Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Live, Why Not?

In Haiti, a man stood for days in front of the building where his wife had been working when the earthquake struck. There was nothing left of the structure, it was a million pieces of concrete, rubble and dust. The man insisted that his wife was alive as he would anxiously await the bulldozers to make their daily sweep through the streets. The bulldozers, with each sweep, would push away mounds and mounds of pieces of these buildings surrounding where this man's wife had worked. Each time the bulldozers completed their sweeps, he would dig vigorously and tenaciously. After several days, suddenly, as the bulldozers pasted by, he heard her voice. Without hesitation, he shouted, "There she is". Following many hours of intense digging and with gentle hands, this precious little lady emerged from what was nothing more than a concrete grave where she would have surely drew her final breath . To their surprise, she came out singing what seemed to be a song of celebration. A nearby interpreter told the interviewer who was now on the scene that she was singing a song about not fearing death. The interviewer looked over to her and with one question and one answer, my spirit began to leap within me. He asked her if she had thought she would live while trapped under this building that had literally buried her alive. She looked him in the eyes and answered, "Live, Why Not?"

Live, Why Not? Faith to rise from the ashes of another one of life's messes and allow it to echo as a message, a message of hope for us all. To say to death, "I don't fear you!"

I will live, why not?

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Raising SC's Cigarette Tax is a WIN-WIN-WIN in 2010

Raising South Carolina’s cigarette tax is a Win-Win-Win in 2010!

Next week, the South Carolina General Assembly comes back to Columbia. Let’s make this the year that they finally raise our lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax!

Last year, the House of Representatives passed a 50 cents per-pack increase, and they sent the bill to the Senate. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to debate and pass the bill. We encourage them to consider raising the tax even higher to $1.00 per pack. We know that raising the cigarette tax to $1.00 per pack is a WIN for our kids because 44,000 youth will be prevented from starting to smoke; a WIN for our state revenues because a 93-cent increase would generate approximately $216 million in new revenue; and a WIN for our legislators because more than 74% of South Carolinians support this life-saving measure.

Take action to encourage your legislators to increase the tax and to dedicate funding for smoking prevention and cessation programs.

Wouldn't it be nice to "Breathe Eazy" in SC?