A Minor Consideration

It's been quite a while since the last post, but not only have I been busy, I've been trying to decide what changes to make with Mercy and Percy. It will gradually assume its own identity again.

I am old enough to remember Paul Peterson of The Donna Reed Show. I also remember watching Rusty Hamer in reruns of The Danny Thomas Show. It was a surprise to learn in American Profile Magazine that Rusty Hamer committed suicide in 1990. And that his death helped spur Paul Peterson to found the nonprofit organization A Minor Consideration.

I googled the organization and applaud Peterson for investing so much of his time and talent into helping current and prior child actors. It has to be hard to be pampered and fawned over as a child and then dumped like a sack of spoiled potatoes when you're no longer "cute."

But the first link I clicked on from Google Search was a story on "'The 'Rape' of Dakota Fanning." I never watched the movie Hound Dog which starred 12 year-old Dakota Fanning as a rape victim and I'm sure glad I missed it! Because Peterson has a lot to say about any mother and movie set staff exploiting a child in such a graphic movie. And I, personally, don't understand why child pornography can be prosecuted and this type of exploitation isn't.

You can find the article here. But if you believe a child deserves a protected childhood, it will raise your hackles. Keep up the good work raising awareness of the problems child actors face, Peterson, as well as helping educate, legislate and whatever is needed to help child actors and former child actors survive in the business and transition into the real world.

Memorial Day 2009

Since my time is limited today, I'm going to borrow today's post from my pets' journal, Jan's Funny Farm. The only thing I would like to add is that I find it interesting that someone who doesn't know anything about music wrote a Memorial Day song for his church. Notice he knows nothing about writing music but he wrote a song "for God" and I'm stealing material from my cats and dogs. :)

********************

Our good friend Mr. Doug (and Jan's other brothers too) is a veteran so vets have a special place in our hearts. And this year, we didn't have to go looking for a special song to post. We've been saving it for this weekend.

Tony Mullins wrote a song specifically for Memorial Day and we'd like to share it with you. He sent the link to Jan and asked her to share it. So we appropriated it for our journal too. You know how that goes, what's hers is ours and not vice versa!

Tony can't sing and he can't read music, but this is a demo recording of a song he wrote a few years ago for his church. It's sung by Cary Rutledge from Virginia and the video was shot in Waterloo, NY. We think you'll like it.



If the video won't play for you, you can use this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_klwtm67ogg

Click here to read more about the origins of Tony's Memorial Day song.

Have a safe and thoughtful Memorial Day.

Christians in Pakistan

A friend sends stories of Christian persecution in Pakistan. He and his family live in Pakistan, so he has firsthand knowledge of the escalating persecution. This is his latest message.

Taliban sets sights on Pakistan's Swat Valley
Christians expected to flee their homes if government continues to concede control

Christians in Pakistan are in urgent need of your prayers as Pakistani authorities struggle through negotiations with the Taliban leadership that has determined to take over the country's beautiful Swat Valley and institute a severe system of Sharia law. ICC sources expect many Christians in the coming weeks and months to flee their homes if the government concedes to an agreement they signed in mid-February to accept Sharia law.

The Taliban are back in power. This time, however, they're not in Afghanistan, but in a well-protected valley in Pakistan that was for a long time known as the "Switzerland of the Orient" because of its natural beauty. The Swat Valley, as it is known in Pakistan, was formerly one of the richest and best educated areas in the country, due to its tourist industry. That all changed when the Taliban set their sights on gaining control.

The christian in this valley are called heretics. The only church, there has been closed in 2007.

Up until January 9, the Taliban had been conducting gruesome executions for weeks and leaving the dead bodies, with amputated limbs and heads, hung up on trees or telephone poles. Every morning the shopkeepers who worked in Grain Square in Mingora would find four or five of these victims newly displayed with notes pinned on them providing their names and their crimes against Islam. Residents of Mingora now call the square Khooni Chowk (Bloody Square)...

You can read the rest of the story here.

Pray for the Christians in Pakistan.

James Cagney and Bob Hope

A friend sent me a link to this video today and watching it brought back some good memories. Memories of a time when entertainment was funny -- and clean! You didn't need to worry about the language or whether the actors were dressed. You just enjoyed the movie at the theater or the television program on the TV in your living room. Some of you might remember the days of exciting radio shows, but that was a bit before my time.

I hope you will take a moment and enjoy this dance routine by Bob Hope and James Cagney. It's from the 1955 movie "The Seven Little Foys."

Update Nancy and Naomi

In 2007, we posted a link to a video of a mother and daughter miracle story.

On February 5, 2007. Nancy went in for an emergency C-section. When the doctors opened her, her uterus exploded. Her baby, Naomi, had no heartbeat , but she was quickly revived and put on life support. Nancy, however, lost so much blood she had to be transfused twice. She went into cardiac arrest three times, and she was on a respirator, in a coma, for 11 days.

But prayers were answered! This was Nancy then -----


Today, we catch up with Nancy Pierre. Nancy is now in Bible school to become a licensed minister. And she has a ministry: Nancy Pierre Ministries.

This video is from February 14 -- her first outreach with her ministry's feeding Program, "Soul Food."