Saturday, November 30, 2024
Trump picks Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister to lead DEA
Capturing the scent of Palestinian life in a bottle
Qassem Abu Khalaf and his wife Malak Hijaz have a library of hundreds of ingredients
A young Palestinian couple in Jerusalem have produced a range of perfumes (Méjana Fragrances) to embody the heritage of their people. Despite the horror of the war in Gaza, they hope their scents can still summon memories of a better time, as Sebastian Usher reports from Jerusalem.
Qassem and Malak chose the name Méjana for their company name, as it’s a word that describes the old songs that Palestinians sing as they are working. “Mejana has a special rhythm when you sing it,” Malak says. “It means joy and happiness."
Mawtini (My Homeland) - Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, Gaza Branch
Rating: ★★★★★
Together The Edward Said National Conservatory of Music and Qattan Center for Children's Choir performs "My Homeland" on 06/11/2015 as part of the Let's Sing My Homeland Together event.
Lyrics (translated)
My homeland, my homeland,
Glory and beauty, sublimity and splendor
Are in your hills, are in your hills.
Life and deliverance, pleasure and hope
Are in your air, are in your air.
Will I see you, will I see you?
Safely comforted and victoriously honored.
Will I see you in your eminence?
Reaching to the stars, reaching to the stars
My homeland, my homeland.
My homeland, my homeland,
The youth will not tire, their goal is your independence
Or they die, or they die.
We will drink from death, and will not be to our enemies
Like slaves, like slaves.
We do not want, we do not want
An eternal humiliation, nor a miserable life.
We do not want, but we will bring back
Our storied glory, our storied glory.
My homeland, my homeland.
My homeland, my homeland,
The sword and the pen, not the talk nor the quarrel
Are our symbols, are our symbols.
Our glory and our covenant, and a faithful duty
Moves us, moves us.
Our glory, our glory,
Is an honorable cause, and a waving flag.
O, behold you, in your eminence,
Victorious over your enemies, victorious over your enemies.
My homeland, my homeland!
Trump taps Conspiracist Kash Patel for FBI director
Young white men look to the future and fear that their dominance may be threatened
Young men swung to the right for Trump after a campaign dominated by masculine appeals
“I regret saying this, but a while ago I thought he was an idiot and that he wouldn’t be a good president,” said the 18-year-old first-time voter. “I think he’s a great bigot now.”....MORE
The Israeli military has the technology to strike whoever they target and the intellegence to know exactly who they are targeting
Food charity pauses Gaza work after staff killed in Israeli strike
The charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) has said it is pausing its operations in Gaza after a vehicle carrying its staff members was hit by an Israeli air strike.....MORE
Rays officials respond to Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners letter...Is Raybor still an option?
Officials with the Tampa Bay Rays have responded to the Pinellas County Commission Chairwoman Kathleen Peters’ question about whether the team plans to move forward with the stadium deal.....MORE
The Horror Never ENDS!
Trump’s pick to lead the FCC poses a threat to free speech
Brendan Carr, Trump's pick for Chair of the FCC
Last week, President-elect Donald Trump promised to elevate Brendan Carr from commissioner to chair of the Federal Communications Commission, calling Carr a “warrior for free speech.” Nothing could be further from the truth.....MORE
The Story of Lisa Wells
Between the years 2003 and 2008 was some of the hardest times of my life. For a year and a half, starting in 2004, I lived in a room in a small motel near the corner of Nebraska Ave. and Hillsborough Ave. in one of the the tougher areas in Tampa.
Royal Palm Motel
I had just begun a new job as an architectural designer and was saving for a better place to live. While I lived at this motel, I met a lady named Lisa Wells. She was the motel's maid and I frequently found myself engaged in conversation with her while she was cleaning my room. During the time I was there, Lisa and I become very good friends. She often spent evenings watching the scifi channel with me. She loved the scifi channel but the TV in her room had a very poor picture.
Lisa and her boyfriend were given their room at no charge in exchange for her maid service and her boyfriend did odd jobs to make money for food. Lisa seemed to me to be in her 60s or 70s, she always appeared as though she was carrying the world on her shoulders. It was obvious to me that she had a very difficult life.
I eventually moved to a small apartment about 2 blocks away from the motel. Before I moved, I gave Lisa my phone number and told her to call me any time she liked and that I'd welcome a visit from her whenever she could get away. She did drop by my apartment a couple times and I was shocked when she told me what a wonderful place I had to live in. I thought it was abysmal.
