Category Archives: Golden Rule

Last time, I shared the first of two simple tools to help us avoid gossip.

First, we must guard our ears. You can typically stop gossip with one question: Why are you telling me this?

That question generates some healthy self-evaluation. The softer approach to this question might be to ask, Have you had a chance to talk to the person about this?

Even though guarding our ears is a great tool to put an end to gossip, sometimes, people still go on with their gossip. In those cases, you may have to distance yourself from the relationship or maybe sever the relationship altogether.

This is consistent with a Biblical principle found in Proverbs 20:19: A gossip goes around telling secrets, so dont hang around with chatterers.

That is very simple, very clear instruction from the book of Proverbs. If you want to avoid gossip, guard your ears.

A second effective tool to end all gossip is to close our mouth. That sounds so simple. It is certainly effective. Unfortunately, it is not always easy. Proverbs 21:23 says, Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble.

Here is a great guiding principle: Just ask yourself, Would I want someone sharing this about me if I was not around? Again, were just applying another principle that Jesus taught: Do to others as you would like them to do to you. That is the Golden Rule.

It is easy to see how following this principle could help us put an end to gossip. It really is as simple as guarding our ears and closing our mouths.

Over the past few weeks, we have talked about some of the ways our mouths get us in trouble. Maybe the problem isnt just with our mouth. Perhaps the problem is with our heart. We are broken people.

Jesus said, The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)

When God gets ahold of my heart, he also gets ahold of my mouth. That is when I can move away from complaining, criticizing, lying and gossiping to speaking truth and speaking life.

That is when my words can begin to emulate those of my savior. And in that transformation, our mouths, our marriages, our families and our lives will be transformed, too.

Steve Greene is the lead pastor of The Point in Seymour. Read his blog at pastorgreene.wordpress.com or email him at steve@gotothepoint.com. Send comments to awoods@tribtown.com.

The rest is here:

Column: Want to avoid gossip? Guard ears and close mouth - Seymour Tribune

WEST GOSHEN Like the other two dozen men in the room, I bowed down facing Mecca and said a silent prayer to God.

We had all removed our shoes, and most everyone else knelt on a mat on the carpeted floor.

As a reporter, I attended the Friday mandatory congregation prayer meeting of the Islamic Society of Chester County.

All over the world, millions of Muslims pray five times per day. A digital board at the local Mosque posted the following prayer times: 6:00 (Dawn, open eyes); 12:20 (Noon); 3:00 (Afternoon Tea Time); 5:45 (Dinner time); and 7:30 (Dusk, Close Eyes).

Bushra Qurshi is president of the Islamic Society and president of the Interfaith Committee. She said that Muslims receive exercise for the body and soul, while focusing on God, when bowing.

We are not just going through the motions, your soul, everything should be attuned to God, she said.

Much of the service was spoken in Arabic.

We are reciting verses of the Koran, Abdul Mughees Chaudhri, vice president of the ISCCPA board said, as was taught by Prophet Mohammed.

Peace be upon him.

Ejaz A. Sabir gave the sermon during the 20-minute service.

Faith alone is not enough, Sabir said. He then listed four things needed for a Muslims success: faith; action; struggle; and perseverance. He reminded us to be patient and to avoid complaining because you dont realize how many blessings you have.

God, why me? he asked, How do we deal with other people?

The killing of 51 at mosques in New Zealand led this local house of prayer to change its ways. Now, the ISCCPA pays local West Goshen police for security on Fridays.

Mughees Chaudhri talked about having to take precautions due to Islamophobia.

Its strange times we are living in when we have to hire protection for outside a mosque, a synagogue or a church, Mughees Chaudhri said.

In college, I took a Religious Studies course, ironically it was held in a church and a minister was the professor. We studied and read the Bible, Koran, the works of Confucius, and those of several other religions.

If there was one take-away (and there were many) it was that most all religions teach the Golden Rule. Its so simple.

So why all the hate directed at Muslims? I learned at the service that Muslims preach peace and harmony. And I didnt expect to hear any differently.

Its obviously not a religion itself that leads a very small minority to hurt. At the Mosque, I witnessed a strong, beneficial faith and brotherhood in action.

For 10 years the West Goshen Mosque has planned for growth. The current building likely was advertised in a Sears catalogue.

The campus for 300 worshippers sits on a seven acre site and the worship space is bursting at the seams. The number of worshippers is limited due to COVID.

With a new building, the goal is to bring youth together to work, play, collaborate and pray. Plans call for a full size basketball court, gym, ping-pong table, coffee lounge and places to do homework and hang out.

It will be geared for youth to come and be connected at the Islamic Centernot just praying, Mughees Chaudhri said.

At an expanded kitchen, food will be prepared to feed the needy. The upstairs will be set aside for prayer.

