Petition Tag - sometimes

Ever since management has changed, there have been many conflicting issues with who makes up our schedules and how well (or in the case, poorly) they are coordinated.

Many have expressed our views in that the schedule maker has not taking into consideration many things.

1) 4 weeks notice to call off is not reasonable.

1b) Even when we ask off 4 weeks in advance, some of us still don't recieve the shift/s off.

2)Too many people scheduled on a particualr night. Meaning that we waste our time in making a measly wage, while management/corporate is paying several people the job that only a few can and will do.

3)Not enough poeple scheduled. Sometimes the schedule leaves out a server and thus making it difficult to run a full restaurant certain days with not enough people on the floor.

4)Some times the schedule conflicts with prior arrangements that the worker/employee can not miss. ie. school/class, second or third job, etc.

5) Many people seem to be too exhausted because they are scheduled too many shifts when they have other things to do/work on. ie. school, another job, kids, etc.

6) It is very difficult for an employee to call off from work on any given day sometimes because there is no one to work for them. Some times forcing an employee to work while he/she is ill or has other things to do.

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Attention:

I. We all in this room, as free thinking adults, though diverse in age and circumstance, have at least one thing in common: the ability to choose. But as children our choices were made for us. We depended on and trusted our parents to make the right choices and to provide us with the most basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, security and most of all love and affection. But some children don’t have parents that are capable of making appropriate choices and who don’t provide those basic necessities, and as a result, might live in poverty.

II. Poverty indirectly, and sometimes directly, influences depression, crime, neglect and abuse: emotional, physical and/or sexual.

BODY:

Need:
I. Every day children are born into this world. Unfortunately, these babies don’t choose to be born. Sometimes they are brought into this world by irresponsible parents, drug addicted parents, teen parents and sometimes, mentally incapable parents.

II. Domestic violence: A mother physically expressing frustration on a child, or a child witnessing his father beat his mother; this is all under the domestic violence umbrella. Reported on the California Department of Justice web site (3), there were a total of 48,000 calls related to domestic violence made to 911 in Los Angeles County in 2004.

III. Children in Los Angeles County and all over the United States face a number of unthinkable issues because of incompetent parenting. On the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s & Family Services web site (2) Fact Sheet of 2005, of all child related emergency care, a staggering 28 % were due to child neglect. Second on that list was physical abuse at 19%.

IV. Sometimes children are born unwanted. According to child abandonment facts in California found on ‘Welcome to California’, California’s Official Governmental website (4), as of October 2006, Updated November 7th, 162 newborns were surrendered in California under the “Safe Haven law”. This law allows the parent to legally surrender custody of a child, within three days of birth, without fear of prosecution. Yet another 139 newborns were found alive after illegal abandonment.

V. Abandonment and rejection go hand in hand. According to the DCFS in 2005, 21,248 children were living in out-of-home placement; in other words- Foster care. Some of the lucky ones were living in relative homes. Every year a larger percentage of children are placed in their grandparents because incompetent parenting, in 2005 it was roughly 45%. But how about the unreported cases. I am an example of an unreported case.

VI. According to the Unites States Census Bureau (1) population estimate of 2005, there where 2,732,000 children (-18) living in Los Angels County alone and of those, 484,000 lived below poverty level. (As an example of what was defined as ‘poverty’, a mother and child with a max income of $13,000 was considered impoverished in that 2005 Census.)

VII. According to the Committee for economic Development (5), children are becoming an ever smaller proportion of the American population. They warn that unless preventative ‘investments’ are made in early childhood; our future labor force will be disproportionately poor, uneducated and untrained. This is evident and can be seen on the California Department of Education website (6). It charts 23,760 teens in Los Angeles County to have dropped out of high school.

Satisfaction:

I. The problem exists in that our society believes that children are the property of their biological parents who have full custody until that child is damaged by abuse or neglect. Once a child is ‘damaged‘, that is when the child is protected under child abuse and neglect laws and warrants an intervention by Social Services. Only then will a child be ward of the state and placed in an alternative home or foster care.

