I had a different post scheduled, but I’m postponing it.
Today I want to share things that I think need your attention or prayers or anger or money or voice.
Aleppo.
Do I need to explain this? Steph, Alexandra, and Emily have mentioned it on their blogs. I feel so helpless and I can’t understand how we, as humans and citizens on this earth, are letting this happen. I want to do so much more than give money. I want to give these kids a childhood, give these families a safe haven, give these humans four walls and safety. Shame on those with the mentality ‘Not my kid/country, not my problem.’ I’m finding it hard to be festive and merry knowing this is happening in our world…
I can’t stand the hate and willingness to turn a blind eye. Here are a few organizations that could use your financial support…
The White Helmets
Unicef
Doctors Without Borders
Tarek & Christina.
Maybe you haven’t see anything about this, but we’re big HGTV/Flip-or-Flop fans so we’ve kind of been following it. This house flipping couple is separating after seven years of marriage. I don’t know the story and I won’t speculate, and I understand that they live a lot of their lives in the limelight, but America needs to get off the high horses and show some compassion. I have seen many comments about how Christina was bossy or controlling or a b*tch and Tarek probably couldn’t take it. (*never read the comments*) First of all, they work together and the cameras capture the “dramatic” moments. Secondly, if you see decisive, strong, intelligent women as “b*tches” then it’s time for you to leave my blog. Third: Stop judging other people. It’s not your job, America.
I think prayers are most appropriate for this bullet point. Or good, positive, healing vibes if that’s more your thing.
Our Eff-ed Up Government
It’s no surprise that I detest the election results- I don’t want a big, orange, hands-y, hateful troll as the leader of the free world. And I don’t want a foreign country controlling our politics. As a nation, we should be pissed. Where are all the paranoid Americans that still think President Obama is a Muslim or a werewolf or not an American citizen?! Why aren’t y’all crying foul on a conspiracy/security breach that’s actually happening?!
Call someone and complain. Start with the human that represents you on a national level while making thousands of dollars doing it.
Dogs.
Some might says it’s trivial in comparison to my first point, but it’s not. Take care of one another. Take care of all living things. If you see an animal outside with no shelter, form of warmth, thawed water, or food then you need to say something. Talk to the owner, call the police, look up your local humane officer. Legally, they have to go check out the situation.
Well I am successfully riled up. Let’s go do something about it.
Life as Louise 
Seeing the pictures from Allepo is very sad. So is seeing a dog being left out in the cold with no shelter or water 😦 I often wonder where the worlds compassion is these days. And I agree that it’s not fair to speculate on another’s marriage problems. We have no clue what is going on in someone else’s life, we have no right to judge.
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I am planning on slipping into holiday-mode before mid-week, but I just needed to get my dog PSA out there once more and share some ways to help Aleppo. The balance between happy and sad seems so off right now in the world..
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Yes Yes YES!!
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🙂
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Yes to all.
I hate when people act like they don’t want to be involved in life. Too bad! You are. Get your head out of the sand and be a human being.
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I get so bent out of shape when it comes to humans being complete monsters. I just don’t understand it…. And I won’t ignore it. We can’t.
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Oh boy lady… yes! This is how I was feeling when I made my post… and I’m pretty sure a handful of people saw my suggestions and got out of Dodge (HAR! – KS) … but seriously? How do we even live in this world right now? People are SO hateful and it makes me sick. Daily, multiple times per day. I saw that a high school basketball team was all black and so the entire home team audience stood and turned their backs to them. WHAT. THE. FUCK. 😦 ! I AM SO ANGRY WITH THE STATE OF THE WORLD. I’ve never actually been that worried about things like racism, white supremacy, etc. because even when things were bad… progress seems to be made! And now… let’s just say I’m pretty worried about it. Damn is it rampant. I am also, extremely pissed. So I gotcha. Good list, thanks for sharing… still trying to give back as much as I can through the end of the year. May build something in to 2017 as well. Xo – Alexandra
Simply Alexandra: My Favorite Things
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I honestly have this mentality where I’m prepping myself for it to get worse before it gets better… Which is terrifying since I think it’s already pretty bad. The world just needs people like you (and others in Blogland that feel that fire and passion). Coming from a Christian perspective, this is NOT how Jesus would want things- people hurting people, abusing living creatures, mercilessly judging one another. Not ok.
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The Preemptive Love Coalition is another place to donate to needs in Aleppo. I don’t know that it makes me mad so much as it just makes me very, very sad. We don’t have cable so we don’t watch HGTV (a crime, I know!), but I think in general people feel like they are allowed to comment on celebrity’s lives just because they are more visible. Divorce is very sad no matter what the circumstance is, and compassion is certainly needed. I would hate to go through something so terrible in such a public venue. I will say, just because someone doesn’t post or tweet or share about an issue doesn’t mean they personally aren’t upset about it or involved in helping. I’m very upset about a lot of political things, but I don’t really feel like talking about it openly very much online.
