AA he is mostly alone. One counselor is trying to get him involved in coaching swimming at the YMCA. Hopefully he’ll find something to focus on other than his daily situation."
See the following for more info on the book and the stories within:
http://www.glenbrook.mynetworksolutions.com

Cancer Research

Hopefully, this will help a lot of people.
"A new experimental treatment has achieved what chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants have failed to do: put chronic, relapsing blood cancers into remission.

What’s more, it uses the body’s own natural defense system to attack these cancerous growths. 

The treatment involves T cells, a type of immune cell that works as your body’s own personal S.W.A.T. team to detect, surround, and destroy foreign invaders like bacteria or viruses. Historically, cancerous cells have grown too fast for T cells to mount an effective defense, and they can also trick T cells into thinking that they’re a healthy part of the body as opposed to a cancerous growth that needs to be stopped.

But in experimental treatments at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, initial evidence shows Dr. Stanley Riddell has successfully trained these T cells to better recognize and eliminate cancer cells in a short time span, allowing cancer to go into remission. 

Specifically, he extracted a person’s T cells in order to prime them to recognize the type of cancer that is affecting the patient, allowing these primed T cells to attack the growth while sparing healthy cells and tissue. 

The results

Riddell’s preliminary findings on the success of T cell therapy to cure previously terminal cases of cancer made a stir at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C. on Sunday because of his eye-popping results: 93 percent of the small group of 29 participants with previously incurable or constantly relapsing acute lymphoblastic leukemia have gone into complete remission after undergoing Riddell’s immune cell therapy.

An additional 65 percent of 30 participants with non-hodgkin’s lymphoma have also gone into remission. And while it’s too early to report the results of a small test group of 15 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Riddell says that they’re also showing “really high” remission rates. In total, Riddell has treated nearly 100 patients with the T cell therapy. 

“These were all cases that had failed all conventional therapy, so they relapsed after chemotherapy. Many of them had relapsed after an allogeneic bone marrow transplant or they just weren’t considered candidates for a transplant,” he explained to HuffPost. “To take an experimental therapy and use it in patients that are this advanced, and to get these kinds of results, is really encouraging.” 

The T cell treatment is the result of a 10-year collaboration with Dr. Michael Jensen of Seattle Children’s Hospital, who is currently conducting trials in children with leukemia and getting similar results, said Riddell. The effect appears to be long-lasting, and could provide a way forward for developing therapies for the more common and harder to treat diseases like breast, colon and lung cancer.

How it works

Riddell withdraws a patient’s immune cells in what amounts to a simple blood donation. Then he takes a few weeks to link synthetic receptors called chimeric antigen receptors to the T cells, in order to help them identify cancer cells in the body and destroy them. Once they’re re-infused back into the patient, Riddell basically sits back and lets the T cells do their thing. It generally took about 30 to 60 days for cancerous growths to disappear in his patients, he said.

Riddell suspects that his T cell therapy worked so well because the cancers he were treating were blood cancers. Instead of being bound up in solid tumors, the cancer cells are diffuse throughout the body, and also collect in certain sites where T cells also like to hang out: the bone marrow, blood, lymph nodes and spleen.

What’s next

Still, Riddell hopes that his research can be re-purposed to begin attacking the more common cancers, like breast or colon cancer. These types present a special difficulty because solid tumors essentially create their own micro-environments that can turn off an active T cell, suppressing its immune system function.

“We’re going to have to learn to combine T cell therapy with things like check point inhibitors, which is another very effective form of immunotherapy for some patients with solid tumors, or to engineer T cells in ways that will allow them to function in that immunosuppressive microenvironment,” Riddell said.

While his study is still in its earliest stages and has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, he hopes that the technology can become available to the wider public within two to three years.

“This is really another demonstration that [shows] the immune system can be used to treat cancer,” Riddell concluded. “I wouldn’t say yet that this will be applicable to all types of people with all cancers, but I think that the opportunity is there and the research directions now are really apparent.” Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Enough of Trump

Elizabeth Warren is no slouch! Thank God!!