II. The problem lies in that we’re are trying to solve and combat massive established problems rather then preventing them. But what kind of ‘Investments’ must be made?
A. Free of abuse and oppression.
B. Access to equal opportunities to develop their life’s potential.
C. Develop affectionate attachments to their parents and other family members.
D. Biological puberty must not be a mark for parental maturity.

III. A large percentage of biological parents are in the best position to represent the interest of their children and provide the best possible for them. But we need to move beyond that and stop viewing our children as property. Parenthood is a privilege, not a right.

IV. We need to hold parents accountable for being competent parents rather then forcing children to bare incompetence until they show signs of damage. Parental licensing will validate parental rights and refocus public policy in supporting competent parenting. Responsibility will fall on a parent to demonstrate competence in parenting rather then the state proving unfitness after damage to a child occurs (this is how it is now). Because the parent will be responsible for the rearing of their children, there will be little government intervention.

Visualization:

I. Parental licensing will not distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ parenting or attempt to change parenting styles. It will only exclude those obviously unqualified. It is not a birth control measure.

II. Establishing procedures for parental licensing will entail little more administrative structure then those involving, marriage licensing or birth registration. One might make a comparison to obtaining a drivers license.

III. The criteria for obtaining a parental license would be a basic credentialing process that must be obtained by each parent for each child.
a. Parent must be able to be responsible for one’s own life before being able to care for another. The varied age should be about 18 years with completion if a high school education or equivalent .Provisional licenses are available for those under 18.
b. To pledge to care for and nurture the child and refrain from abuse and neglect. If broken, license will be revoked, fine or punishment.
c. Basic knowledge of child rearing.

IV. Parenting licenses will stimulate the development of family life education, and the mass impact would likely discourage premature pregnancy and marriage because it will reinforce the gravity of child rearing responsibilities.

V. There are many ways of prediction parental competence through evaluations as it is with adoption today.

VI. If the state required all parents to become licensed before or upon the birth of a child, child abuse and neglect could be avoided.

VII. What are some objections to licensing?
a. Restrict individual freedoms: child abuse and neglect are not freedoms. We all have the right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment.
b. Tool for racism: Children and neglect/abuse prevention is the issue, not racism. There will be set criteria, rules and regulations to follow. Anyone wanting to discriminate will not be able to.
c. Lessen governmental aid for needy families: according to ‘The Third Branch’, a news letter of the federal courts cost of incarceration per inmate estimates to be about $46,000 annually. Compare that to the $13000 poverty threshold of a mother and child scenario in my intro. If less money were spent on incarnating adults that are so because of abuse and neglect in their childhood, more money will be available for public assistance, well fare and even social security.

Action:

I. Every day children are abuse neglected, abandoned and rejected. This is currently perpetuated by the way our children and family services are set up. We need to make a change in our views about parent hood and steep up to take responsibility for our actions. Laws, ideologies and values must be changed about child rights. They are not property, but our future.

II. We must petition to change our California legislator. California is a trend setter, and all other states will follow if these changes are made. Soon all of California will be in accordance to these new laws.

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Every day horses are slaughtered in slaughter houses. The way they are killed in very inhumane and painful for the horse. They are transported in large groups sometimes in double-decker cattle trucks and have to wait there sometimes for over 24 hours without food water or rest. Some are dead on arrival. The others are herded into pens where they await `stunning` where metal rods are shot through the horse's head and into their brain, which paralises them. They are then thrown into the `kill box` they are then hung up-side-down by one back leg and thier throats are cut.

The horse feels everything and bleeds to death. Any horse will go to slaughter, even pregnant mares and foals. This is disgusting and MUST be stopped.

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Payday lending in the state of Ga.