Its nice to know that Chester County is diverse. Theres room for people of several faiths. Good luck with the building. Keep the faith.

For more, go to http://www.isccpa.org where you can find a phone number, PO Box address and more information.

Read the original:

Peace will be the message at new West Goshen Mosque - Daily Local News

PLANO, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spring is a time of reawakening, and that includes spring fashion at JCPenney, which features exciting new merchandise offerings across all categories. From three new swim brands, new apparel and activewear for the whole family, and expanded home furnishings, JCPenney has everything you need to celebrate all the moments of spring.

There is a constant drive to refresh our brands to keep up with the changing needs of our customers, said Michelle Wlazlo, executive vice president and chief merchant. Whether it be preparing their home for special celebrations, getting ready for a long-anticipated vacation, or safely reconnecting with family and friends, JCPenney has everything to help our customers stylishly return to their favorite activities this season.

JCPenney is splashing into the warmer months with three new womens swimwear brands Mynah, Decree, and Sonnet Shores with each collection providing quality and functional comfort in styles that will allow customers to hit the backyard, beach, or pool with total confidence. In a celebration of body positivity and inclusivity, JCPenneys new swimwear options range from classic to trendy and are not intended for specific ages or body sizes, but rather customers individual styles.

For customers looking to spring into a new routine, JCPenney has a variety of activewear apparel for the whole family. Find the right gear to get moving with new selections from leading national brands Champion and Puma. As temperatures rise, stay cool during the toughest workouts with selections from JCPenneys exclusive Xersion brand featuring innovative EVERAIR fabrication that combines breathable technology and Quick-Dri wicking for optimal air flow.

Easter is right around the corner, and JCPenney has offerings for every kind of celebration from casual to a bit more dressed up. With a variety of St. Johns Bay casual apparel, its never been easier to put together new spring looks for men and women. For customers looking to get back to dressing up, Worthington and Stafford collections offer classic dress essentials like sheath dresses, lightweight jackets, and crisp tops and bottoms. The recently revamped Liz Claiborne collection sold exclusively at JCPenney since 2009 has undeniable quality and mix-and-match options like fresh silhouettes, tailored knits, and flowing dresses with bold, new prints and hues, to meet all of springs moments with a sense of ease.

Spring is also a time to refresh home spaces, both indoors and out. JCPenneys exclusive Liz Claiborne home assortment offers an expanded selection of functional dcor with timeless designs. The Linden Street collection offers artisan style soft towels, comfortable sheets, natural cotton drapes, and now dcor, including dinnerware, serveware, and table linens. On the heels of JCPenneys recent Fieldcrest launch, the Company is continuing to strengthen its home merchandise assortment, including a new modern home brand coming next month.

JCPenney is excited to continue investing in its private and national brand portfolio to offer compelling and inspiring merchandise to its customers. Check out the JCPenney flagship store, jcp.com, to shop these products now and new offerings all spring long. To download images and videos, please visit the JCPenney Newsroom.

JCPenney Corporate Communications:jcpnews@jcp.com

About JCPenney

JCPenney proudly serves customers at more than 650 stores across the United States and Puerto Rico, and at the Companys flagship store, jcp.com. JCPenney is one of the nations largest retailers of apparel, home, jewelry, and beauty merchandise with a growing portfolio of private and national brands. Guided by the Golden Rule, JCPenney employs more than 60,000 associates worldwide and has served customers for over 119 years, playing a vital role in the communities it serves. For additional information, please visit jcp.com and follow JCPenney on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Read the original here:

JCPenney Gets Spring Refresh with Newness Across All Categories - Business Wire

Its been a year since the stock market took its Covid-19 tumble. From Feb. 19 to March 20, 2020a span of 22 trading daysthe S&P 500 fell 30%, the fastest decline ever.

Its hard to overstate how dramatic this market moment was, or how much panic was in the air. The horror of more than 700 people dying every day in New York City alone was still in the future, with nurses and doctors wearing trash bags instead of medical personal protective equipment (PPE).

For markets, March 20 was the decisive turning point: The S&P 500 hit an intra-day low of 2,191 the following trading day, and since then its barely looked back. It took five months to retrace the early Covid-19 losses and start hitting new all-time highs. By mid-March 2021, the S&P 500 was getting very close to 4,000, not very far from a 100% gain off the Covid-19 lows.

The year 2020 was the ultimate playbook of investment lessons, says financial planner Desmond Henry of Topeka, Kan. You could write a whole book about it.

Theres a lot to learn from the events of the past 12 months. Here are seven investing lessons you can learn from the pandemic.

The Covid-19 crisis was the ultimate affirmation of what Henry calls the golden rule of investing, buy and hold. Your aim as an investor should be to find high-quality companies and hold onto them for as long as possible.

