margaret thatcher

this is a video of margaret thatcher's granddaughter, amanda thatcher, reading from ephesians 6:10-18 at her grandmother's funeral a few weeks ago. amanda is a devout christian and her reading at the funeral caused a stir among the british media. her parents are divorced, and amanda and her older brother, michael, live in texas with their mother and were margaret thatcher's only grandchildren.

 {source: google images}

i did not know much about margaret thatcher before her death, but since then i've been reading a bit about "the iron lady." she was the first female prime minister of the united kingdom, and resisted totalitarianism internationally. her devout christian faith was the foundation for her politics, which included conviction for less government, more freedom and greater personal responsibility. she has my respect and admiration.

Said about Thatcher:

“People may differ about her politics – and she divided opinion as any politician does – but there is no doubt that she transformed Britain, she brought back respect, gave us a backbone and she fought for us." [Lord Carey] 

{source: UK Vogue}

Quotes by Thatcher:

"We must not profess the Christian faith and go to Church simply because we want social reforms and benefits or a better standard of behaviour; but because we accept the sanctity of life, the responsibility that comes with freedom and the supreme sacrifice of Christ."

"If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time and you would achieve nothing."

"It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake."

"I am not a consensus politician, I am a convictions politician."

 “The truths of the Judaic-Christian tradition are infinitely precious, not only, as I believe, because they are true, but also because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace in the true meaning of the word for which we all long… There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves. Political structures, state institutions, collective ideals are not enough. We parliamentarians can legislate for the rule of law. You, the Church, can teach the life of Faith."

a must watch

please make time to watch this.

it will make your stomach churn, but it is something everyone should be aware of.

the lack of media coverage for this case is wrong - just like everything about what was going on at the clinic run by dr.kermit gosnell in philadelphia was wrong.

i couldn't stop thinking about this. i feel like someone who is letting another holocaust happen. remember after the holocaust in germany, the disgust for the people who stood by and let the injustice happen?

i feel just as guilty when i think about abortion. to me it is not a matter of God "letting it happen" and wondering "how He could let it happen." what? no! we are the ones letting this happen. whether by living in our safe boxes and not reaching out to people, by forgetting and ignoring it, and by not doing anything to help. human lives are being snuffed out every day and i feel so guilty for letting that happen, but i want to move past that place of guilt and into action.

did you watch? what do you think? what can we do?

on planned parenthood and abortion

i had to write an article about recently released abortion statistics. went to planned parenthood for the first time and WOW - i was  out of breath when i got back to my car. there were no dogs chasing me. it is just that heavy of an atmosphere inside. and i'm not exaggerating when i say that everyone in the waiting room stared at me when i went in.

their public relations team is so elusive. their comments (when i finally reached them) were vague and practically worthless for a decent article. "that's such a small statistical change it's not even worth speculating why abortions rose in that county ..." and literally the same answer to explain the 65% rate of complications on abortions in PA. i don't know, i think thousands of dead babies is significant whether it's a "small percentage" to you or not.

if you're not sure where you stand about abortion, or find my comments abrasive or uneducated, please check out this excellent post by john piper titled "we know they are killing children - all of us know." oh and what about the disproportionate number of african-american women receiving abortions? care to comment about that? or about the reason margaret sanger founded planned parenthood in the first place? and why they were (and are) strategically located in certain areas?

the whole "thing" saddens me. the way so many people in our country are being conditioned to think that abortion is okay. the way people give up on thinking it is wrong and fighting for it to end. the language created to distort what abortion actually IS in people's minds. it is heartbreaking. my editor kept correcting me whenever i said "pro-life" he would say "anti-abortion." uh, no. please stop trying to trick your mind. why do you get to decide the language used to discuss this? the opposite of abortion is LIFE. the opposite of LIFE is death.

can't stop thinking about them

 {source: google images}

i can't really stop thinking about everyone in newtown, connecticut. i cry whenever i read anything about it and sometimes even when i just start to think about the people.

i keep reading even though i feel like that perpetuates a news cycle that we might be better off without. the news industry is corrupt. (i feel that way even about the little newspaper i work for.) i keep reading because i feel that the least i can do is remember they lived and this happened to them. but maybe i shouldn't, because it sickens me to think about everyone in newtown having to deal with the media in their faces.

a woman from york wrote a poem that went viral and was read on the dr. phil show yesterday. (you can read her poem here or google cameo smith poem.) i was supposed to interview her and when she called me back today she said her phone has been ringing off the hook, and she hasn't been calling people back because she doesn't want publicity.

but she said she wanted to call me back.
i interrupted, "because we're local."
and she said, "well, that, and you just sounded really nice."

that made my day. a sweet reminder that it's okay that i'm not an aggressive reporter like i feel pressure to be. really a reminder to keep being myself and always trust God.

i have opinions about all the talk about tougher gun laws and the mental health care system. (and i probably shouldn't admit this, but i can easily be convinced of conspiracy theories too.) but when i get caught up in those i lose focus on what is more important: love and kindness. my friend sarah's boyfriend, aaron, summed it up so well with what he wrote on facebook:

"Everybody is all worked up about how to stop all the evil and hatred in the world. The answer is simple, it's LOVE! Love your kids, love your family, love your significant other, and better yet love a stranger. Make somebody smile, make a difference."

