They informed me that it was just the Blackfeet way

[Wetzelbill]

This is from my home reservation paper. It's a very nice story, I just thought I'd share it with all of you. Let's remember, we've all been fighting lately, but we're in this together. That's what being progressive is all about. We take care of each other. This story reminded me of that. -Bill

They informed me that it was just the Blackfeet way



Wednesday, January 9, 2008 11:53 AM MST

To the Editor:-Last September I found myself just a few miles south of Browning and all but out of gas. Having fought a strong headwind on my motorcycle for many miles, it was becoming clear that I would not make it to the next gas station. My bike was too heavy to load in the back of someone's pickup that is if someone with a pickup would even stop to offer help. I hadn't seen many vehicles, of any type, and it was getting dark. I had the choice of going until I could go no more, but that would mean leaving my motorcycle along the side of the road. The odds did not seem to good of it being there when I got back from what would be at least an eight mile hike.




I decided to stop at one of the few residences located along the roadway. In doing so, I met a young man of the Blackfeet Tribe. He had no gas to offer me. Both the cars located on the property were empty, I know because he tried to siphon them. I was about to leave when he had an idea. There was an old piece of farm equipment located out in the middle of a field which might have some gas in it. It was less than a third of a gallon, but was sufficient to get me to Browning.

While he tried to help me, I learned he was a father of several young children and happened to be home only because he was sick that day. It was apparent that money was tight, yet he would not take payment for his service. Not even the cost of the gas. He only said something similar to it being a good deed. I offered several times, doing everything but forcing a few dollars into his hand. Later that night at a restaurant in Browning, I asked a young couple who were having dinner next to me (also from the Blackfeet Tribe) how they thought I might repay the generosity I had received earlier that evening. They informed me that it was just the Blackfeet way and that no payment or gift would be accepted.

A couple months have since passed, but I have not forgotten the generosity of my savior from the Blackfeet Tribe. I wish I knew his name so that I could at least say a proper thank you. I was thinking of him this morning while fooling around with my computer and decided to write the local newspaper, with a request to publish my appreciation, hoping he might read it. It was then that I ran across the Trae Hitchcocks story, the infant in need of heart surgery. The news article said that the Blackfeet community is trying to raise funds to allow the infant's parents to travel to Utah for the surgery. I have enclosed a check for $100 to be used toward this cause.

One good deed does deserve another. My best wishes to all men and women of the Blackfeet Tribe.

Michael

Santa Cruz, Calif.



http://www.goldentrianglenews.com/articles/2008/01/09/glacier_reporter/news/news3.txt

[TahitiNut]

1. Pay it Forward

It's the way to improve the world.

[Wetzelbill]

3. you bet

That was great of him to send out 100 dollars like that. Truly touching.

[eridani]

8. That's what I always say when I donate money or time

If they want to pay me back, I just say remember and give to someone else when you have it.

[Wetzelbill]

14. right on

That's a good attitude to have. If we all just kept being good to each other and had some empathy for those around us, just imagine how much better the world would be?

[sutz12]

2. Wow, just wow....great story.....yeah, pay it forward. nt

[Wetzelbill]

6. thanks for replying

Yeah that's how people are back home. You'll find people with almost nothing will practically give you the shirt off their back if you need it.

[asdjrocky]

4. Good story-

Reply 1 and 2 said it all. K&R

[Wetzelbill]

11. exactly

not much to add after that, thanks for the K&R.

[John Q. Citizen]

5. Very cool story. n/t

[Wetzelbill]

12. probably reminds you alot

of plenty of MTans, right, John? :)

[John Q. Citizen]

23. It does indeed, WB. Not only that, I grew up in Sta. Cruz.

[Kurovski]

7. When humans cherish one another in their hearts, it comes naturally.

It is the way, and for people to say it is the way aloud, and make it a part if their identity is all the better.

It is so very unlike the scorn for others who are in need--in ways both large and small--that has become the right-wing American "way".

