It’s the Season of Red… get in the spirit, give blood

I took time today to do a double platelet donation at our local blood bank.  I’ve never done platelet donations before but have been donating whole blood for many years now. Today I passed the 5 gallon mark.

Platelet donation takes longer but they are critical for patients with blood disorders, such as leukemia and aplastic anemia. They help stop bleeding. Fresh frozen plasma increases the level of clotting factors to help control bleeding.Red blood cell transfusions are critical for many patients who have suffered a traumatic injury,have anemia or have undergone surgery.

The need for blood donations is ongoing. Shelf life is limited and maintaining an adequate supply is a constant challenge. If you are able to donate blood I would urge you to look into it. It’s a gift that saves lives.

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An American Sentence 2

Winter comes to slap us in the face and say wake-up you are mortal.

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 360

You say... I think:

• Interest :: loan
• Chase :: pursue
• Itch :: seven year
• Soothe :: unruffle
• Lamp :: street
• Tutor :: English
• Nicole :: Smith
• Sloth :: lazy
• Burn :: unit
• Bug :: flu

get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings

An American Sentence

A blank page is always pleading to make something magical happen.

Crab Creek Review Summer 09

                                                                                                          
Reading CCR this weekend – I just wanted to draw attention to a few poems that stood out to me.

• Gail White’s -  How I Spent My Time Since You Died
• Marjorie Manwaring  - Refusal
• Kimberly L. Becker -  Washing the Blankets
• Jill Crammond Wickham – Even with Clorox, June Cleaver Has a Tough Time Cleaning The Skeletons From Her Closet
• January Gill O’Neil – Tether
• Paul David Adkins – The Mouse in Iraq
• Maya Ganesan – Undefined
• Joannie Kervran Stangeland – A Crow Means Everything
• Buzz Mauro – Einsteinian Physics in Plain English

This is the first copy of CCR I’ve seen. I haven’t finished reading it, I usually like to read poems multiple times.  I was impressed with what I’ve seen,  My favorites so far are bolded in blue above.

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Religious Right & Wrong

What is it about the Religious Right element within the Republican Party that feels compelled to seethe such meanness of spirit?   The rhetoric from such people seems quite in contrast to Judo-Christian  spirit.
A classic example was a sad display Sunday afternoon, just nine hours before the scheduled  1 a.m. vote  critical to the Senate’s Health Care Reform bill, Republican Senator Tom Coburn (Okla.) went to the Senate floor and  proposed a prayer. "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight. That's what they ought to pray."

Do we really need leaders that mix the darkest sides of human nature with religion and then insert it into how we govern ourselves as a nation? I find this kind of thing sickening.

Technorati Tags: Tom Coburn,Religious Right & Wrong,Republican,Senate

Homeless Awareness

Today is National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day

A few facts about homelessness...

• Research indicates that 40% of homeless men have served in the armed forces, as compared to 34% of the general adult population.
• Persons with severe mental illness represented about 26 percent of all sheltered homeless persons.
• 35% of the homeless people who are members of households with children are male while 65% of these people are females.
• 25% of homeless were ages 25 to 34; the same study found percentages of homeless persons aged 55 to 64 at 6%.
• Children under the age of 18 accounted for 39% of the homeless population; 42% of these children were under the age of five (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2004). This same study found that unaccompanied minors comprised 5% of the urban homeless population.

Learn more here