If you arent willing to own a stock for 10 years, dont even think about owning it for 10 minutes, wrote legendary investor Warren Buffett in his famous 1996 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. This entails seeing a company through rough times in the short term with your eye on the long term.

Buy and hold couldnt have been more true than this past year, Henry says. Sometimes the best strategy is to do nothing.

If you had sold at the bottom of the recent bear market, youd have been cashing out at 2016 S&P 500 levels and then have been faced with the difficult task of determining when to reenter the market. Youd probably have missed out on at least some of the recovery gains in the process. If youd stayed steady, though, youd have effortlessly benefited from all of the return.

If you sold in March you would have gotten hammered. Doing nothing really does work, Henry says.

When it comes to stock market analysis, it can seem like talking heads are always expecting this time to be different.

People think, This is the next thing thats going to be the end of the world. Every four years you hear that during elections, If my candidate doesnt win the presidency, the world will endYou could have easily said that back in March. This is the big one; were never going to come out of that, Henry says.

This fear manifested in a really interesting way during the early days of the pandemic, Paul Miller, a New York City-based certified public accountant (CPA), notes. The initial result is that most were paralyzed and sold investments incorrectly, and then went into cash and stayed paralyzed, he says. Those who did that, of course, ended up locking in losses and missed out on a lot of that nearly 100% gain since last March. Overall, the thing I would take away is that if you do everything steadily, incrementally, every time you will prevail. But a lot of people panicked. You can even say Warren Buffet panicked. He sold all his airline stocks. He regrets that move now.

With all the noise of market volatility, It can be tempting to try to wait out for a best time when the market has steadied and is on a consistent upward trajectory. Though it might not seem like it, that inertia can be a mistake in and of itself.

Dont wait, Henry says. The best time to start investing is always now.

People are often waiting on somethingIll invest when the dust settlesIll invest when the vaccine gets here. Well, for people waiting, that boat has already sailed, he says.

While the big example of that is obviously the almost doubling of an investment that took place from March 2020 to March 2021, almost each month you delayed starting investing would have cost you in the past 12 months. In the past year, you would have seen gains being invested from just one month to the next 66% of the time, and outside of March 2020, the largest month-over-month decrease was just 4%.

During normal years, those percentages are even more compelling: Between 1928 and 2021, the S&P 500 saw month-over-month gains 75% of the time on average, and its average decrease was no more than 1%, according to data compiled by Yardeni research.

In short, stop playing that game, being so pessimistic, Henry says. Or, in other words, the stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient, as Warren Buffett says. Just getting your money into the market can be most of the battle to seeing positive returns.

There was a very short window, maybe 60 days, when people were stressed out of their minds, Miller says. The markets first Covid-19-related dips date back only to about Feb. 1, 2020. So the financial pain, while acute, was short-lived.

That might have helped prevent people from overreacting, Henry says. There wasnt really time.

The fact that the sell off happened so quickly was actually a positive, he says. He was steeled for some tough, talk-them-back-from-the-cliff conversations, but instead, most of his clients were well-behaved.

His theory: By the time clients saw the impact in their March monthly statements, the market had already started to rebound. When people see that slow bleeding for a longer period, that mentally messes with (investors) more than getting hammered quickly, he says.

This well-behaved phenomenon wasnt limited to Henrys clients. Vanguard released a study last year showing its investors largely rode out the Covid-19 bear market.

Less than 1% of households abandoned equities completely during the downturn in the first half of 2020, the report found. The net result of the portfolio and market changes was a modest reduction in the average household equity allocation, from 63% to 62%.

The falling-elevator quality to the Covid bear market stands in contrast to the recessions that hit after the dot-com and housing bubbles burst. After those two events, the markets languished for years. It can be harder to keep hope that the market will recover when its gradually slipping for a longer amount of time and struggling to recover.

Are there sector-specific lessons to be learned from Covid-19? Heres one: Technology really is driving the future, and most investors would be wise to bet on it. In 2020, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 outpaced the S&P 500 by about 30 percentage points (+48.9%, vs +18.4%).

And even when you might think its too late to invest in a tech darling, it might not be. Consider this: If you were lucky or smart and bought $1,000 worth of Zoom stock on January 31, 2020, at about $76 per share, youd have about $4,200 today (it sits at around $330 per share). Thats a great return.

But say you waited until the end March, at which time it seemed everyone you know was suddenly using Zoom for several hours per day. Too late? Hardly. Zoom had only risen to about $150 per share by then, so youd have about $2,150 by now. Not too shabby.

Im not much into sector rotation. Its another form of timing the market, Henry says. But I am still bullish on tech stocks.And if you want to position yourself to benefit from any broad economic recovery without picking individual stocks, look to an index or exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the performance of the whole economy or a particular sector, like tech.

