Where should our money go? Bill Gates speaks on this on TED TALKS.

Hot summer weather has arrived in the south this week. Usually this weather comes later, July and August, but our climate has changed drastically, it seems, with tornadoes coming in droves in the Midwest, flooding like never before, and unusual temperatures.

I don't know how anyone can claim we aren't having climate change all over the earth. I don't claim to know what to do about it, but I do my best to follow the guidelines I read about. Our coastlines are already disappearing, buildings are falling into the ocean or being moved away from the water.

With all the problems in our daily lives, it might be expecting too much for us to worry about the entire earth and what will happen in the future. I don't have children or grandchildren, but I hope the future generations will have decent environments and safe places to live.

PEOPLE WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Two people I admire for their philanthropy and aid for the poorest people on our earth are  Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates. Recently I listened to Bill Gates speak about the problems with our leaders who seem to let money drive ambitions.

For instance, more money is spent on research for drugs that prevent or cure baldness than is spent for research on malaria. Malaria kills thousands every year in tropical areas where mosquitoes carry the disease.

Baldness is a cosmetic issue and, in our country, wealthy men are more concerned about that than a disease that kills men, women and children in a third world country. Gates uses humor as well as facts to keep the listener interested.

Bill and Melinda Gates

I think our leaders should ask Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to be advisers or mentors on matters regarding health, foreign relations, and where our money can best make a difference. These innovative men and Melinda Gates are proving to the world what can be done with the right emphasis on the right problems.

WE OFTEN WONDER WHERE OUR DONATIONS ARE SPENT

I learned that donations for cancer only go to the most popular kind of cancer research. A man at Duke found he had a rare and unusual cancer, and when he investigated, he saw that there was no research on his kind of cancer. But he did not give up. He dug deeper and, being a medical student at Duke, he could do that. He discovered that his rare cancer was related to breast cancer in some way. Therefore, he could ask for funds donated for breast cancer to use for research on the rare cancer. I think, today, it has become clear that all cancers are the same but just occur in different parts of the body. Because breast cancer gets more attention, it gets more donations. Maybe some of that money can be delegated to research other kinds of cancer as well.

Like Jimmy Carter, the Gates have a foundation where they use funds to research and to reach out to those who are in dire need. Jimmy Carter's foundation has almost stopped the spread of river-blindness caused by infected black flies that live on the rivers and bite humans.    https://www.cartercenter.org/health/river_blindness/index.html

Other diseases like the guinea worm have been almost eradicated in parts of Africa. The Carter Foundation is one of my favorite charities because of the work they do and because I believe Jimmy Carter is one who genuinely cares about his fellow man. When I read his books, both poetry and prose, his caring for humanity comes through. In my opinion, he has empathy for others, unlike the man in the white house now.

We need leaders in various areas who care about protecting the earth, the people on the earth; people who are not greedy and self-centered. I am thankful for those who are giving their time and money to ease suffering both here in the United States and in foreign countries. We don't hear much about them on our media today. We hear only bad news and news about bad people.

I am still amazed at a few friends who are totally in awe of the wealthy who flaunt their lavish life-styles. I get tired of hearing comments like these. "He owns three homes and a big yacht. He's about to sell the yacht because he wants one he can land a helicopter on."

I would rather hear that the rich man is creating a foundation to help rid the earth of malaria or some other disease. That is when I would admire him. I would admire his generosity and concern for others.

I don't mind that he has lots of money and that he has several homes if he earned the wealth legally. I watched a documentary on Joseph Pulitzer, the editor and newspaper owner. I had never thought much about who he was. He came to this country as a seventeen year old boy, an immigrant from Hungary, and died a very wealthy man. He struggled hard to learn how to become an American, to learn the language, and he saw how our country treated the poor, other immigrants like him and when he became the owner of his own newspaper in St. Louis, it was written not for the upper income level of people, but for the same kind of people he was when he came to the United States. He was a champion of the working class and poor people.

Too many only use their wealth to spoil their children, hand them the world on a platter. We saw a perfect example in the past weeks where money bought undeserving children entry to the finest colleges. To me those parents  are criminals and deserve strong punishment for their crimes. I hate to be judgmental, but how could decent citizens commit such a deed?

While I am on my soapbox tonight, I think the cost of college loans is ridiculous. The people who can least afford to go to college, have the highest college loan debt. I had no college loan debt. My debt was forgiven because I became a teacher. I think that would be a way to reduce college loan debt today. We need good teachers in our schools. We need good people in administration of our schools. We certainly need smart leaders in education who will not do something so stupid as stop teaching cursive writing in elementary grades.

I asked my incredible assistant recently to type up some notes I had written.  She said she didn't read cursive writing. She told me she only had one year in elementary school when she was taught cursive. This young woman is a college graduate.

I was so angry. Not at my assistant, but at the idiots who had made that decision to end the teaching of cursive writing.

What about all the documents of the past, letters saved from ancestors, directions for creations of art? I thought about the box of letters my father wrote to my mother back in the 1920s. Young people of today in my family will not be able to read those words that are so precious, that tell the story of my parents' lives in those days. My father did not have a high school education, but he learned penmanship and wrote cursive as all children learned up until a few years ago.

In a world where technology is ballooning out of sight, we need leaders in business, education, science and government who have their feet on the ground. We must not abandon our past to pursue the future. We should embrace our past as we move into the future. 

See you next week. Drop me a line and tell me what you are concerned about these days.

Writing our Truths

I’d rather teach a week long class or a series of classes where we meet once a week than teach a weekend or one day class. My students need time to learn to trust each other. A beginning writer must be brave and confident in those around him before he divulges his feelings in his writing.
In a good personal essay, the writer must be willing to tell his own story without worrying about being judged. I often tell my students, “Don’t ask you spouse or your family to read your work in progress. While you may have definite ideas as to what you want to write, others can place doubts in your mind and second guess you.”

I found family to be the worst judges of my stories. I’ve heard “you didn’t mention me and I was there.” I’ve also been told that I was completely wrong and the events didn’t happen at all. I understand the fear of offending others with my personal viewpoint. But, as I tell my students, I can only write what I remember or what I took from the experience. I can’t write my sisters’ memories or my brother’s story.

Memory is a tricky thing. No one of us remembers an event the exact way others remember it. Five witnesses see an accident and tell five different stories to the police. We can only tell what we remember.
One student came into class one day and said, “I read my story to my wife last night and she said I had it all wrong.”
“What did she say was wrong?” I asked.
“She said I didn’t tell any details about our son’s birth. I didn't tell about her long labor and the doctor’s words when Jeff was born. But I don’t remember that.”
“She needs to write her story,” I said. “You can only write your memories.”

I heard President Jimmy Carter in an interview say that he and his wife, Rosalind wrote a book together and differed so much in what they remembered and the way they felt about the subject that he finally told the publisher the book could not be written. He and Rosalind could not agree. Thankfully, the publisher told them to each write their own views and memories and he would take care of how it was presented in the book.
If we write about our lives and tell simple facts that provoke no emotion, we will spend many, many hours writing something that will set on a shelf and no one will bother to read it. I could tell how my father bought a farm in 1942 and lived there until he died in 1987.
But, if I want to pass on a book that will resonate with generations to come, I must show how my father struggled. Give examples of the sacrifices made by both parents. Make my reader feel his heart break when his crops failed, when his livestock was killed by lightning, and he almost lost all he and his family had worked so hard to keep. And in a personal essay or memoir, I can tell how his perseverance affected me as a young child and how I see him now that I’m an adult.
That is what I enjoy about writing personal essays and memoir. I can put myself right in there, and give my opinions and thoughts on the subject.