IBOSOCIAL (Celestine Gray) - social network for independent business owners

IBOSOCIAL (Celestine Gray) - social network for independent business owners

The Power of Kindness

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience!

One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.

"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said, 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor." Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plan was shot down over enemy territory - he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, don't forget to recognize the people who pack your parachutes.

More than anything else, kindness is the one way you can be assured of making a difference with your life. Practicing small acts of kindness changes your own life while also changing the lives of others.

Leo Buscaglia said it best: "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

Re-posted without permission from:

Mac Anderson Founder, Simple Truths

Subsidized Water

Future Water

Most Americans drink subsidized tap water.

Sure most homes that use municipal water services typically pay for water and sewer services, but the bill that is paid almost never equals the true cost of the delivery of the water or the sewage treatment that follows.  As a country we have decided to make water and sewer service as close to a human right as possible.

                        In his December article, The Aging Water Infrastructure Dilemma, Gregory M. Baird stated, “Most of our nation’s water and wastewater systems are underground and had been hidden out of the public view, in many cases for over a century.” The United States installed a large number of pipes in three main time periods based on population growth in the 1800s, 1900 to 1945, and post 1945. There are over 155,000 public drinking water systems in America today. There is a tremendous amount of costs associated with the renewal and replacement of our water and wastewater systems.

                        In 2002 the American Society of Civil Engineers said, “A Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that community water systems nationwide have an immediate need of $12.1 billion in infrastructure investment, primarily to protect against microbiological contamination.” Today the cost to rebuild infrastructure is estimated to be in the $120 billion range. Cities, states and the Federal Government must subsidize the costs associated with the proposed rebuilding effort.

                        And yet, according to the reports from the EPA, the quality of the tap water that we receive is decreasing every year as new lists of chemical compounds are discovered to be present. In general, the price of water in the United States has little to do with supply and demand. Municipalities and regulators typically set rates as low as possible, so much so that 30 percent of all water utilities operate at a loss or a deficit.

A REAL LIFE EXAMPLE   

                        In a real life case of infrastructure subsidies in February of 2011 in Auburn, Georgia, the annexation of Green Tree Acres community of twenty-five homes raised alarm about the actual cost to the city to provide a water main, fire hydrants and water service to each of the homes. “Green Tree Acres property owners favor the annexation because their private well and distribution system built in 1980 are showing signs of wearing out,” according to city planner Larry Lucas.

                        With the $91,250 in waived fees and the initial estimate $50,000 for a 12-inch water main, 25 household water meters, neighborhood fire hydrants, and other materials, the combined fiscal impact would be $141,250. The annexed lots, which are developed with mobile homes and single-family houses, would yield only $2,585 annually in city property taxes, according the staff’s report in the meeting packet.  This is a costly example of city subsidization of water infrastructure for only twenty-five homes. What will the cost be to renew infrastructure for the millions of homes in America?

United States Southwest:

Too Many People, Not Enough Water

                        The prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published an impressive collection of papers in December on the future of water resources in the southwestern United States. The authors' consensus bears out what those who live in the Southwest already know pretty well: They are headed for a water crisis that will cause shortages and conflict for the tens of millions of humans living in the region, and likely disaster for many of its other species. As one of the authors points out, one look at Lake Mead -- the water-storage reservoir on the Nevada-Arizona border that's now less than 40-percent full, an all-time low -- is worth a thousand words.

In a paper named, The Last Drop: Climate Change and the Southwest Water Crisis Copyright © 2011 by the Stockholm Environment Institute, very dire warnings about the future of water in the Southwest of America were presented.

                        The authors said that. “At present, without climate change, the Southwest is relying on the unsustainable withdrawal of groundwater reserves to meet today’s demand; those reserves will be drained over the next century as population and incomes grow. With climate change, the Southwest water crisis will grow far worse.” 

SO, WHAT'S THE ANSWER?

Are you ready for 99.99% Pure Water?

The WaterCycle™ is now Available for Office, Hotels & Homes

Reprinted in part with permission.
For more information, contact me via email at: littlehales@att.net