Topic: Family

House Democrat Review for 03/20/2008

By Tennessee Democrats | March 21, 2008 |

The House Democrat Review is a weekly feature that gives Tennesseans an in-depth look at what our Democratic state legislators have been working on this week, and a glimpse into what’s planned for the coming week at our state house.

House Democrats Bring Home Schools First Funding, nearly $184 million in additional K-12 funds expected next year.

This week House Democrats were presented with the 2008 – 2009 projected BEP 2.0 funding numbers which show that, thanks to the Schools First Initiative passed last year, Tennessee’s local schools are estimated to receive $183.2 million in additional funding.

“When we first began the task of improving our K-12 schools in Tennessee, we wanted to do it in a way that wouldn’t put undo burdens on local governments,” said Speaker of the House Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington). “Thanks to the Schools First Initiative, we were able to increase education funding by over $340 million last year and nearly $184 million this year, while at the same time reducing the pressure on counties to have to raise their property taxes.” «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Politics | No Comments

“For the Bible Tells Me So” delivers

By Blayne Clements | February 27, 2008 |

My wife has a book that I have intended to read for years, but never found the time, “What the Bible REALLY says about Homosexuality.” Then I saw this movie available on Netflix, “For the Bible Tells me So” , and thought at this point in my life, I’m much more likely to get a quick movie in than to read a book.

The movie introduces you to several families that have two things in common 1) strong religious ties, and 2) a family member that is a homosexual. Director Daniel Karslake’s selection of families with different backgrounds is sure to connect with a variety of viewers. Theres a Midwest lawyer and stay at home mother that are Lutheran; a African American couple from North Carolina who are ministers in a AME church; there a Episcopalian elderly white couple from blue collar rural Kentucky (no spoiler here but their child was the first openly Gay bishop in the Anglican church, Gene Robinson); a single middle class mother, and a long time politician Dick Gephardt and his family.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Spirituality | 3 Comments

Caring for our parents: Planning, understanding and love required

By Charles Moreland | February 24, 2008 |

My grandfather, William Curtis, knew daily hardships, privation and difficulty as a farmer in the Ozarks of Missouri, near Fort Leonard Wood. The community surrounding this army post came to be called little Korea by the soldiers training there and the residents of the Ozarks. Its bitter winters with regular severe storms of snow, ice, and below freezing temperatures, and summers with extreme humidity,earned that nickname.

Grandfather, lean, lanky, tall and bony, had muscles of steel from haying. plowing, chopping wood and milking cows daily. He worked diligently from sunrise to sunset. He had no electricity or indoor plumbing, and water for the household was carried in buckets from the spring at the bottom of the hill, up about 200 feet to the house. Though he had a good wife, Maggie, and eight children, he himself was constantly at work with farm chores, sometimes helped by hiring out a neighbor for 50 cents a day.

Grandfather’s medical care was given a low priority in his available resources. The farm produced only a meager income . For every ear of corn grown on his 40 acres, there were 10 rocks to be cleared. The land actually produced more useless rocks than corn. There was no such thing as “rock sou” in the Ozarks. The years of survival and stress took a toll on his health and at age 70 he was diagnosed with pneumonia; this disease without medication caused untold suffering and hardship. It caused the death of my grandfather, a man I respected and loved. For two years he took the role of father when I lived with them during the first two years of my life. In a way, I was his son and became his child as my single mother worked in a shoe factory in a town 25 miles away. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Spirituality | No Comments

“Disgusted” army wife speaks out on Army’s response to soldier suicide surge

By Debbie Boen | February 4, 2008 |

Editor’s Note: Even as Ms. Boen was preparing this article, the issue of soldier suicide exploded on the news front again with these statistics:

Last fall, there was an article in the Leaf Chronicle [10.12.07] titled, Fort Campbell General stresses suicide prevention. It reported that with nine suicides for the year, and 16 deaths pending investigation, and with three suicides in the last two weeks, the general said:

“This is unacceptable and it must stop. I want everyone associated with Fort Campbell to take pause, and to focus on what we can do as a community to reverse this trend.”

