Rosie ("There's Always Hope") seemed to be distressed about all the suffering in this world and how much there is to do...I whole heartedly believe that just one person can make more difference in the world towards good than we realize. My mother gave me an article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer that I would like to share. It may make you feel somewhat better Rosie.
(The song on this video has a message that I strongly believe in) "What If His People Prayed" by Casting Crowns
"A Mother's Far Reach" by Margaret Bernstein, Plain Dealer Reporter 'Cleveland woman who lost daughter extends love, help to African children'
Her flight to Ghana lasted an exhausting 18 hours. But when Yvonne Pointer stepped off the plane, she found nothing quite restores the spirit like seeing dozens of children waiting to greet you with flowers and a song.
She listened, trying to catch the words.
"It was about Gloria," she realized, disbelief still coloring her voice a week after her return to Cleveland.
"May your soul rest in peace," they sang in English. "Gloria, goodbye."
It was Gloria's murder in 1984 that transformed Pointer into a renowned activist. Over her daughter's casket, she made a vow to never let the memory of her 14-year-old daughter die.
Banners with Gloria's name painted on them waving on another continent showed how far-reaching Pointer's extraordinary crusade has become.
In some circles, Pointer is a super-star, although definitely not of the commercial variety. A city of Cleveland employee, she lives off Superior Avenue in a modest Cleveland house. She has two children, Denyelle and Raymond, and three grandchildren. She's also an electrifying speaker who has cobbled together a second career as a free-lance fountain of inspiration.
She's spoken in prisons and shelters, in tiny churches and huge arenas. "I saw you on 'Oprah,'" many exclaim when they meet her.
Where there is despair, she sows support groups and encouragement. In Cleveland, she has founded organizations ranging from Midnight Basketball to a group for parents of murdered children in the 50-member Positive Plus women's support group.
"She motivates everyone that's around her," said Yvonne Booker, a Positive Plus member who accompanied her to Africa.
Pointer, 54, has been named one of America's most inspirational women in magazines ranging from Redbook to Essence. And that's how four years ago, a despondent Ghanaian youth named Anthony Tay happened to learn of her.
At the time, he needed money to buy food and to stay in school. He was hungry and broke. "Where are you, God? If you are real, why don't you help us?" he wondered, in a story he would later retell many times.
At that moment, he happend to see a torn page on the ground. He picked it up, and read what remained of a ripped-up article about Pointer in Heart & Soul magazine. It talked about how she had thought of committing suicide after Gloria's body was found in an apartment stairwell a few blocks from Pointer's Cleveland home. The murder is still unsolved. The article detailed how Pointer decided to spin triumph from tragedy by becoming a neighborhood activist.
"The beginning of a close bond" Feeling it was a sign from God, Tay, then 17, wrote to Pointer's post office box listed in the article, asking for help.
She wrote back, leery that she was being scammmed. "I didn't believe him. I wanted to see the article, so he sent it. That's when I believed him," she recalled. She mailed him $150.
Since then, Pointer has appointed herself Tay's advocate. At first she sent him money to attend college. But as he single-handedly launched an effort to educate and assist Ghanaian youth, which he called the Gloria Pointer Teen Movement, she felt the urge to help. She wasn't satisfied just sending money saved from her speaking engagements, so she launched a fund-raising campaign among her friends.
Pointer and Tay correspond frequently, through e-mail and phone calls. He calls her "mama," and she considers him a son.
They wanted to meet in person but she couldn't afford the trip--until last year when she won $15,000 in a contest sponsored by Queen Latifah.
Pointer then made arrangements to fly on a 12-day tour of Ghana with a group organized by a Baldwin-Wallace College administrator. She packed boxes of pens, pencils, crayons and notebooks for school children served by the Gloria Pointer Teen Movement and bought cookies and candy to delight them.
When her plane landed in Accra, Ghana's capital city, three weeks ago, it was obvious she could barely endure the final obstacles standing between her and Tay. "I felt like I needed a leash on Yvonne," laughed tour coordinator Charleyse Pratt. "Waiting to go through customs, she was about to burst."
