Sure & Unsure...

It is Christmas Eve 2010, and I'm now sure and unsure.





I'm not sure what the future is for Invisible Youth Network.  Russell wants to take things in another direction.  He told me that he will be revealing new plans in February (his estimate).

One thing that I am sure of is that there are several thousand  young people in San Diego alone who are homeless.

Another thing I know for sure is that children and teens are getting bullied in school while it seems as if the faculty and staff just kinda nod and wink.

I know that there is something wrong with this picture, and something needs to be done.

What direction we're going with this in our organization is still up in the air at this time, so all I can tell you is to stay tuned...

From One Bad Situation To Another. . .What Comes Next!?!

Smell the coffee! 

It's seldom about running off because you're angry about having a 9 p.m. school night curfew. 

It's more about having school day bullying experiences and/or even having a homelife that goes FAR beyond the term "dysfunctional." 

Even if it's about neither of those, there is, more times than not, a legitimate reason to want to get into a different environment. 

Have these kids jumped from the frying pan into the fire or from the fire into the frying pan? 

Either way, they need something better--MUCH better!

You've Heard Of Scratch 'n' Smell. . .

. . .well, this is Shop 'n' Search, Plain 'n' Simple. . .


Shop 'til you drop (or even just a little) and give our youth help and hope by using this link:
GoodShop: http://www.goodshop.com/?charityid=invisible-youth-network

In more of a surfing mood instead of a shopping mood?  No problem!  Here you go...
GoodSearch: http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=invisible-youth-network

Another way you can help us out is to share the link to this blog-entry and/or copy the above links into your e-mails; share them at places such as Facebook; and/or place them on your own websites, blogs, etc. 

One more thing:  You can also create buttons and banners that are set to help IYN.   Find html codes for doing so at the GoodShop/GoodSearch site.

Thanks, in advance, for any help you can give us along these lines.  

People are always searching the web.  I know that other searches are needed in order to find out some research, but I hope you'll surf for us at least part of the time.

This is also the time of year for various kinds of holiday shopping as well as being the time of year (at least, in my neck of the woods) for thinking about chilly January days when it's so pleasant just to stay inside and curl up with a good book.  

If you're an avid reader like I am, books are a wonderful present to give to yourself--as well as making great presents for fellow avid readers on your Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Solstice/Kawanza/Winter Birthdays/Etc. list(s).

You can shop at so many online stores using our GoodShop link.

Here's a little something that will go nicely with a good book.  

http://www.mrsmccartneysteas.com

While the site for buying this absolutely-delicious-and-reasonably-priced-silky-teabag-encased tea (with each two-cuppa teabag kept fresh in its own delightful packet until ready to be used) isn't included in GoodShop, a percentage of sales goes to The Linda McCartney Breast Cancer Centre of which more information can be found at the site.

Let me now suggest some very good books. . .

For people who might think that our young people are just spoiled brats who decided to ride their thumbs to San Diego, California from so many parts of the United States because they were bored, didn't like reasonable house rules (e.g. curfew, decibel limits on entertainment, no such animal as limited credit card use, no unisex sleepovers, etc.), thought they looked uncool in the dress code/uniform requirements set by their schools, or some equally-unreasonable reason, think again.

With very little, if any, exception, they chose the streets/outdoors in a place with a relatively-favorable year 'round climate and plenty of secluded places to hide from authorities so that they wouldn't end up in juvie or right back at the place where they had already given up so much of themselves in order to escape because they had good reason to believe that even this kind of life is better than what they chose to leave behind.

These two books (which share definite examples of why kids just might decide that they'd rather be homeless than stay in the status quo) by Jodee Blanco (Please Stop Laughing At Me and Please Stop Laughing At Us) can be found at Amazon.  Just go through the GoodShop portal as set up here and do a search for them.

Another book I've recently ordered from Amazon and am waiting to receive is The Woman I Was Born To Be by Susan Boyle.  In this book, this now-world-famous singer with the amazing voice and teddy bear angel personality shares what it's been like to be Susan Boyle for almost half-a-century.  Sadly, there are incidents of taunting and bullying included in those pages along with the lighter times in her life and the happily ever after part of her life that she's now living.

Could another happily ever after story be waiting to be brought to life among those street kids in San Diego and other communities?  Could a person being bullied day in and day out someday shine?  Is there somebody out there who can get into the heart of a bully and find out what kind of personal pain is causing him/her to take things out on others?

I believe that the answer has the potential to be a resounding yes--that there are, in fact, thousands upon millions of young people just waiting for their time to be lifted up to where they deserve to be--not necessarily onto a performance stage (though, perhaps, this will prove true for some) but just to a place where they're in a safe place receiving respect, dignity, and care for their most basic needs (and then some)!

I think that the following graphic says it very well when each individual who reads this asks the question:  "But what can I--just one person--do to change things?"

glitter-graphics.com

While you're there, you might want to look for books by Roger Dean Kiser.  He has written books that inspire, books that entertain, and books that tell it like it is regarding the past of so many boys like himself who ended up as wards of the state of Florida.   He has these books on his website as well (which will be shared with you shortly), but I'm hoping to get you to go through our portal to order them so that it will also help IYN along with bringing in money that Roger uses to keep his stories out there (many are there to read for free on his website) along with helping orphans in his neck of the woods.

You can also get Roger's latest book, The Destruction Of Youth at Lulu while using our link as a portal.  Let me warn you that, in this book, Roger has pulled out all of the stops.