“Donald Trump is now the leader of the Republican Party. It’s real – he is one step away from the White House. Here’s what else is real: Trump has built his campaign on racism, sexism, and xenophobia. There’s more enthusiasm for him among leaders of the KKK than leaders of the political party he now controls.

He incites supporters to violence, praises Putin, and, according to a columnist who recently interviewed him, is “cool with being called an authoritarian” and doesn’t mind associations with history’s worst dictators.

He attacks veterans like John McCain who were captured and puts our servicemembers at risk by cheerleading illegal torture. In a world with ISIS militants and leaders like North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un conducting nuclear tests, he surrounds himself with a foreign policy team that has been called a “collection of charlatans,” and puts out contradictory and nonsensical national security ideas one expert recently called “incoherent” and “truly bizarre.”

What happens next will test the character for all of us – Republican, Democrat, and Independent. It will determine whether we move forward as one nation or splinter at the hands of one man’s narcissism and divisiveness. I know which side I’m on, and I’m going to fight my heart out to make sure Donald Trump’s toxic stew of hatred and insecurity never reaches the White House.”

A Bad Idea becomes a Good Idea!

For years I conducted a class entitled "When does a really Bad Idea become a Good One?" You know, that moment when the really Bad Idea all of a sudden becomes a Good idea. Examples are just about every trespass you can think of including scooping up Americans of Japanese descent, the Holocaust, slavery, murder etc. etc. etc.
Now we have three kids who took action when their very Bad Idea become a really Good idea. There were lots of other choices available but they acted on what they must have determined was a really Good Idea.
After all these years of my various involvements I am more certain than ever that some, if not all, of the solutions are in how we educate kids. I could go on and on, but I'll spare you the gymnastics. My book "Trust Kids" lays it out as only kids can do. http://tinyurl.com/ojycvuy

Universal Giving

Sometimes nice things come right out of the blue!! Thank you Universal Giving for your support.

"Our NGO of the Week is Let Kids Be Kids! They are committed to advocating on behalf of those who do not have a voice in society. Remind of you someone we'll be celebrating soon?

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., we're celebrating the work of this organization, which does so much to create equality and promote a better standard of living for all."

http://tinyurl.com/gsjbmnu

Courage

Too bad only a few stand up to bullies. 

You know, the NRA, Republican fear merchants, racists, homophobes, misogamists etc.

"Get up - Stand up for your rights!"

Photograph: Linc Gasking/NHM

Helping Syrian Refugees

Thank you Emily Cherkin for saying it so well. The only thing I'll add is that when Emily and I taught together the reading of "Night", the kids doing projects, as if they were in one of the prisons, Emily playing her violin as one prisoner did while force marching in knee deep snow away from the Russians and most importantly were the times Bronka visited. Bronka asked a simple question. "Would you speak up for me?" I said yes, as did everyone else. We have made a donation The Compassion Collective.

"I have felt deeply troubled for a long time now about the crisis facing Syrian refugees. As a middle school teacher, I taught a unit on the Holocaust, and the stories facing these modern refugees calls to mind many parallels. A former teacher and mentor of mine, and a survivor of Auschwitz, Bronka, would come and share her story with my students, and the most important thing she taught me (and my students) was that hating the Nazis solved nothing. Even after all the unspeakable things that were done to her and her family, she did not hate them. In other words, Love wins. Today, another hero of mine is Brené Brown, and she, with other leaders, have started The Compassion Collective, a plan to offer aid to Syrian refugees by asking all of us to make small (under $25 donations) to show that even in small amounts, we can make a difference and show that Love can triumph over Fear. So today, I am choosing Love. I am choosing not to give into the fear that generates hatred. I am remembering Bronka. If you feel so moved, and would like to learn more, please follow this link and share on your own pages:”

http://thecompassioncollective.org

Shame on you America

Its too easy when your voice is buried within the mob.
Are you the person, the very person, who is willing to speak to this child's parents and tell them there is no help in America for them.

