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Volume XIII, Issue 1
What if an Active Shooter is in your area?
Call 911 if it is safe to do so!
As we have seen so many shootings at schools and offices in the past few years, the Homeland Security Department recommends that we as citizens be prepared on how to react in an active shooter situation. Read the information below from their learning material and keep it in the back of your mind in case you are faced with a situation. You may also want to tell your children how to respond in case they are at a mall shopping and they too are faced with a violent shooter. Different schools have different policies so you may also want to go to the school where your kids go and see what they want the students to do in a situation where there is a school shooter. Most importantly tell your children to do exactly what their teacher tells them to do. If an active shooter is in your area: * Evacuate: Have an escape route and plan in mind. Leave your belongings behind. * Hide Out: Hide in an area out of the shooter’s view. Block entry to your hiding place and lock the doors. Silence your cell phone. * Take Action: As a last resort and only when your life is in imminent danger. Act with physical aggression and throw items at the shooter. As always call 911 if it is safe to do so. Look for our postcard on more advice if you are in an active shooter situation.
The History of Black History Month ASALH.org Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including * Charlene Duarte * Rusty Columbo * Devon Bailey & Family * Maria Dragon * Vemonda Lane & Family * Charlie * Mr. Mike * Tiffany * Dvora * Ed Giampietro * Kristan David Perez * Tommy & Joe * Geralyn * Little Ryan * Earnest Bowens & Family * Ed & Ruth * Rudy * Lisa * John McLean * Darren * Jan Cerrito * Rev. Patrick O’Shen
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Homeless Internet Star's Struggle
Nicole Brochu How many times have you driven past the guy with the cardboard sign without sparing so much as a glance, let alone a coin from the bottom of the ashtray? I’ll start the red-faced hand-raising — I do it all the time. Ted Williams has me rethinking my apathy of late. For many of us, homelessness, and the addiction and mental health baggage so often keeping its company, is someone else’s problem — a vexing community concern that can loom so large, and seem so hopeless, that worry and sympathy can feel like a waste of energy. In the shadow of that indifference, an entire community has gone faceless to the bulk of a more fortunate society. It’s just easier that way for the rest of us, too busy, too stressed by our own daily troubles to consider an uncomfortable truth: “There but for the grace of God go we.” Then came Ted Williams. In the flash of a viral YouTube video that lit the Internet afire with the hope of second chances, the self-assigned “Man With the Golden Voice” stirred our hearts, and instantly put a face on homelessness and addiction — and the possibility of redemption. For a while there, it seemed all of America was rooting this guy on. A former Ohio radio personality with a successful career and family, Williams admitted in a Columbus Dispatch video report, shot from the side of an intersection he worked with his cardboard sign, that he had lost it all to alcohol, drugs and self-destruction. But he found God, the 53-year-old said, he was more than two years sober, and just waiting for another chance to ride his deep, silky voice back to a normal, productive life. He was ready for a fresh start, if only someone believed in him. And we so desperately wanted to believe.
Detroit design student develops coat for homeless
Canada and the United Kingdom, also decan Life and History (ASALH), the group vote a month to celebrating black history. sponsored a national Negro History week The story of Black History Month begins in 1926, choosing the second week of in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth February to coincide with the birthdays of Amendment abolished slavery in the UnitAbraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. ed States. That September, The event inspired schools the Harvard-trained hisand communities nationtorian Carter G. Woodson Painting above is by Jacob wide to organize local celand the prominent min- Lawrence. “The Library” -1960 ebrations, establish history ister Jesse E. Moorland clubs and host performancfounded the Association es and lectures. for the Study of Negro Life and History In the decades that followed, mayors of (ASNLH), an organization dedicated to cities across the country began issuing researching and promoting achievements yearly proclamations recognizing Negro by black Americans and other peoples of History Week. By the late 1960s, thanks African descent. Known today as the Asin part to the Civil Rights Movement and sociation for the Study of African Ameria growing awareness of black identity, Ne(Continued on pg 4)
