Easter Passion

You gave your all,…your love, heart, body and soul,….you took our fall,….as foretold and still remained straight and tall,….to later inspire one and all.

Your head was bloodied by thorns and bowed, not in disgrace,…..but in heavenly grace,……for the whole entire human race.

Your arms were outstretched, hands and feet both bloodied and pierced,….but not your holy spirit, to the very end remaining steadfast and fierce,…..for the world has never known a love so vast.

Because of god’s gift of free will and redemption,…..we all have been bequeathed his love, blessings and exemption.

COPYRIGHT JOSEPH P.MARTINO, AMERICAN WRITER/POET
(1937 – ???) MILLBURN, NEW JERSEY

Thank you, again, Mr. Martino.

Personally, the biggest event for me in the last decade was my Father’s passing. I suppose that anyone who has lost a parent would understand how that’s a huge event in a person’s life. So in terms of what the biggest event of the last ten years was for me – it was definitely losing my Dad to Alzheimer’s and lung cancer.

However, let’s try to think happy thoughts as this year and this decade come to a close. Some big, happy events for me in the last ten years include being the first in my family to graduate from college and then the first in my family to graduate from Graduate School. Those two days were pretty great (although the undergraduate graduation ceremony itself wasn’t really that great since it was a downpour and they messed up the reserved parking for my family). I was also pretty excited to be my buddy’s best man at his wedding this past summer – so that ranks up there somewhere in the Top 10 moments of the last decade for me.

I’d also put the announcement that my older brother was engaged as well as my younger brother’s graduation from high school on that list (those events are always fun). I was also glad to be hired by the current company that I work for as well as the local college to do some teaching. I’ll be beginning the New Year teaching an online course at a second college, but I was hired by that college a few months ago so it still counts as an event for this decade.

The last decade also introduced me to the realities of trying to be healthy in a fast-paced professional world. I went from weighing some 385 pounds when I graduated college in 2003 to weighing 260 pounds by the summer of 2005 – that’s a 125 pound weight loss. I worked out and ate less (I didn’t really “diet” – I just controlled my portions) for about a year starting in March 2004 and ending with my gall bladder being removed in June 2005. My doctor told me that my gall bladder was creating huge gallstones because I lost too much weight too fast. You just can’t win, right? Since the summer of 2005, I’ve gained back about 80 pounds. I attribute that weight gain to getting hired full time in the summer of 2006 in a location that was an hour’s drive from my house. In other words, the two hours that I used to spend in the gym each day I now spend in the car…sitting…doing nothing. Not good. Plus, two or three nights during the week I wind up at the local college either taking a class or teaching a class. In the coming decade (really in the coming year), I have to figure out how to spend more time in the gym.

Finally, like the rest of America I would suggest that September 11th was a major turning point in all of our lives. It made us realize that there is real evil in this world and that those evil people don’t like the idea of America so they choose to attack that idea as it is manifested each and every day – in other words, they choose to attack innocent people.

Let’s hope for greater prosperity in 2010 and for the whole upcoming decade!

Here comes Santa on Christmas Eve
by Joseph Martino

Here comes Christmas it’s that time of time of year for Santa
to appear.

snow is falling on the ground,…..everywhere you look snowflakes
can be found.children wearing mittens in the snow,…..making snow
balls they intend to throw.

jingle bells a ringing, jing-a-ling,the sounds of Christmas echos
ring. parents and children skate on the lake,…..the children
home for holiday break.

Children dream of Santa Clause,…..as parents shop without a pause.
the days are bright, the nights so clear,….the love and spirit of Christmas permeates throughout the wintery air.

Christmas carols sung at night,….under a dancing moon that glows
so bright.chestnuts roasting, grownups toasting this special time of
year,…..after a nip or two, all our woe’s and troubles seem to
disappear.

here comes santa it’s Christmas Eve,….he’s finally here it’s hard
to believe. santa and his reindeers are now flying high,….their
lonely silhouettes dot the blackboard sky.

Empty stockings line the living room wall, hung for boys and girls
who have images of santa’s gifts racing through their minds,….
all in hope that they will find,…..their stockings filled to the
very top with toys and presents of every kind.

copyright joseph p.martino 2004 authored oct.1,2004

Thanks once again, Joe, for a great Christmas poem to get everyone in the spirit!

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends –

Here at Food Democracy Now! we wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for this time of year and believe it’s important to take time to honor the incredible work that America’s family farmers do each day, rising early and working late to help put healthy, safe and nutritious food on our tables.

More importantly, we wanted to take a moment to stand up for those that are less fortunate and cannot provide for themselves at this time.

