Good People doing Good Stuff

Let’s lift up, echo, celebrate, imitate and support all those people doing positive things. By positive I mean inclusive, compassionate, earth-protecting, animal-rescuing, giving, healing, and beautiful acts. We will need them all. We need to turn the tide of fear and anger and meanness that is coming our way — for the good of the world and for our own  hearts. We need to make every bit of kindness and humanity ripple outward and send a different vibe into the humans around us. So please add your stories of good and kind deeds here as a testimony to all decent human beings with solid souls, critical thinking skills, and tender hearts.

For example:

81 Year Old Grandmother Speaks and preserves Wukchumni Language

Marie Wilcox, una bisabuela de 81 años es la última persona del mundo que habla con fluidez el idioma Wukchumni. El pueblo Wukchumni llegó a tener una población de 50.000 personas, pero ahora son solamente 200 personas que viven en el valle de San Joaquin en California. Su lenguaje fue muriendo lentamente con cada nueva generación, pero María se comprometió con la tarea de revivirlo, aprendiendo a usar una computadora y escribiendo el Primer Diccionario Wukchumni. El proceso tomó siete años y ahora que lo terminó no quiere dejar su trabajo de inmortalizar su lengua materna.

Marie Wilcox, an 81-year-old great-grandmother is the last person in the world to speak the Wukchumni language fluently. The Wukchumni village had a population of 50,000, but now there are only 200 people living in the San Joaquin Valley in California.Her language was slowly dying with each new generation, but Marie committed herself to the task of reviving it, learning to use a computer and writing the First Wukchumni Dictionary. The process took seven years and now she does not want to quit his job of immortalizing her mother tongue. http://cronicasinmal.blogspot.com/2015/11/maries-dictionary.html

Why is this so great? Knowledge, culture, identity, ideas and values — so much can only be properly expressed in the original language. For today’s speakers, it can deepen their sense of identity and history, tap into concepts and philosophies that don’t otherwise make sense, unify and strengthen those who keep traditional practices alive. On a legal level, it is also one way to identify a distinct people with roots and culture. To face the challenges going forward, it is wonderful — for ALL of us — to have this plurality and depth among us as well the special abilities bi-lingual speakers contribute.

Why You’ve Seen People Burning New Balance Shoes

The shoe company’s taking serious heat for comments that appeared pro-Trump.

11/10/2016 03:40 pm ET | Updated 21 hours ago

820 Suzy Strutner Associate Lifestyle Editor, The Huffington Post

People are threatening to burn and throw away their New Balance sneakers after a company exec voiced what sounded like a corporate endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump. Wall Street Journal reporter Sara Germano tweeted a quote from New Balance vice president of public affairs Matt LeBretton on Wednesday, in which LeBretton said, “[with President-elect Trump], we feel things are going to move in the right direction.”

Why is this so great? Corporations have over-stepped healthy political boundaries and are far too influential. But we can turn the tables and express our rejection of negative politicians and policies that they support. We can always vote with our money. We can commit to withholding your business from entities who play politics (at our expense), or treat employees badly, add toxicity (literal and metaphorical) to the world, gouge customers for necessary products like medicines, etc.

California Votes in the First Statewide Plastic Bag Ban

California just made history by becoming the first state in the Union to officially ban plastic bags. The California Plastic Bag Veto Referendum (Proposition 67) was approved by voters on Nov. 8 by a narrow margin of 51.97% in favor to 48.03% opposed. The narrow win came despite a $6 million campaign waged by the out-of-state plastic bag industry.

Why is this so great? It seems like one small thing, but voters triumphed over big business interests. The plastic bag industry even tried to place a second, confusing measure on the ballot, but it didn’t work! And although this doesn’t end all the plastic crap that ends up in our oceans, our seabirds, our whales (I say “our” in the sense that they are our responsibility, not our possessions), every reduction means animals saved at the same time it sends a signal to industry that they should start finding a better substance than petroleum-based plastics.