Bill Laitner An industrial-design major at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Veronika Scott spent all her cash from summer jobs and then some -- donated by family and friends -- to design and sew three coats, actually, each an improved version of the last. She calls it the Element S(urvival) coat. She is sure it will save lives in Detroit, and someday across the nation and world. As fanciful as that sounds, some people have bought into it. College for Creative Studies Dean Imre Molnar, a former design director for Patagonia, the outdoor clothing company in Ventura, Calif., took one look at Scott’s design in November, and “this stopped me dead,” he said. “This is extraordinary. If this garment is successful in Detroit, it’s going to work across the country and around the world for homeless people, to say nothing of the relief industry. Wherever you have an earthquake, the Red Cross could distribute these things across the
Our Purpose: To Help the Homeless Learn How to Help Themselves
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Volume XIII, Issue 1
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vendors. None of the money that is made in e are doing a massive monththe streets goes to any staff member or for an ly partner campaign. It is so administrative cost such as insurance, emvitally important for us to secure as ployee benefits, or payroll taxes. Money that many monthly members as we can. is used to pay for staff or for other administraAs you know the streets are getting tive cost comes from us creating income on harder for us to do. However, it is our low income but affordable housing for not as bad as we thought it would poor people. Also administrative costs also be. Some cities have made it against come from the money the hospitals pay us to the law to sell the paper in their city house complex cases for their homeless populimits and some of the cities that we lation. When we house one of their clients it thought we would be in court with saves them and tax payers hundreds of thoudid not change the law. So with some sands of taxes that we would all have to pay. bad news we got some good news. So when we buy a new file cabinet in the ofHaving monthly supporters helps fice or a lap top the money comes from themus keep our budget in control bemoney the staff receives, not from those buckcause we have a greater understandets in the streets or when the checks come in ing of what is coming our way as far from our monthly partners. as donations. There is another good We are asking for all our supporters to try reason for the monthly supporters, it to get as many people as they can to come is because of me. I must admit I am and visit us at the shelter to see where all the really tired. It has still been seven money goes. We are asking for our supportdays a week almost 18 to 20 hours a ers to also send in a check per month so we day nonstop for too, too many years. have a better understanding of what we can I need a break. It is just nonstop day do to make us bigger and after day and better so we can continue It is not so much the size there is so much help those who are more we have of the donation but the to forgotten about. Every to do to make number of people who amount helps. us even bigger Last month we sold than we are now donate to us. over 125,000 newsso we can help papers and cards in the streets. That meant with the so many new faces of homethat over 125,000 people put in money in to less people coming our way daily. those buckets. If we would have just half that These are the “first timers.” These amount sent in at $2.00 per month that would are the people that for the first time mean that I would know that we can expect to in their life became homeless due to receive about $125,000 in checks per month. loss of job or loss of home due to a This means we can expand and keep on growforeclosure. ing so this place is here when I am dead and It is so important to help these peoburied. This place needs to be here for the ple and to never say we don’t have many years to come. Not only we can expand, a bed for you. If we have to turn a but I will get some well deserved rest. Come “first timer” away there is a chance by and visit me and visit this place. I am here that person may become a long term usually 27 days a month 24 hours a day unless homeless person. So we must keep I am trying to lose some weight by walking on buying more property while it is outside or at the YMCA. I have been living cheap. This will allow us to almost here a very long time and I do want to get double our bed space. We are still in home more and more considering I only live a the process of remodeling the main few miles from the shelter. complex as well. With all this we have to raise more funds and try to COSAC HOMELESS get some idea of what we expect to ASSISTANCE CENTER get in donations in the future. HavP.O. Box 292 Davie, FL 33329 ing monthly partners really helps out more than what most people think. It is not so much the size of the donaHelping tion but the number of people who + = More donate to us. People! The money that is given to the vendors goes directly to the operational 1203 N. Federal Highway cost of the shelter and the homeless Hollywood, FL 33020 themselves, the vendors who sell the paper as their job. Exactly like the Setup networks of people to help out! Sun-Sentinel and the Herald Street