Hey, Prez! :hug:

[Wetzelbill]

9. Hey VP

Yes, that's what bothers me most about the RW, the total lack of empathy. And I'm not talking about your regular down-home type of folks who are relatively conservative but would help just about anybody, I grew up around people like that and they are great human beings. I'm talking about the RW elite who dismiss those in need like they are a plague. It's troubling to me. The lack of empathy in our country is shameful.

[Rageneau]

10. Most encouraging thing I've read on DU in weeks. Thanks.

[Wetzelbill]

13. you're welcome

Yes, it put me in a good mood, I was a little down myself. :)

[LaStrega]

15. got me all choked up ...

Thank you for posting that. Very nice to read a feel-good story what with all the :Primary nastiness going on around DU.

[Wetzelbill]

16. you're welcome

It's nice to feel good, you know? I need to believe that there is hope and kindness out there in the world. That we can all care about each other. :) Thanks for replying, I appreciate it.

[LaStrega]

18. You're very welcome!

I just emailed your OP to nearly everybody in my gmail contact list :)

[Wetzelbill]

19. great!

Thanks a lot. :)

[Swamp Rat]

17. k&r

peace

[Wetzelbill]

20. Thank you, Swamp Rat

It's much appreciated, my friend. :)

[Swamp Rat]

21. I really appreciate people like you.

I only wish there were more of you. :)

[Wetzelbill]

22. wow

You just made my day. Right back at you as well.

[troubleinwinter]

24. Thank you for bringing us this.

[Wetzelbill]

26. you're welcome

:toast:

[troubleinwinter]

28. I know many Navajos

and spend time each year with them on the reservation.

One friend had a nice small mobile home on her property that was unoccupied. She said she might like to rent it for some income, but didn't want anyone making a mess of it. I suggested she might rent it to an elder who perhaps needed assistance with meals, and whose family could not provide care. She LAUGHED. I asked why. She said, "You don't understand! There is no such thing as an elder whose family won't or can't care for them. It does not happen here."

One of my friends is a 95 year old woman who lives on the top of a remote high mesa. Her water source is no good anymore, having been poisoned by the government's uranium mining. Her grandsons drive an hour and a half each way every day over winding, steep, narrow dirt roads to bring water for her and her small sheep flock.

[Wetzelbill]

29. those are great examples

thanks for sharing. If I could nominate a reply, I would definitely rec yours. :)

[troubleinwinter]

30. I nominate the Dine' people!

Oh. But guess what. My state is disenfranchising many of the elders from voting, under the false guise of keeping all those "illegals" from voting.

State wants picture ID. All you need is a birth certificate (most elders do not have these, as they were born at home), a utility bill (68% of the Navajo people have zero utilities, no water, phone, electric, etc.), a property tax bill (does not exist on the reservation. Most don't even have a mailing address, as there is no mail delivery to remote homes over 28,000 square miles).

The majority of the voters in 2004 were elderly voters (of the tribe's 95,000 registered voters). The Navajo voted 67% Kerry in 2004. ("In Tuba City, Ariz., one of the largest reservation communities located in Coconino County, voters favored Sen. Kerry with around 79 percent of the votes. Analysis of other reservation precincts showed that George Bush received anywhere from 19 to 34 percent"). They had to be stopped! Americans had to be prevented from voting, so this new law took effect two days before election day 2006.

[Wetzelbill]

31. I was the U of AZ SAVE Director right before the midterms

I had to organize and register voters -nonpartisan I was part of the U of A's student body president's cabinet- and prop 200 was a pain in the ass. I had to be trained in voter registration, it was a mess. I live in Tucson, btw. :)

[troubleinwinter]

32. Hey, Tucson! Prescott here!

Question about post-200 voter registrations. I have read that "street" registration drives are hard now, because of the ID issue (not having a photocopier in your pocket to copy IDs). But I think just driver's license number suffices? How many don't have AZ DL or AZ state ID?

Our line to vote on Feb 5 was an hour in freezing high altitude cold. I have NEVER experienced that before. A great many older folks here, and they were beginning to leave, as they could not stand in line any more. I went into the polling place official and asked if we could bring those older people with difficulties in from the cold and seat them while they waited. She was very reluctant, not overly plesant, but finally relented. I went down the line, bringing people into the building and showing them seats and advising the official that they were there & watched that they were noted.

