Yes, we can make a difference

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of recaps, reviews, etc of this weekends events at the NYC Hilton.  I don’t need to tell you that there were thousands (I think) of women and a maybe a couple of dozen men sprinkled in, all with different goals underscored by the commonality of blogging.  But even if you weren’t there, chances are if you are reading this, you know what it was all about.  So, I will not rehash what really requires no rehashing.

Instead, I will share what I learned, because obviously being in the minority at this event, my perceptions and what I took away, particularly from the keynote speeches will be markedly different than those of the majority.  In particular I took a lot away from the closing keynote, because while it was geared and spoke directly to the women of the crowd, the underlying theme is one that we all know but sometimes forget (or toss aside because of political use… but that is another story)… and that message is… “Yes, I can make a difference!”

Ever so often I tend to start shying away from posting here when I get too caught up in one of my phases.  In particularly one of my ranting phases.  ”Who wants to hear this?”  I ask myself.  ”Who cares?” and “What difference is it going to make?”  During the Keynote it was asked if the sponsors were there “because they like us?  No!”  And it very true.  We as consumers have a lot of power.  We as voices on the Internet have even more power.  We have the power to not only vote with our wallets, but to spread the word, not to mention the ability to do what PR people fear most… spread the word.

And oddly enough, just today, I saw on Twitter, a post that described this sentiment exactly:

@StephanieWDC: The era of effective consumer boycotts is over. Companies don’t change behavior, they just get better at PR.

And this helped gel my new affirmation I had pledged to myself.  This is NOT true unless we allow it to be true.  There are victories (albeit small at times) that are being won all over the place if you take the time to look.  More and more milk companies are asking farmers to take “No bovine hormone” pledges and offering milk that is no longer tainted with this.  Why?  Because consumers demanded it.  In many of the consumer products that dotted the exhibit all you were seeing the effects of the demands of consumers, items made with fresh ingredients, items that were now organic, or made with greener packaging.  No, it is not every company, and some of the companies are being sneaky (but I will address that tomorrow) with their ingredients, but the effects are clear, they are real and they are tangible.  And they are there because, “Yes… We CAN!”  (please again, put aside your political ideology, because that is not what this is about)

You will see “experts” that will say bloggers are a bunch of egotistical beings that like to hear themselves talk (so to speak), and to some extent, there is probably a modicum of truth to that.  I didn’t start blogging because of money, it is not my “job” it is a passion, and one I take pride in doing.  So, yes if that is egotistical of me… so be it.  But that doesn’t make my voice, my feelings, my opinions any less worthy.  It doesn’t mean that if I want to help effect change by supporting the removal of rBGH from milk, or warning others of the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup that my sharing that information is just as valid as any other persons.

There is a great line in the movie, “National Treasure” where Benjamin Gates (Nicholas Cage) paraphrases something from the Declaration of Independence:

“If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.”

If you liked nothing else about this movie, this is a great line, and one that is an excellent take away for every person.  We as bloggers, whether the cause be big or small, whether we are trying to right injustices all over the world, or just in our own back yard, we have the tools… and I don’t mean the Web Server, or WordPress, etc.  I mean we have a voice, we have a platform, we have the ability to affect change, whether it be fixing problems with food, seeking parity between men and women in elected offices, ensuring our children get the educations they deserve, or finding the best knitting needles to make a scarf, whatever it is you strive to do, to say, to acquire the knowledge to learn, you have the ability.  Now it is up to you to go out and do it. say it.  be it.  Because, Yes… We Can!

Don’t forget Dad

I ranted a bit on Twitter back during the Olympics about the Proctor & Gamble “Thanks Mom” campaign.  I can sum up my those dozen or so Tweets and my feelings on the matter in a few simple words… “Screw You P&G.”

So, why am I going on about this again *now*?  Well, two reasons.  The first is because they have once again been pushing through with some bloggers on additional “Thank You Mom” posts, but the second is much more personal.  I have gone on (and on and on) about LatteGirl and her Ice Skating, here, on Twitter, IRL and anywhere else I can, and I know some of you at least are probably tired of hearing about it by now.  This week however, while LatteGirl is up in Boston competing at the ISI World Team Championships 2010, I am back at home, and it is this that is currently making me (despite my tag line), just a bit bitter.

As many already know, I take a very active interest in her skating.  I attend every competition I possibly can, I cheer her on as much as anybody can, heck I started taking ice skating lessons just to be able to have a better understanding of terms, and be able to spend some time with her in her element.  But just as important (I believe), I fund all of this.  So, no I am not in Boston right now, not because I don’t want to be there, but because we cannot afford for me to be there.  Besides the additional expense of me actually taking the trip, then we would have to board the dogs, and I would have to sacrifice income… Income that we need for her to be able to be able to participate in these events.