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Thanks, Amanda!
I think it’s absolutely ok to not publicly share or get upset (via Twitter, FB, etc.) My mom is pretty private politically so I was raised to not really discuss politics- at least until I was older and could hold debates/discussion with my dad. I think as long as we’re doing our part to make the world brighter, whether we do it out loud or quietly, we’re contributing positively to the planet. I also think that can be done with donations or volunteering or just being kind! Everyone doesn’t have to make a post or a status- my point was more to just make people aware..
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Totally agree on most, especially the dogs, but mostly disagree on Christina and Tarek. You can’t totally detach when you watch people constantly like the Flip or Flop couple. I judge them in the same way I judge Kim and Kanye or even my own friends and their relationships. I don’t write about it on the internet, but I think it, for sure. Maybe I’m just not that good of a person, I don’t know. I could never say exactly what happened there, and obviously it’s a sad situation with kids involved. But there HAVE been times when I was watching that I sincerely thought ‘damn, if I ever talked to John like that, he’d leave my ass and I wouldn’t blame him.’ (and vice versa, if talked to me that way, I’d bolt.) I don’t feel the need to leave comments all over the internet about it, but at the end of the day, no I’m not surprised by the news. She was a b*tch occasionally and my thinking that of her had nothing to do with her being bossy or decisive – I think that because she spoke to people, Tarek included, like she was better then them and her condescending attitude was, to me, b*tchy. She was the one on the high horse, in my opinion. Give me Chip and Joanna any day.
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You’re a good person, Stephanie🙂
K and I have discussed it at home, so I admit to talking about it in private. It was/has just been killing me to see people make public statements about how this is all 100% absolutely Christina’s fault and blah blah blah. It could’ve been, but we don’t know. Their communication style definitely wouldn’t work for us either, lol, but the comments I saw last week were just slamming her and I thought, ‘Divorce is hard enough- I can’t imagine going through it with all these faceless asshole throwing shade at me.’
Chip & Jo…. My Christmas wish is to be adopted by them. Hahahaha. They are so lovely!
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The not my kid/not my country mindset just pisses the crap out me. We are ALL human beings. We are all brothers and sisters, regardless of skin color, religion, sexual orientation or gender. End of story. I feel so horrible for them and the fact that so many people just go “meh” towards their plight. And I honestly do not want to flip the calendar to 2017. 2016 wasn’t necessarily a banner year but I don’t want to turn this country over to an orange troll who ONLY cares about himself. And YES! Why are so many people blase about Russia messing with our election? Isn’t the fact that they wanted the Orange Troll in office scary? It should be. American is not Russia/Putin’s pawn. Clinton was right – he is a puppet. And worse – I don’t think he even realizes it. Do not get me started on people who are cruel or neglectful to animals. I just can’t. I never watched that show, so I have no idea who they are but their break-up is all over the place. I don’t like it when strong women get called bitches for speaking their minds. It makes me sad that in many ways we seem like we have outwardly progressed but in reality, a lot of old-time mindsets still exist. Exhibit A: the election. Great rant, my friend. With you all the way!
On a happier note, my year-end blogging break begins, so I want to wish you Happy Holidays and I’m so glad we connected this year! Get some rest because next year: WE FIGHT!
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Thanks, Tanya. I hope people like you and me can keep 2017 progressing forward. Maybe these things will continue to the light the fire in people necessary to fight. One can hope! (And I will ALWAYS whistle-blow on those that are cruel to animals. I am an animal hall monitor 😉 ha.)
Happy Holidays, Tanya! Enjoy your break! Safe travels!
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completely agree, esp about the animals…then again, I like animals better than humans because most humans make stupid decisions whereas animals (dogs) want to only love.
I dont know who you’re talking about (christina/whoever) since I don’t watch much TV and never watch reality TV (or even the news because it’s just so depressing) but if there are people talking badly about their partner, then I definitely don’t support that, reality TV or IRL. In the 17 years I’ve been with my husband (dating/married etc), we have NEVER disrespected one another, no matter how heated our argument gets. In fact, we have never raised our voices would NEVER swear (ie. use swear words or swear at each other) when trying to express our feelings/emotions. that’s just awful and disrespectful!
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98% of the time I will pick dogs (or any animal) over humans. 100% of the time I will pick MY dogs over humans (well, my dogs + the husband).
I wouldn’t say the couple talked bad about one another, but they flipped houses together so they did argue sometimes and often the wife overruled him- which is what has given the general public this idea that she’s a total monster. (Again, I don’t know the details of their personal life, but the internet trolls had me irritated.)
I freakin’ love that you and your husband are so respectful toward and about one another. That’s so amazing. I joking “complain” about K sometimes to a close friend or something, but afterward I feel terrible. It’s something I’d like to totally stop doing. Good on you guys for keeping it respectful when things are heated!
