Dallas

Update: For those of you emailed me about helping with a graduation party for Dallas, please stay tuned! We should have more information in the next week or so.

Party is scheduled for Sunday, May 20th from 2-4pm. I will email everyone that has volunteered to give them the location and items that we need as soon as I have the list ready!

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One Million Reasons I Want to Shop at JC Penney

I am royally pissed off.

Many of you have probably heard of the group One Million Moms.  They are basically a group of supposedly Christian women (and apparently some men) that feel it is their duty to police the media to make sure everyone follows their beliefs and values.

And I am sure you have all heard of Ellen DeGeneres and JC Penney. In case you’ve been living under a rock, let me break down what’s been happening lately:

Ellen DeGeneres is openly gay. (DUH, we all knew this.)

Ellen DeGeneres has recently partnered with JC Penney to be their corporate spokesperson.

Monica Cole, director of One Million Moms has decided to attack JC Penney for choosing Ellen DeGeneres to be their spokesperson.

A few days ago, Ellen gave commentary on her show about the One Million Moms plan to try and get Ellen removed from JC Penney’s marketing campaign. In her commentary, she refuted the claims that she doesn’t match the traditional values of the One Million Moms organization by saying “I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated, and helping those in need. Those are my traditional values.”

And really, shouldn’t those be the same values we ALL HAVE?

So what’s One Million Moms reasons for the attack on JC Penney and Ellen DeGeneres? Well, Monica Cole was recently appeared on this talk show with Bryan Fischer of American Family Association discussing her organization’s reasons:

Let’s break down a few of her points, shall we?

“We (One Million Moms) feel that Ellen DeGeneres is not a true representation of JC Penney.” Um, OK, since when did One Million Moms become marketing experts? Do they think they know about JC Penney’s target audience and who would best represent them more than, say, JC FREAKIN’ PENNEY?

JC Penney has made the CHOICE to select a spokesperson that models deviant and abnormal behavior.” So Ellen’s motto is being “kind to one another” is deviant and abnormal? Her love and devotion to her spouse, friends and family is deviant and abnormal? I think not.

“We asked JC Penney to remain neutral and choose a spokesperson that would help them remain more neutral in the culture war.” Is there a culture war? If there is, I wonder if One Million Moms is part of the reason a “war” even exists?

“There are TONS of heterosexual people that could have served as their spokesperson instead of Ellen DeGeneres.” Well, of course there are. But if sexual orientation doesn’t matter when hiring someone for a job, why should Ellen have been DISCRIMINATED AGAINST when being hired by JC Penney for this job? I think her values and beliefs matter more than whom she climbs into bed with each night.

“When Moms are spending their hard-earned money, they like to know which stores to support or not to support.” Earth to Monica Cole, I’M A MOM, TOO. I raise my children to love those around them, and treat others how they would like to be treated. I believe in compassion and being considerate of everyone, regardless of their race, sex, background, or sexual orientation. Guess where I will be spending MY DOLLARS? Do you think Monica Cole and her traditional value moms band of merry haters also boycott K-Mart and Macy’s for carrying Martha Stewart merchandise? Martha’s a felon– isn’t that against their beliefs as well?

“We are not boycotting JC Penney. We are just informing Moms that every dollar spent at JC Penney is money that will be used to pay their spokesperson and to promote a lifestyle we want to warn our children about.” OK, does One Million Moms know the definition of BOYCOTT? Because, yeah… I think thats exactly what they are doing.

Just so we’re clear: Ellen is NOT having sex in JC Penney commercials, and she will not be smooching her spouse in the advertisements. Her job as spokesperson is completely and totally separate from her sexual orientation. It would be same if you, or me, or YOUR MOM was the spokesperson. Does anyone care what MY sexual orientation is?  Why should you?

“JC Penney is the one calling for the boycott by those that are pro-family.” oh really? Because ONE member of One Million Moms called
ONE employee at ONE JC Penney store to voice their opinion about never shopping there again, this one employee’s response was “That’s OK, we don’t need your money. You can take your business elsewhere.” That’s JC Penney as a CORPORATION asking for a boycott? Get real. I assume this also means that if ONE member of the One Million Moms organization uses birth control (oh holy hell, what a sin) then it is safe to assume that the entire organization is an advocate of birth control, right?

Did you know that One Million Moms is not only attacking JC Penney and Ellen, but also has attacked Macy’s? Macy’s ran a catalog with an ad showing a wedding cake. If you were to look closely at the cake topper, you would see it has two grooms instead of the traditional bride and groom. Oh, the horror. 

