Random Acts of Kindness Week started Monday, February 10, 2014. You can check out the response on Twitter #RAKweek @dashingclaire. I was very encouraged by the positive energy
Wouldn't it be really nice if "everyone" could be thoughtful, helpful, pay it forward for one week, one day, one hour - OK a minute at a time.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. Mark Twain
A sincere smile is a very kind and meaningful way to make a positive difference in someone's day. Without using words, a smile says to a person “Hi, I hope you have a nice day”. People appreciate being noticed and acknowledged, especially with a friendly smile. Smiling at a stranger is a positive human interaction that seems to be infrequent as people get caught up in their daily tasks. So next time you are at the store, walking down the street, or going to work or school, acknowledge someone with a smile.
Benefits
A smile can brighten someone’s day and make them feel noticed. It doesn’t take a lot of effort and can be done anywhere, anytime. It can be done quickly and without any preparation or effort, but leaves a lasting impression. Plus, smiling can also have a positive effect on your own emotions and well-being.
Step It Up
Smile at someone and ask them how they are doing or introduce yourself. A quick exchange can really improve a person’s day. Also, try smiling at as many people as you can, but remember to always be genuine.
Keep It Simple
When you smile at someone, look them in the eyes to make it more genuine.
Resources
A video reviewing all of the research about why smiling is good for you!
Top 10 Reasons to Smile http://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongbeauty/tp/smiling.htm
The Art of Smiling http://thinksimplenow.com/happiness/the-art-of-smiling/
“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” — Oprah Winfrey
You have to see this for your self!
Watch the Mercedes video first. Personally the chicken doesn't make me want to run out and buy the car Just saying....
Mercedes just set themselves up for this. You be the judge...
Photo made by Timophey Tkachik (Ukraine). Taken in Borky European Chickens
Federal workers' pensions targeted in budget deal according this article, "Distinctly unpopular among voters and a scant presence in most congressional districts, federal workers have become an easy target in the hunt for budget savings.....But with pensions for non-government workers on a path toward extinction, federal employees get little sympathy from some experts."
Did you know...
Departments of State and Defense and other departments and agencies deploy federal civilian employees to Iraq or Afghanistan. DEPLOYING FEDERAL CIVILIANS TO THE BATTLEFIELD: Incentives, Benefits, and Medical Care, the oversight committee met to hear the personal experiences of wounded DOD civilian employees. "The Department of Defense, which deploys the greatest number of civilians to Iraq and Afghanistan, has policies and procedures in place to provide medical care for those who become ill, sustain injuries or wounds, or are killed while deployed to a combat zone in support of military operations. Most (but not all) wounded DOD civilians are given adequate care both in theater and after returning to the United States."
Really! Why would anyone want to wok for the federal government? Working for the feds can be hazards to your life - if you live than you get crapped on! American citizens must have a very short memory.
Let's go back and work forward. The government’s response was immediate: federal employees, both civilian and military, sprung into action and were on the front lines of the rescue, recovery and investigation efforts. About 2,800 federal employees worked at the World Trade Center complex, primarily in Buildings 6 and 7. About a dozen IRS employees were in the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, conducting audits. Of the 183 Pentagon victims, 69 were civilians. Congress included a provision in the 2002 Defense Authorization bill (Section 1111 of Public Law 107-107) that authorized federal agencies to make hostile fire payments to civilian workers when they come under attack, are in imminent danger of attack or are killed in an attack. Government agencies were not obligated to grant hostile fire pay, but "several" agencies that had employees at the Sept. 11 sites decided to make the payments. That meant that all the civilians did not get pay.
Hostile fire pay is paid on a monthly basis, so employees who were at the Pentagon or World Trade Center complex on Sept. 11 would receive the $150 payment for the month of September 2011 only. Employees who were hospitalized because of the attacks would receive $150 payments for up to 3 months during which they spent time in the hospital. So an employee injured in the Sept. 11 attack who spent parts of October and November in the hospital would receive $450 in hostile fire pay.
Federal employees do no get free medical insurance or care at military facilities. According to Office of Personnel Management (OPM), "most" (not all) employees and annuitants, the Government contribution equals the lesser of: (1) 72 percent of amounts OPM determines are the program-wide weighted average of premiums in effect each year, for Self Only and for Self and Family enrollments, respectively, or (2) 75 percent of the total premium for the particular plan an enrollee selects.
"There could not have been as many survivors of the attack on the Pentagon without the persistent and selfless acts of others - military and civilian - who were themselves caught in the maelstrom or came unhesitatingly from elsewhere in the building to respond to the desperate circumstances facing the many victims trapped in the wreckage." Defense Studies Series - Pentagon 9
The U.S. Justice Department stopped tracking assaults on federal employees back in 2002, after it persuaded Congress to repeal a reporting requirement for such incidents.
On August 20, 1986, a part-time letter carrier named Patrick H. Sherrill, facing possible
dismissal after a troubled work history, walked into the Edmond, Oklahoma, post office,
where he worked and shot 14 people to death before killing himself.
Oklahoma City - 98 of those killed and 140 injured were federal government employees 3 of those killed and 126 injured were state government employees
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
(361 total occupants on April 19, 1995) 163 deaths 118 workers 15 children in Day Care 4 children visitors 26 adult visitors 166 injured
Occupational Highway Transportation Deaths A total of 8,173 workers died from highway transportation incidents during 2003–2008, representing 24% of all fatal occupational
June 2000, Stuart Charles Alexander shoot and kill, in cold blood, the two USDA inspectors and a state inspector. U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors Jean Hillery, 56, and Thomas Quadros, 52, and state Department of Food and Agriculture Inspector William Shaline, 57, were killed. After shooting them, he returned to his factory and emptied three more shots into the heads of the victims, making sure that they were dead.
June 2006 Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution guard opened fire on FBI agents The dead were the guard and a U.S. Justice Department investigator.
June 20, 2013 – Federal employees in national parks, wildlife refuges and marine sanctuaries experienced more attacks and threats in 2012 than in the previous year, according to agency figures obtained by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER.
U.S. Park Police which recorded 42.9 percent more assaults and threats than during 2011. There were 100 violent incidents recorded by the Park Police in 2012, the highest number in its history.
In 2012, a Bureau of Land Management worker was shot at while driving a BLM vehicle in September. In a separate incident, a fleeing subject attempted to run over a U.S. Park Police officer with his car
Shooting death of Mount Rainier National Park law enforcement ranger Margaret Anderson on January 1, 2012 in Washington State.
A park ranger was last killed in 2002, at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, while chasing drug traffickers.
February 2013 Officials say Eric Williams, 34, was killed by an inmate who used a homemade weapon at the U.S. Penitentiary at Canaan, a high-security prison for men
September 2013 gunman at Washington Navy Yard killed 12 people
November 2013 Gunman opens fire at LAX, killing TSA officer 39-year-old Gerardo I. Hernandez
....These are the deaths that make the news. There are others we will never know
"....But with pensions for non-government workers on a path toward extinction, federal employees get little sympathy from some experts."
