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a photography workshop is being organized for august 1 at the ballard locks. i’m on the wrong side of the country for this, but the details are here.
this is inspiring because it’s a peaceful, community-organied response to this incident.
every once in a while you run across a “tree hits car” story, and reading that a 7-year-old kid is trying to buy a gun manufacturer definitely fits into that category… brandon maxfield is trying to buy the manufacturer of the gun that made him a quadriplegic:
Donations Still Needed So Bryco Arms’ Plant Manager Can’t Outbid [brandon’s arms press release, july 9, 2004]A child paralyzed as a result of Bryco Arms’ defective gun design has raised enough money to make an initial bid to shut down the gun factory and prevent 75,000 defective guns from hitting the streets. With the support of its many donors, Brandon’s Arms will offer an initial bid today of $175,000 to a Florida federal bankruptcy judge.
it’s a little deeper story, but i want to highlight a little bit from an ap story on the story…
Teen Bids for Maker of Gun That Maimed Him [ap via abc news, july 9, 2004]Bryco founder Bruce Jennings and his Nevada-based distribution company were ordered to pay $24 million of a $51 million judgment in Maxfield’s lawsuit. Maxfield has received $8.7 million none of it from Jennings or Bryco from others named in the suit.
Days after the verdict, Jennings moved across the country to Florida, where he purchased a $500,000 annuity and a $900,000 home and hangar in Daytona Beach. He filed both for personal bankruptcy and bankruptcy for Bryco in Florida, where state law allows debtors to keep their houses.
Jennings also reportedly owns a Lamborghini and other expensive cars and aircraft, which Maxfield’s attorneys are pursuing.
it’s going to be a rare moment, but in this case, the meta-roj blog applauds the attorneys. that comes with the caveat: brandon’s lawyers better not end up owning lamborghini’s when this is all over. do the right thing.
drop by brandon’s arms for more on the story and yet another amazing kid doing something in this world.
update: brandon is outbid
“We teach doctors how to be a good doctor to kids”
just another amazing kid story… i’ve got a lot of personal reasons for being interested in the role of “patient advocate” in this modern american medical system, so when a 9-year-old does something about it, it’s an important thing to notice.
madison wrote a book. that book is available online [pdf].
madison’s foundation has all the details.
for more, good morning america did a story on madison over here.
on this fourth of july, i thought i’d look for some inspiration about the american process… and eventually, i found fred foster.
fred foster, of durham, north carolina, provides limousines to get people to the polls. of course, that only works if they aren’t jammed, but the point is that mr. foster supports the democratic process with the resources he has available.
you can hear an interview here [real media, windows media only].
Former Cancer Patient Debuts Video Game [ap via abcnews]Ben Duskin has helped turn fighting cancer into a game. When the 9-year-old former leukemia patient was asked if he had an unrequited wish by the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Ben requested a video game be made that fellow cancer sufferers could play to take their mind of the painful side effects of chemotherapy.
how odd, that the most inspirational stuff on the web seems to come from the children? i hope i never grow up.
to grab the game, go here [make a wish]. it’s the selfless wishes that mean so much. ok, maybe this isn’t totally selfless, but why is it that the kids are thinking of others more than the grumps?
we like good stories about people doing good things, so the meta-roj blog introduces you to dazja gianessi and maya carey. dazja and maya are a couple of 11-year olds from weirton, west virginia, and they want some ice cream.
and this is only a big deal because all the ice cream shops in town have been replaced by slots parlors (and, i guess, 11-year-olds don’t have cars to get to the next town…).
in any case, the story is that these two young women have decided to start a petition to get their ice cream back, and they’ve landed nearly 600 signatures so far, which is something like 3% of the population.
if you’re in the neighborhood, swing by the millsop community center on june 26th around noon for the pro-ice-cream rally.
Girls lobby for ice cream shops in W. Va. [ap via seattle post-intelligencer, june 24, 2004]Weirton, with a population of 20,000, has 81 licensed video poker bars.
…
Maya said grown-ups seem to have forgotten that children need places to hang out, too.
“I think they’re just being selfish, worrying about themselves,” she said. “They don’t think children will do anything about it.”
Slots are hot in Weirton [pittsburgh post-gazette, june 24, 2004]
Ice Cream vs. Slot Machines [wpvi, june 23, 2004]
Where’s The Ice Cream? [wtov]
in the tradition of rafe esquith, katherine and stephanie and most of all, hope stout, i take some time to share with you the story of alexandra scott.
diagnosed with neuroblastoma at about age one, alex scott is now eight years old, still battling her cancer and on a mission to raise $1 million to fight the disease. she’s doing it with a lemonade stand.
to date, she’s raised over $200,000.
so, it’s summertime, and that means it’s lemonade time, and the big around-the-country (and even a little in canada) lemonade stand event is june 12.
visit the site, read the stories, and find some way to participate. the philadelphia fund page is here.
the ap is running a story [via abc], and you can get some recent news on alex from caringbridge.
so, let run off on a trip around the net to pick up the news about alex….