If you're not willing to look these people in the eye and tell them to stay out than do something to reverse the shameful decision to destroy their hopes.

"Get up - stand up for your (their) rights!"

Man-of-War

Please, before you go to sleep tonight, think of ways you can reach out and help all the creatures out there-----humans as well. 
Portuguese Man-of-War. Okay, you better be paying attention if you're in the water with these beauties as your goofing around with one could be the last thing you ever do. We may not "like" every creature in the world but we can respect their role in the big picture leaving them alone to do their thing. "The Man - of - War has an otherworldly appearance—especially when illuminated by the rising sun—is perhaps not the most bizarre thing about the Portuguese man-of-war. The animal is actually made up of a colony of organisms working together, with the gas-filled bladder, or pneumatophore, "sailing" above. Below are three more separate polyps, including tentacles that in some cases can extend 165 feet."
Let Kids Be Kids advocates for the rights of all those in the animal kingdom. Yep, humans too-----And, in particular, all those Men of War out there.
Photograph by Matthew Smith, National Geographic

Initiative 1401 Passes with 70% Approval

I

Initiative 1401 wins in Washington state with 70% Approval

Thank you Washington voters for passing Initiative 1401, making Washington the first state in the country to help save 10 endangered animal species groups from extinction by a vote of the people.

Thank you for all your support towards our advocacy on this important issue.

“By creating tough new penalties for trafficking products made from these animals, Washington joins other major port states like California, New York and New Jersey in passing laws that close loopholes allowing the black market to thrive for endangered species products.  

With I-1401, Washington state does its part in the fight to save elephants, rhinos, tigers, lions, leopards, cheetahs, pangolins, sharks, marine turtles and rays. Starting December 3, parts and products from these animals will be illegal to sell, including ivory trinkets, tiger pelt rugs, and traditional folk medicine made from rhino horn or pangolin scales. Truth is an elephant needs its ivory tusks more than we need an ornament. A tiger needs its fur more than we need a floor covering and a pangolin needs its scales more than we need medicine proven to be ineffective.

I-1401 establishes a model for citizens, legislators and leaders across America – and around the world – to end the demand that fuels the extinction of animals in the wild. Other states now have the opportunity to build upon what Washington has started by achieving victories of their own. In 2016, Oregon voters will be faced with a similar initiative, and when it passes, three major west coast states will have laws banning the sales of endangered species products. With each victory, we’re one step closer to ending extinction.”

Fred Koontz, PhD, Vice President of Field Conservation, Woodland Park Zoo

Get up - Stand up for your rights!"

ATTENTION: all College/High School students.

Walk off campus and refuse to return until the country makes sure you are safe. Do not return until sane gun laws are passed!!

Seriously, your financial impact "may" be what it takes to get these greedy self serving bastards off their asses to protect you, and the rest of us.

"Get up - Stand up for your rights!"

Our plant friends...

 Please, before you go to sleep tonight, think of ways you can reach out and help all the creatures out there-----humans as well. 
Never forget these other creatures that bring us so much while we go about doing whatever it is we do all the time. A different view of Woodland Park Zoo, the critters tht .bring so much peace, beauty and tranquility
Let Kids Be Kids advocates for the rights of all those in the animal kingdom. Yep, humans and plants too-----
And, in particular, all those Beautiful Plants out there.
Photos: MBarrettMiller/©Connemara Productions

Who was that Masked Man?

"Why do I write? It's not that I want people to think I am smart, or even that I am a good writer. I write because I want to end my loneliness."
(this book was written so the little pugilist would know what the other guy cared about at the time of its compilation...)

Memories

Memories of those that were and are not -

Cilla Black

R.I.P

Cilla Black

Paul McCartney said Black's 1972 interpretation of the "Long and Winding Road" was how he always intended the song to be sung.