"do not be afraid."



power outage

the power went out today at work. i loved it. we sat around talking instead of staring at our computers. a few people were tweeting on their smart phones, or calling the cable company to answer concerns readers were posting on facebook about when their cable would be back. others were smoking, some disappeared.

i was talking to a columnist who has worked at the newspaper since 1968. he has stacks of yellowed newspapers around his desk and said some he saves for story ideas, but others are from big events like the race riots in 1969 and others from the evolution/creation debate that was publicized worldwide a few years ago. my mouth hung open thinking about all the news he has covered and watched unfold in that time span.

my view of the past - and i'm talking even before i existed. before i became a possibility, ha. have you watched "we bought a zoo" yet? it's cute. i love the part where he reenacts for his kids how he first saw/met their mom and says, "that was a big moment! that was the moment you two became a possibility!"

but anyway my view of the past is very nostalgic and filling with longing - i think living before modern technology forced it's way into everything would have been a simpler time to live, and more enjoyable. like the era where there was enough technology for running water and electric, but before computerized everything. that sounds like the perfect time to my mind.

in asking him questions i was a little disappointed by his answers, even though i should have been pleased. writers back then weren't any better, he said. no, their vocabularies weren't better either, but their grammar was. and chelsea, you're doing a wonderful job. we don't tell people that around here enough.

well. that wasn't what i was expecting at all. surprise.

reporting my first fire

i am absolutely loving my new job. it's still surreal and i can't believe i'm working at one of my dream jobs! i am so very blessed - thank you Jesus. i am a general assignment reporter, but my main "beat" is health and features. which is perfect. i get to cover fun community events and what's going on in the world of hospitals, healthcare, and healthy living. i couldn't ask for a better beat.

general assignment means covering just about anything that needs covered, so this week i covered my first fire. technically it was my second, but the first one i only had to make a phone call after a fire was over. this time i went to the scene of the incident, panicking all the way that i was going to get lost and miss it. (i really want a gps!)

that turned out to be a silly notion not only because i found it just fine, but also because you don't really "miss" fires. at least not based on my one experience. the crews are there for a long time working. i parked where they had the road closed off and walked down, regretting my choice of outfit that morning - a cute dress and cardigan with boots, that didn't exactly send a "hardcore reporter who knows what she's doing" vibe. but that could have just been my nervousness. nonetheless while i stood around waiting to be able to talk to people i played a mental game of tennis, tossing around pro's and con's of dressing a bit more butch for work. (butch did not win, just for the record.)

the chief talked to me and i did my best to pretend i knew what questions to ask even though i was thinking about the movie ladder 49. so often when i'm interviewing people i glance around expecting someone to say, "look, we all know you don't know what you're doing, get outta here kid." so far that hasn't happened.

after i talked to him i had to wait across the street for them to finish up until i could talk to the red cross and the homeowner. a shady public adjuster came over and told me a bunch of (what seemed like) important information, but when i checked those facts with the police it turned out he had made all of it up. i'm not sure if he thought it'd be funny to test me, or just felt like being a total a-hole. either way i was glad when the red cross shooed him away for trying to capitalize on the situation.

it turned out the homeowner was a single mom who had told her elderly mom not to cook, because they had just finished remodeling their home. but that morning the mom cooked anyway, fire broke out, and now the house was a total loss.

i had to hold back tears and refrain from being a creepy stranger/reporter giving the lady a hug - it was so sad! you could see the devastation on her tired face, and i wanted to hug her and let her cry. but she was hiding the tears, trying to smile even, and i felt so lonely for her.

the whole day made me think 'i can't wait to write books.' because when i am observing things i would naturally rather write it from an emotional perspective. or details like the way the smoke smelled. or how i met my first mitzy that day and she acted exactly the way you would expect someone name mitzy to act. for now i can save the emotion, insight and opinion for my blog, but someday there will be a book about a brand new reporter - and a lot of other things too.

my editor said the story was great (phew!), and then he made some changes before it went online and in print. this is a bit hard to get used to - watching your stuff get tweaked. i like the help and most of it is super beneficial, but sometimes a clever intro i come up with after a lot of thought and am happy with, will get replaced with something bland or cheesy that i am embarrassed to have under my byline.

or a typo will get added by whoever works on the story, making me feel like a moron when it is not even my mistake. like with this fire story: " ... and four people were displayed from their home." displaced, c'mon! oh well. i think my nerd wart is showing, better quit complaining and cover that thing up.

God bless firefighters for all of their hard work! it really is amazing what a solid family of volunteers we have at local fire companies. i am super impressed by them, and thankful for their hard work. i can't help but add that i found it quite ironic to watch one of them smoking a cigarette beside the fire. and the cops there were eating donuts! okay so i added that part about the police. maybe it's good they have me stick to writing the straight facts. ;-)