Stars of Spider-Man 2 and Real-Life Superheroes [oprah]
Alex’s Lemonade Stands Planned In 50 States [wbal, june 10, 2004]
Outpouring of volunteers takes a stand for children with cancer [the star ledger, june 11, 2004]
Robinsons to set up lemonade stand near dome [redwood falls gazette, june 4, 2004]
Fighting Cancer With Lemonade [cbs news, september 1, 2003]
Hope By The Cupful [cbs news, july 21, 2003]
Buy lemonade, fight kids’ cancer [arizona daily star, june 9, 2004]
Pa. Girl Hopes to Raise $1M for Cancer [guardian unlimited (uk), june 11, 2004]
Lemon Aid [the new american, october 6, 2003]
Lemonade for life [spot on, germany]
Lemon-Aid [guidepost for kids]
living generously, a sermon preached by the rev. dr. gary a. wilburn [first presbyterian church of new canaan, november 24, 2002]
Making Lemons from Lemonade [catawampus, may 4, 2004]
Children’s Cancer Fundraiser Set For June 12 At Co-op [university of connecticut, june 9, 2004]
Lemonade stand to raise funds for cancer research [houston chronicle, june 2, 2004]
Lemonade Sale Funds Girl’s Wish [technewsworld, june 12, 2004]
Alex Continues Lemonade Crusade Against Pediatric Cancer [nbc10, june 2, 2004]
Alexandra Scott [time for kids, may 2, 2003]
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Fund [dreams alive magazine]
some charity involvement…
The Elsevier Foundation [$5000 grant, 2003]
some political involvement…
Leach urges Pennsylvanians to support ‘Alex’s Lemonade Stand’ and help fund pediatric cancer research [pennsylvania state house representative daylin leach, march 16, 2003]
Leach hosts Alex Scott at Capitol in effort to gather support for pediatric cancer research [pennsylvania state house representative daylin leach, may 11, 2003]
and some corporate involvement…
All About Alex [coffee blend named for alex]
Sunkist’s Pledge to Alex’s Lemonade Stand
philadelphia sixers, november 9, 2003
Delaware Valley Volvo Retailers Honor Local Hero Alexandra Scott With Month-Long Fundraiser
Volvo for Life Awards [translated by google]
Charity Basketball Tournament to Benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand Fund [holy family university, march 30, 2004]
wkrz 98.5fm
and the darker side – let no good deed go unpunished, and let no bad news go unaddressed:
Girls’ sweet deed comes to bitter end [st. petersburg times, july 23, 2003]
Lemonade girls taste a victory [st. petersburg times, august 3, 2003]
i hope you had a nice journey…
you can donate via paypal through the philadelphia fund online donation page.
as for the meta-roj blog, i’m adding alex over there on the right next to hope.
thank you for your attention.
update (2004.06.12): for the remainder of today, alexandra scott gets the top slot on the meta-roj blog, and i fixed all the missing “read more” links and added a few fresh ones from today.
update (2004.06.12): alex has even been farked.
update (2004.08.02): alex died on her favorite couch. the lemonade stand effort has raised about $750,000, with pledges to continue the work until the $1 million goal is reached. please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments here, or at the memorial post for alex
update (2004.08.02): as i bring the second of august to an end here (technically, at least), i thought i’d take a moment to acknowledge the more than 750 visitors to the meta-roj blog today that came looking for alex in some form or another. i’m sorry the news that brought you were was sad, but thanks for dropping by and doing whatever you did that was inspired by alex and her efforts.
with some protestors still in prison…
and many hundreds or even thousands of people dead…
a nod of the roj-blog to those who stood in protest for something that they believed.
one of the former prisoners in abu ghraib, and one of those “featured” in the photos that escaped into the public eye, saddam saleh was recently interviewed [windows or real media only] for npr.
saddam saleh will try to attend the court martial of united states army specialist jeremy sivits and the others that are brought to answer for their roles in this disaster.
… i just can’t imagine myself responsible for a family. i lost my honor, my dignity. i lost everything.
….
maybe the man who tortured me is a father… and the woman who tortured me… a mother. so i don’t want to see them hanged or harmed. i am not a savage.
maybe it takes an iraqi truck driver and draft dodger to show us americans our own american values. thank you, saddam saleh.
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