New York Times Article "Earth Day"

In many ways I believe that the world has changed so much when it comes to dealing with “keeping green clean” and helping the earth stay fresh. Earth day was founded about 40 years ago and the big businesses have taken it way out of proportion. Author Leslie Kaufman says in her article, At 40, Earth Day Is Now Big Business, “Many groups now accept money from corporations or partnering with them to change social behavior” (Kaufman, web). So many communities still celebrate earth week, they have an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues. A lot of citizens still have the idea of keeping the earth bright at heart, they love working and cleaning to make their home a better looking place. So many are serious about making shirts and asking college students to get out and help, it’s so important to them, that it kind of seems like a religion. They want it clean and that’s what they’ll work for until it is but according to these big corporations they could care less what it looks like, just so they continue to get their money for making “keep green clean” products. “To many pioneers of the environmental movement, eco-consumerism, creeping for decades, is intensely frustrating and detracts from Earth Day’s original purpose” (Kaufman para 5). Many people have turned to the negative light and the well-known celebration itself has outlived its usefulness, it isn’t the way it used to be.

Earth Day is now observed each year on April 22 in practically every country on Earth. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. It’s a great awareness and appreciation day for the environment and it always will be unless everyone turns out like the big corporation owners and workers.

Kaufman, Leslie. New York Times: At 40, Earth Day Is Now Big Business (WEB).

Driving and Texting. (rough)

Driving and Texting.

Cell phones have been known to distract the driver from concentrating on the road causing numerous accidents. Okay so let’s say your boss wants the latest numbers from today's sales meeting, or a friend wants to set up a place to meet for drinks. Traffic is backed up and you know it would take less than a minute to type a response with your thumbs, so you do.

There is little risk here, you think. And then it happens ... the person in front of you stops more quickly than you expected and you crash into them.

During the claims process your insurance company starts checking your cell-phone communications in the run-up to the accident. Now you've just lost a claim and a heck of a lot of money, all because that text was “oh-so” important.

If you avoid text messaging in your car, you stand a considerably reduced chance of a loss of a claim or a loss of life. Texting while driving, or fiddling with devices including your cell phone, BlackBerry or GPS system, is a leading factor in accidents across the country.

~ Easter ~

The Easter Bunny is not a modern invention. The symbol originated with the pagan celebration of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit.

The Germans brought the character of the Easter rabbit to America. It was widely ignored by other Christians until shortly after the Civil War. In fact, Easter it was not widely celebrated in America until after that time.

As with the Easter Bunny and the holiday itself, the Easter egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians.

From the earliest times, the egg was a symbol of birth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers. Today, children hunt colored eggs and place them in Easter baskets along with the modern version of real Easter eggs (those made of plastic or chocolate candy).



As for my Easter Sunday we had a family get together like everyone else, ate a delicious meal, went out to hunt for Easter eggs, and watched the Blind Side. It was a pretty good day, and I enjoyed spending it with my little brother and sister and the rest of the family.