If nothing else, Covid-19 proved the importance of having an emergency fund.

Studies show roughly half of Americans dont have enough savings to pay for a surprise $1,000 expense without borrowing money. People in that half had a much rougher time during the pandemics early days. The savers? Many of them took their government stimulus checks and invested them.

Across all income levels, Envestnet Yodlee, a financial data analysis and aggregation company, noted that stock purchasing increased by anywhere from 50% to 90%, with lower incomes showing greater increases. Even as trading volume grew, many Americans still doubled down on their emergency savings, with 14% squirreling money safely away, according to a Forbes Advisor survey in May 2020.

This dual-pronged approach to saving is in line with a favorite piece of advice of Henrys.

I cant take credit for this; I heard someone else say it once: You have to save like a pessimist and invest like an optimist! he says. This way, youre prepared if rough times come in the short term and when you need money later in life.To get started building your own emergency fund or investing, check out Forbes Advisors guides.

Follow this link:

Covid-19 Crisis: Investing Lessons From The Pandemic - Forbes

Sticks in the mud. Overly cautious. Obstacles to progress.

Thats how Ive tended to view political moderates especially those in my own party. As a 30-something state legislator (1999-2005) deeply committed to individual liberty, limited government and personal responsibility, I often grew frustrated with moderate Republicans who always seemed to move too slowly toward those goals.

I remember telling Republican activists: The most significant legislation often passes by the narrowest margin and nobody is motivated by moderation.

Today, as progressive Democrats, and some Republicans, say many of those same things to drive moderates to the sideline, my exasperation with centrist lawmakers has evolved into grudging admiration at least for those willing to stand strong for their beliefs. When emboldened, centrists in both parties serve an important function that benefits the vast majority of citizens who arent died-in-the-wool Republicans or Democrats: they slow the pace of change.

In a country as evenly and fiercely divided as ours has been for at least 20 years, the public shouldnt be subjected to political whiplash when a few thousand votes in a handful of states narrowly shift power from one party to the other.

Convincing a skeptical centrist to support legislation can be like reasoning with that relative or neighbor who picks apart every one of your ideas but ultimately makes them work better. Accommodating centrists can be the difference between governing by executive order which may last only until the next election and actually passing legislation into law.

In Colorado where Democrats control the executive and legislative branches, some new legislation and ballot initiatives are so odious and disrespectful to small business and rural voters that local governments responsible for enforcement have simply decided to ignore the law taking a cue from Democrats who govern sanctuary cities and refuse to enforce immigration laws.

The governing majority could help restore civility if it simply practiced what it once preached about respecting the rights of the minority and refrained from making every progressive policy into a statewide mandate. Although the bulk of Colorados population clusters along the Front Range, those who live in the other 90 percent of the states land mass deserve deference.

Is it so unreasonable to craft compromises that are mutually beneficial so the majority rules but minority concerns are accommodated? Some will call this selling out. But its the same horse trading that routinely results in win-win agreements in our personal and professional lives, making America different from countries where majority rule is absolute and minority views are crushed.

For example, large majorities of Americans favor both secure borders and legal citizenship for those who came here illegally but have lived in the U.S. productively for many years. Republicans generally oppose the citizenship component, while Democrats oppose an impervious border. Today, we have the worst of both a border disaster in every sense.

Likewise, voters overwhelmingly want our elections to be both convenient and secure. Republicans are slowly accepting early or mail-in voting with proper safeguards. However, Democratic politicians protest that requiring voter identification will result in vote suppression though it hasnt suppressed legitimate sales of beer, tobacco or legal drugs.

In each case, its extreme partisanship that prevents government from giving most voters what they want.

Statesmanship is what we once called the art of understanding whats important to others and helping them achieve those ends without violating our own principles.

It is even possible for people including politicians from opposing parties to build genuine friendships yet remain true to their beliefs. President Ronald Reagan and Democratic Speaker Tip ONeill famously regarded each other as friends despite political disagreements. Finding true friends in the opposing party makes it easier to apply the Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated.

That doesnt need to change what we believe about important issues, but it should deter a scorched-earth, win-at-all-costs thirst for political power which only leads to more bitterness, resentment and deepening divisions.

Mark Hillman, a Burlington Republican, served as Senate majority leader and Senate minority leader in Colorado's legislature. To read more or comment, go to http://www.MarkHillman.com.

Read more here:

Grudging admiration for the role of centrists | Opinion | coloradopolitics.com - coloradopolitics.com

As the coronavirus pandemic begins to come under control in the United States, public health experts are increasingly anxious about the significant number of Americans who express skepticism or hesitancy about getting one of the three FDA-approved vaccines.

