First: A woman from the United Kingdom was denied entry to New Zealand because her BMI is over their limit for immigrants. Since New Zealand has Universal Health Care, they don't want people who may tax the limits of their medical system showing up at the immigration door. The husband passed his BMI standard but may give up his dream of living in New Zealand if his wife can't lose enough by the end of 2007. The Immigration Policy can be found here.
Here's a small section:
D2.1 Requirement to hold permit to be in New Zealand, or to be exempt
Immigration Act 1987 ss 4, 11
See D2.1 Effective 01/10/1999
a. No one other than a New Zealand citizen may be in New Zealand unless that person is:
i the holder of a current permit granted under the Immigration Act 1987; or
ii exempt under a provision of the Immigration Act 1987 from having to old a permit.
b. Any person who is in New Zealand contrary to (a) above is considered to be in New Zealand unlawfully.
Kind of to the point, right? I emailed one of my Senators and asked him or a staff member to read up on New Zealand's Immigration Policy. The USofA doesn't begin to compare with any other Nation or Country when it comes to an "open door" immigration policy. Sure, we get good people, but we get a lot of criminals, too. We can grow our own criminals. We even elect some of them POTUS.
Then I read that some New Jersey-based American Atheists group filed a lawsuit in Utah in 2005 to have the Utah State Patrol dead troopers memorials (which happen to be in the shape of a cross) removed because the crosses were violating "the First Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits government establishment of religion." The families state that it's a memorial, you're the minority, so go back to New Jersey. (Well, not exactly, I made up the "you're a minority, so go back to New Jersey" but it does fit quite well, I think.) U.S. District Judge David Sam recently heard arguments in the case and will rule soon on the legality of the crosses. So, please pray for Judge David Sam to have the wisdom of Solomon. Or is that also an attempt to establish a religion on the Internet which the Federal Government also uses -- the Internet, not necessarily Blogger dot com.
Then there's the story of the malnourished twins found under the bed of their deceased mother. Talk about a sad situation! This poor woman had no one to look in on her. The neighbors didn't give her a second thought until they smelled a "foul odor" emanating from her apartment. She had no "support group" and apparently no family to assist her with the newborns. This is why it is of utmost importance that you communicate with your core group of friends and your family on a regular basis. If you have no core group of friends, then shut down the computer and go find some people who share your interests. And if you have no family of birth, then find a family of choice. It could be your hunting buddies or your NASCAR buddies or your camping buddies or your Sunday School class buddies or your square dance buddies -- it doesn't matter who as much as it matters that you have a core group with whom you converse on a daily or every other day regularity.
I could SCREAM every time I hear of someone who has lost HOPE. Because when you lose HOPE, you no longer have a reason to keep going, to keep living, to keep waiting for your Prince to come. Without hope, you'll never notice the Prince. (Or Princess, I'm a generic equal opportunity word smith.) I want to scream every time I read about a teen committing suicide or an adult who has given up on life or a person who has lost all hope for future goodness in his life.
Teen Suicide. What a heart wrenching news article. Maybe you read about it, maybe not. In a town near St. Louis, MO, in 2005, a 13 year old girl, named Megan, who suffered from depression and attention deficit disorder and was on medication, met a boy on My Space dot com. The only problem was that the boy was not real and she never knew. The false-friend was made up by an adult neighbor. At first, the character seemed friendly, then suddenly he turned on Megan and sent mean-spirited and hateful messages to her. Although her parents tried to tell her not to be upset and that things would get better, for this child, the words on the computer monitor broke her spirit. She quietly tried to commit suicide and was found by her parents 20 minutes after despondently running upstairs to her room. She died in the hospital the next day.
Megan's parents had bought a foosball table for the My Space boy who had at first made their daughter so happy that she had found a nice online friend. When they found out that the My Space friend was a hoax, they destroyed the table and dropped it off in the neighbor's driveway. Megan's parents are separated and plan to divorce.
Think about this for a minute. An adult neighbor creates a Hoax-Friend to try to find out what Megan had said about this neighbor's child. Then the adult neighbor posing as the Hoax-Friend plays mind games with the teenager. An adult screwing up a teen aged girl's emotion fraught mind. Not just this depressed teen, but many young teens have a fragile sense of self and self-worth. It would have been better if the neighbor had come over and broken Megan's leg than for her to have used words to destroy Megan's spirit. The teen attempts suicide and dies the day after and her parents' marriage is destroyed. By a My Space boy created as a hoax.
Law enforcement officials in the small town said the case did not fit into any law. Maybe not a civil law, but what about a Moral Law? The town is considering an ordinance related to child endangerment and Internet harassment.
Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones, But Words May Break My Spirit." Words create and words kill. What's in YOUR heart and mouth?
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