The line was caused by the ID nonsense. The voting booths were EMPTY. I watched for a half hour, then went home. I could not relax, worrying about the older folks in line. I went back an hour and a half later to find the poll official had many people in chairs and was going from person to person helping them with their check ins!!!
:patriot: to the official!

The voting booths were still virtually empty, with an hour+ line.
I probably helped 40 republicans to vote that day!:rofl:

[troubleinwinter]

33. On 2/5/08, I wanted to test the ID system.

I presented my passport and a property tax bill (with address) and mailed official voter material (with address).

The poll worker said, "We don't take passports." and immediately went on to the next person! I said, "YES, you do. I have sufficient ID." She called the official over, who agreed that what I had presented was sufficient.

But I had KNOWN it was enough and insisted. The worker had blown me off and had I not known the requirements, I may have gone away. She did NOT even offer me a provisional, in light of her belief that my ID wasn't sufficient.

Not good. Clearly poll worker training is crappy.

[Wetzelbill]

34. I think the training itself is probably fine

except that it's boring. You get somebody in there who wants to volunteer but who basically thinks its a monkey's job and is daydreaming throughout the training, well then you get stuff like that. It's more complex than people think, hell it's been over a year since my training and I forgot alot of the finer points. I bet she volunteered before and basically thought she knew it all already, but good luck with that. It's a new age and voter disenfranchisement is an easy occurrence.

[Wetzelbill]

35. I knew a girl from Prescott

used to have a big crush on her, beautiful young woman. :) I like how you all say it like Preskitt too. :)

Street registration drives are tougher for sure. And the problem is if the people registering voters don't know there stuff, like I kind of didn't at first, you could screw people over. They might think they are registered, but because they made some type of mistake like like you said with out of state ID or something like that, they aren't going to get registered. I think you have to have and AZ ID though. I'm fuzzy on that. Or a tribal Id might work too. I'll have to look it up again, I'm rusty on it all. The courts stepped in in October 2006 and ruled that outside IDs can be used, I think. But that may have only been temporary.

[knitter4democracy]

45. That is disgusting.

Oh, it was okay for them to fight in our wars, come up with the only unbroken code of WWII, but now we can't let them vote?! That's insane!

I have a huge amount of respect for the Dine. I had the opportunity to teach in Chinle for a month in college, and it was all I could do not to run back down there after graduation and beg for a job. Best place I ever taught. Since we got married that summer and Hubby was in med school, I couldn't do it, but I dream of going back. Wonderful, wonderful people, amazing culture, and gorgeous place to breathe.

[Wetzelbill]

48. they have measures that help them

find a way to get registered and vote. But it's inconvenient. It pushes away a lot of people. That and reservation areas are way more likely to have people who have to vote using provisional ballots, which then, of course, are much more apt to not ever be counted. It's a bad deal.

[troubleinwinter]

51. They still serve in war.

Every gas station and store on the reservation is absolutely plastered with recruiting posters. I never see these in my (white) town. A high ratio of the young Dine' are serving, as they always have. I attended a remarkable honor ceremony for a young woman soldier... she had been ordered to deploy to Iraq in a week. Every Navajo I have spoken to about it says, "This war is a wrong war."

I spend my time in Oljeto. There is a very wonderful small high school near there (near Monument Valley). The teachers have to live on site in trailers, as it is so remote (an hour + drive to have a beer, dating- forget it). It must be a wonderful experience, but I'd think it would be hard to do it for more than a year. 68% of the students go home to no electricity. A teacher cannot say "Go home and type up your report on the computer." The school opens their showers to the students' parents, as so many do not have running water. The school library is open to the community, as there is no other library. It's a wonderful school, where they have programs for elders to come and teach traditional ways and knowlege, along with usual curriculum. It must be a great experience for the teachers there to know the kids and community.

Local Navajo friends are raising money to build a small community center with showers, a few computers, telephones and a community room for gatherings. They have been raising and collecting money for this project for five years so far.

