When you Hug Ten friends, loved ones or acquaintances; and then they Hug Ten friends, loved ones or acquaintances – in Ten Days -- Ten Billion people will have experienced a hug of friendship and know that there are individuals who care. And the beauty is – we can become a part of the Hug-It-Forward Campaign anytime we want to and know that we are becoming a part of spreading and expanding good cheer and love around the world!
In January 2009, generations of determined women and enlightened men finally achieved what some had long claimed was impossible; we secured the right to receive, “Equal Pay for Equal Work.” This journey began years ago and was accelerated by the combined efforts of many men and women throughout our country.
In 1920, thanks to Susan B. Anthony’s courage to take a stand and demand that her voice be heard and recognized as having value, women acquired the right to Vote in our Public Elections and became an integral part in deciding which of our American citizen’s would represent our ideas in our local Districts and in Washington. Taking an active part in the shaping and development of our nation was one of the initial turning points that led to our Great Grandparents, Grandparents and Parents decision to begin encouraging each succeeding generation to reach for increasing and expanding the rights of America’s women.
Then further motivated by their new experiences, which occurred when our women entered the job market in large numbers during the Second World War, (“Rosie the Riveter” becoming the primary example of their success), our Great Grandmother’s, Grandma’s and Mom’s enjoyed the open expression of men's appreciation and our country’s recognition of their accomplishments. Women realized that they had both the capacity and abilities to perform a worthy service for our Nation and add to the well-being of our world.
By the time the “Baby Boomer's” were being born, (during the years of 1945-1960, based on the established indicators from 1980), women had participated in shaping our Nation for twenty-five years and the positive results and our nations growth were clear. So our Elder’s took a bold step and began instructing the boy’s to assist us in achieving these goals and the girls were asked to continue building on the progress that was achieved before they were born.
We were asked to climb the ladder and open doors that women had never even dared to knock on before. And many rose up to the challenge and began working in fields that had never employed women before -- Such as construction, corporate business, and even securing the ability to use printing presses. Previously, if women worked at all, they were relegated to jobs as Teachers, Nurses or becoming a Secretary. Yet, what was deemed as “Men's Work” remained areas that excluded women.
However, several sayings developed over the last few decades that have acknowledged our continuous advancement, frustrations and momentum; “You’ve come a long way baby,” (in the early 70’s), the “Reaching the glass ceiling,” (in the 90’s) -- and of course, also inspiring this growth was the marketing jingle that appeared during the mid-80’s, which was rapidly adopted by women nationwide as the new aspiration to obtain. By embodying the archetype of the Super Woman; the quintessential, “I’ll bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan – then I’ll never let you forget you’re a man – I am a woman!” goal and belief system actually created the pathway for a new dawning of understanding and awareness to develop.
We quickly discovered that after 8 hours on the job, with at least an additional hour for lunch and the commute to work – by the time we returned home with our grocery’s in hand – after we cooked our family a nutritious meal; we would turn to our husbands and yawn. This was not what we desired; however, taking on the responsibilities of working, coupled with cleaning, cooking, sewing, assisting our children with their schooling and any number of other basic activities that maintain ones life and keeps it running smoothly – we discovered that we were in a state of continuous exhaustion.
Although, and through these life lessons, women have learned that we have intrinsic value and that by joining our efforts, we can achieve the impossible and in fact, change the world! And we have also witnessed that we can and are capable of supporting and taking care of one another and we have consistently seen many enlightened men participate in preparing paths for us to achieve our ultimate goals. Establishing, “Equal Pay for Equal Work” is the victory that our Elders had dreamed of and planned for and now that we have achieved their goal, we can begin making new goals of our own.
And at this time, since we are becoming the age that our own Great Grandparents, Grandparents and Parents were when they set us on the path to open doors that women had never entered before, we can easily see how these plans were developed that led to the success that we have recently experienced. We can now focus our energies of creating and developing solutions to establish that our children continue to build on what we have secured for future generations and ourselves. Because of what we have learned, through our combined efforts, we can accelerate progress to ensure that we are well cared for during our later years.
And because this current generation of young adult children, who are in the process of developing their wings, so that they can leave the nest and fly on their own, have experienced a latch-key childhood existence – there is now a renewed understanding of the importance of re-establishing tight bonds with our families. And this, in and of itself, assists us in encouraging a new pathway to be developed and followed that enables us to establish a new viewpoint to be embraced; which can naturally open doors to answer the question so many women are currently asking. “After pouring our all into achieving this dream, who will take care of us?” We will!
