by | November 21, 2009 · 6:30 am

Saturday, 11/21/09, Public Square

November 21, 2009 is the 37th annual World Hello Day.  Anyone can participate in World Hello Day simply by greeting ten people.  This demonstrates the importance of personal communication for preserving peace.

World Hello Day was begun in response to the conflict between Egypt and Israel in the Fall of 1973.  Since then, World Hello Day has been observed by people in 180 countries.

People around the world use the occasion of World Hello Day as an opportunity to express their concern for world peace.  Beginning with a simple greeting on World Hello Day, their activities send a message to leaders, encouraging them to use communication rather than force to settle conflicts.

fnord

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15 responses to “Saturday, 11/21/09, Public Square”

  5. fnord
    November 21, 2009 at 9:14 am

    The Republicans will and do complain about anything and everything that is involved with a person with that little “D” beside their name! They won’t admit this, probably don’t even recognize it, but their actions prove otherwise.

    Now, like everyone, I would prefer to see members of Congress perform the more difficult tasks of governing, but these meaningless proclamations have gone on forever, and probably will continue — they hurt no one and do nothing.

    Complaints are rampant from the Party of No who have no solutions or ideas but continue to pout like children over everything — because they lost and they are unable to accept that reality.

    Complaint bill draws, well, complaints

    Representative Emanuel Cleaver (a Missouri Democrat) offered legislation in June to set aside the day before Thanksgiving as “Complaint Free Wednesday.” He did so at the request of a Kansas City-area faith-oriented group that was promoting positive attitudes toward life.

    The bill encouraged “people to look forward, not backward,” Cleaver said in a letter to House colleagues seeking support, a “meaningful and powerful reminder to prepare for a day of gratitude.”

    This is a Congress that has given us National Ice Cream Month and found time to praise the plumbing industry. Free Comic Book Day still weighs heavily on its calendar.

    Surely, then, the notion that on Thanksgiving eve, people might stop whining for just a day, take stock, and instead give thanks would not seem to be a threat to the republic.

    Cleaver said that calls from the overwrought to his office went something like this: “I want you to show me where in the Bible it says I shouldn’t complain. I haven’t seen anything where Jesus asked us not to complain.”

    He said that he never expected the bill to go anywhere, nor for people to stop complaining.

    “Go ahead. We don’t have complaint police,” he said. “It was just a way to make a statement.”

    Rep. Sam Graves, a Republican House colleague from the Kansas City area and a co-sponsor, offered the same legislation last year, but with none of the accompanying political fireworks.

    “Complaint Free is not about asking people to just ‘shut up and suck up’ whatever comes their way,” he said. “Complaining is pointing out problems, and pointing out problems is easy; looking for solutions takes effort.”

    Some have cheered the idea. In a request for an interview, an Australian radio station wrote Cleaver’s office, “We think the idea is fantastic and we’d like to champion it in Australia as well.”

    Good luck with that, Cleaver said. No stranger to sermons, he said the moral of this story was clear:

    “Next time you ask people to count their blessings, duck.”

  6. fnord
    November 21, 2009 at 9:48 am

    The letter below was in today’s local newspaper. It isn’t the first ‘letter to the editor’ voicing this complaint. This “work” sounds like it could come from the same type person of the same maturity level as the one who “worked” to find the PPP blog so they could ridicule it on another blog.

    Childish behavior

    I, too, get a stack of unsolicited junk mail in response to my letters to the editor any time my political view disagrees with a conservative perspective (“Cowardly response,” Nov. 16 Letters to the Editor). Each letter is addressed to false names such as Larry Limbaugh or Sarah Stephenson. I return them all, unopened, at the expense and time of the U.S. Postal Service. Occasionally, I will get an unsolicited sales call for “Barack.” How clever. It would almost be funny if it did not waste so many people’s time and efforts.

    Not only is this person a coward to do this anonymously, but he or she must not have much of a personal life. I wonder who has the time to waste filling out coupons and sending so many anonymous subscriptions and junk mail. This type of childish behavior is a sad commentary for someone without the political resolve to use his or her own name.

    LARRY STEPHENSON
    Andover

    • fnord
      November 21, 2009 at 10:00 am

      Here’s the letter to the editor referenced above —

      Cowardly response

      This letter is meant to remind people that it’s a federal crime to order something through the U.S. Postal Service in the name of someone else. I am the “someone else” in this case, and this is the second time this has happened.

      Whoever is responsible changes my name in a variety of ways and proceeds to order magazines, “collectibles” and anything else that can be ordered without being prepaid. I then have to send the material back, costing the companies money and costing my mail carrier time and aggravation.

      The reason for this is obvious, and the timing is not coincidental. In both cases, about one month after a letter I wrote was printed in the paper, someone who doesn’t agree with my point of view has chosen this childish way to react. I’m sure others have had it happen to them.

      God forbid the criminals would write letters to the editor to express their own points of view. Of course, they are cowards who are afraid to share their opinions openly.

      CHARLIE SNOOK
      Newton

  8. tosmarttobegop
    November 21, 2009 at 10:43 am

    HELLO… HELLO… HELLO! world…

  9. tosmarttobegop
    November 21, 2009 at 10:46 am

    (In response to a comment)
    LOL heck American Way I am so old that was not possible… Tape recorders had not even been invented yet! There was a guy who kept me up at night though, with that damn chisel and stone tablet :>

    I am so old that we walked to school… Watching horses run by… they had to run otherwise the Saber tooth tigers would eat them!

    Political debate was quieter ….. Words had not been invented yet either.

    It was more entertaining though, the candidates would face each other, then reach behind themselves.
    Then hurl globs of crap at each other.

    Which ever candidate had the most shit in them won the election… Well I guess things really have not change all that much since I was a child.

  10. tosmarttobegop
    November 21, 2009 at 2:07 pm

    Watching CSPAN and the speeches on Health care bill, here is three Senators play out a scripted play on Abortion. One being Brownback and it occurred to me something that has been lacking.

    Their bring up and expanding on there is no rights granted in the bill for conscious objecting protection for those refusing to perform abortion services.

    Brownback on the amendment that states at least one provision policy should cover abortion.
    He made the point of ,” what if you are pro-life and the only one you can afford is the one that covers abortion?”. Gee don’t get an abortion!

    But what bothers me and it is pointing a finger at both sides.

    More then once I have heard of Doctors refusing to treat or take on a new patent because they are on
    Medicare. Where it the voice speaking out against that wrong?

    These three are spending a good deal of time speaking on protecting the unborn but no one word on Doctors refusing to treat someone who has earn the coverage of Medicare!

    They want to defend someone’s right to refuse to perform a legal procedure. Having a provision put in that states anyone who refuses to do they job because they do not agree with that part of the job.

    But no one is standing up for the elderly and their right to have a Doctor to prolong their lives and treat their illnesses and injuries. A refusal not based on a moral action if anything that refusal is a Amoral action.

    Not one Republican or one Democrat is speaking up against that amoral act!

  11. wicked
    November 22, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    For all the Alice’s Restaurant fans, KEYN (103.7) will be playing it on Thanksgiving Day at 9am-12n-3pm. Since our family will be scattered to their in-laws and I intend to spend a wonderfully quiet day without interruptions (ha ha), I’ll be listening. We’ll do turkey day on Saturday, which works for me. 🙂