My Apartment
Several months after I moved, I began to notice that Lisa was beginning to look rather sickly. There had been a fire at the motel and she blamed her problems on the smoke that lingered in her room for weeks.
About a year later, I received a phone call from St. Josephs Hospital in Tampa. It was someone with administration asking me if I knew of any relatives of Lisa's. They had found my name and number in Lisa's purse. I, of course, asked what was wrong with her but was told only that she was in intensive care and only family was allowed to see her and know about her prognosis. I asked if I could call from time to time to see if her condition was improving and was told that it would be ok but that all they could tell me would be whether her condition was getting better or worse. For about two weeks I called every day only to be told that her condition was unchanged.
After Lisa had been hospitalized for several weeks, I received another call, this time from her doctor. He told me that they had been unable to find any of Lisa's relatives, that she had come to Tampa from Texas and all attempts to find family there had been unsuccessful. The doctor then told me that Lisa was still in ICU and had no visitors since her admittance. He gave me permission to see her if I wished. The following day I went to St. Joseph's Hospital and, before I entered Lisa's room, one of her nurses told me that Lisa had been in a coma for almost a week. I found Lisa lying in her bed, unconscious, with a respirator the nurse said was keeping her alive. They still could not tell me what was wrong with her.
I remembered Lisa once telling me she liked the Harry Potter stories so that evening I bought the first Harry Potter book. Every day afterwards, I went to see her and I'd spend an hour or more reading Harry Potter to her. I had asked the nurses there if they thought Lisa was hearing and understanding what I was reading and one of them said that it was very doubtful but they couldn't be 100% sure.
Every day I went there, I would ask if Lisa had done anything to indicate that she was even slightly responsive and was always told no. All the times I was with her, she laid perfectly still with her eyes closed. There was absolutely no movement on her part to indicate she even knew I was there.
This went on for more than a week. Then I received another call from Lisa's doctor. He asked me how well I actually knew Lisa. I told him I knew her only from my time at the motel but had had many long conversations with her. I told him that Lisa was a very religious person and a very warm and caring person. He asked me if I could meet with him and a few other people the next morning. I told him I would and he explained that I should go to a conference room there at the ICU unit. He told me they would be waiting for me and that I should just go into the room.
The next morning I went to the hospital and, when I opened the door to the conference room, I was faced with about a dozen people, including the doctor and the head nurse, who I had gotten to know pretty well. I sat down in an empty chair at the end of the table and the head nurse moved to a chair next to me, scooting the chair right up to mine. She took my hand and said, "We need to ask for your help, Glen." She introduced the others at the table. There were people representing the legal department, the clergy, social services and, of course the medical personnel. I was told that they wished first to know if I was an appropriate person to sign a Do Not Resuscitate order and, if so, if I might consider doing so. For a couple hours I was asked many questions about my friendship with Lisa, the conversations I had had with her and my feelings about what she would wish for herself. I was told also that Lisa was 42 years old. I realized that life had aged her beyond her years. When it was over, I was asked to leave the room for a short time. It was a very short time....about 15 minutes. The nurse came to where I was waiting and led me back into the room.
Lisa's doctor told me that the decision was made to ask me if I would be willing to sign the DNR order. I asked if they had considered her boyfriend and I was told that he had brought her to the hospital initially and that they had phoned him the next day to tell him what her ailment was. They never heard from him again and their efforts to find him were unsuccessful. They then told me that it was necessary to tell me her prognosis so I could make an informed decision. Lisa had AIDS and was deteriorating very rapidly. Her doctor told me that, if her heart stopped, the best they could do would be to resuscitate her and give her perhaps a few more days of life. The resuscitation though would likely cause her a great deal of pain considering the fragile state she was in. I took the papers they asked me to consider signing and said that I wanted a couple days to think about it.
I made my decision after those two days. I signed the papers and took them to the hospital. When I handed them to the head nurse, she hugged me and with a very deep sincerity she told me she understood how hard it must have been.
I told the nurse that I had to go to Lisa to tell her what I had done but first I wanted one of the ministers at the hospital to come pray for her. I went into Lisa's room and told her that a minister would be there soon. In a short time, the minister came in and said a prayer for Lisa.