Few Americans have greater insight into the history, safety and efficacy of vaccines in general, and the coronavirus vaccines in particular, than Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Hill spoke with Collins this week to understand how he and the Biden administration are winning over those who remain skeptical.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

The Hill:Dr. Collins, thank you so much for taking the time. I know this is an issue that you care about a lot. So I wanted to define the problem here. What are the populations that you see are most likely to be vaccine skeptical right now?

NIH Director Francis Collins:Well, it's good to think about it as not a homogeneous group, they're different populations with different reasons for concern. African Americans with a long history of uncertainty about whether the medical care system has really got their best interests at heart and a history from episodes like Tuskegee where even medical researchers seem to be behaving in unethical ways have their reasons to be somewhat doubtful about whether something that government is putting forward is necessarily well-suited to them, so they're asking those kinds of questions, and I totally understand that.

People of faith, particularly white evangelicals, I think are also concerned about the vaccine on a couple of bases. One is, do they really need to depend on something out of medicine? If they're believers, is God going to take care of them? And of course, God can work through medicine as well, so I would argue thats a separation of trust to suggest you can only trust in either God or medicine. I think you could probably trust in both, but that does trip people up.

There's the fetal tissue issue, where there are concerns amongst pro-life believers, that there may be something about these vaccines that's contaminated by the abortion issue. For the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines which are mRNA based, there is no use of a fetal cell line to prepare the vaccine. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is grown in a cell line that's been around since 1985, which was derived from an elective termination in Scandinavia. So, [abortion] I think is on the minds of some believers, although the Catholic Church has made it quite clear that they believe submitting to these vaccinations is entirely ethical, even for people who are rigidly pro-life.

Then there's a political perspective. I guess one of the things that's most surprising is to see the rise in resistance, particularly from Republican men, which recent polls suggest as many as 50 percent may be hesitant. And that situation this is clearly all tangled up with the polarization of virtually everything in the United States, and the sense I suppose that the way in which the vaccines were put together was not something that they feel was fully supported by the political system, and maybe there was some agenda there, and now that their party is no longer in power in the White House, they would have less confidence in the messages they're hearing from the government about why this is a good thing even though of course, Donald TrumpDonald TrumpThe Hill's Morning Report - Biden officials brace for worst despite vaccine data Trump launches 'the official website of the 45th President' Judge rules Ohio professor can sue university over not using student's preferred pronoun MORE was himself vaccinated.

In every instance what I've learned is if somebody says they're hesitant, the first thing I want to know is, tell me about that. Tell me what it is that has you troubled. Is it the conspiracy theories you've been hearing? And there's plenty of those out there on social media. Is it your concern about safety issues not having been fully addressed? Is it some other factor that's in there? And there's no single, I think, best response until you've listened to hear what the basis of the hesitancy is and that person.

The Hill:I hear a lot of health experts say that the listening process is crucial, but that takes time. I wonder if theres a balance between taking the time to listen and respond, and the race to get shots in arms.

Collins:Yeah, and that's our current challenge, isn't it? Because we are approaching the point where we will have a sufficient supply of vaccines for everybody in the United States to have the chance to get immunized by the end of May. And so the hesitancy will begin to become the defining factor and whether we reach herd immunity or not. That doesn't give us a lot of time. We're down to a little over two months to try to do the listening and also then the responding.

I think that means this has to be the moment where we really pull into this conversation all of the trustworthy voices. I think that's a big part of what we need to do right now really is to empower those voices who are not necessarily old white guys who work for the federal government, like me. But others who have the trust of communities that are likely to be resistant. So that means the doctors out there in the community. It's interesting when you see that something like 95 percent of doctors are getting vaccinated, that tells you they believe that this is a good thing and the more they can be explicit about that, the more helpful that will be in getting the message across that this really is safe and effective.

I've done a lot of my time in the last few weeks and more today, talking to churches, because there again, I think those are voices that are trusted that don't have an ax to grind, that are going to bring information to people about what is good for them and that is also consistent with their beliefs. So empowering clergy leaders to have the facts, so that they can share those, is another important step we could be taking. And then elected officials, if they have the trust of their community, they can be helpful as well.

We just have to get the word in front of people coming from voices that dont appear to have some conflict. And the government, in many people's minds and our current fracturing situation, will appear to have a conflict of interest. So will industry. So better to have the voices coming from other sources.

The Hill:What messages themselves have you found to be the most impactful in convincing skeptics, whether among the African American community, among the evangelical community, among the Republican right?

Collins:I think it helps to explain how the vaccines were developed, that this concern about them having been rushed can be answered by pointing out how the speed was achieved, which was by basically getting rid of the downtimes that traditionally occur when a vaccine is being developed and results in it taking years. There was no shortcut taken with any of the rigorous steps, and to evaluate these vaccines. The shortcuts were to get rid of the downtime, the bureaucracy, the red tape, the need to go back and try to raise more funds when you ran out. All of that was planned in advance, realizing that this really was a global pandemic and people were dying. So, to reassure people that the speed of preparation should not be seen as a cause of concern about its safety, that's certainly one message.