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The Voice of the Homeless
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The History of Black History Month
Volume XIII, Issue 1
Page 5
Homeless Internet star's struggle shows addiction's power
2011 New Year Pastoral Reflection
(Continued from pg 1)
(continued from pg 1)
America, always the sucker for the underdog, Disney fairy tales and the unflagging belief in the power of opportunity, responded as only the Land of Opportunity can, charmed by the promise and talent that lay hidden behind a rumpled, grimy exterior. Within days, Williams — his hair neatly cut and groomed, new clothes on his back — was making the rounds of the network morning show couches. He had his pick of job offers, from the voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers to voiceovers for Kraft and NFL Films. He was talking about get-
ting a house, about finally watching his dreams come true, and when he broke down in sobs in a reunion with his elderly mother, we cried, too. A star was born, powered by our collective cheers, and it soared dangerously fast. Those all too familiar with the pitfalls of addiction could see the next chapter play out even before the reports of a police disturbance with one of his daughters. It turns out Williams hadn’t really been sober, he admitted to Dr. Phil McGraw, his self-appointed guardian angel. He’d been drinking in his lux-
ury hotel room between TV appearances, he had a drug-fueled confrontation with police as little as a year ago, and he was determined not to leave his crack-addicted girlfriend behind if he made the big time, no matter how toxic she was to his sobriety. Oh, yeah, and he was a con man and a liar who abandoned a wife and nine children, had a lengthy rap sheet and bragged about using his melodic voice to convince people to trust him, before robbing them blind. The jig is up, the fairy dust by now shaken dry from the Ted Williams tale. Americans are feeling (Continued on pg 6)
gro History Week had evolved into tion. Black History Month on many This years theme is African Americans college campuses. President Gerand the Civil War. ald R. Ford officially recognized In 1861, as the United States stood at the Black History Month in 1976, brink of Civil War, people of African decalling upon the public to “seize scent, both slave and free, waited with a the opportunity watchful eye. They unto honor the tooAmericans have never derstood that a war beoften neglected tween the North and the fully realized how their accomplishSouth might bring about ments of black jubilee-the destruction (African Americans’) Americans in efforts saved the Union. of slavery and univerevery area of ensal freedom. When the deavor throughConfederacy fired upon out our history.” Since then, every Fort Sumter and war ensued, President American president has desigAbraham Lincoln maintained that paranated February as Black History mount cause was to preserve the Union, Month and endorsed a specific not end slavery. Frederick Douglass, the theme. In 2010, the theme focused most prominent black leader, opined that on the history of black economic regardless of intentions, the war would empowerment and recognized the bring an end to slavery, America’s “pecuachievements of the painter Jacob liar institution.” Lawrence, the entrepreneur Annie Over the course of the war, the four Malone and the National Urban million people of African descent in the League, a civil rights organizaUnited States proved Douglass right. Free
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blacks and slaves rallied around the Union flag in the cause of freedom. From the cotton and tobacco fields of the South to the small towns and big cities of the North, nearly 200,000 joined the Grand Army of the Republic and took up arms to destroy the Confederacy. They served as recruiters, soldiers, nurses, and spies, and endured unequal treatment, massacres, and riots as they pursued their quest for freedom and equality. Their record of service speaks for itself, and Americans have never fully realized how their efforts saved the Union. In honor of the efforts of people of African descent to destroy slavery and inagurate universal freedom in the United States, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History has selected “African Americans and the Civil War” as the 2011 Black History Theme. We urge all Americans to study and reflect on the value of their contribution to the nation.