I spoke to the 10 year old son of a friend, asking him if his bus ride to school was long. He said, "No, not long." His mother said it was about an hour and a half each way! I asked the boy, "What do you do on the bus, tease the girls?" He laughed. His mother said that they mostly sleep, as many get up very early to tend the sheep flocks before and after school.

When visiting each year, we load up the vehicle with as much as we can. Toiletries, school supplies, coffee, cooking oil, towels, detergent (useful for cleaning the sheep's' wool), bags of fresh fruit, juice, etc. etc. They raise their own meat (mutton), corn, squash, melons, etc. and buy flour, but most everything else is appreciated. We once had a few flashlights, measuring tapes and boxes of nails. These were much appreciated.

The Girl Scouts in Prescott have been very helpful in gathering some items. They somehow managed LOTS of toiletries (soaps, shampoos) from motels/hotels. This year, I'd like to see if I can obtain fabrics (bolt-ends, or whatever). We have only one fabric store in my city, the corporate Joanne's. I dread trying to talk to the manager about it, as she is a dumbass.

[knitter4democracy]

53. Let me know where to send stuff, too.

If they need knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving stuff, let me know. I'll post it on some fiber sites I'm on. Do they like Dawn for scouring the fleeces, too? Everyone has a preference, but I found the Seventh Generation lavendar mint dish soap for a good price at our Target, and that worked the best with two old fleeces I'd found in some stash digging.

I loved teaching at Chinle High. Sure, the kids couldn't do homework (not realistic with bus rides and chores and no electricity for some of the students), but they were polite, funny, hard-working, and some of the best kids I've ever had the honor of teaching. As an English teacher, I was fascinated with the grammar issues that came up in class and so came up with some different ways to tackle common mistakes. The kids made errors that foreign language speakers make but also ones that native speakers make. Really interesting.

As for fabric, I might have a source for that, too. Let me know what you're looking for.

[aquart]

25. You did exactly the right thing.

[Wetzelbill]

27. Thank you

:patriot:

[madokie]

36. Not only is it the Blackfeet way it is our way too

as I'm a handy type person to have around because I never learned I can't do or fix most anything so I get the opportunity often to simply say pay up to the next chance you get to do the same, to pass it on. Thank you for the story, it is nice to read and it shows us how you yourself see things. As my dad used to say about someone walking along the road when he would stop to pick them us, theres always room for one more. Sometimes it would mean standing on the running board but it sure beat walking and it was always met with warm wishes and happy smiles. Isn't smiles what life is all about anyway. I love doing it anyway.
have a great day, as you've helped to get mine off to a good start. ;-)

splchk

[Wetzelbill]

38. yes it is

That's what we're all supposed to be about. Thanks a lot and you have a great day too. :)

[knitter4democracy]

46. I was thinking something similar: it's also the Midwestern way.

I grew up in rural Michigan. Someone stranded without gas would always get help and often a bit of food while we're at it.

I'm often amazed at the way some people here act these days. That's not the Michigander way I grew up with. I grew up believing we were all in it together, that everyone in the community was important, and that it was our job to help our neighbors in need. That's what I was taught, and that's what my families did. I often wonder how this breakdown of civility and Midwestern culture has happened.

[Delphinus]

37. What a wonderful start to my day!

Thank you!

[Wetzelbill]

39. you're welcome

Glad it brightened your day. :)

[Lochloosa]

40. When I was young my Step-Father, a mechanic, would stop

and help people stranded on the side of the road. He would never take any payment, only requesting that whomever he helped would stop for the next person they say stranded and help them out. I have never forgotten that.

Nice story.

[Wetzelbill]

42. I think that's the best we can do

If we can't help out a fellow human being in need, then what does that say for us? Not much. Simple acts of decency go a long, long way. It may not seem much, but to that person stranded on the road, that ride from your stepfather had to be a godsend. Acts like that are important. :)

[MissHoneychurch]

41. Thank you for that post Wetzelbill

it brings a perspective in our live and shows how we all should help other people.

You are a good person.

