Social Media - Good or Bad?

I love sharing neat photos like this on Facebook and my blog.  This is a painting on a HUGE silo and it is truly beautiful and amazing.  I love posing recipes and sharing valuable information also.

However, my emotions have become very mixed lately about facebook.  Some people have decided to use it as the perfect place to spew all kinds of vitriol.  Oh, I don't mind people sharing their opinions, that is what free speech is all about. I am talking about positively viscious comments and attacks on individuals and groups.

We are seeing more and more evidence of hate dividing this Country right in half.  I am seriously considering disconnecting from FB because of some of the terribly negative and derogatory comments I see there on a daily basis.

I have really enjoyed connecting with some of my old high school acquaintances.  I have re-connected with a neighbor of mine whom I hadn't heard from in over forty years!  What fun we have had catching up.  I also found a cousin on FB and even one fellow I thought had been killed in Viet Nam.  That has been so much fun.

But, when I get on line and see people demonstrating open hostility, racism and hatred of another group whether it is illegal aliens, gays, African Americans, and even the President of the United States, I am disappointed at the state of our Country and the world as a whole.  I had hoped that by now we might actually live in a kinder, gentler world. I had hoped for a world where starving children in our own Country was reason for us to pull together and put an end to it.  I had hoped that ALL Americans regardless of their income or "status" would be able to access affordable healthcare.  I had hoped that those who have an abundance could look at the homeless and say, "but for the Grace of God, there go I." 

Instead, I am witnessing daily comments about how heterosexuals should hate gays, how it's just their own fault if people are jobless and that there are jobs out there if you just look.  Baloney!  Yes, in some areas of the Country there may be a few more jobs available than in other parts.  But, I think it is pretty indicative of how bad things are when thousands of people show up vying for only 10 or 15 jobs.  Many people say, "Well, I would NEVER take food stamps."  Let me tell you right now people, if your children were going to bed hungry every night you WOULD be thankful for the food stamp program and any other assistance from food banks, etc. that might be available to you.

Never say never.  If you are blessed with a job and good health and a roof over your head...you are blessed. Not everyone is so fortunate.  I hope you never have to watch your child die because you can not afford the proper insurance to pay for health care/surgery/chemo. 

I am a retired Registered Nurse, and I became a Nurse to give something back to the world.  We have become a selfish, greedy Nation and people.  We no longer care about the child next door.  I'm not talking about the children in Asia or Africa, but the children in our own cities and counties.  I found out recently that there are 300 homeless children in Monroe County Georgia's School System alone.  This is frightening.  I don't know why they are homeless or hungry, and I really don't care why.  I just know that I am glad that Tabernacle Baptist Church started a "Backpack Buddy" program to give these children bags of groceries to take home on Friday afternoons so that they will not be hungry. 

We donate regularly to the local Food Bank.  There are elderly people who don't have enough income to buy groceries and pay for their medications.  Are we to let them starve?

So, I ask you this.  In your use of Social Media are you trying to do something GOOD for the world, or are you just spreading hateful, prejudiced, selfish vitriol?  I'm trying to decide whether to participate any more in FB.  I am still praying that the good will overcome the bad...call me a Pollyanna!

Heroes

What makes a hero? What is that quality that makes the fireman run back into the burning building looking for one more person to save? What makes that man on the beach run in to saving a drowning victim when he is not a lifeguard?

There are many kinds of heroes, and I would like to share today about two who are no longer with us, but served in such marvelous and exemplary ways.

I first read about Dr. Thomas Dooley when I was a young girl growing up in the Maryland countryside. Dr. Dooley only lived to the tender age of 34, but what he accomplished in that short time is not only amazing but courageous.

Thomas Anthony Dooley III (January 17, 1927 – January 18, 1961) was an American who, while serving as a physician in the United States Navy, became increasingly famous for his humanitarian activities in South East Asia during the late 1950s until his early death from cancer. He authored three popular, inspirational books that described his humanitarian activities in Viet Nam and Laos: Deliver Us From Evil, The Edge of Tomorrow, and The Night They Burned the Mountain. These three were later collected into a single volume and published by Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, under the title, "Dr. Tom Dooley's Three Great Books."

I read Dr. Dooley's books more than one time. If you want a humbling, tearful and inspiring group of books, you need to check these out. I was amazed by his courage. Even when he was wearing an "iron maiden" type brace as his spine was deteriorating from cancer, he fought on to help others he felt were less fortunate than he.

Dooley's legacy continues through the work of the Dooley Foundation-Intermed International, which has carried on the work of Dr. Dooley for the past 50 years. Its headquarters are based in New York City and headed by Dr. Verne Chaney, President and Founder. Dooley-Intermed is a non-profit, non-governmental, non-sectarian, non-political, private voluntary organization receiving its financial support entirely from private contributions. It neither seeks nor receives government grants or contracts. The purpose of the foundation is to provide medical assistance to refugees, children, and villagers in the less privileged parts of the world with emphasis on self-help projects in the areas of preventive medicine, public health, family planning and health worker training. Dooley-Intermed presently supports medical aid projects in four countries: Laos, Nepal, Nicar, and Thailand.

Dr. Dooley lives on.

Catherine The Great!

Her large, strong hands had held me as I drew my first breath twenty years before, and now she would hold my first born child. I knew the first time I met Dr. Johnson that she was an extraordinary woman. It was 1967 and she was sixty-three years old. As I looked into her clear blue eyes, and listened to her soft but authoritative voice, I knew I could trust her to care for me and my unborn child.

Dr. Catherine Johnson was a tall, stately woman with a crop of curly, salt and pepper colored hair atop her head. Her face was strong and angular with high, prominent cheekbones.

Catherine had been brought up in a very strict environment in a time when women did not get to choose to be physicians. Against all odds, this woman earned scholarships and went on to become an Obstetrician.

Her father had always made her wear dark colored gray, blue, black type of clothing, and so as an adult out on her own, she always wore incredibly colorful clothes! One time she came into my room wearing a red and white checkered shirtwaist dress, with a wide red belt and a red flower in her hair!

But, when it came to the business of being a physician, there was none better. She was conscientious, caring and interested in the welfare of the patients in her care.
By the time I met her, she had delivered over 7,000 babies and was still working.

After suffering a stroke, at which point many would have chosen to retire, she chose instead to study art at home during her recovery. She used to paint lovely paintings at the hospital while she was in between checking on her laboring patients. All the money she made selling these paintings, she donated to local scholarships for physicians, because she said without the assistance of scholarships she would never have been able to become a doctor herself.

She frequently told her staff to "write off" charges for patients who she knew were struggling to pay their bills. She was an extraordinary human being, and a real hero in my book.

I have this painting in my home...Catherine painted it, and it is a constant reminder of what it means to give something of yourself back to the world...Catherine has long since left this world, but the memory of her generosity, kindness and heroism lives on in all of us who had the privilege of knowing her.

Tell me about some of your heroes will you?