That is when the unimaginable happened. I held Lisa's hand and kissed her on the forehead. I told her she was loved. I told her that I loved her. Then I told her that her God loved her and that he wanted her with him. I told Lisa that I had just talked to the doctors. As if it were yesterday, I remember saying, "If God wants you to go with him, the doctors will step aside and let you go. It's ok for you to go, Lisa"
I was in tears. I said to Lisa, "If you can, if there's any way you can, please let me know you understand and that I have done what you want me to do." Lisa, who had been comatose for three weeks, turned her head slightly toward me, opened her eyes just barely and grinned. All of these motions were very slight, barely noticeable but unmistakable and must have taken a lot of effort. Then, after a labored breath I swore was a sigh, Lisa closed her eyes. I can't begin to describe the feeling I had at that moment. I could not have uttered a single word if my life depended on it. I leaned back in the chair I was sitting in and noticed that three of the nurses were standing just outside the open door. It was an incredible moment and we all knew it. I spend another 1/2 hour or so holding Lisa's hand with my head lying on the bed next to her. Then I got up and went home.
This all happened at around 9pm in the evening. I received a phone call at around 11pm from Lisa'a nurse. She told me that Lisa had just passed away and she said, "Thank you, Glen."
As a footnote, several days after Lisa's death, a man from the hospital administration came to my apartment. He had some paperwork to finish up so the hospital could apply for medicare for Lisa's care. During our conversation, he told me that they had discovered that Lisa had come to Florida from Texas, where they could find no birth certificate and she had never been assigned a Social Security number. They could find no sign that Lisa had ever applied for a driver's license or any other type of identification in Texas, Florida or any other state, she had never had a job "on the books" and she had never been registered to vote anywhere in the country. Technically, Lisa Wells never existed but I knew she was more real than many and will never be forgotten as long as I am here. If you personally have never known a Lisa Wells, I am pleased I was able to at least introduce you to her.
As I was rereading my story before posting it here, I was in tears again. A little piece of my heart is forever broken.
Ways to shop local for Small Business Saturday
SHOP YBOR!
We’re sharing a special edition for Small Business Saturday. Celebrated each year the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Small Business Saturday is an opportunity for communities to support local entrepreneurs and strengthen their economies. Here are effective ways to shop local this Small Business Saturday in and around St. Petersburg, ensuring that your holiday shopping supports the very fabric of our community.....MORE
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention hosts 15th annual Suicide Prevention Walk in Tampa
Suicide can be difficult to talk about, it’s why the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is ensuring people talk about suicide and bring people out of the darkness of those thoughts with their annual community walk.....MORE
Trump's promises to the people failed last time...they're sure to fail again
Trump and Republicans in Congress eye an ambitious 100-day agenda, starting with tax cuts
Republicans swept to power on Election Day and now control the House, the Senate and the White House, with plans for an ambitious 100-day agenda come January.....MORE
Israel doubles down on its critics
Faced with an arrest warrant from the ICC, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and much of the Israeli media – reflexively dismissed the move as anti-Semitic.
While the walls appear to be closing in on Netanyahu, he is a survivor. He knows how to muddy the waters. His government is also going after one of the few Israeli news outlets critical of the war on Gaza – Haaretz.
Friday, November 29, 2024
Former Trump Treasury official: ‘Do not underestimate’ Ocasio Cortez in 2028
A former Trump Treasury official warned the Republican party Friday not to “underestimate” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), citing her accessibility to voters through social media and the congresswoman’s “grassroots support.”....MORE
On trans questions, resist the haters on both sides
Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC)
Donald Trump’s victorious campaign for the White House exploited transphobic myths, fears and prejudices. His ads targeted trans athletes in women’s sports, gender-affirming medical care and new pronoun usages.
.
Let’s be clear: transphobia is real, and some people are so lurid, discriminatory and misleading in their remarks about the topic that it’s fair to label them transphobic.
Video and article HERE
Disaster relief advocate calls for 'urgency' in Congress over tax relief legislation
With just a few weeks remaining in the current session of Congress, After the Fire USA CEO Jennifer Gray Thompson joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss why it’s so critical for the Senate to pass federal disaster tax relief legislation (H.R.5863) before the end of the year.
Unexplained And Deadly Heat Wave Hotspots Are Showing Up Across The Planet
We all know the planet is warming way too fast, and we all know it’s going to have some pretty dire consequences. However, a new study has found that this temperature increase is far from evenly spread, with distinct heat wave “hotspots” experiencing warming far beyond what can be explained by current climate models.....MORE
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