[Wetzelbill]

43. you're welcome, MissHC

you're a good person yourself. One of my favorite DUers ever! :)

[Wetzelbill]

44. Morning kick

I'll see you all later. :)

[Wetzelbill]

47. Kick

[flashl]

49. Great story and thanks for sharing. nt

[Wetzelbill]

50. Glad you liked it

You're welcome. :)

[Kurovski]

52. Kick. (nt)

[countryjake]

54. thanks for bringing us this great example! K&R n/t

[Wetzelbill]

57. you're welcome

thanks for the K&R.

[Usrename]

55. k&r

thanks for sharing this one

[Wetzelbill]

58. no problem

Glad to do it.

[Canuckistanian]

56. Simply K&R

[Wetzelbill]

59. Thank you very much

:)

[AnnieBW]

60. Anybody got a link to this Trae Hitchcock?

Or know where I can donate?

[Wetzelbill]

61. I'll see if I can find something

[Wetzelbill]

62. Here are two Trae Hitchcock links

They are links to stories. Not much information, they do have a number on how to contribute to an auction, it appears the surgery has already happened. I'm sure they still need help. These are very small communities, I can find some information very quickly I'm sure. Anybody interested, let me know and I'll get the info back to you, by PM or whatever.


http://goldentrianglenews.com/articles/2007/11/28/the_valierian/news/news1.txt
http://www.cutbankpioneerpress.com/articles/2007/12/05/the_valierian/news/news1.txt

[AnnieBW]

63. Thanks!

That helps, but I didn't see a place to donate. Eh... I've got work to do, and there's a storm coming in. I'll look later.

[unkachuck]

64. great article, Wetzelbil....K&R

[Wetzelbill]

65. glad you liked it

:)

[myrna minx]

66. What a wonderful story! K&R.

[Wetzelbill]

67. Thank you

Just looking to make everybody's day better. :)

[hisownpetard]

68. What a good story. Thanks for posting it!

[Wetzelbill]

71. you're welcome

Glad you liked it. :)

[lonestarnot]

69. Blackfeet yes!

Very bright light upon the tribe! Your spirit keeper was with you. Mine is an elk. What is yours?

[Wetzelbill]

73. none that I know of

I always just say a penguin, lol. :)

[lonestarnot]

92. You should check it out just for the spirit of it.

:P It is very interesting.

[ekwhite]

70. Thank you

This really choked me up. It is good to be reminded of the basic kindness of most people, after reading GD-P too much.

[Wetzelbill]

74. yeah that's why I posted it

Get a little light going on around here. :) Glad you liked it.

[emilyg]

72. Lovely. K&R

[Wetzelbill]

75. thanks for the reply

:) And the recommendation too. :)

[TygrBright]

76. Reminds me of something my mother used to talk about...

When she was a little girl, her father worked for what was then the Great Northern Railway. Glacier Park had only recently been made a national park, and the Railway was hoping that if the park became a tourist destination, they could generate some rail travel.

Her father, my grandfather, was given the job of figuring out how to get tourists to Glacier. He went out there to live for a few years, and realized that the Blackfeet, whose land it was (almost all the land around there is Blackfeet land,) were --like a lot of tribes that had accepted "treaties"-- doing very badly out of the deal. No economic base, the reservation was badly located for subsistence hunting/living, resources were scarce, etc.

He talked with a lot of the tribal leaders and hit on the notion of getting them involved in the National Park, making presentations for tourists, working as guides for trekking, etc. He did his best to treat them honorably and tried to make sure the railroad didn't screw them over, and he made a lot of friends.

He met my grandmother at Glacier when she came to work as a switchboard operator at the Glacier Park Hotel, and they had their first baby there. They got to know the Blackfeet at the park pretty well.

A couple of years later they moved back to the Twin Cities, and bought a house, but my Grandfather still commuted regularly to Glacier.

When she was a child, my mother remembers several times finding that various Blackfeet travellers, going to the East Coast, had arrived very late in St. Paul, and rather than going to a hotel, they simply came and camped on my grandparents' porch. They knew they would be welcomed and given a good breakfast before catching their outbound train.

