The Poor "Jarhead" Black Bear Cub

In the middle of August in central Florida, a 6-month-old black bear cub stuck its head into a big plastic jar when digging through trash in a neighborhood. Biologists say the cub was days away from death because the jar made it impossible to eat or drink for at least 10 days. The team had to tranquilize the mother bear and use her as a trap and then grab the cub to remove the jar from the bear's head. After she awoke and nursed the cubs, the bears were moved to a less populated area nearby.

It's not laughing matter. I think most sensitive people would agree that “at least 10 days’ is a long time. Not only without food and drink in the hot Florida summer, the cub may not be able to get enough oxygen since the jar might be too tight. Who knows what the long-term damage to its brain is. That’s why all the plastic bags sold in the US have some warning like this:

“This thin film may cling to nose and mouth, please keep it away from babies and children.”

Imaging your own 6-month-old baby covered with a plastic bag over his/her head, you will agree even 1 hour is too long. Any person who watches that without taking immediate action is a criminal.

Swim for Life

August 2nd was a typical blistering hot summer day in northwest Louisiana. It supposed to be a happy family gathering for a large group of relatives and friends, including approximately 20 children, when they arrived at Charles and Marie Hamel Memorial Park in far south Shreveport, a popular area for picnics, swimming, boating and wading. While the adults were preparing the barbecue, most of the kids went to play in the Red River. They had been there about 10 minutes when the tragedy happened. The teens had started wading in a familiar area where the water was shallow, but they wound up at a spot where the river bottom dropped off although just several feet into the river. Apparently one of the teens stepped off of a ledge and into an 18-foot sinkhole. The others went in to try to rescue the teen, but none of them could swim. They started to slip, one grabbing the other one, one trying to save the other one -- and then seven teenagers were struggling and fighting for their lifes. Unfortunately, none of the teenagers could swim, nor the adults who were watching them from the bank. As the teenagers yelled for help, parents and relatives could do nothing but watching them drown one by one. The lone life jacket nearby was thrown to the victims, but none could reach it. At the end, only one, a 14-year-old, was rescued by a nearby swimmer. Six teenagers from two families, age 13 to 18, drowned.

The tragic drownings highlight an unsettling statistic in this country. 41.8 percent of white children have little or no swimming ability, while the number is stunning 69 percent for black children, according to a study released last spring by the sports governing body USA Swimming.

Parental fear and lack of parental encouragement were the top two reasons children and parents gave for not swimming. The continuing cycle of people not knowing how to swim and their children not knowing how to swim should end. Adults should not pass their fear of water onto their children. The parents should lead by example and learn to swim with their children. You don’t need to swim like Michael Phelps. At least you should be able to keep yourself float long enough to wait for rescue. This is one of the most precious gifts that the parent can give to their children – because it may save their lives someday.

In the Military We Trust?

Since 1975, Gallup has been conducting polls on US public Confidence in Institutions annually. This year, the poll was based on telephone interviews conducted July 8-11 with a random sample of 1,020 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the continental U.S. For those who first see this kind of poll, the results are pretty depressing. Among the 16 categories of institutions, only three institutions (the military, small business, and the police) got more than 50% “quite a lot” of confidence score. Astonishingly, Congress ranks dead last this year with only 11% showed more than “quite a lot” of confidence, while 50% showed “very little” or none confidence. Remember they are the people we elected – talking about betrayal!

Interestingly, the military continues its long-standing run as the highest-rated U.S. institution. In fact, the military has been No. 1 in this list continuously since 1998, and has ranked No.1 or No. 2 almost every year since 1975. While Americans have decreasing confidence in the Administration and Congress, they forget who the real boss of the military is. Perhaps the real reason is that we are as naive as the military, or vice versa.