A recent report by the USDA found that 1 in 4 children in America are now on the brink of hunger. This is a sad and sobering statistic: to think that in the “land of opportunity” any child would go hungry, let alone more than 16.7 million.1

Tell your Senator that no child in America should go hungry, that they need to act today.
Fortunately, for America’s needy children Senator Gillibrand (D-NY) recently introduced important legislation to protect and prevent children from going hungry called The Access to Nutritious Meals for Young Children Act (S.2749). If passed, this bill will improve children’s access to healthy meals in child care centers, family child care homes, and Head Start and Early Head Start programs.2

Consider this…

A recent USDA report found that 14.6% of U.S. households, or some 49 million – 1 in 7 Americans – suffered from going hungry at some point in the year 2008, a significant increase from 2007. In 2008 the number of children going hungry in the U.S. reached a record 16.7 million – or 22.5%. That’s 4.3 million more than in 2007.3

Experts believe that the number of Americans experiencing “food insecurity” will climb steadily in 2009 as hard economic times and unemployment continues in the near future.
Help protect those who need it most – our children – by sending this letter to your Senators.

Today, we are also most thankful for you, our community of supporters at Food Democracy Now!. Thank you for joining us and using your voice to create a more just and sustainable food system for future generations that supports us all.

Have a Healthy and Enjoyable Thanksgiving!

Sustainably yours,
Dave Lisa and The Food Democracy Now! Team

If you’d like to see our grassroots work continue, please consider donating as little as $10 to Food Democracy Now! http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/25?akid=46.18844.F285wT&t=1 Thanks for your support!

P.S. We’d also like to take a moment to thanks some of the great organizations that are making sustainable change happen on the ground that we’ve worked with over the past year, including: Farm Aid, Food & Water Watch, Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, National Family Farm Coalition, The Center for Food Safety, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, The Land Institute, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Organic Valley, Organic Consumers Association, the Cornacopia Institute, Pesticide Action Network, Roots of Change, Slow Food, Food, Inc., Food Fight, King Corn, Big River, and all the family farmers and sustainable food advocates we’ve met along the way.

Sources:

1. 1 in 7 Americans Went Hungry in 2008, CBS News, Nov. 16, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/83?akid=46.18844.F285wT&t=1

2. Gillibrand Introduces Legislation To Improve Nutrition For Young Children, Press Release Senator Gillibrand, Nov. 11, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/84?akid=46.18844.F285wT&t=1

3. USDA: Number of Americans going hungry increases, Associated Press, Nov. 16, 2009
http://fdn.actionkit.com/go/85?akid=46.18844.F285wT&t=1

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!

Enjoy!

Palisades is gearing up for the holidays by giving away a new car! All people need to do to enter is to show us what drives your holiday smile.

Any NJ residents who share their Holiday Fun photos, Pet Photos or Kid Photos at Palisades.com will have a chance to win! Just submit your photos and get your friends and family to vote for their favorites.

The Prizes:
• Voters can enter to win a $250 gift card just for choosing their favorite photo!
• Category winners will receive a $1,000 shopping spree
• One overall winner will win a 2 year lease on a new car!

If you want more information, please check out the contest on Palisades.com.

If you’re so inclined, feel free to head over to Palisades.com and give it a shot!

We did some decorating for Halloween at my townhouse this year. As you can see from the pictures, it wasn’t the most elaborate of decorations, but it got the job done. I also went out and purchased some candy for the kiddies that come along and knock at my door tonight. And I decided to wear one of my t-shirts that has two gigantic skulls on it in order to set the mood for the trick-or-treaters.

So if you’re out there tonight as a trick-or-treater, be careful and have fun. If you’re giving out candy to the kids, remember that the high schoolers get cans of corn and hash instead of candy.

Enjoy!

The Happy Birthday Pug

Just wanted to send a shout out to the best Mother in the world on this, her birthday! Happy Birthday, Mom! As you can see, I’ve enlisted the help of the Happy Birthday Pug to celebrate. The Happy Birthday Pug is generally not enthusiastic about many things in its life other than sleeping and eating cookies; birthdays are no different.

However, I am pretty excited to be going home this weekend to have dinner with my Mom and my brothers. Of course, my older brother’s surprise 30th birthday party is going to be a hard act to follow, but they’re really two separate and distinct type of events.

Until then, though, here’s wishing a Happy Birthday to the best Mom in the world – enjoy the day, Mom!

Otherwise, enjoy the holiday weekend!

Really? Is that what we’re supposed to say? Honestly, I don’t know (which is why I’m putting up this entry).

Is Memorial Day a “happy” holiday? Sure, we celebrate the lives of those who have fought and died protecting this country, its allies, and its Constitution. And yes, I’m a firm believer in happy remembrances instead of constant self-pity at the death of those close to us. But is the holiday really a “happy” holiday?

I tend to think not. At the same time, I don’t think that you can rightly walk around saying, “Somber Memorial Day” or “Blessed Memorial Day” to everyone. That might get awkward for any number of reasons. Maybe, as a society, we’ve decided to just throw the word “happy” in front of Memorial Day so we can have something to say to each other. Or maybe there are so many people who are jacked up about the three or four day weekend that they get that they don’t understand the true meaning of the holiday and thus tack “happy” on the front of the holiday’s name since they are happy to be out of work for a few days.

I don’t know. I’d be interested to hear if any of you have some thoughts on what we’re supposed to say today.