Since we have already achieved so much and now fully recognize what is important for us -- it has become obvious that by joining our efforts, we achieve the impossible and in fact, change and improve our world! Additionally, we now realize that we have both the capacity and ability to perform a worthy service for our families and ourselves, and by taking an active part in shaping the development of our nation, we can ensure that we are taken care of, as we take care of one another.
Dedicated to Tracy
Last Updated on Wednesday, 16 September 2009 07:32
Our Great Grandparents Dreams and Plans
Written by Suellis Kelley
Saturday, 07 July 2007 09:54
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens
Can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
-- Margaret Meade --
This Website is currently being designed
To tell the story of our Great Grandparents and Parents,
And how their ideas helped to mold and shape our Nation,
And established the wonderful Heritage that we all share.
Suellis Kelley
Last Updated on Wednesday, 16 September 2009 05:27
Bill of Rights for Human Beings
Written by Administrator
Sunday, 10 August 2008 06:30
Bill of Rights for Human Beings
(In this world it can be easy to become overwhelmed by the wants, desires and demands of others. When these times come it is healthy to remind oneself of an American's Fundamental Rights of Life. We are a unique Nation in that we are supported as individuals to embrace the best within ourselves and then to share those aspects with others. As generations have taught us, when we take care of ourselves and each other; we become stronger -- and in actuality, we are strengthening our nation -- as a country's growth is derived from the strength, well-being and resilance of its people. So, if you ever feel down or overwhelmed by life's circumstances -- just remind yourself of the Human Rights that our Elder's made certain were passed down as a gift to us and all of mankind).
I have the right to be me!
I have the right to make mistakes.
I have the right to be safe.
I have the right to love and be loved.
I have the right to be treated with respect.
I have the right to be human—NOT PERFECT.
I have the right to feel angry and protest, if I am treated unfairly or abusively by anyone.
I have the right to have my own privacy.
I have the right to have my own opinions, to express them, and to be taken seriously.
I have the right to earn and control my own money.
I have the right to ask questions about anything that affects my life.
I have the right to grow and change, (and that includes changing my mind).
I have the right to say, "No."
I have the right not to be responsible for what other adults' do.
I have the right not to be responsible for other adults' problems.
I have the right not to make everyone happy.
I have the right to not be liked by everyone.
I have the right to make decisions that affect me.
I have the right to put myself first.
I have the right to control my own life and to change if I am not happy with it as it is.
Last Updated on Sunday, 13 September 2009 04:39
The History of Universal Health Care
Written by Suellis Kelley
Thursday, 25 June 2009 21:37
The History of “Universal Health Care”
Part One – An Introduction
The concept of Universal Health Care has been around since our Great Grandparents originally thought of the program, when we were rebuilding our country and families after the 1929 Stock Market Crash. I’m uncertain about how they referred to our future medical programs back then; however, our people, the Medical Profession and Insurance Companies worked together with the support of our Public and Elected Leaders and made plans to ensure that we, their children and grandchildren benefited from and received the best medical care in the world. In fact, they developed a new kind of Medical System that had never existed before. They intuitively knew that it could be done and boldly followed their hearts and instincts to create and develop medicines and cures for every type of illness.
Our Great Grandparents were big dreamers and believed that if we researched and really applied ourselves, that by the year 2000, we could, (and eventually would), “discover cures for every disease in the world!” Considering that Alex Fleming’s discovery of the first antibiotic, (penicillin), wasn’t made readily available, until 1946; and that the first immunization, Jonas Salk’s Polio Vaccination, wasn’t developed until 1955 – this just shows how quickly our medical knowledge has grown and how ambitious our Great Grandparents were as well. As these initial discoveries only served to ignite our imaginations, wet our appetites and spurned our ambition to find more solutions.
In those days, our understanding about Medical Science was still very primitive and as a result, we had few medications and even less technology. And although, medicine and medical practices have been around since the beginning of mankind; during the initial development of the first structured Medical System, some of us still associated the science with nutty professors, witch doctors and other images that made us laugh. After all, medicine was basically an unexplored territory, which was originally started, managed and primarily financed by our churches – the mission to take care of people and all – it was a natural fit.
We also knew that in the past, medical research was done and cures were found at the request of a King; and inevitably, developments in Medical Science was restricted to what he was interested in discovering, as the result of his own health and that of his family. However, in America, we weren’t tied to those restraints and since our, Declaration of Independence, clearly states that all men, (and women), are created equal, our Great Grandparents decided to get as close as possible to creating and manifesting this ideal way of living for all of us. So, our Great Grandparents, desiring to breathe life into the words of our Founding Fathers, looked toward the future and dreamed about what a True Democracy could be; and our Voice was nearly unanimous. We decided to demystify the science, modernize medicine, and develop the highest level of Medical Care possible; and by encouraging Everyday Citizens to become directly involved, we knew we could do it!
