CGI

Right now the Clinton Global Initiative is happening in New York.
My friend Emily is there right now (and blogging about it here).
Today she shared the link so that we can watch it live via the web ... go check it out ... here.
I've been able to sneak in a bit between everything else going on here and wow - some amazing things going on there. Lots of good talking. Lots of good sharing. Lots of good ideas. Go, watch, listen, learn and maybe something will spark with you and you will be moved to do something!

Recalls ...

So there was another recall issued today for toys.
This is the third recall that has personally affected us this year (which seems odd since I think until this point we've only been affected by 1 recall in about 8 years!).

Anyway, the recall sucks. And it's lead again. And it's magnets again. And I had to take away toys that are played with almost on a daily basis from my girls. ::sigh::

And everywhere I look I keep reading why don't these companies just have the toys made in the good old USA where standards are (apparently) higher and the toys would then be (apparently) safer for our children.

I would like to say that I am pretty sure there have been recalls in the past that affected things made in the good old US of A. But that aside, I'm pretty sure I can tell you why these toys are coming to us from other places (mostly places that are not as developed/industrialized as the US). It's all about money.

Really, I truly in my heart believe this.

The US has a pretty decent minimum wage (despite the fact that people constantly lobby to get it higher saying it's not good enough for Americans). But if you compare our minimum wage to some other countries, you will see, even those making minimum wage are making a TON of money! And if the purchase cost of the toys were based on people making that minimum wage to make them, my guess is, most kids would own fewer toys and parents would moan and complain about how expensive toys are these days. I think this applies to most things sold here - not just toys.

We want as much as we can get for as little money as possible. Wouldn't a lot of people be in for a shock if all of a sudden product prices jumped up because they were made in the USA instead of some little old factory on the other side of the world that didn't have to provide health insurance, lunch breaks, fair wages, and other such things we get here. We would all freak. Wal-mart would probably shut down - because frankly, people want 3 shirts for 10 dollars! Not 1 shirt for 20.

I get trying to protect our children. I understand how frustrating it is to think our kids have dangerous toys in their hands and then having to take them away from them. I'm doing it too.
But I'm not really sure Americans are ready to stop using places like China to make our products. We are too cheap. We like low prices. We like good discounts. We shop at stores that promise to sell us things are super-low prices. And we get all excited at how little we paid for something! And so, we buy two of them, or three of them. And soon we have a houseful of things that we probably don't need.

Anyway, just my 2 cents on the topic!

My heart is breaking ...

for all of those affected by the shootings at Virginia Tech today. I signed on to AOL to catch up on e-mail and the story was right there on the welcome page. My heart stopped for a second, my stomach flip-flopped and I as read through the story, my eyes filled with tears.
I don't for one second understand why in the world anyone would feel they needed to do that. I just can't wrap my mind around it for one second. It makes me sad and it makes me angry.
And my heart is aching for all those families and friends who were forced to say good-bye today to loved ones because the act of one person.
I hope you too are keeping them in your prayers.