I think it helps, also, just to help people think through what are they trying to decide between. Between, am I going to get vaccinated? And am I worried about what that might mean as far as any negative effects? Versus, am I going to get COVID-19 and potentially get very sick or even die? And you sort of put those two next to each other. It is harder to make that case compelling for a young person who thinks of themselves as pretty much invincible and if they get sick, it's not going to be so bad.

One of the things that were learning more is about long COVID, and that even young people with mild illness may not get better after this, which is another reason you really don't want to put yourself in harms way.

And then one other thing I think we do have to be clear about is the vaccination, while it is a great benefit to the person, its also a benefit to the rest of the community. By declining vaccination, youre not just declining something for yourself, you're potentially putting other people at risk around you by being that asymptomatic super-spreader that could cause a lot of harms to occur. And you have to think about, am I willing to take on that potential responsibility that I could be really hurting other people? That has to be on the table as people are balancing pros and cons.

And I must say for people who are resistant on the basis of religious belief, this is one I think that people do look at and go, Oh, wow. You mean, is this a love your neighbor moment? Yes it is. And whatever faith you are the golden rule seems to apply, and the golden rule would say, for your neighbor or for your family, for your neighbors down the street who may be vulnerable. This is something you can do for them.

The Hill:You mentioned some of the messengers who have been most effective church leaders and clergy. Who are the other messengers who are most effective in their community? I was talking to the mayor of Kansas City the other day and he said he wanted to see LeBron James get vaccinated.

Collins:I would love to see as many celebrities as possible roll up their sleeves with cameras on them. How much of an impact that has, if you talk to the focus groups, they will say yeah that'd be nice but I'd rather hear it from my doc.

The Hill:That's interesting. Tell me about the focus groups, they seem to be saying they want to hear from their doctors.

Collins:They are impressed by very visible people taking the time to document their receipt of the vaccine. But if they're worried about safety and efficacy, theyd rather hear this from somebody they assume has access to some of the facts that may not be so readily apparent. Therefore their doctor may be able to tell them more convincingly that this is something you'd want to do than LeBron James could.

The Hill:Has your approach to convincing people not to be skeptical evolved at all? Were there messages that you were using that you're not anymore?

Collins:I think it has. I must say, I initially, I found this [skepticism] sort of hard to understand and probably that response was coming across, that sort of disbelief, which can be translated into, what are you, stupid? And that was not helpful. I've really evolved to the point of recognizing there are plenty of reasons why thoughtful serious people may be having reservations, but they are addressable. But it isn't going to help to hit somebody over the head with a whole bunch of instructions until you've listened to where they're coming from. So I really tried to switch into that mode.

The Hill:How closely are you working with the White House and governors in developing their own messages?

Collins:The White House is very invested in getting these messages out there, and I have been part of that team in terms of making sure that any kind of interaction I'm having on this topic is coordinated with what they're trying to do. There is a lot of efforts now to get public service messages out there. The White House has particularly encouraged me to be a voice to people of faith, because they know that I'm a person of faith and therefore I may be able to resonate a bit with some of those concerns and convince people that I understand the perspectives that they're bringing to the table.

The Hill:At our current pace of vaccinating people, do you think well achieve enough acceptance to reach some kind of herd immunity in the next few months?

Collins:I don't know. It's not a slam dunk, considering what the polls tell you about resistance. So, we only have a couple of months to try to see how that can turn around, so yeah, this is going to be a really critical, couple of months of watching closely to see if some of those trends can be turned around by appropriate messages from trustworthy people.

Read the rest here:

Q&A: NIH Director Francis Collins on the battle to improve vaccine acceptance | TheHill - The Hill

Beverly Theil| Columnist

The news of Asian Americans being targeted for attack, both fatal and non-fatal, by their fellow citizens, has filled the media. Our children see these reports and attacks and are confused.

A man in his 80s is beaten. A woman in her 90s is pushed to the ground. A man going to work is slashed with a box cutter. These are senseless crimes. These victims are doing nothing wrong. Why were they attacked? Because they are the other. They dont look like us.

More: Denouncing hate: Holmes County vigil decries attacks on Asians

This leads me to the following story.

Her name was Margaret. She was a registered nurse married to a doctor she had met at work. They had three elementary-aged children and lived in a major metropolitan area.

Walking home from shopping one day she and her children were surrounded by three men and a woman who cursed them and spit on them,accused them of being killers, told Margaret to take her children back where they came from.

Margaret, a Caucasian, had married a Filipino of Chinese ancestry. The people who spit on them believed they were Japanese. The year was 1942. Margaret was my mothers cousin. Now it is 2021, but it appears some things have not changed.

