arohanui's Blog

First let me say that at first I thought "My Space" was an ok place for kids and it may have been at one time BUT not now !  So many parents are turning their kids loose on "My Space", thinking the kids can do no harm nor be harmed. Wake up Parents!  If you are allowing your kids to have control of the computer and going to My Space you would do no worse to take them to a night club and dropping them off and then go elsewhere and have your own fun. In the morning say to them have a nice day and go to work with no interest as to their escapades the night before.

All these kids who are getting into trouble due to My Space, Parents should be held just as responsible as the kids for the kids actions. Just this morning I heard on the news about a boy in Virginia being arrested because of a comment he wrote on My Space about guns, school and shooting. Even my own grand daughter's personality has changed since she was allowed to use My Space for the past four months. She uses bad language, talks back, refuses to do her chores,and her grades have fallen. 14,15,16 year olds on there bragging about either being pregnant or getting a girl pregnant. Parents if you have not taken the time, then make the time and sit down with your kids and make them pull up their page and read the junk that they have written and that they have received. Odds are you will take My Space away from them very quickly ! Sure you think your kids would not do anything wrong but realize that no kid is perfect and if you allow them to "walk out of the store with that sucker with out paying, you better believe the next time they will take two suckers"!

I feel that unsupervised usage of the computer by children (birth-18 years old) should be placed in the catagory of hazardous usage for children right along there beside of guns,drugs and alcohol. The key word here is "unsupervised".

So if you wake up oneday and the police are at your door to arrest your kid just remember you were forwarned to be vigilant concerning your kids and My Space.

I want to say "Thank You" to all the repsonses to my blog. A special note to Jimbob2, I hate to say it but I agree with you. As a matter of fact so did my brother-in -law. I took him out to eat each day for about four months prior to his death ,even when I was tired or simply not hungry and many times had to hold him up enough for him to walk (he refused a wheel chair).. I felt this was a very small sacrifice to pay, especially when each time I looked at him and could only see that he had and still was in the process of giving his life so that "I" could go out to eat if I wanted to. He talked very little to my sister about the cancer,but he made no bones about his thoughts concerning the care the VA was giving him. I admire the way my sister took care of him during his fight with cancer. She kept him at home but finally had to give in and he spent his last 8 days at Hospice, he died on the 9th day(Christmas Day). If all Marines are as tough and fighters as he was, here's my hat off to you!! Three months into trying to get help through the VA, they were very upset. It was if no one cared. I am not shy and sometimes I may get involved in things that I should have stayed out of. However I felt this was an issue to jump into. I went above the head of the liason for the veterans in my county to our congress-woman and the bigger wheels at the VA. I threatened to make his tx public to any and all that would listen if a reasonable response was not received in the next 5 business days. The very next day my sister got a call from the "bigger" VA. The ball was at least rolling now. The person from the VA told her that she was glad I had intervened because they were not aware of the situation. Now whether that is true or not........    but anyway the liason got into a bit of trouble because we learned that he had their paperwork still in his drawer in his office all those months. Needless to say I am not his favorite person. A couple of months later I threatened to go to the media again and once again the ball was rolling slowly but rolling.

Good News!! Yesterday, about an hour after I wrote my blog, my sister spoke with "bigger" VA. They told her she would get his check that came out December 2007 (that she had to return) and that she would be getting widow's benefits. They said it would take place in the next 7-10 days. If it does not happen then I will become the nosey one again. 

I was also with my sister during the making of the funeral arrangements. She gave him a full military funeral. While deciding what to put in his obit, we were told it would be "Vietnam Era" not War. We both went balistic ! "What? Era instead of War? I beg your pardon sir, but Era simply means a span of time. These soldiers were dying every day over there! Don't you dare tell me it was "an era". Finally we agreed upon "He served as a Lance Corp. Marine in Vietnam from (date).  My heart goes out to ALL our Veterans from all wars,conflicts and battles. THANK YOU for placing your lives on the line for me!!!!   One last thought today.  To all you veterans out there who feel you have hit a rock wall with your attempts to get benefits. DO NOT STOP ! Send the VA , congress, media, and etc emails, phone calls and snail mail voicing your complaints. Ask relatives to do the same. They do not want you to go public ! Until later, have a great day!

 

 Our sons,daughters,moms,dads,sisters,brothers and other relatives and or friends put their lives on the line for us daily in the various Armed Forces, so that we can continue to live in the wonderful United States of America and the good o'l USA will take great care of them for the rest of their lives. Makes us proud uh? You better believe that we are proud of them !!   However during this past year my eyes were opened wide when my brother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer. His cancer was determined to have been caused by the Agent Orange that was sprayed in Vietnam. He was not forced by the draft to serve, instead he choose to join and served as a Marine.  He began in March 2007 when he was diagnosed with cancer, to try and get his VA benefits started. The time span it took for even a Drs. appointment was ridiculous. Mid summer of 2007 I convinced my sister to get him on Medicaid and into Baptist Hospital. She did but it was just to late. It was a weekly battle with the VA for any help. I never dreamed there would be such red tape. FINALLY in December he received notification that his disability checks would start. TO LATE, he passed away December 25th 2007.  When the check finally arrived, my sister had to return it for the VA to decide if she could have it after all he had lived 25 of the 31 days of December. Here it is April 2008, guess what? She still has not gotten it. I could go on and on,but I need to go and get my blood pressure back to normal. I'll resume my soapbox speech later.