An Unconventional Interaction: Beyond Labels By David Korn The wind is gusting today, and I’m sitting at a chilly table trying to warm myself in the sun. I see a man with a stack of newspapers walking towards me. Even before he speaks, I imagine I know exactly how this encounter will unfold. Homeless black man approaches affluent white student. He will ask for money. If I give, I won’t know whether that money will be used to fill him stomach or his syringe. Perhaps I’ll be able to placate my conscience by offering whatever metal happens to be rattling around in my pockets, yet as he walks away I won’t know whether I’ve done anything to help him or whether I have only reinforced and perpetuated the cycle of poverty. So, I decide to engage him instead. I am conflicted about giving money, but I love to share words. I will sit down and chat with this man, if he is willing. He smiles as he approaches. “Would you like to purchase an issue of our publication, The Homeless Voice, for a $2 donation?” “Where does this paper come from?” I ask. “Well, I am a homeless shelter resident myself,” he explains. He tells me that the shelter oversees a variety of programs that work not just to provide the homeless
with a place to get out of the cold at night, but to just said. I begin to wonder: what if others could actually help people get back on their feet. “You hear these ideas about humanity? What if others have to work hard to stay there,” he says. “And could share this moment of mutual respect and these newspapers—the most important thing we understanding? In our fast-paced world, we have is our voice, man. You and me both. We rarely make time for honest interactions with each have a unique story that needs to be told.” strangers. Our rigid belief systems keep us I am immediately impressed: he is well spoken, confined to our own small circles of friends expressive, polite. And most of all, he has already and family. Our collectively held prejudices engaged me. He does not seem interested in just prevent us from reaching out to unlikely people: collecting money and moving on—he wants to we tend to view homelessness in a very specific communicate. way. We do not see individuals who have “You a rastaman?” He asks me, hopes, dreams, beliefs, personal referring to my shoulder-length stories. We just slap the word “We are all one. dreadlocks. I nod. “I try not to ‘homeless’ onto a person, and Being a rastaman is then we rarely see beyond label myself as anything, but yeah, I got love in my heart.” “Well about one world, one that label. But perhaps we yeah,” he says. “That’s the most to reconsider this method family, one love.” need important thing. But why not wear of categorizing individual that label proudly? I hesitate. “I’m human beings. This man was not trying to be something I’m not…I don’t come homeless. He was also a rare embodiment of from that background—” He cuts me off. “What peace and tolerance in a world so desperately background?” “Well—” “What background. We in need of those qualities. We all stand a lot to all come from one background. You know what learn from people like him. that is? The Creator. We all from the Creator. I end up buying a copy of the paper. “Thank These days yeah, people judge and stereotype and you for the things you said here,” I say after we label, but we need to transcend that. One love, finish talking. Before he walks away, he simply you feel me? There is no this god and this—no nods and touches his heart. “Blessing.” only Islam or only Christianity—there is no six David Korn is a traveler and freelance writer. purposes up there.” He points upward. “We are For more information, visit his blog at www. all one. Being a rastaman is about one world, one davekorn.wordpress.com or contact him at family, one love.” davidmkorn@gmail.com. I am blown away by the beauty of what he has
disciples. In loving our neighbor, I am not much for resolutions. In fact, I find we will do our part to ensure that them to be very similar to the “commitments” all are treated as part of our own made by many during Lent to fast from family – the human family. This is this or that. These forms of abstinence or the function of the Church, not the efforts to change are often misinformed and government. misguided; and are often irrelevant to the The second item of great long-term purposes fasting and resolutions importance in Dickens’ quote is were originally intended to serve. As usual, the notion of how we are to serve we fall short of the “expectations” when we without any discrimination as to are resolute to do things “on our own” and whether our neighbor without God. As this new year begins, I am “I knew you before “deserves” our love or thinking about the very last I formed you in your not. God told Jeremiah, “I knew you before I paragraph in Charles Dickens’ mother’s womb. formed you in your second Christmas book, The Before you were Chimes, written and published born I set you apart mother’s womb. Before in 1844. “So may the New Year,” and appointed you you were born I set you Dickens wrote, “be a happy one to as my prophet to the apart and appointed you you, happy to many more whose nations,” (Jer. 1:5) as my prophet to the nations,” (Jer. 1:5). happiness depends on you! So What if the Holy Spirit would work may each year be happier than the last, and through our testimony of love to not the meanest of our brethren or sisterhood soften the hardest of hearts thereby debarred their rightful share, in what our freeing our neighbor to come to Great Creator formed them to enjoy.” his/her spiritual senses and turn There are several aspects to this paragraph themselves over to God? What if in which I believe are paramount for us to pray doing so, God is able to reconfigure and reflect on today. Before we do anything and redirect the person toward else to-day, we should prayerfully consider the fulfillment of everything God the following: has foreseen and pre-destined for We are our brethren and sisters’ keepers. It our neighbor to do on this earth, is incumbent upon us to ensure that we love before he/she was in their mother’s our neighbor as Jesus has told us to do so. respective wombs? This is what they Our Lord’s words were not a recommendation were intended by God to enjoy… or a “goal” for us to meet sometime in the a life of purpose and meaning in future. Rather it is to be the daily reason Christ. for our being. Love… And in loving others, It is our duty to live for Christ and we will declare to the world that we our His
(Continued on pg 6)
On Spirituality
L
earning to pray can leave many of us as non prayers. When we consider the first prayers we ever learned: the Our Father, Hail Mary,” now I lay me down to sleep” they were all someone else’s idea of how to pray, even if they have great merit and were from Jesus Himself, as in the case of the Our Father, they may not always work for us and might feel like work or penance, when what we really need is peace and comfort. True prayer can only come from true faith. Our prayer is not for God but for us. When we pray, we are speaking to God. Having a conversation. When we talk to someone we also listen, with God, this is the difficult part because we don’t hear Him with our ears but with our heart, and that takes practice. As a Catholic I have prayed many rosaries in my life and have received great blessings as a result, but today my favorite prayer is thank you. Thank you Jesus, thank you. And I might have to say that ten or twenty times before I begin to feel connected, but I always do eventually, and from there can go to so many places, places of comfort and peace. To mention people who are hurting or really need a miracle in their life, or to just spend some time with the Lord not having to ask for anything, knowing He already knows and cares. Our country and our world need our
prayers today. The recent violence in Arizona, the remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr., and the realization that, even with a black president, we have a long way to go towards treating all human beings as Gods’ children, I ask you to say a prayer today, the one that is from your heart. ods’ Peace and Blessings.
