Abuse oversight to be boosted after LA boy's death

Shay's Day

At a fund raising dinner for a school that serves learning-disabled children, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.  After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question: "When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection.  Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do.  He cannot understand things as other children do.  Where is the natural order of things in my son?"

The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued.  "I believe that when a child like Shay, physically and mentally handicapped, comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child."

Then he told the following story:

Shay and his father had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball.  Shay asked, "Do you think they'll let me play?"  Shay's father knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but the father also understood that if his son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play.  The boy looked around for guidance and said, "We're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning.  I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning."

Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt.  His Father watched with a small tear in his eye and warmth in his heart.  The boys saw the father's joy at his son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth inning,  Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.  In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field.  Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands.  In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?  Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.

However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed.  The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay.  As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over.  The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.  Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates.  Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, "Shay, run to first! Run to first!"  Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base.  He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second!" Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base.  By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball ... the smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team.  He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.  Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, "Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay"

Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base and shouted, "Run to third! Shay, run to third!"

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, "Shay, run home! Run home!" Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world".

Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making his father so happy, and coming home and seeing his m other tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

This blog will probably go nowhere because we're heading for the weekend.  But here's mine. THE MEN IN COATS

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

I saw this on Witters blog    

The trouble with life is there's no background music

If your life had a theme song what would it be...

Here's mine

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Do you take them on an 8,000 mile trip across America  showing them the beauty and wonders of our country?

No. 

You take them across the Atlantic Ocean on an 8,000 mile trip to Africa where they spend two weeks helping people who are living on the edge of starvation, in extreme poverty and coping with an AIDS epidemic. 

You show these children, who have always been on the receiving side of social services and charities, how to become givers.

This is the story of Malaak Rock's (wife of Chris Rock)  inspiring program which changes the lives of inner city children who attend the same Salvation Army Center which Chris Rock attended as a boy growing up in Bushwick. .

Here's the story

http://www.nydailynews.com/...

The average August temperature is 2 degrees cooler than July's average.  Woo hoo

http://www.cityrating.com/c...

#1      She and Todd decided it was time to downsize from this:

to this:

#2. 

A lot of people, especially the elderly,  pay their bills without checking them for accuracy.  This is how AT&T gets away with this "practice".  It happened to me this month.  According to my bill I bought a pkg of new ring tones and games to the tune of $9.99.   I don't even use my cell phone unless I'm traveling out of town so I called the number for Customer Service.  The customer account representative wouldn't take the charges off because I can't remember my password word.    The cancellation representative wouldn't stop my service because I can't remember my password.   I have to drive down to the nearest AT&T store and show my ID before they'll cancel my service or correct my bill.

Lucky for me, I didn't take out a contract with AT&T.   Not so lucky for the clerk I'm going to talk to at the store because I'm on my way to ask

1.  Why unauthorized services were added to my bill without my permission

2.  How unauthorized services were added to my bill without my permission

3.  Give me one good reason why I should keep my AT&T wireless account

In case you think this is an isolated incident, let me assure you it isn't.  It happened to Catherine too.  And others

http://news.findlaw.com/and...

Judge for yourselves.  Here is the political, religious and personal  philosophy of Ann Coulter, in her own words.

The Democrat Party is made up of stupid, single women

If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women. It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, the Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it's the party of women and 'We'll pay for health care and tuition and day care -- and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?'"
 

On John Edwards

"If I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot."

"I was going to have a few comments about John Edwards but you have to go into rehab if you use the word f####t." --at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference

Describing herself

"I'm more of a man than any liberal."

On the 9/11 Widows

These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband's deaths so much." -on 9/11 widows who have been critical of the Bush administration

On Justice Stevens

We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee. That's just a joke, for you in the media."

Her vast knowledge of  how liberals think

"Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots."

"Liberals are stalwart defenders of civil liberties -- provided we're only talking about criminals."

"Usually the nonsense liberals spout is kind of cute, but in wartime their instinctive idiocy is life-threatening

We've finally given liberals a war against fundamentalism, and they don't want to fight it. They would, except it would put them on the same side as the United States."

Her foreign policy (?)

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity."

Her paranoia about the liberal media.....

"The New York Times editorial page is like a Ouija board that has only three answers, no matter what the question. The answers are: higher taxes, more restrictions on political speech and stricter gun control."

Maybe it's the New York Times who should feel paranoid

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

Being mean to her own sex, again

"Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the President

Ann Coulter, good Christian or perfected Jew?   This is kind of long but worth it.    There's a mean streak in Ann Coulter that no religion can wash away.

http://politicalhumor.about...

The rest of you can form a straight line and fill out contact cards for the annual reunion.

Sanford admitted having a scandalous affair with a mistress whom he calls his "soul mate"

He says he wants to reconcile with his wife, but still loves the Argentine beauty, saying that he would "die knowing that I had met my soul mate".

He admitted crossing the line with a "handful of other women but did not get to third base with them like he did his Argentine lovematch.    His love for her was "more than just sex".  "This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story," Sanford said. "A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day."

Sanford maintains that he is still fit to govern. "I've been able to do my job and in fact excel at it," he said.

Sanford admitted to casual encounters with other women while he was married and before he met Chapur, his Argentine mistress.  "You know you meet someone. You dance with them. You go to a place where you probably shouldn't have gone," Sanford said, giving no further details.  He insists those chance encounters were nothing like his affair with his Argentine mistress.  Sanford joined Chapur during two romantic, multi-night stays. Both paid cash so no one would know. 

"There was some kind of connection from the very beginning," he said, Their relationship turned physical, he said, during a government trip to Brazil and Argentina in June 2008.
 

I think this man is going through a very public mid life crisis.