So Pointer's companions did what they could to help. "Go on ahead, we'll get your luggage," they told her after they emerged from customs.
Pointer stepped outside the airport, into the embrace of Tay and more than 30 singing youngsters. The children crowded into vans and followed Pointer to the hotel. She ordered cold drinks for all. "I hugged and hugged and hugged until I couldn't hug any more," she said.
(there is more...and the rest goes on to tell what Tay has accomplished and is doing in Ghana thanks to Yvonne Pointer...and I will put that in my next post)
I made it across Ohio and home last night just before the ice storm hit. Then it got warm and we have rain...lots of rain...lots of streams...lots of large puddles...flooding? Ick.
Had an interesting time with a trucker. Not what you might be thinking.
There was a semi truck (owner operated)...looked new and shiny...he was actually weaving back and forth from lane to lane. He would decide he wanted in another lane and put on his signal AS HE IS MOVING over! I witnessed him cut in front of another semi and that semi had to brake...then he 'pushed' some poor girl in a puddle jumper over into the next lane...and her car was in a spot where I know he could see her in his mirrors. It ticked me off...and I don't play games with moving vehicles (usually ) but when I saw him get over in the far lane...and I see the semi that was coming up ahead of him...it was moving the speed it was supposed to so I knew what this 'accident on wheels' was going to do...I pulled up beside him...gave him a dirty look (no, I didn't have mud on my face ) then pulled my van just ahead enough so that the front of my van was even with the back of the semi in front of him BUT the back of my van blocked him from getting over. I rode that way for a while...and he had his signal on wanting to get over and around the other semi...just when I figured he was ready to pop his cork...I moved ahead...and he got over behind me so fast I was surprised he didn't take my rear bumper with him...I tapped my brakes then hit the gas real fast.....I think he must have messed himself becuz he backed WAY off, got over in the right lane...and slowed down to the speed he was SUPPOSED to be going. I kept at a slower speed for quite a ways and kept him in my rear view mirror. He never did speed back up. Think he got the message?
So, that was my 'fun' trip. Besides the fact that I think my mother got in more than her share of talking. I love her and I know there won't be a lot of years left that she will be around...but the older she gets, the more she talks. And it is never anything happy.
I think I shall go visit KKTaylor and spend some time in her rainbow room! I'll bring my own butterflies...okay Taylor?
OH! and one more thing...I got some pictures in my e-mail from one of my HS pals. He and his wife. He looks just like his dad! wow. I figured it would happen more later than sooner! We are only 46 for pete's sake! He looks 56! Do I look that old? I check for sagging and wrinkles...altho there may be some sagging...I haven't reached the wrinkle stage, yet. Dang! And he used to be so cute! Of course, I'm not going to say anything to him about my reaction. He still has his sense of humor and I like e-mail sparring with him...it's the mental faculties that matter...but...OLD!
Many Blogstream members are there
already! Quotes from members: "It's like blog lite!" -- "I like the instant
gratification!" -- "Stop spectating, get in the game!"
If you have not joined in, you are really missing out!
Not what you might be thinking. 
)
) then pulled my van just ahead enough so that the front of my van was even with the back of the semi in front of him BUT the back of my van blocked him from getting over. I rode that way for a while...and he had his signal on wanting to get over and around the other semi...just when I figured he was ready to pop his cork...I moved ahead...and he got over behind me so fast I was surprised he didn't take my rear bumper with him...I tapped my brakes then hit the gas real fast.....I think he must have messed himself becuz he backed WAY off, got over in the right lane...and slowed down to the speed he was SUPPOSED to be going. I kept at a slower speed for quite a ways and kept him in my rear view mirror. He never did speed back up. Think he got the message? 
wow. I figured it would happen more later than sooner! We are only 46 for pete's sake! He looks 56! Do I look that old? I check for sagging and wrinkles...altho there may be some sagging...I haven't reached the wrinkle stage, yet. Dang! And he used to be so cute! Of course, I'm not going to say anything to him about my reaction. He still has his sense of humor and I like e-mail sparring with him...it's the mental faculties that matter...but...OLD! 
