sheshe2

sheshe2's Journal

April 23, 2013

This could move us forward

If you have not seen this before it is worth the time.

Shift Change examines the movement toward democratic, worker-owned businesses from the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation [MCC] in the Basque region of Spain to the recent creation of the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Produced by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin, this film explores a different kind of business model, putting communities and human lives above bottom line profits. You can hear a few of the stories from these worker/owners and learn about the success of the model in the short clip below. You can also read a bit each of the coops featured in the video by clicking here.

http://vimeo.com/38342677

http://boileddownjuice.com/friday-video-shift-change-putting-democracy-to-work/

April 22, 2013

Moment of Silence

Pete Souza: Photo of President Obama observing a moment of silence at 2:50pm today in honor of Boston Marathon victims

http://theobamadiary.com/2013/04/22/moment-of-silence/

April 22, 2013

Charity Runners

For Boston Marathon's charity runners, resolve and camaraderie unshaken

BOSTON
Even before last Monday’s tragedy, the Boston Marathon meant more to Cary Gemmer than a grueling 26.2-mile run and a free jacket.

A member of the Dana Farber Marathon challenge team, Ms. Gemmer has run for the past three years to raise funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a cancer treatment and research center in Boston. “I couldn’t imagine running the marathon without being connected to the cause,” she says. “Everyone has a different story and reason for why they run, but we all have the same goal in mind.”

Gemmer isn’t alone. The terrorists who targeted the Boston Marathon with two bombs last Monday struck not only America’s most iconic footrace, but also the infrastructure of charities that has become increasingly intertwined with the event. This year, 144 teams totaling more than 2,000 runners were expected to raise more than $18 million for Boston-area charitable organizations ranging from cancer clinics to charter schools.

In the wake of the tragedy, these groups of charity runners are rallying around one another, their fundraising causes, and the larger Boston community. Many are already making plans for how, next year, their participation in the marathon will be stronger than ever.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/0422/For-Boston-Marathon-s-charity-runners-resolve-and-camaraderie-unshaken

April 22, 2013

Give: Boston Marathon

The question we all want answered in the still tumultuous wake of the Boston Marathon bombing is, why?
Like the recent tragedies in New Town and Aurora, we may never know the motive. The facts will be slow to unfold, and even when the whole picture comes into focus, knowing the motive will not undue the destruction it caused. The facts that matter most at this point are that four people are dead, including one police officer, and as many as 200 injured—men, women, children; Christians, Atheists, Muslims, and Jews; first responders and innocent bystanders; Americans, all.

SNIP:

We all can imagine the aftermath of this, not only the funeral costs and the medical bills, but the living expenses; the quality of life standards for full-time laborers who now have no hands, no legs; the prostheses; even the endless surgeries that will be needed for the young children who will grow up with first-hand experiences of the sickness that exists in this world, but who might have reason to remember that there is beauty in it, too.
Boston’s mayor and Massachusetts’ governor have set up The One Fund Boston for anyone who can spare even a dollar. It’s easy. It’s quick. It’s powerful. And it offers us all an opportunity to help in an otherwise helpless situation. If you aren’t yet one of the thousands of people who have contributed to this cause, visit The One Fund Boston website and give what you can.

The Link to give:
https://onefundboston.org/

http://thisweekinblackness.com/2013/04/20/give-to-boston-what-you-can/

April 21, 2013

I know her.

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I have worked with her.

I did not know she was there that day, until a friend sent me this picture. I have several friends that work on Boylston Street. They were only a couple doors down from the blast. They lost windows on two floors.

I have seen two of them this week. With tears in their eyes, they tell of the shock they felt upon seeing fallen bodies, the blood, the severed limbs. It is something that they will carry with them forever. They are getting grief counselling, I hope it helps with the nightmares.

I work with another woman, her eyes filled with emotion, when she told me her daughter and son in law were attending Krystals wake today. I work with three people that live in Watertown, it was a war zone.