Tell me the truth, isn’t that worth a little appreciation for what Dad does?  No, I am not there, but that doesn’t make me any less of a supporter in her interests.  The title of this is a bit off, but I don’t know another way to put it.  I am not necessarily looking for a pat on the back, nor do I think most mothers do it for that reason.  They do it for the benefit of their kids as I do.  But, I guess it seems that marketers these days are falling all over themselves nowadays to ensure they are pitching to Mom, that Dad sort of gets forgotten in his role.  Don’t forget Dad, he cares too.

From the mouths of babes

Well, she is supposed to be my baby… but at 10 years old she doesn’t like to be called that any longer.  I accept that I have to come to terms with that.  But worse than that (for me), she acts and speaks a whole lot more mature than even her 10 years!  What do you think?  Let me give you some examples:

Exhibit 1 – After taking her to a Newark Bears Game (her 1st baseball game), that the Bears lost (by a lot).

Me:  I hope you still had fun even though the Bears lost.

Her:  I had a GREAT time.  I got to spend time with family and friends, and that is always fun.  The final score doesn’t matter.

Exhibit 2 – After I try and select a movie to watch for Daddy-Daughter Night

Me:  What do you think of this one?

Her:  This is PG-13… are you sure it is age appropriate for me?

Exhibit 3 – After her aunt asked her if she still was watched Hannah Montana

Her:  The show isn’t entertaining any more, and her music isn’t as good as it used to be, so I’ve moved on to other things.

Aunt:  So what do you like now?

Her:  Bad Romance  by Lady Gaga (this one just about killed me on multiple levels)

Exhibit 4 – After seeing a commercial for Zhu-Zhu Pets

Me:  Have you ever seen them before?

Her: (Unenthusiastically) Yeah, I’ve seen ‘em

Me:  Not interested, huh?

Her:  Nah, maybe when I was younger, but now I don’t think I would play with them enough to justify the expense.

So, like it or not she is growing up… far faster than I would like… but fortunately not as quickly as her maturity level would suggest.  Is it just her?  Is it just me being in denial?  Do your kids act far more mature than you would expect for their age?

The Bears, the Pitch and the Foul Ball

I am… in general, a sports fan.  Except possibly for hockey, I am not a sports “fanatic” (much to my wife’s appreciation, and probably to the chagrin of many major sports and their advertisers).  No place has my hot and cold fickleness been more apparent than it has been with baseball.  Baseball has broken my heart (not in the “my team lost” kind of way), disgusted me, annoyed me and turned me off to their product more times than I care to count over the years.

Now, in fairness, I guess some of it does have to do with “my” team.  A fan of the New York Mets (on again and off again), I have watched an organization assemble a team  that has had the character of a hot steaming pile of garbage (more than once).  Bobby Bonilla, Vince Coleman, Bret Saberhagen to name just a few from “The Worst Team Money Could Buy” club. Sure, there are players like that in every sport, those types quickly fade away and are out of the game, not given additional lucrative contracts.

But it goes beyond just “my” team. Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Mark Maguire and others that ran up home run totals as MLB looked the other way, allowing the long ball to try and bring fans back after the 94-95 baseball strike. Oh, and yeah… baseball work stoppages. Does any “union” have less of a reason for its members to go on strike than Major League Baseball Players? (And yes, I blame the owners as well, this is not just the players, but the teams themselves willing to shell out millions of dollars while pricing fans right out of the game in favor of corporate sponsorship and high priced suites, etc).

So, I have been in my “off again” part of my relationship with baseball, for what has been probably the longest stretch of time, somewhere around 7 years. As part of a writeup I was (well I am still am technically) looking to do on New Jersey sports, I went to see and photograph a Newark Bears game.  Never did I imagine that one evening in a ballpark would remind me about every single factor about what I used to love about the game on so many different levels.

The evening was a perfect storm of things that roped me back in.  The last time I was at a baseball game, which happen to be a Shea Stadium, some of the best players on the field that day included Edgardo Alfonso and Armando Benitez and much to my surprise, those two players were there… sporting Newark Bears uniforms, in fact the Bears have no less than 5 former major league players on their roster, adding for Angel and Cardinal Scott Spiezio, former journeyman pitcher Willie Banks and Daryl Ward who was most recently played with the Chicago Cubs.  The remainder of the team is made up of players that never quite got their shot, or perhaps haven’t gotten their shot yet for one reason or the other in the “big leagues.”

Now without trying to make people out to be more altruistic than they really are, I am sure that their is certainly some money factor involved.  Every one of these guys would, if the opportunity presented itself, to jump (or jump back) to the MLB level and the payday that could involve, but their is still something different about players at this level of baseball.  When all is said and done, these players are playing with pride, with determination, with heart that far exceeds whatever nominal salary they are making at this level of play.  They have to play that way if they want to get noticed.  It is palpable, you can “feel” the difference in effort, and while it is true that the level of play may not be quite as high as the majors, the hustle and effort factor, for me more than makes up for it.

