Dining Out ... A New Idea

Each time I see the news 98% contains violent crimes, Trump's tweets, celebrity misbehavior and then occasionally there is a story that reports something uplifting. 

A few weeks ago there was a news story on PBS of a new concept in eating out. Its not a new nationwide fast food place or an all you can eat buffet. Rather it is a restaurant willing to go the extra mile to accommodate ALL its customers. 

How often had you looked around the restaurant and saw a senior being helped by another ... perhaps that person had dementia or Alzheimer's, or a child with Autism or someone with Downs syndrome? Maybe a person with a service dog laying by their chair. There are people who experience a personal discomfort seeing someone or even being close to a person with a disability. Folks, those conditions are not contagious. They are all human beings allow them the dignity and respect to enjoy life as you do. 

Eating out can be a challenge for many, their families or caregivers. There are now  restaurants that will go above and beyond to make that dining out experience enjoyable and successful. Those establishments will provide the accommodations that enhance the dining experience of someone who suffers from a disability. They have staff members that are specially trained to understand different needs and have the patience and empathy to help them enjoy their experience. 

This concept is called a Purple Table Reservation. While in its infancy Purple Table Reservations is currently available in a handful of restaurants in Massachusetts, Ohio and North Carolina. With a little help it could be become available nationwide. 

 Going out to lunch or dinner at a restaurant should be a lovely and relaxing experience.  It is something to look forward to, and many of us take the experience for granted.  However, many choose not to go out to eat because for themselves or someone they love it will be a challenging experience.  Let's help to change this.  Purple Table Reservations will change this.

Call your favorite eating place and ask if they know about Purple Table Reservations. Each time you eat out ask the manager if they are aware of Purple Table Reservations. Explain what it is and what a difference it can make. Learn more at:  https://www.purpletables.com/ or just Google Purple Table Reservations.

 It would be so great to see this logo in thousands of restaurants  from coast to coast.

 

Something to Think About

Last night 60 Minutes reported on the health crisis in Yemen. According to their report one child is dying every ten minutes. That truly makes me sick.

In short, they reported the problem is rooted in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Or, essentially between the Sunni and Shia muslims..

While watching the 60 Minutes' story I began to wonder how many people over the milleniums have been killed in the name of God. Not being a fan of organized religion, my initial thought was probably more people have been killed in the name of God than any thing else. A rude awakening, my thought was wrong.That statement is provably false and historically inaccurate.

How many people have died because of religion is an impossible question to answer. I am not being fatuous or dodging the question it's literally impossible.

If religion were used as the tool of choice to get people to do the killing, then it were done in religions name. It doesn't matter that the actual reason was politics or money - the killing was carried out because of religion.

If you want to discuss incidents other than war, we cannot count the Holocaust as "religious" violence, since Hitler hated Christians and other non-Aryan races as well.

The Holocaust  was genocide, not religious violence. But even if you count it, the total is between 16 and 31 million deaths due to religion in recorded history.

Most wars have been about resources (give me your stuff), power (bow down to me, not some god), or political or border disputes. Only about 7% of all wars in history have been waged for religious causes, accounting for only about 2% of all history's war deaths.

In fact, anti-religion has caused more deaths than religion.Communist dictators enforcing their religion-free societies have accounted for more deaths than all the religious violence in all history. Mao and Stalin alone account for over 100 million deaths.

Now .... what does this history lesson have to do with a child dying every 10 minutes? That answer is both simple and complex.

If we were to put a group of toddlers (from 1 to 3 years-old) from all races and ethnic groups in a room together they would play together without regard to the differences. If we were to put a group of 3 and 4 year-olds in a room, each who spoke a different language they would still be able to communicate in some fashion. Prejudice and hatred is a learned behavior!

Walk into an operating room just after the initial incision is made on a chest or abdomen. The patient is covered in surgical drapes. There is a screen covering his or her's head. If you stood at the foot of the operating table you could see the blood and various anatomical features. None of which would give you a clue who the patient might be. Nothing says "I am white, or black, or brown, or Christian or Jew or Muslim or Buddhist." They are simply human beings. Their blood is red, their organs are the same.

We are all human beings ... when will we ever learn to simply get along and help one another?

This Thursday is Thanksgiving. Would it not be appropriate to demonstrate our thanks by helping someone else ... not with a hand-out but rather with a hand up.

Honoring All Veterans

Blessings to all my brother and sister Combat Veterans and to all those who have served our great nation.

I don't know who the author is of what  you are about to read but I do know he or she has written a powerful view of the 6th day of creation.

When the Lord was creating Vietnam Veterans, He was into His 6th day of overtime when an angel appeared.

 "You're certainly doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And God said, "Have you seen the specs on this order? A Vietnam Vet has to be able to run 5 klicks through the bush with a full pack on, endure with barely any sleep for days, enter tunnels his higher ups wouldn't consider doing, and keep his weapons clean and operable. He has to be able to sit in his fox hole all night during an attack, hold his buddies as they die, walk point in unfamiliar territory known to be VC infested, and somehow keep his senses alert for danger. He has to be in top physical condition existing on c-rats and very little rest. And he has to have 6 pairs of hands."

The angel shook his head slowly and said, "6 pair of hands....no  way."

The Lord says, "It's not the hands that are causing me problems. It's the 3 pair of eyes a Nam Vet has to have."

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded."One pair that sees through elephant grass, another pair here in the side of his head for his buddies, another pair here in front that can look reassuringly at his bleeding, fellow soldier and say, "You'll make it"...  when he knows he won't."

"Lord, rest, and work on this tomorrow."

"I can't," said the Lord. "Not until I have a model that can carry a wounded soldier 1,000 meters during a fire fight, calm the fears of the latest FNG and feed a family of 4 on a grunt's paycheck."

The angel walked around the model and said, "Can it think?"

"You bet," said the Lord. "It can quote much of the UCMJ, understands 'non sibi sed patriae', knows what 'de oppresso liber' means, recite all his general orders, and engage in a search and destroy mission in less time than it takes for his fellow Americans back home to discuss the morality of the War and all the while, keep his sense of humor."

 The Lord gazed into the future and said, "He will also endure being vilified and spit on when he returns home, rejected and crucified by the very ones for which he fought."

Finally, the angel slowly ran his finger across the vet's cheek, and said, "There's a  leak...I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model."

"That's not a leak", said the Lord. "That's a tear."

"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.

"It's for bottled up emotions, for holding fallen soldiers as they die, for commitment to that funny piece of cloth called the American flag, for the terror of living with PTSD for decades after the war, alone with its' demons with no one to care or help."

"You're a genius," said the angel, casting a gaze at the tear.

The lord looked very somber, as if seeing down eternity's distant shores.

"I didn't put it there," He said.

A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of  "up to and including my life". That is Honor and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it."