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Safety and Security Procedures

   Your safety and the security of your personal property(财产) are of the primary concern to those of us who welcome you as our guest. We urge you to take advantage of the following suggestions.

    We took a rare family road trip to the Adirondacks in late August，and it was as refreshing and exhausting as family vacations tend to be．Toward the end of our long drive home, even the kids were leaning forward in their seats urging my lead foot on．At that point in a road trip，even sixty-five miles per hour feels slow. We have become numb to our speed and numb to the road signs flashing by.

    My family lives on the edge of Lancaster County. Only thirty miles from home，I hit the brakes，and we began to roll，slowly，behind a horse-drawn carriage. We began to open our eyes again．We saw familiar green hills and the farm with the best watermelons. I rolled down the windows, and we breathed again．Just-cut hay and a barn full of dairy cattle．

    At five miles per hour，you remember what you forget at sixty-five．You are thinking about a place，even when you are moving from place to place．

    I am a placemaker. A homemaker, too. I am a mother of a young kid at home，and also a writer and a gardener．But，for me，those roles are wrapped up with the one big thing I want to do with the rest of my life：I want to cultivate a place and share it with others．

    The place I make with my family is a red-brick farmhouse built in l880. It has quite a few nineteenth-century bedrooms and a few acres of land，and we love nothing more than to fill them with neighbors and friends. We grow vegetables and flowers，keep a baker's dozen of egg—laying chickens，and，since we moved in three years ago，we have planted  many，many trees．

    Living with my life's purpose does not allow for much travel. I need to be here，feeding the chickens and watering the tomatoes. Any extra in the budget，and we spend it on trees．

    But I learned something at the end of our family road trip．Travel can help me in the task of caring for my own place．When I slow down and pay attention to the road between here and there，travel tells me the connections between my place and all the other places．

    Once upon a time the colors of the world started to quarrel.

    Green said, “Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and hope. I was chosen for grass, trees and leaves. Look over the countryside and you will see that I am in the majority.”

    Blue interrupted, “You only think about the earth, but consider the sky and the sea. It is the water that is the basis of life.”

    Yellow chuckled(咯咯地笑). “The sun is yellow, as well as the moon and the stars. Every time you look at a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile.”

    Red could bear it no longer. “I am the ruler of all of you. I am blood-life's blood! I am the color of danger and bravery. I bring fire into the blood. I am the color of passion and love.”

    Purple stood at his full height. “I am the color of royalty(皇室) and power. I am the sign of authority (权力) and wisdom. People do not question me! They listen and obey.”

    Finally Indigo(靛蓝) spoke with determination, “Think of me and I am the color of silence. I represent thought and reflection. You need me for balance and contrast(对比), for prayer and inner peace.”

    The colors went on boasting(吹嘘), each showing off his or her own advantages. Suddenly there came a flash of bright lightening. Thunder rolled and boomed. Rain started to pour down. The colors were scared to death.

    In the midst of the quarrelling, rain began to speak, “You foolish colors. Don't you know that you were each made for a special purpose, unique and different? Join hands with one another and come to me.”

    Doing as they were told, the colors united and joined hands.

    From then on, when it rains, colors will stretch across the sky in a great bow of color.

    Whenever a rainbow appears in the sky, let us remember to appreciate one another.

    The poverty line is the minimum income that people need for an acceptable standard of living. People with incomes below the poverty line are considered poor. Economists study the causes of poverty in order to find solutions to the problem.

    As the general standard of living in the country rises, the poverty line does, too. Therefore, even with today's relatively high standard of living, about 10 percent of the people in the United States are below the poverty line. However, if these people had stable jobs, they could have an acceptable standard of living. Economists suggest several reasons why poor people do not have jobs.

    For one thing, more than half of the poor people in the United States are not qualified to work. Over 40 percent of the poor people are children. By law, children less than 16 years old cannot work in many industries. A large number of poor people are old. Many companies do not hire people over 65 years old, the normal retirement age.

    Some poor adults do not look for jobs for a variety of personal reasons: they are sick, they do not have any motivation, they have family problems, or they do not believe that they can find a job.

    Other poor people look for a job, but cannot find one. Many poor adults never went to high school. Therefore, when they look for jobs, they have few skills that they can offer.

    At the present time, the government thinks it can reduce poverty in the country in the following ways:

    First, if the national economy grows, businesses and industries hire more workers. Some of the poor who are qualified to look for jobs may find employment. Then they will no longer below the poverty line.

    Second, if society invests in the poor，the poor will become more productive.

    If the government spends money on social programs, education and training for poor people, the poor will have the skills to offer. Then it is more probable that they can find jobs.

    Finally, if the government distributes society's income differently, it raises some poor people above the poverty line. The government collects taxes from the non-poor and gives money to the poor. These payments to the poor are called welfare.

    Some economists are looking for better solutions to the poverty problem. However, at the present time, many people depend on welfare for a minimally acceptable standard of living.

    An organization, Eye Care 4 Kids, is bringing much-needed eye care to poor kids. It provides free eye examinations for kids from poor families. Founded by Joseph Carbone in 2001, the organization has helped around 100,000 children in Utah and Nevada.

    Now, Cecil Swyers, a biomedical(生物医学的) engineer who was once a poor child himself, is bringing the charity's(慈善) services to poor students in Arizona, so that vision impairment(视力受损) doesn't stand in the way of their education.

    “Eye Care 4 Kids is bringing eye care and glasses to families that wouldn't have the means to pay for them,” said Mario Ventura from Isaac Elementary School District, the first school district in Arizona to receive its services.

    Good vision is important to a child's learning experience. According to a study, up to 80 percent of learning happens through sight for children between 6 and 18 years old. Without proper eye care, it's difficult for students to learn better and succeed.

    Swyers is hoping that by bringing the organization to Arizona he'll help a lot more students. He teamed up with two other organizations to get doctors to volunteer their time with the group. Using an Eye Care 4 Kids mobile clinic, Swyers visited Alta E. Butler Elementary School and has already helped 40 students.

    The school was grateful to receive the eye care, especially since the services came to them. “It's great for us,” said Assistant Principal Cindy Alonso.

    Swyers is hoping to bring Eye Care 4 Kids' services to other schools in the state. He said that hopefully his work will have a positive effect on students' futures. “If we can help students while they're young, we can make a difference in their futures,” he said.