Tragedy occurs and we all weep for the loss, feel their pain. We do feel it. Yet it is chilling when it touches you personally, it sends shivers down your spine. These are people that I have laughed with, joked with, had lunch with. I have never been so close to a tragedy like this. I have never had a personal connection to the people involved in such an event. Until Monday.

In time, the pain will lessen. In time we will heal.

We are Boston Strong and yes we will survive.

April 21, 2013

Tributes to Boston at London race

LONDON -- A defiant, festive mood prevailed Sunday as the London Marathon began on a glorious spring day despite concerns raised by the bomb attacks on the Boston Marathon six days ago.

Thousands of runners offered tributes to those killed and injured in Boston. The race began after a moment of silence for the victims in Boston, and many here wore black armbands as a sign of solidarity.

"It means that runners are stronger than bombers," said Valerie Bloomfield, a 40-year-old participant from France.

It is terrible what happened in Boston, but we can't look back, we must look forward. The show must go on.

Marathon organizers plan to donate money to a Boston fund set up to help victims. They said they did not consider canceling the event, which is a highlight of the sporting calendar.

In a smaller event in Germany, some 15,000 runners were participating Sunday in the Hamburg Marathon. They wore armbands with the slogan "Run for Boston" as a mark of respect for the bombing victims.

MORE:
http://espn.go.com/sports/endurance/story/_/id/9195888/london-marathon-heavy-boston-tributes

From: dailymail.co.uk

April 21, 2013

This

This is our Moment! This is our time.
You can never stop us. Ever!

This is our Spirit, we will shine

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Boston Strong. Forever!

It's alright.

April 20, 2013

one factor that helped them save lives

How Bombs in Iraq Saved Lives in Boston
10 years of IEDs and shrapnel wounds taught surgeons critical lessons about trauma—and tourniquets.

Area hospitals treated 187 people for injuries related to the blast, including more than a dozen in critical conduction. Because the blast originated from a device placed on the ground, most of the injuries were to the lower body, rather than the head or abdomen. Some of the wounded, like Jeff Bauman, the man carried to safety by Iraq War activist Carlos Arredondo, lost limbs in the explosion; at least 10 people had amputations.

SNIP:

But military doctors soon found that when applied correctly and in the right situation, tourniquets pay enormous dividends—dropping the mortality rate in such instances from 90 percent to 10 percent. Now they're standard procedure among first responders. (The bleeding in Bauman's legs, for instance, was kept in check by a hand-made tourniquet made from a shirt.)

SNIP:

Likewise, doctors in Iraq soon discovered that the conventional wisdom on how to stop blood loss in a trauma victim was basically backwards. For about half a century, doctors had relied mostly on red blood cells and crystalloid fluids. But when Jenkins was deployed to Oman in 2002, he and his colleagues began using a different formula, in which there was a much higher rate of plasma. "If you gave blood transfusions the old way, the mortality rate approached 70 percent," he said. "But if you did it in that 1 to 1 approach, the mortality approached 20 percent." Their policies were soon adopted by trauma centers back in the States.

"It wasn't really until the armed services started doing that as a concerted effort in the Middle East that we realized how much the early use of blood...changes things in a number of ways," Hauser says.

On a more logistical level, as the New York Times reported on Tuesday, hospitals in Boston adopted a basic tactic from Iraq to eliminate any unnecessary confusion as to which patients needed which kind of care. As the Times explained, surgeons "used felt markers to write patients' vital signs and injuries on their chests—safely away from the leg wounds—so that if a patient’s chart was misplaced during a transfer to surgery or intensive care, for example, there would be no question about what was found in the emergency room." But the largest benefit of the war experience may have been training.

Read all of it here:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/04/how-war-terror-helped-boston-keep-its-death-toll-down

It's not a war that we asked for, nor one that we condoned. It was an ignorant and wasteful war. Our soldiers were maimed or died. Men, women and children of Iraq and Afghanistan suffered the same fate.
I weep for all of them.

Out of the depth of despair that the wars have cost us, so many lives to change forever, one light appeared from all the carnage. A way to heal. Without that knowledge more lives would have been lost.

We need to educate ourselves. We need to move forward.

Peace

April 19, 2013