According to the Fort Campbell Courier, [12.20.07 vol. 43, no. 51], Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, Commanding General at Fort Campbell, made suicide prevention his priority since he took command in 2006. He expanded the “buddy care” program, which has soldiers watching out for each other, to “unit watch,” a program used by commanders when a soldier has suicidal thoughts. Now he is training families to recognize signs through “Building Family Resiliency” programs. He was quoted as saying:

“The individual has got to take personal responsibility. They have got to take responsibility for themselves and realize that they can save their own lives. It comes back to the individual.”

An army wife spoke out about these articles and about what was going on at the base because of the suicide scares. This is her view, in her words:

I only became aware of these “programs” when there was apparently an increase in suicides in the November/December time frame.

At first I thought they had to be kidding.

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, Opinion | 2 Comments

Candidates on the Issues: Abortion

By James Butler | January 14, 2008 |

Tennessee voters go to the polls on February 5th for the presidential primaries in this state. Tennessee is historically not given a great deal of attention by most candidates, and this election cycle is shaping up to continue the trend.

Unfortunately, this means Tennesseans often have to rely on news media sound bytes to obtain information about the candidates. However, since news media are businesses and therefore have as their proper goal the making of money, this often leaves viewers with precious little information about how the candidates would actually go about running the county and a disturbing amount about their private lives.

Let’s be honest, does it really matter than Barrack Obama has an Islamic heritage, that Hillary didn’t leave Bill, that Mitt Romney is Mormon or that John McCain allows his adult children to live their own lives? «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion, Politics | 5 Comments

The road home: A journey of memory, hope

By Charles Moreland | January 6, 2008 |

While in the U.S. Army for 20 years, I identified my home of record as St. Louis, Missouri, where I was raised on the south side in a home where my parents both worked full time to make ends meet. Life wasn’t a battle for survival, but it was a struggle from pay day to pay day.

Though now a Tennessee resident, when I speak of home I still focus on Missouri, especially the Ozarks where I was born and spent six formative years of childhood.

Recently I returned to the Ozarks near Fort Leonard Wood. There for three days, I faced an epiphany, an experience of both sadness and joy. Experiences that brought me closer to reality. Something happened that was unforeseen and unanticipated, something that wasn’t on my list of objectives for this trip. The result was a new personal “awareness” and sensitivity toward my own well-being. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion, Spirituality | No Comments

Holiday thankfulness: Life, love, laughter

By Michael Covington | November 21, 2007 |

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season so far. I’m sure that like me, you’re still not truly ready for the season. Since it’s upon us, I’m forgoing my typical article this week for something else instead. This week, I’d like to take some time to share with you all my list of what I am most thankful for. I extend an open invitation to all our authors and readers to write and share something similar. After all, Clarksville Online is here for one clear and single purpose, to share.

The first item on my list is my family. I have a loving partner of over two years. Christian is more than I could ever want in a partner. He’s my best friend through the good times, he’s my rock through the bad times, and he’s my shoulder to cry on through the sad times. Most people wouldn’t notice at first glance, but he’s the most sensitive and caring person I’ve ever known, and I love him more than he’ll ever know. His cousin John who lives with us is one of the greatest men I’ve ever had the privilege to know. He’s one of those rare souls you meet who you can always count on to get you through whatever is going on in life. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion | 1 Comment »

‘Serendipity,’ friendship fuel change

By Christine Anne Piesyk | October 20, 2007 |

Twice in the past fifteen years I’ve answered a very specialized call for help from a friend in New England, a friend of thirty years standing who works hard, writes harder, and panics rarely. He panicked, with good cause. And so I found myself On the Road in America, in pumpkin season, in the northeast, house hunting.

Fifteen years ago, I found Jesse a fabulous apartment in Deerfield, Massachusetts, an oddly-shaped studio in the upper tier of an even more oddly-shaped ultra-modern house, set in the woods on the edge of small cliff, decks extending out to the edge with a view of the Pioneer Valley. Birdfeeders everywhere. An occasional misguided moose in the cow pasture several hundred feet below. Steep dirt driveway that made icy winter driving “interesting.” But after seven years, ownership, and zoning shifted and that apartment was suddenly a thing of the past. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Opinion | No Comments

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