I had never heard of pet hospice until I read about it in
The Denver Post. The paper reports:
America is undergoing a cultural sea
change in how we say goodbye to our pets. A growing hospice movement is
teaching pet owners how to administer late-stage care to animals with
terminal illnesses. Vets make house calls to euthanize pets in the
comfort of the home; bereavement counselors work with humans grieving
over their four-footed dead.
It's a long way from picking up a rifle and saying
goodbye to Old Yeller, the old farm and frontier model. And it speaks
to the increasingly complex relationship many people have with their
animals.
We expect our children to outlive us. Not so with our
animals. Yet we take them into our homes and hearts knowing this is the
contract: We will come to love them, but we will lose them.
This translates to a lot of Kleenex: An estimated two-
thirds of American households have pets, with more than 65 million
dogs, 77 million cats and about 40 million birds. That doesn't count
dozens of other varieties of animals large and small, hooved and
clawed.
I wonder if you know that there are grief counseling hotlines in many parts of the country for people who have lost their pets.
Census Bureau Asks for Suspension of Raids The Associated Press says:
Census workers know it will be difficult counting illegal immigrants for
the 2010 population tally and even tougher if those immigrants are
hiding from enforcement agents.
"If you have federal officials
going door to door trying to count people, and federal officials going
door to door trying to deport people, it doesn't work," said Arturo
Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino
Elected and Appointed Officials.
To make it easier, the Census Bureau wants immigration agents to
suspend enforcement raids during the population count, the Census
Bureau's second-ranking official said in an Associated Press interview.
Faith Relies on Imports
The Orange County (Calif.) Register wrote an interesting piece on a shortage of U.S.-born Muslim leaders who are recruited to lead congregations. The piece says:
By some estimates more than half of the 5 million to 7 million
Muslims in America are under 18. While the East Coast has more native
and native-trained imams than the West Coast, there's a shortage of
such imams in the country, especially of Middle Eastern heritage, and
difficulty connecting with the youth.
An imam is the religious
leader of a mosque, helping worshippers fulfill their spiritual needs,
performing services and counseling them. There is no system of ordained
clergy in Islam. Ultimately, the community picks the person it trusts
and who is educationally qualified to be an imam, Muslim leaders say.
The story continues:
The urgency for more U.S.-bred and -raised imams is being recognized in the Muslim world.
"Every
center is looking for someone who can connect with our youth, because
the youth is our future," said Masoud Nassimi, acting president of the
Council on American Islamic Relations in Southern California.
The scrutiny that foreign-born imams face or fear after 9/11 has slowed the flow of overseas imams to America.
Physical Education Makes a Comeback
Study after study shows that children in America are not getting enough exercise. School systems, feeling pressure to generate passing scores on achievement tests, nuked their physical education programs to make time for more classroom instruction. Then, we discover, the children aren't getting enough exercise and are becoming overweight and unhealthy. So, can schools have both physical education (PE) and academics? Some are about to try.
See this CDC report on the decline of PE participation.
The CDC says:
Progress has not been made toward reaching the national health
objectives for 2010 related to PE. In 2003, only 55.7% of high school
students were enrolled in a PE class, only 28.4% were attending PE
class daily, and only 39.2% were physically active during PE class. In
addition, female students and students in higher grades were
consistently at greatest risk for not reaching the national health
objectives for PE.
The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel reports:
Florida's new physical-education law kicks in with the start of classes
Monday, requiring 30 minutes of daily exercise for elementary-school
students.
Don't look for more traditional PE classes. There is neither the time nor
the money.
Instead, look for schools to squeeze in exercise whenever they can.
Calisthenics during morning announcements. Group walks around campus after
lunch. Dribbling soccer balls or jumping rope during recess. "Stations"
where students can spend 15 minutes twirling hula hoops, playing tetherball
or running an obstacle course.
"I think it's a very good thing to support physical fitness and healthy
lifestyles," said Michael Pfeiffer, principal of Wekiva Elementary in Seminole
County. "There is a lack of physical activity out there with our children."
But like other educators, Pfeiffer worries that adding more PE time will
subtract from the time allotted for other subjects. Schools already feel the
time pinch, with state law demanding 90 minutes a day for reading, and local
administrators pushing for 60 minutes of math.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's
Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story
excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as
original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly
from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided
whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends on the
accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors and
inaccuracies found will be corrected.