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Yes to all of this. Tarek & Christina actually annoy the crap out of me, but for the love of dogs (see what I did there?) people need to leave them alone.
I told someone who has some refugee friends how disgusted I was by people here who want to close our borders to them, and she said, “They’re just scared and trying to protect their families.” Sorry, no. They’re horrible people. I don’t care.
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I see what you did there 😉 Haha. They’re not my favorite show, but I hate when humans are completely lambasted by other humans. Ugh. (Except the Tr*mp Troll. That’s deserved…)
I struggle with the idea of “borders.” I’m patriotic and I am SO thankful and grateful to soldiers/veterans for keeping us safe, but as a human I don’t believe that the Atlantic and Pacific elevate me above those that weren’t born in these 50 states. I want my country to be safe, but more than that I want humans and children and mothers and sons to be safe.
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” I don’t want a big, orange, hands-y, hateful troll as the leader of the free world.” – that made me chuckle. I guess laughing is better than crying, huh? 😉
GIRL – I do speak up when it comes to animals. I cant handle animals in cruel conditions – especially in winter.
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Animal hall monitors UNITE! I will forever and always give a voice to those voiceless & furry! 😉
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There is a dog currently in one of our local rescues and I cry every time I see an update on her. She was a stray and is all bones. She has pneumonia and heartworm and JUST gave birth. I had a foster who looked so much like her and was all bones and I think of him when I see her and it is devastating. If someone let her out or dropped her off in the streets… how could they? Animal abuse is just the worst. Dogs can’t fight back. I hate it. 😦
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I wish we’d foster, but my husband can’t. It would break him to see the dog leave and we definitely can’t be failed fosters right now, lol. But someday I’ll have a shelter/sanctuary and we can save them all 😉
I was in bed & saw a new ASPCA commercial last night with a little black dog named Baxter and I totally cried. Then I pulled one of my mutts up to my pillow and snuggled him against his will for 20 minutes. Haha.
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My husband mentioned the Tarek/Christina thing to me the other day. I had no idea. I’m not a fan of their show, but I know it since we watch HGTV all the time. I can’t believe people are so into their business. Just because they’re in the public, people feel they need to be opinionated about their personal lives – I don’t get it and I don’t care. Uncared for dogs break my heart. I can’t stand to see a dog out suffering in poor conditions.
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It just never ceases to amaze me how cruel the faceless internet can be. Those people obviously don’t own a mirror.
I have called the humane officer COUNTLESS times in my 26 years of existence. I’ve also anonymously dropped off bales of hay and food.
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Yes to all of the above. I feel so helpless watching what’s happening in Aleppo. And everything with Tarek/Christina is ridiculous. I saw comments right after it happened and all were like “oh she looks like a porn star so of course she left” (I’M SORRY WHAT) or “go raise your kids and he’ll ask you if he needs help” (again, WHAT?) and just so many more statements. I can’t read comments or I get mean.
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I definitely shouldn’t have read the comments. I know better… I just hold humans to this standard of being… I don’t know… civil? And they continue to disappoint at times. Ugh.
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I can’t handle humans most days but things like Aleppo or animal cruelty just make me shake my head and wonder what’s happening to this world.
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There are definitely some good people in this world (looking at you, Elyse!) but there are some terrible ones, too. Ugh. We just have to keep fighting the fight to squash their influence on the world!
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I’ve ranted numerous times about the fucked up state of our government and I’ve never felt so let down by the people who are supposed to lead us as I do now. I fear for this country but I’m also optimistic that the level of activism will rise and real change will occur and this will never, EVER happen again.
I have an indoor/outdoor cat. She has a shelter and always, always water. I purposefully keep her food inside so that she comes in every day. However. It’s been so cold that I’ve kept her inside for a week now. She doesn’t seem to mind.
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I’ve definitely seen more action from “every day people” than I ever have before- which I think can be counted as the silver-lining in this effed up situation. (Obviously the 20s and 60s had civil movements- but I wasn’t alive for that.)
My parents have an outdoor dog and as she’s aged they’ve tried to convince her to enjoy the indoors… but she doesn’t. Still, this month she’s spent WAY more time inside than out. They bring her in every night and throughout the day. I have a feeling she’s the last outdoor dog they’ll ever have 😉 I’ve converted them to indoor-dog-people!
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Amen about the Aleppo thing. Usually I’m 100% in the dark about world issues but even I’m wondering how in the frickkk this is allowed to happen!! Also, I just feel so bad for Tarek and Christina’s kids…
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Ugh… Here’s to hoping 2017 is much much better. We humans need to get our acts together!
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I hadn’t heard the Tarek/Christina thing, and now I’m tempted to Google it but am thinking I will probably spend a lot of wasted minutes reading comments that will make me mad…
And I totally agree with everything else you said. I have nothing to add, I just agree. Thanks for saying it.
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Ha, thanks, Lisa. I’m really, really hoping that 2017 brings this world some peace and love and understanding. This year has been ridiculous…
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