Anti-Asian racism is still active in these United States. The COVID-19 virus has been erroneously called the Chinese virus. Coronaviruses of various types have been present in humans and animal throughout the world for decades if not centuries. Why then the attacks on Asians?

More: Northeast Ohio's message to Biden and Harris: More bipartisanship, no new taxes and equal rights for all

Because their physical appearance is different from ours, therefore they are easy to pick out. They dont look like Caucasians or African Americans or Hispanics. This is why during World War II we didnt put those of German ancestry into internment camps like we did those of Japanese ancestry. We couldnt tell by looking that they were German.

Bias and prejudice, even if unacknowledged, against those we dont know is always present to some degree. Basically, it comes down to fear of the unknown.

Explain to your children the racist attacks that are going on with Asian Americans are no less wrong than the racism directed at African Americans. Talk to your children about other races and cultures.

There are books for every age level about life in other cultures. If looking into Asian culture dont get caught up in the movies about the culture. Just as not everyone in the United States is a survivalist, not everyone in Asian is a Kung Fu practitioner.

Talk about the similarities in families, how Asian and non-Asian families eat meals together, take family vacations together, go to parks, etc. Look into Asian religions. Buddhism has two major branches and many minor branches, not unlike Christianity with its many branches. Look at pictures of traditional Asian clothing. The various countries have very different styles. Then compare the different styles of clothing in the United States.

Again, we are alike in our very differences. When talking to your child stress people should be judged by their character and behaviors, not how they look. Are they kind? Caring? Do they help others in ways small and large? Do they protect those they come in contact with? Do they follow the Golden Rule and treat others as they would want to be treated?

These are the important things to judge people by, not their looks, or wealth, or ethnic or racial ancestry. Teach your children what is truly important.

Beverly Theil is a child advocate in Wayne and Holmes counties. She can be contacted at BeverlyVT@aol.com.

Excerpt from:

ABOUT CHILDREN: Have honest conversations with kids about racism, 'the other' people - Wooster Daily Record

Ive found myself in a trough of despond recently. Well, thats too dramatic. More of a gentle dip of despond. Either way theres been a bit of despond, and Im pretty sure Im not alone. My dip has proven one thing in glorious technicolour, or more appropriately, in glorious shades of grey:

Marketing hates the negative.

Truth is, thats a shame.

While were improving, weve struggled as an industry to support those with mental health challenges, whether dip, trough or gaping chasm (and if you havent read Brittany Rigbys piece on alcohol in adland, please do). Im not belittling those experiences or suggesting we invite more of them in. Yet the many and insidious ways our industry worships at the altar of the positive is likely to be making those challenges even harder to overcome.

ADVERTISEMENT

Its not like negativity has never been used in advertising. From social impact advertising to brand ads, its a proven avenue work with impact. Marmite is just one example of negative feelings about the product working hard for the brand, through creativity, and to excellent effect.

But what about embracing some constructive negativity in the ways we work, or at least, recognising how empty a continual insistence on the positive can be? Here are three ways to do it.

Ive written and reviewed more client and creative briefs than youve had hot dinners, and here is something I know: the word Positive positively does not belong in the box marked tone of voice. (Neither does authentic, but thats a topic for another day).

If you must insist on positivity as a sentiment, make it clear what brand of positivity youre after. Do you want people to get a sense of joy? Or should they be inspired? Is yours the lovable positivity of a two-month-old puppy or the relentless chirp of Emily in Emily in Paris?

A good tool to check on tonal words is to think about their opposite. If that would be a definite no then the tonal concept you have is not specific or strong enough. Thats why irreverent and candid help and positive does not because no brand wants to be entirely negative either.

Its odd that more negative tonal words rarely get a look-in in briefs, yet humans are so often sad, angry, jealous, disgusted or just plain old bored. Okay, so those might not be the emotions or tone your brand should own, but ignoring them means ignoring what it is to be alive. That wont make for great marketing.

Tell all the truth, Emily Dickinson wrote, but tell it slant, and thats what insight should do. This is bloody hard work. I know I need to do better at jettisoning the dull, vapid representations of real peoples lives that look like they were sourced from a stock art library, as Martin Wiegel puts it, airbrushing out all the contingency and strife. Stock positivity doesnt make for good marketing either.

A few years ago, I spent an afternoon wandering around Bradford with my then four-month old. Soaked by the sort of rain only Yorkshire can provide a reet wetting, as a local would say I took shelter in a museum that happened to be running a photography exhibition on Tony Ray-Jones. He was an ethnographer, too, and along with his wonderful pictures, his notes to self were on display. Scrawled on one page, in block capitals, underlined three times, was his golden rule:

No middle distance

which holds true for marketing as much as it does for photography.