Amazing Windy City resident, Stuart V. Goldberg wears many hats--and a couple of those hats are novelist and defense attorney.  He now has a page-turning character study out now called The One And Only (which he hopes to, someday, turn into a movie).  He also has a (more-than-semi-autobiographical) novel manuscript recently finished called The Snake Charmer that he hopes to turn into a movie and--shortly after that--into a book.  You can find The One And Only at Amazon.  Please use our portal should you decide to buy this book of many twists and turns about an extremely-wealthy man who has an often-unhealthy hunger and thirst for collecting the very best, one-of-a-kind treasures at any or all costs.

From time to time, I'm going to be recommending more books (and other items, too) for you to consider buying while using our portal, but I think that this is a good place to stop--after I share with you an uncanny story about the alphabet and our Founder and Chairman, Russell, along with Roger and Stuart.

In short, did you realize that I met these amazing men in alphabetical order over a time span stretching from early in 2001 into the summer of 2010!?!

I would first notice (as I observed in the first thing I wrote about this phenomenon) that I met them in the order of how their first names would appear in an alphabetical list.

Not long after that, I would notice that this was, also, true of their middle names.

As for their last names. . .alphabetical in reverse!

Again, pretty interesting, to say the least!

I'm leaving you with three blog-entries I've written about this.

Will be returning soon with a different kind of shopping information. . .

ABC Activists

What's So Great About Roger, Russell, and Stuart?

Tribute To A Snake Charmer

Invitation Sent!!! 9/11/10

Below, find a copy of an invitation I've just sent to friends on my Care2 list who aren't yet members of the representative group for IYN there.  Just recently, Russell made a post at said group that conveyed the message that we're marching forward with our mission and are ISO people who are willing and serious about helping us to help our kids.

If you would like to check out our group, please click here.

Scroll on down to read what I've written as an invitation to do so...

Our army is totally-volunteer,
and we don't rely on violent weapons
in our quest of winning a very important war.

Remember how--nine years ago today--so many people were MORE than willing to go onto foreign soil to fight against unspeakable acts of violence that had occurred earlier that morning in New York City, near Washington, D.C., and over some farmland in Pennsylvania?

Are we at least as willing to fight another kind of war right on our very own soil--this time, a war that doesn't involve the spilling of blood but, instead, the extending of hands so that over 1.5 million young people in our country alone might be able to get the help they need to get off the streets.

Not only that, but we also need to implement weapons of prevention so that our invisible youth will have a strong voice against things like abuse (physical, emotional, sexual) going on right in their own homes, bullying at school, and poverty that end up driving them to leave behind their homes and communities in the first place.

Our representative group at Care2 isn't a place for sharing recipes (and such will be removed if posted).  However, it might be a place to get inspired to make our recipes to sell at fundraising bake sales and/or directly feed homeless youth.

Please join us in order to become more and more inspired to take action and make this tragic problem history p.d.q.

Yours In The Quest--

Ainsley Jo Phillips

Advisor & Consultant

Invisible Youth Network

Are You Pro-Life? "Yes!" or "No!"

Something to think about:

One of the issues that has been getting in the way of getting the new health bill passed has been the allowance of federal funding for abortion.

This says to me that those who have protested this bill on those grounds would answer "Yes!" to the question "Are you pro-life?"

I challenge you to continue to be pro-life, even when the lives you are protecting have gone from being under an inch in all directions and fitting inside of other humans to when those lives are over three feet tall and one foot wide at the widest parts of their bodies and are growing up experiencing homes, neighborhoods, and/or schools that lead them to think that it's better to live out in the elements than to remain in the status quo.

How can we help those young people once they have hit the streets?  Ignoring them and hoping that they will go away won't cut it.

How can we help their lives to become better in the first place so that they won't end up choosing to leave?

You've got to remain as pro-life from cradle to grave as you are from womb life to birth!

For those of you who don't see viable life as necessarily beginning at conception, you still can't ignore the fact that not only is that resident of a woman's womb (once he/she can be seen sucking his/her thumb and, in other ways, being a growing baby) very real and worthy of respect (to only be aborted to save the life of the woman carrying him/her) but that he/she is an individual to whom we must commit to provide the basics of life from cradle to grave.

While "basics" don't necessarily include a $50,000 per year pay check, a mansion, a fancy car, a yacht, a time-share, automatic admission to an Ivy League college, designer clothing, and elective surgery (e.g. breast implants, nose-jobs), they do include decent food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education--AND the right to feel safe and respected while going to school instead of having their cries for help re: bullying/taunting ignored.

Please sign this petition to end youth homelessness NOW!!

Let's Make Being Judgmental OUT Instead Of IN

Below, find three of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone that deal in one way or another with being too quick to pass judgment on others instead of taking the time to understand them.

The first episode involves judging people due to their outward appearance.  Our homeless youth have often run away from situations where they are bullied over everything from outward appearance to their beliefs.

Final note about this episode:  Actually, the people in the first episode were very compassionate toward their grotesquely-deformed patient.  But could they have gone a little farther and questioned why this person had to be separated from the rest of mainstream society just because she hadn't been blessed with good looks like they had?  How about us?  Do we try to change what needs to be changed or just take the easy route and allow things to remain status quo?

The next episode has to do with a mad scientist who has set up some kind of invention to weed out all of the "evil" people in the world.  He will end up being very surprised when his machine is put into action.

The final episode has to do with persecuting somebody who is different instead of taking the time to find out what they're all about.  A community learns (too late) a very important lesson when they take the former route instead of the latter.

Too often, our homeless youth get judged by people who haven't walked a mile in their shoes and don't know where they're coming from.  Will you take a different route than the one that gets taken too often?