G
~ DEACON BOB
The Voice of the Homeless
Page 6 Homeless Internet star's struggle shows addiction's power (Continued from pg 5)
duped, but we own part of the con. As much as the silky-voiced swindler spun a convenient tale, we were all too eager to buy the lie that decades of addiction and crime could be so easily overcome. The truth is harder to stomach. Perhaps that’s why it landed almost with the thud of inevitability that less than two weeks after entering an inpatient addiction treatment program, Williams checked himself out this week against his doctors’ advice. As disappointing, and heartbreaking, as it may be, that is the reality of addiction. It is, as Dr. Phil likes to say, “resistant to treatment and subject to relapse.” Beating it doesn’t fit neatly into a Disney storyline. Because this is real life, not some Hollywood depiction. For the first time, for many people who don’t have to confront such issues, Ted Williams made us look into the face of homelessness and addiction. It is but one face. According to the National Alliance to End Homeless recent report, more than 656,000 people were homeless in America in 2009 — 20,000 more than the year before. Much of the growth came among families with children, and people down on their luck after job loss in a difficult economy. Many of them really do just need a second chance. But year after year, the homeless community’s most consistent sector, and most resistant to help, are those with mental illness, and those with drug and alcohol problems. Those like Ted Williams — talented, bright, often charming, and haunted by personal demons we can’t begin to understand. I don’t pretend to understand it, but I don’t have to. I’ve come to expect Williams’ stumbles and face-plants are part of the process. They don’t mean he’s a lost cause, and they won’t stop me from rooting for the guy. I don’t know Ted Williams, I haven’t walked in his shoes, but I see something in him I can relate to and sympathize with. For the first time in a long time, I see a human being, not a cardboard sign. And I can say, “There but for the grace of God…”
Detroit design student develops coat for homeless (Continued from pg 1)
student found people she recworld,” he said. ognized from months of visits. Scott, broke from developShe handed them her coating prototypes, asked him for cum-bedroll. seed money. While she sat “She said it turns into a there holding her coat, Molnar sleeping bag. Oh, yes incalled another apparel veteran: deed!” Jeannie Charles, 52, Mark Valade, CEO of Dearexclaimed, while her friend born-based Carhartt, synonyPee Wee Jones, 45, got down mous with tough work clothes. on the sidewalk to snuggle into “I said, `I don’t usually do the Element S(urvival) coat. this, but this woman has more “I can sleep in this, yes, I than a product. She has a wellcan!” Jones said in a muffled researched proposal, and she shout from inside the shiny needs 25 pieces made. Can white covering. you help her?”’ That week, afOn its outside, the coat is ter seeing her coat, Valade and sewn of Tyvek HomeWrap Carhartt were in. insulation -- weatherproof, dirt-shedding, Also in was the Rev. Faith Fowler, who reflective. On the inside, flexible synthetic heads the nonprofit Cass Community Social fleece supplied by Carhartt. Services, a complex of homeless shelters, Scott has made dozens of trips since Febtraining centers and recycling enterprises ruary to shelters in Detroit, first talking to staffed by formerly homeless people. homeless people about their needs and fears, Next to a shop where workers turn old tires then testing ideas over and over. She will add into mud mats, Scott will have space for the 5-foot zippers, donated by Carhartt -- Velcro cut-and-sew assembly of the coat. is far too costly, she found -- and make final “You don’t want to encourage people to live design tweaks before starting production of on the streets,” Fowler said. “On the other 25 final prototypes. hand, you have some people who just aren’t She’s so familiar to her clientele that she’s going to come into the shelter. I see this coat known as “the coat lady” in shelters that “take helping all of them.” anybody -- you don’t Carhartt’s sewing machines were delivered “You don’t want to encourage have to be sober, you last week, and Cass people to live on the streets,” don’t have to be drugCommunity Social