I watched not only the game on the field, but the few fans that made it out for a game on a weeknight while school is still in.  It was a very sparse crowd watching the game, and so far the Bears are sitting in last place, but that did not affect any of the young kids (or even the adults) in attendance.  They cheered their team, they begged players for autographs, took photographs with the mascot, and chased down foul balls into the stands. You couldn’t tell by the enthusiasm and excitement in their eyes that this was a “lesser” game than one in an MLB ballpark.  Seeing the kids enjoying this game, brought back some really great memories of going to baseball games with my dad when I was a kid.  We went to games both at Yankee Stadium as well as Shea, but there was no difference between those games for me, than when we went to Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City to see the Oakland A’s Double A team play.  It was very cool to watch these kids with that excitement.

I even got a little bit of excitement of my own.  Like any kid that has ever attended a game, I always wished for that opportunity to catch a ball hit into the stands, but it never happened, and as I sat there, I watched one young boy that dutifully attempted to dash from his seat and try and run down any ball hit on his side of the stadium (did I mention the crowd was sparse this day?).  But other, older and faster kids always beat him to the ball.  They were roaming free around the stadium, while he sat next to his dad right behind the visiting team dugout (it was a very sparse crowd), meaning he really had no shot, but he got his hopes up each time, only to have them dashed, and walk dejected back to his seat.  I knew that look… and that feeling, all too well.  I remembered being that kid.

As we went to the home 6th inning, I was once again on the visitors side of the field so I could get some pictures of the lefty hitters due up at the plate.  The first player up was Scott Spiezio.  After getting several pictures with my camera, I quickly switched over to my phone so I could share a picture via TwitPic as well.  As I snapped that shot, he fouled off the pitch, and it was headed straight for me.  With my camera in my right hand, I stood, and reached out with my left.  At 44 years old, I caught my first foul ball at a game.  Almost directly below me, I saw the young boy (who was now being aided by his father in his quest to get a baseball hit into the stands) looking up.  He was, he felt thwarted again and began to make his way back to his seat.  I beckoned to his father, pausing to speak to him first and to get his approval (sadly in this day and age, such steps I feel must be taken), and gave the ball to the boy who was a mixture of elated… and stunned.  I posted about it on twitter, and received some nice comments from people about how nice I was to do such a thing.  But, for me, I think anybody with kids, in the same circumstances would do the same.  Besides, I think I got more out of it, than if I had actually taken the baseball home.  I got the memory of catching that ball.  I got the memory of how thrilled that kid was to get that ball, his smile as he grabbed and stared at that baseball will stay with me longer than a dusty baseball on a shelf.  To top off the evening, the last place Bears went on to win 4-2.

So, I got to see some players I used to love to watch in “the pros,”  a night a great baseball, the first baseball I caught in a game, some great memories, and my love of baseball back.  Quite the bargain for a $10 seat, don’ t you think?

A Decade of My Princess

It was May 30th, 2000 when you burst onto the scene.    Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals that night would pit the New Jersey Devils against the defending Stanley Cup champion Dallas Stars (a series the Devils would win in 6 games, a fitting tribute to your entry into the world).

At that time, the world still seemed much more secure than it does today.  I fully expected Vice President Al Gore to become the next President of the United States.

We were still just getting over the fact that all the fears of Y2K disasters, and tales of doom and gloom were not going to happen.

Only a month before the biggest news around was Elián González and the SWAT team that came in to take him back to his father, and his return to Cuba.

So much has changed in the world since then.  But it pales in comparison to how much you have changed and grown.  Perhaps that is why the time has seemingly slipped by me.  I have been so busy watching you grow and change into the smart, beautiful little woman that you are today that I didn’t notice the time going by.

Hence, I ask that you forgive me for still considering you my “baby.”  Because to me it seems like only yesterday that you were just that helpless little baby, and yet that is clearly not the case.

Many milestones have passed.  But they seemed to be coming faster and faster as time goes by.   I can still remember your “graduation” from Pre-School, and now you are finishing the fourth grade.

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that you were learning to walk without holding on to something, but now I am watching you do Salcow’s, Lutz’s, Toe Loops and other jumps and moves on Figure Skates.    It seems at times like this, that I am no longer teaching you as much as you are teaching me.

And it is true.  I don’t feel so much that I need to teach you, or even tell you right from wrong most days.  You steer yourself quite well, and all I seem to need to do is provide some guidance and support so that you can be all that you wish to be.

Your demeanor, your charm, your smile are all so disarming to most that you get along with (virtually) everyone, and makes you a pleasure to be around.  I can’t believe that 10 years have gone by, but with all that you have accomplished, and with all you the potential you have, as much as I lament 10 years being gone, I love watching you soar to new heights on a regular basis, and I can hardly wait to see what the next 10 brings.  Happy Birthday to my Princess.

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