Positivity, at its worst, is a middle-distance concept. It denies both macro reality and individual difficulty. It gives us empty quotes on sunsets that deny truths. Negativity alone would have the same effect; but our positivity fetish is so universal that its expression can often become mediocre, neither grand landscape nor glorious detail, but a middle ground of montage in briefs and in the work itself.

None of this is to say that marketing shouldnt be a positive force and that marketers shouldnt be positive people. Yet an industry finding its future amid the AI and the adtech and the Programmatic needs to be more open to our lesser loved shadowlands: in the work, in how we do the work, and in how we understand those for whom we do it.

Alison Tilling is the chief strategy officer at VMLY&R. Marketings Least Loved is a regular Mumbrella column.

Excerpt from:

Marketings Least Loved: the negative - Mumbrella

Only An Ocean LLC (OAO) recently brought in the PetDreamHouse brand through an exclusive partnership. As such, OAO will bring PetDreamHouses full line of interactive slow feeding systems to North America.

The foundation of the Only An Ocean brand is built on working and growing exceptional brands that bring fun, high quality and unique products to our retail partners, said Cheryl Pedersen founding partner of the Charleston, S.C.-based company. The line is the perfect addition to our family of brands. PetDreamHouse opens new categories for OAO, with their vibrant, distinctive products, and we are proud to welcome them to our family of brands.

PetDreamHouse, a United Kingdom-based pet innovation company, that uses its online platform as a product incubator for research and development projects that meet the needs of the professional pet business marketplace.

At PetDreamHouse, our gene is always looking for creative and innovative solutions to problems, said Dr. Wen Liu Director of PetDreamHouse. It is the golden rule of how we design our products. We choose to work with only the best distribution partners because we have learned that every country has its own way of doing business. We believe partnering with the highly professional team at Only An Ocean is perfect because of their extensive knowledge and focus working within the North American marketplace.

For more of PPN's coverage on Only An Ocean, read:

For more of PPN's coverage on distribution partnerships, read:

See the article here:

Only An Ocean Enters Exclusive Partnership with PetDreamHouse - PetProductNews.com

Where are you now?

"My life as a priest, pastor of a bilingual Catholic Church/ Hispanic-American Center, does not change in terms of routine duties, which include weekly services, funeral masses, 15 year-old celebrations, baptisms, weddings, and the occasional service that is directed to a special event, such as a Patron Saints Day. What increased was the number of visits to the elderly, couples and singles, who need company, conversation, and attention.

"My vocation, by definition, exposes me every day to the lives of my community. Family issues, illnesses, deaths, immigration worries, and the basics of life: loss of jobs, rent payments, and our church food pantrys operations.

I am challenged by people who need to feel protected and come for counsel. I am concerned with the young Hispanics in our community who are struggling between one language, one culture at home and another language, culture outside. It is important that they dont lose their mother tongue and know they can participate in both arenas.

The most significant issue has been the recent Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected all of us in the United States and the world. Travel has been seriously limited. I was unable to go to my native Spain this year, missing a family baptism, funeral, and my annual vacation.

It hurt to see my church closed; no Masses, no people kneeling in prayer and our pews sadly empty. In response to the Hispanic community needs, I am doing a weekly Sunday radio Mass in Spanish which is heard in both Sarasota and Manatee counties. Once we super-sanitized the church and received authority to re-open, parishioners came back but in small numbers.

"In my church the response to the Covid-19 crisis was a remarkable tribute to the faith and active approach of our community. Proper health protocols were established with full cooperation. Food and checks were donated. Time was donated to maintain the sanitary levels. Phone banks checked on the elderly. Bilingual assistance was available for rent, utilities, electricity payments. And, amazingly, a 2020 vehicle was donated as a raffle item, resulting in a $50,000 gift to the church. Through the years St. Jude has been blessed with volunteers who are dedicated to our mission of helping others. I witness this in awe and in gratitude. Donors regularly support the Food Pantry. Our ministries include migrant help in Myakka, Jail Counseling, Youth Group Workshops.

"Time, patience and prayer are needed for any project to succeed. "

"We are all individuals with backgrounds that dont always match. We must learn from one another. St. Jude, with its multiple nationalities represented, encourages tolerance by its very existence. Our many activities bring together the Hispanic and the Anglo communities to study, to pray, to work for others, and to appreciate the values of the opposition. We share examples of discrimination, racial profiling, bullying and ways to reject these behaviors and embrace tolerance and inclusion.

"I am always hopeful that people will understand the need to work together. The political divide is worrisome, but my faith tells me we are stronger and unity will return. Leadership, poised to do just that, is one way. The Golden Rule (Do unto others) is always a good practice, too.

See the original post here:

Father Celestino Gutirrez Believes in the Golden Rule - Sarasota