As a new country, we had the opportunity to build our society based on what we determined was most important and it was quickly decided that maintaining our citizen’s optimal health and increasing our longevity was essential and would also assist us in achieving our mutual long-term goals. They knew that by advancing our medical “know how” and skills and developing well equipped Hospitals that we would all be positively affected and empowered to have the strength and endurance to build our Nation and spread the concept of personal freedom and Democracy around the world.
This was the first time that a country made a full and concerted effort to develop a Medical System that was arranged to protect and take care of all of its citizens in an organized and consolidated way. In order to reach this goal, they knew that we would have to develop a strong employee base of Doctors, Nurses and Technological Staff to make finding cures, developing hospitals and innovating new technology possible. And this foundation of employee’s was going to be built by our own citizens, the “Common Man”, becoming educated and filling the positions. So they encouraged our Grandparents to enter the Medical Professions; (and this tradition of encouraging our children to become Doctor’s and Nurse’s continues today, as becoming a part of the medical establishment is considered one of the highest aspirations that an American citizen can attain.)
However, we immediately recognized that the costs for Hospitals, staffing and the creation of “Medical Miracles” were too much for one individual, business or community to pay. So, we decided to use our primary source of consolidated money – our Taxpayer Dollars – to provide for the expenses of educating students, creating Medical Technology and developing hospitals and commercial buildings for Medical Research. After all, like schools, every community wanted well-equipped Hospitals; and we knew, as our understanding of Medical Science and Health Care grew that we would want to utilize the newest Technology and benefit from what the updated innovations and new medications could provide for our families and selves.
Then our Great Grandparents decided to invent the Pharmaceutical Industry as well! To begin this exciting project, we concentrated our energies on organizing and figuring out which illnesses affected the most citizens; because developing remedies for those diseases first would assist us in strengthening and stabilizing the health of our businesses, our nation and the people. And, within a short period of time, Doctors and Nurses, who once traveled long distances by horse and buggy to a family’s home, in order to provide treatment and take care of one patient at a time, were now given the ability to assist numerous patients on a daily bases in a structured environment that supported optimal treatment. These supports frequently resulted in rapid and full recovery, so our citizens could quickly return to work and continue building up their lives and our country.
And we noticed something else as well. By providing patients with easy access to medical care that our level of productivity and longevity immediately began to increase. We also discovered that when we “catch” an illness at the beginning and provide effective treatment for the patient, the ailment doesn’t have the chance to wear the body down, so the patient’s recovery is much quicker and their physical foundation gains resiliency and is strengthened.
Yet, during the early and mid-stages of developing our new Medical Culture, because of the task and goal we set for our New Industry’s was so expansive, we understood that they were not strong enough to be self-supporting and go it alone. So, we steadfastly countered all opposition and devoutly continued using our taxes to make certain that what we knew that we could accomplish and bring into existence had the necessary resources to continue being developed and grow stronger. Additionally, to assist the growth and accelerate the advancement of these new businesses and services, our Great Grandparents and Grandparents decided to let the Industry’s sell the medications and new technology that they each created to foreign nations, who we believed would eagerly purchase the products. After all, we knew that every human being around the world is interested in preserving their health, being cured of illnesses and having the technology available to quickly and accurately diagnosis and treat their symptoms. Plus, extending the longevity of human life was considered the primary selling point.
We had faith – an inner knowing – that one day we could accomplish whatever we set our minds to do and that both the Pharmaceutical Industry and Medical Care supports – such as Technology and Hospitals, Doctor’s and Nurse’s and all aspects of Medical Care Services – would eventually be capable of financing themselves and pay their employees high wages as well. And since we, the people – us normal folks – were the ones discovering all the medicines and investing ourselves – our time, skills, devotion, imagination, faith, and money – to create the Pharmaceutical Industry and this new type of Structured Medical System; it was formally established that we had earned the American Right to benefit from what we invented, built and transformed into reality. Just as someone who cooks a good meal in their own kitchen has the right to eat what they made.
Our Great Grandparents believed that all wonderful things are possible; but, most of all they believed in their children, their grandchildren, (us) and their own capabilities. And by joining their efforts and supporting their dream – together we succeed in creating a reality that has never existed before; the ability to improve the health and increase the longevity of all individuals.