My mother remembers a couple of lady friends of my Grandmother's remonstrating with her, asking if it didn't make her terribly nervous to have all those "strange Indians" on her porch when she opened the door in the morning. Wouldn't it at least be nice if they *asked* before they just planted themselves there?

And my grandmother told them that, on the contrary, she would be insulted if they thought they HAD to ask. She and my grandfather had been welcomed by their people, and it was an honor that they allowed her to return the welcome.

I do wish we could assimilate more of the First Nations' culture into our communities, rather than shoving ours down their throats.

wistfully,
Bright

[Wetzelbill]

78. thanks for sharing that, it was wonderful

There's a good chance your grandfather knew mine, depending on the years he was around there, my grandfather was a prominet Blackfeet leader. :)

[TygrBright]

85. Wow, that's cool... he was out there in the teens and early twenties.

He was OJ McGillis. My mother still has a record somewhere of the medicine ceremony in which she and her sibs were adopted into one of the tribes. Lots of pictures in the family album of the folks out at Glacier and some of the kids hanging out in the "village" that the Blackfeet assembled every summer for the tourists.

She always remembered that feeling of matter-of-fact caring and acceptance. Her older brother told her years later how one of the Blackfeet men had taken him aside and talked very seriously to him when he'd come out to the park after a year at school in the Twin Cities and had unthinkingly made fun of an elder. He NEVER forgot it. Not because the man was angry, but because he wasn't-- he talked to my uncle as though he wasn't just a kid, but a young man whose actions mattered. My uncle became a teacher when he grew up and he told my mother he always tried to treat students that way.

What I most wish we could learn from the First Nations is the sense of community. Belonging. I suspect that needing to possess stuff, to own, the whole basis of our society around private property and property laws, makes it just about impossible for us. But the way things are going, we may have to either learn that, kicking and screaming, or fade into time and become history as we all die off from having killed the planet in the name of carving out our separate chunks of it.

soberly,
Bright

[unapatriciated]

77. Thank you for making my stop on DU a pleasure this evening

There has been so much bickering I almost didn't log on.
In the early 90's my son was in and out of Childrens (Los Angeles) , some stays were as long as three months. My cousin taught 7th grade in Sioux City, Iowa. He told his students about my son and they decided to start a letter and card campaign to keep his spirits up. Some days he was so weak he could not get out of bed, but always looked forward to getting his mail. Those students made sure he had plenty of cards and letters to read. During one of his long hospitalization I met a father who's daughter was there for Leukemia and he was giving his platelets twice a week. He told me it was difficult to find donors, if you designate to a specific patient it helps the family with the cost. I donated twice for his daughter and continued to donate until I moved from Southern California. This was my way of paying it forward to all those who helped my son and there were many to thank.

[Wetzelbill]

79. Good for you

That's a great story. :) Thanks for sharing it.

[unapatriciated]

83. I always felt it did more for me, it gave me peace during a time of stress.

[Wetzelbill]

90. I'm sure it did

:)

[Zoigal]

80. Thank you,

from the mom of two Yakima kids. z

[Wetzelbill]

84. rock on!

:)

[postulater]

81. The Blackfoot sheriff of Browning nearly arrested me once

I was on my way to Canada with a friend to visit another friend who had gone to Calgary to avoid the draft during the VietNam war. We got turned away at the Canadian border because we didn't have enough money to ensure the border patrol that we would be able to pay our way and get back to the States. So we went back to Browning to have some money wired.

They profiled me and stopped me for driving while white and long-haired. After deciding I wasn't armed and dangerous they apologized and let me go, told me to get the heck off their land. It was a bit tense for a few minutes.

Said they were looking for a white long-haired hippie-kind that had killed one of their people a few days ago.

The night before we had camped at one of their campgrounds where the women invited us to their campfire. They gave us Blackfoot names and taught us how to smoke yarrow in the pipe. They paid the kids a nickel to go out and collect a garbage bag full of it. While we were visiting some of the men returned from town. They had just received their monthly government checks and had stocked up on liquor so were quite drunk. The women were sad about that.

