Virginia Tech massacre

Tragedy happens all to often in our lives. Some are even more horrible than others. The loss of one life senselessly is bad. The loss of at this moment of 32 at Virgina Tech and the suicide of the shooter is almost unamaginable. A before thought to be safe campus in the beautiful serene area of Virginia was marred in just a few hours by a senior English major student from Korea who seemingly was involved in a romantic turmoil with another student.

We cannot bring back the students. Parents cannot go back to the last time they saw their child and say I love you again. The last hug was the last hug. The last telephone call or email or text message was the last. One never knows when the last of anything is actually the last. The message from this massacre is that one should not put off saying I love you to a child or hugging them as they leave out the door.

This goes for husbands and wives, gradchildren and other family members. When it is the last time ...it is the last.

Harmony for Youth- Play in Forward

I had a wonderful interview today on my talk show with Joanne Klauke-LaBelle, Founder and Executive Director of Harmony for Youth which is based in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. This is a youth organization which provides no cost training in the arts to any child enrolled at no cost.

I was so impressed with Joanne since during the last 11 years since she formed the organization she has had cancer and also kidney disease and has an auto-immune disorder. She has had up to 6 operations in a year but yet she forges ahead. She dedicated herself to this cause after she once told a young man that she wold get back with him later after he told her he needed to talk to her. He had a gun with him and upon leaving her office he committed suicide. She vowed not to tell a child again she did not have time to talk.

Joanne has been named a Canadian Woman of Distinction, has received the Medal for Good Citizenship from the Province of Ontario and her organization has also received an award from the province of Ontario. She has also been featured on The Regis and Kelly Show and many print media magazines.

She is a motivational speaker and conducts workshops on working with kids in the arts and how to implement the Walk a Mile program and the Harmony for Youth program. This program allows the kids to learn free but they must then give back an hour for each hour they learn. Play It Forward can be more researched at www.harmonyforyouth.org.

Keeping things in perspective

As I watched the Tennessee Lady Vols win their 7th NCAA woman's basketball championship last night I was happy to see the expressions and impressions of the announcers related to the Tennessee coach (Pat Summit) and her ability to coach so many teams to victory. She is the winningness coach (male of female) in college history and now second only in NCAA tournament vicoties to the past UCLA coach Wooden.

Coach Summit not only coaches perfection but has an expectation of winning. Being ahead and almost assurded of victory in many games I have watched, I have also observed her calling out a player for not doing something correct or not hustling. Coach Summit inspects what she expects and produces what she predicts.

She does keep all of this in perspective and almost all of her great and not as great players graduate from the University of Tennessee. Education is first and formost in her mind as keeping an eye on graduation and then adding the skill of winning to her players resume's keeps them focused on the game and life.

HOWEVER, I was really amazed and totally bummed out when I opened my San Antonio Express-News sports section this morning to read about the great victory of the Lady Vols to see the headline which told about the new Texas woman's basketball coach selection and in a side block about 3 inchs square a note that the Lady Vols had won their 7th title game last night.

Rivals for many years for the broadcast news and headlines the two UT's finally met head to head and keeping all things in perspective (from a Texas view) the Texas papers decided that a new coach was the news, not historical victories.

Life is in perspective. What is seemingly important and maybe even a life or death crisis for one is secondary to another. What really is important is that we do understand that our perspective is not always in the majority but it is ours and we should treat our thoughts and ideas as important as we can and follow up on them and if important enough to us we should stand by them and perpetuate them. Don't be ashamed of your thoughts and beliefs. Nuture them and let the world know.

GO LADY VOLS! Congratulations and the next time the two UT women's basketball teams go head to head in competition I hope to be there with my Volunteer Pom Pom's because I know the best team will win.