The Social Poets: What Obama and Romney Should Be Talking About: These 2 Sick Little Girls: From Denny: It's time to stop the madness along with the childish political campaign bickering. Americans don't want to hear it anyway. There are bigger issues at stake like the lives of these two seriously ill little girls from Utah, Natalie and Alice Fish. In light of what this one American family is enduring should shame all the national politicians who are so self-absorbed they have not stopped long enough to notice. I'm so disgusted with the 2012 election's childish name-calling tone and enabling media encouraging it that I change the channel constantly. As a respite yesterday I went up on my page at Google + to catch up on those who friended me. Well, it turned out these little Fish girls' parents friended me (that's a link to their Google+ page). It's a good thing I always take the time to read a profile page or I might have missed this struggling life drama of a middle class family. These little girls are real troopers and have been living in and out of hospitals since they were born. Their parents are to be commended for going the distance with not just one child but now two with this rare problem. * * * Support Warriors Pearl Foundation - helping homeless female military veterans come home. Visit Denny Lyon Gifts @ CafePress.com - - see what's new!
From Denny: Pull out the tissues because you are going to need them! If you are not crying your eyes out, wondering if you emptied out the tears reservoir, then you need to watch the hour long special of this story. Yes, it's that good. If you are in need of having your faith restored in the goodness of strangers, then this story is for you. These ordinary people will astound, amaze and delight your heart.
The entire town of Grafton, Wisconsin came to the aid of a single mother battling breast cancer who has 13 year old triplets. Two of those triplets are seriously ill with a life long degenerative disease and are already now in wheelchairs. They needed so much. A whole town of neighbors, many who lost their homes and their jobs, came together to help the Longoria family remodel their home so the kids could get around in wider halls and larger spaces.
It's quite an amazing story of what spiritual development is really all about: helping someone else when you have lost so much. There is a man in the process of losing his home because he's been out of work for two months. Yet he came and volunteered every day to renovate the house. There is a hotel owner who gave the family free rooms for the entire time it took to renovate the house.
There is an AIDS charity CEO, living on 40% less income now and facing an uncertain personal financial future, who showed up to organize and raise funding - cheerfully. Another story is of a mother who lost her son 19 years ago and today came to be the interior designer for this family's renovated home. She said this is the first time she has not felt emotional pain since the death of her child.
This first video is a clip that was featured on the news. The other video clips tell the story. The full story and more links are at Dateline and it's an hour show worth watching. It reminds me of a real life story to match the famous Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life." What's so much fun about this story of giving is how the giving rolled into something bigger than the project itself. People got into the spirit of giving and the joy was contagious, drawing thousands of people to volunteer during construction or to help fund the project.
A Circle of Hands is a poem written by one of the volunteers to remember the "Hometown Heroes" project that healed the town.
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From Denny: If you missed this segment you will definitely want to watch it. Halle Berry grew up with an abusive father who battered her mother. Today, the actress is helping other women get strong, help heal them and their children and build new - and confident - lives.
From Denny: These folks came up with a great idea of how to help a friend or neighbor without the embarrassment of knowing it was you - GivingAnon.com.
"From the desperation of an empty bank account came the inspiration Lionel Thompson needed to help others who were stuck in a similar situation."