One of the young women told us her story of having been sent to live in Los Angeles as part of an integration project of some kind. She wasn't able to adapt to the life there and had returned to the reservation to live.

When we left I felt shame for the lack of respect these people have suffered because of our American selfishness.

[Wetzelbill]

86. yeah that was called relocation

The govt decided the best way to integrate Indians into society was to get them off reservations and relocate them to different cities etc. They basically paid for Indians to move to these places, some it helped, to an extent, because it helped them go to a city and get an education etc, but for most it was a disaster. Fish out of water. Imagine being taken out of a place where you have history, culture and family ties and dropped in the middle of a city. Wild stuff. If you want you should read N.Scott Momaday's Pulitzer Prize winning novel "House Made of Dawn." It details the story of a young man who was a WW2 vet and he ends up being relocated to Los Angeles. It's awesome. Momaday is a Kiowa Indian, great writer.

[postulater]

91. Thanks, I just couldn't remember the word.

Another sad chapter in our history.

Thanks for the book reference.

[txwhitedove]

82. K&R by post. Beautiful, inspiring. Thanks, Bill.

[Wetzelbill]

87. glad you liked it

It was a pleasure to post. It inspired me as well. :)

[NOLALady]

88. I worked with a woman who was originally

from a small poor Black community in Louisiana.

She was a twin who married a twin. Actually all of her siblings were twins or triplets. She and her twin sister had quite a few children, all multiple births. Between them I think there were about 15 kids. Her twin sister ran off abandoning the kids so she took in all of them. Obviously, there was no way she could work and her husbands salary could barely support her own kids.

But, she said they never went hungry. Every morning there was a basket on her doorstep. She never knew exactly who left the food. Her neighbors were aware of the situation so they took it upon themselves to make sure that those kids had enough to eat. The neighbors had little to nothing, but they found a place in their hearts to help a family who was in worse shape.

She had some cool twin stories too. She said she always suffered labor pains when her twin sister was about to deliver. But the sister never experienced labor pains.

[Wetzelbill]

89. you'll find that poor communities are very familial

and giving. There are literally people who will give you the shirt off of their back if you need it. It's an amazing phenomenon. Thanks for sharing that story.

[me b zola]

93. kick

:)

[Mad_Dem_X]

94. It's heartening to read

that there are still good-hearted and decent people in the world. Thank you for sharing this.

[rasputin1952]

95. There was a time, long ago, when I thought that situations arose

as some sort of "test" of humanity; after all, everyone comes across situations that should/could be remedied w/an act of compassion or generosity that most people possess. But I've changed my view and realize that these aren't "tests" at all, but rather everyday occurrences that some people take on as a duty to their fellow human beings. There is nothing "divine" in it, it is simply an issue of "doing the right thing".

In almost every case where someone has been aided by another, usually a stranger, there is a strong drive to do something for someone else, a sort of "even out" type of thing. Often we can never "even out" with the person who aided us, but almost inevitably, we see or read something that moves us to help someone in distress or dire straights. Our empathy is jolted, we know what it is to be in a situation where we could have used, or needed help, so when we see others that we can help, most of us do.

This is one of the things that makes for the "silent hero", those who see something, and w/o much ado, just get things rolling again in a positive manner. An act of kindness and generosity helped you to see where you could help someone else, and this is how the world works, we are all intertwined in some way, and by alleviating just a little pain or misery from one, affects others. I hope that the little girl does just fine, you have done a humanitarian act, and that act alone will prompt others to do positive things in their corner of this earth, and with each act of kindness and generosity, a small part of humanity is drawn closer together, creating a better place, a better world.

One act leads to other acts...the basis of a society, the strength of humanity. The knowledge that we are all in this together, and we will do what we can, to take some burdens from the lives of others.

Thank you for posting this.

[Hawkowl]

96. Kick ass!

Proud to be native.

[Hekate]

97. So glad I finally read this, as it restores my faith in human nature...

...which has been sorely tried of late by the mud-fights at DU and elsewhere.

Thank you for the post, Wetzelbill.

Hekate