Cilla singing a Long and Winding Road.

Animal personhood in Trigueros del Valle

Animals as non-human residents!!! Maybe, with all the American shootings, we could extend this to people animals!!??
"A Spanish town has become the first in the world to give human rights to animals.
In the town of Trigueros del Valle, which has a population of just 300 people, politicians have voted overwhelmingly in favour of giving cats and dogs rights.
The town council voted to define the beloved pets as “non-human residents”, which gives them similar rights to its citizens.
Pedro Pérez Espinosa, the town’s Socialist mayor, said: “Dogs and cats have been living among us for more than 1,000 years.
“And the mayor must represent not just the human residents but must also be here for the others.”
The Renedo Declaration consists of 13 articles, including "all residents are born equal and have the same right to existence" and "a resident, whether human or non-human, is entitled to respect".
The new pet protections were welcomed by animal rights groups.
Campaigners, Rescate 1, said: “Today, we are closer as species and we are now more human thanks to the sensitivity and intelligence shown by the people of Trigueros del Valle.
“This is a great day for humans and non-human citizens alike.”
It is a landmark decision in Spain - a country which still allows the controversial “sport” of bullfighting.
There are hopes that the monumental ruling could lead to an end to bullfighting, which has been banned in certain regions, but still attracts audiences in areas such as Madrid and Seville.
Bullfighting will not be allowed in Trigueros del Valle, which now forbids “any action that causes the mutilation or death of a non-human resident”.
Yet while areas, including Catalonia, have banned the blood sport, the Spanish government is considering a new law that could make bullfighting part of the country's national heritage.
The move could prove disastrous for animal rights advocates as it would provide tax breaks to promoters and allow them to ignore local authority bans.
International animal rights groups have welcomed Trigueros del Valle's “milestone” decision, which they hope will influence other authorities.

PETA UK Director, Mimi Bekhechi, said: “Trigueros del Valle's legislation marks an important milestone and shows that times are changing for human understanding of who, not what, animals are.
“Our society is evolving, and history shows that the law evolves with it. Not that many years ago, many human beings were treated like 'things'.
“Married women and children were simply the property of men, and many people of African descent were also considered to be property.
“Thankfully, today, other forms of discrimination and prejudice are being discarded as people come to realise that all animals, human or otherwise, are emotional, intelligent beings who experience pain, love, joy and fear.
“Eventually, it will be understood that legal rights cannot rightly be decided by species any more than they can be determined by gender, age or skin colour.
“PETA are pleased that Trigueros del Valle has advanced the cause of respect for others, and we hope the influence of this legislation will spread. One day, we will look on our treatment of these animals with shame, as many of us already do.” #yeson1401
Photo: M Barrett Miller

Trump as Yosemite Sam

Hey Republicans!!! 
(pardon my mirth) 

You Wanking Thorny Devils created Trump by NOT SPEAKING up when he went after the President for being foreign, kinda black, not a citizen, a socialist, a communist, lazy, dumb, stupid, privileged etc.

So, NOW you complain!?!!

You deserve whatever he brings to you...

Wolf

Please, before you go to sleep tonight, think of ways you can reach out and help all the creatures out there-----humans as well. 
Wolf. When at the Woodland Park Zoo I always wander by to say hello to the four wolves who live rather contently not far from the Grizzlies, Elk, Porcupine, Sea Eagle and all sorts of visiting birds. The cool thing is the four can move away from any prying eyes should they want some deeper peace. Some time I'll tell you about my encounter way up in Grand Prairie, Alberta, hours off the path, when I came on a Grizzly tearing up an Elk while a Black Wolf sat watching about fifty feet further out - a great moment.
Let Kids Be Kids advocates for the rights of all those in the animal kingdom. Yep, humans too-----
And, in particular, all those Wolves out there.
(Photo: M Barrett Miller).

Whispers on Beyond...