Ser- Fowler said. “On the other free,” she said. Estimates for Detroit’s vices expects that Scott population will have her fledgling hand, you have some people homeless assembly line running by who just aren’t going to come range from about 10,000 to 32,000, depending on year’s end, said the Rev. into the shelter. the source. Homeless Ed Hingelberg, operapeople were counted at 10,000 a decade ago tions director. by Wayne State University psychologist Paul Carhartt also plans to fly in a seamstress Toro. from a plant in Kentucky “to help me train the “For sure, it’s considerably higher than people who are going to make these,” Scott 10,000 today, given the harsh economic times said, with her characteristic grin and her tone in Detroit,” Toro said. of infectious amazement. At a reception this month at the HuntingOn Tuesday, she walked Detroit’s Cass Corton Woods home of Scott’s grandparents, ridor for a crucial moment: the test of her latMarshall and Sharon Charlip, family friends est prototype on the very street people who watched as Scott modeled her creation and might use it. showed off its power to transform -- coat to Outside the NSO shelter, or Neighborhood bedroll, killing cold to survival. They apService Organization, on Third Street, the plauded and slipped cash into an envelope to keep Element S(urvival) going. “It’s gorgeous!” said Royal Oak artist Diane Levine, who once taught drawing and painting to Scott in her home studio. “Folks, if you write a check to CCSS (Cass Community Social Services), and put `coat project’ on it, you’ll get a 501c(3) tax deduction and the money will go to” the project, said Huntington Woods attorney Barry Waldman. In the kitchen, getting a glass of wine, was Scott’s classmate Kelsey Beckett, 21, of Rochester. “It’s been a very long project, she’s gotten so much done, and she’s so young. It makes me feel lazy,” Beckett, an illustration major, said with a laugh.
2011 New Year Pastoral Reflection (Continued from pg 5)
in so doing, to die to self and live as Christ is in us and guiding us to be “perfect” as our Father is perfect. To be saints in this world so in need of them – more than ever before. May this new year see you in the service of your neighbor. May you find yourself with calluses on your knees and with wrinkly hands due to the incessant practice you’ve made into a habit of washing another’s feet. May your new year be unforgettable and full of the fire of the Holy Spirit. May this year be the year of His glorious second coming. . . Maranatha! May the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon each of you this new year and always, Daniel Nicholas Medina Pastor New Antioch Church of the Brethren
My Valentine... Sara Targett
The history of Valentine’s Day — and its patron saint — is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been a month of romance (and that Valentine’s Day has become highly commercialized.) An estimated 1 billion Valentine cards are sent each year, 180 million red roses are sent to loved ones, 36 million heart shaped boxes of candy are consumed, and retailers bring in approx. $14 billion dollars annually! The commercialism of this holiday has never bothered me though. I’ve always enjoyed Valentine’s Day- even as a child. It’s a holiday almost all Americans celebrate. Regardless of your political or religious background, everyone seems to enjoy a nice little note, and some delicious chocolates. Valentine’s Day has certainly become an even better holiday for me since falling in love. Nine years ago while I was away at college, I met Mark. He was like no one I had ever met before and we became fast friends. Our first “date” was a Valentine’s Day school dance that ended with a stolen kiss on the cheek. Our friendship grew stronger and I finally realized (after his patience began to wear thin) that he was crazy for me, and I was head over heels for him. Mark is now my husband, and the father of our four beautiful children. Every day I love this man a little more. Valentine’s Day is a special day when we are reminded of our journey together so far. God has blessed me tremendously by choosing Mark to be My Valentine. I love you the forever kind! I hope all of our readers are sharing their love with someone special this year, Happy Valentine’s Day!
Volume XIII, Issue 1
Page 7
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