Dear Honorable Sonny Perdue,

We, the undersigned, urge you to veto SB-157. Passing this bill will:
Take away the jobs of thousands of people in the state of Georgia. Take away the help that people sometimes need to make it till payday, to cover a bill,to keep a check fron bouncing or even for food. And for everone in the state great state of Georgia our right to choose.

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We've all seen the bettas in their little cups in Wal-Mart or pet chain stores. And we've seen the crowded tanks of goldfish. But what happens after the fish are purchased is sometimes inhumane.

Goldfish are sometimes forced to live in tiny "goldfish bowls" which are NOT suitable for goldfish at all. Goldfish grow to become SIX INCHES or more. These bowls are rarely more than five inches in length, and three inches in width. Goldfish produce more waste than many other fish, and these "goldfish bowls" quickly fill with waste. The tops of these bowls are rather small, and do not allow for a proper filter, thus carbon monoxide and ammonia will build up very quickly and eventually kill the fish.

Bettas tend to have just as worse a time as goldfish. In stores, many employees will tell the customer bettas will do fine in tiny cups their entire lives. Well, I'll tell you this. If you have a happy male betta, he will blow a bubble nest in the water, even if there is no female betta in sight. I have NEVER known a male in a cup to blow a bubble nest. Why? They are kept in very cramped conditions, rarely given water changes, and are forced to live swimming in their own waste. I realize many people keep bettas in their work office, but your office would look one heck of a lot better if you dished out the ten extra dollars and bought your betta a five or ten gallon tank for him to live in. One common myth is that males and females can live happily together. THEY CANNOT. There is the rare case where they can, but if left long together, the male usually kills the female.

There is also the occasional village idiot who comes up with "Betta Fight Rings", much like Pitbull Fight Rings, where they place two males in the same tank and bet on whose betta will win. Many of the time both bettas die, and if one lives, they are usually too tattered and die soon after. I ask you, even if they are "just fish", do they not deserve the best care possible? They are more than just decorations for your living room, or 99¢ you paid to play a game at a fair. I'm sure fish value their life more than just a couple of dollars.

I say to you, don't fish, like dogs, cats, horses, or birds, deserve rights, also? Should they be forced to live in dirty, cramped tanks in pet stores until someone comes along to purchase them. The ASPCA needs to do something about the inadequate conditions some fish are living in in pet stores. To "fish geeks" like myself, these are not just fish. They are a hobby, they have personality and spunk. Fish are like any other animal, and they deserve the same rights.

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Skateboardng should be allowed in all public places since sometimes skateparks raise their prices and others cant get in then. Sometimes kids live too far, or their parents cant drive them everywhere. Public places should take down their "No skateboarding" signs. Places allow biking and rollerblading but not skateboarding? That seems very unfare. Allow Skateboarding in public places in the USA.

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On the message board GPN (Gopednation) arguements happen and rise rapidly when they do. I was in one of them a day ago. Two other people were argueing with me. Snatch and then Rodrigues. Snatch has been making some rude comments about other people sometimes funny but this time he is suspected of taking it out on PEAKSPEDS from some rude comments an imposter made up with a similair name of PEAKPEDS.

I was very mad about it because the guy is only there for us Go-Pedders on GPN to buy products very cheap. He doesn't make as much as other dealers but he is there for us and I was very mad about the comments.

Later that night KeBin one of the moderators posted a post to the three of us. It said Snatch, Alien, Rod if the arguing doesnt end you guys are out of here. We had stopped. But this morning I wake up I click on what I do every day which is GPN then the message board said my IP address was banned which means my internet provider banned me from using the message boards on GPN. I don`t know why but I had stopped even before KeBin asked us to stop there was nbo reason to ban me without me doing anything wrong. It was wrong to argue in the argument and I am sorry but I will not beg for forgiveness but will ask for a little. I will catch up with an arguement sometimes but I mostly do tech help with peds on GPN most of it via AIM (AOL Instant Messenger). Now I am banned and I ask the fellow pedders to sign this petition for me to be unbanned from GPN. Thank for you for your time.

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