One Million Moms also contacted the corporate sponsors of the television show “Modern Family” because the adopted daughter of the two gay men on the show dropped the F-Bomb numerous times (which was bleeped out each time). The storyline was taking a comedic look at what ALL OF US have gone through as parents, when your toddler repeats EVERYTHING that gets said, and yes– even cuss words they hear.  (Remind me to write a blog post about the time my then THREE YEAR OLD flipped off two old ladies at the mall. Oh yes, that happened.)

One Million Moms have also attacked the teen television show “DeGrassi” on the Teen Nick channel for airing ads about the Trevor Project, which helps struggling gay/lesbian youth. Their main purpose is crisis intervention and suicide prevention. One Million Moms should be supportive of this, since I am sure they also consider suicide to be a sin.

One Million Moms has even attacked Target for being one of the main sponsors of the DeGrassi television show. SO– while the rest of us are out there telling kids “It Gets Better“, One Million Moms and The American Family Association is responding with a big, fat “Um, NO IT WON’T.”

On a final note, I think Ron Johnson, CEO of JC Penney, said it best:

“We stand squarely behind Ellen as our spokesperson and that’s a great thing, because she shares the same values that we do in our company,” Johnson said on CBS This Morning. “Our company was founded 110 years ago on The Golden Rule, which is about treating people fair and square, just like you would like to be treated yourself. And we think Ellen represents the values of our company and the values that we share.”

Spend your dollars wisely, people. JC Penney, here I come!

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How Will I Ever be Able to Do This?

Up until now, I never really thought about the state calling us about accepting a foster child placement. I pretty much knew in my head what questions we would ask, the information we would want. And of course I know the specifics of the child we are looking for. But what happens when you aren’t able to stop thinking about the ones you say no to?

A good friend of ours is a social worker with the state, and handles cases in our county. She has the daunting job of removing children from their homes to be placed in foster care.

She called today, not knowing we haven’t received our license yet. She told us there was a girl in a town very close to us that was being removed from her current foster home TODAY and they needed to find a placement today, or she would end up going to a shelter.

My shoulders slumped when I heard that, and tears welled up in my eyes. I knew we couldn’t take her yet, but if we could, we probably would have. She is just in between the ages of my 16-yr old and 11-yr old daughters. She has a love for sports, and just needs a stable loving home right now.

My heart just broke when I had to say no– that we couldn’t even be considered to be her foster family yet.

How am I ever going to be able to do this when we get licensed? How will I be able to say “no” when they call about kids that are not even close to the specifics of what we are looking for? We are looking for boys, age 4-7 years old. Certainly not a pre-teen girl! How could we have said NO to this little girl, when that meant she might be spending tonight in a shelter until they found someone to say YES?

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Something to Ponder

Something to ponder. WHY, when I go into a public restroom stall and all the other stalls are empty, does the next person to come in automatically choose the stall RIGHT NEXT TO ME?

I feel like my personal space has been violated.

Thoughts?

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It’s Not Just Kids Doing the Bullying

Many times when we hear stories of kids getting bullied it is by other kids. But this latest story from the Today Show leaves me literally dumbfounded. 14-year old Cheyanne and her father Brian (no last names were given), from Ohio, reported to NBC’s Today Show that Cheyanne was being bullied at school. Surprisingly it was NOT other students that were bullying the 14-year old special needs student. It was her TEACHERS. Watch the video and see for yourself. I had to get the Kleenex at about the 3:30 mark, and the rest was just a tear-filled cry-fest for me, because I kept looking at Cheyanne’s face and she just kept that innocent smirk on her face the whole time. I just want to hug her.

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I cannot believe this poor girl had to put up with these horrible excuses for human beings for THREE YEARS! Sending a child to run on a treadmill as punishment for answering a question wrong? Calling her dumb? Lazy? Calling her a liar? I seriously cried watching this because I couldn’t believe looking at the pictures of those teachers that those words were coming our of their mouthes. It sickened me, made me angry and more than anything– it saddens me.

The teacher’s aide, Kelly Chaffins, has resigned. Whether the school forced her to or not, we’ll never know. The teacher, Christie Wilt, however, is suspended without pay. She will eventually (for now) be able to teach again. Lawyers for Cheyanne and her family are trying to make sure Ms. Wilt doesn’t set foot in a classroom again. Let’s hope they can make that happen. There is absolutely no excuse for treating a child like this. There is NO EXCUSE. PERIOD.

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