“To Whom It May Concern”

Did you see the footprint??
Someone unknowingly steps on a lowly earthworm
and crushes it into the ground.
In turn, somewhere, another life is lost, buried back to the ground,
to be slowly consumed by the lowly earthworm
from which it came, one in the same-
What a cycle, life goes on forever- old and anew,
not just for me, but for all of you too.

To Whom It May Concern:

A dolphin is killed for its fin, a rhino for its horn,
a leopard taken for its skin, what price for the unicorn?
Kenny was our unicorn, a rare breed, one of a kind,
too old to be a kid, too young to be grown,

Vote Result

Heroic Dog Rescue “True Story”
by Susan Black

Lots of people, including my father, have always felt strongly against our type of dog, pit bulls, mainly because of the “bad press” they get. Well, that was until 4/12/06. My father has been to visit us many times, and has met all of our dogs, and would always have “stories” to tell.

We have owned our home for some 10+ years and have always had “beware of dog” signs on our fences and have had dogs on our premises at all times. On 4/12/06, I was home alone, and had a nightmare occur. A grease fire from the kitchen stove top, I was totally, and I do mean “totally” unaware of, bellowed upwards. Ceiling and attic fans were running. My daily rotation of the “Fearsome Four” was on its last rotation around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. My 11-year-old sire, “Dagwood Blues Black Sherk” was always first. His 3-year-old dame, “Daisy Mae” went next. They stayed in metal kennels upstairs in our bedroom, split level over the garage. Their 2-year-old daughter, “Hurricane Camille” (after my mother Camille, and Dag's mom Molly, so we call her Millie), and their 2-year-old son, “Lightening Bolt” got their rotations last as they were in Kennels in the dining room off the kitchen. Miller-Light we liked to call them. Dagger was “talking” and Daisy was “quailing” while Lightening kept telling me “someone's at the door.” But, I was not listening. I was on the phone, and I kept telling them to “wait a minute...wait another minute...hush, you were just out, hang on just another minute.” Lightening finally would not let me wait one more second as there would have been no way out. He jumped up and would not quit barking, out of character than usual, to make me stand up and go towards my doorway. He looked back at me with “hurry” in his expressions as I heard a loud POP. It was our antique mirror over our fireplace at the bottom of the stairs that started popping, then the windows, it was horrible. Lightening ran around behind me and pushed me down the stairs which were already engulfed with flames. I was so busy with 911 in one hand and a fire extinguisher in the other, I was not sure where Lightening was. Extinguisher ran out, split second back flash surrounded the ceiling, my face and all exposed extremities, almost knocking me to my knees, and I ran towards my front door still two rooms away. When I was safely outside, I saw my 75-pound blond beautiful boy make circles from back to front doors repeatedly and continue to go through the fire which I had been restrained from by firemen, policemen, and the Red Cross. Animal control was on-site to help and were incredible. When they brought the dog I assumed was Lightening to me, I noticed it was Millie, who had obviously had her plastic kennel melt away to allow her to escape and she was rushed to Gwinnett Emergency for Animals. Another animal control unit came in to remove my other dogs that did not make it. Lightening had obviously gotten me out, I believe helped his sister out, and returned upstairs to help his mom and dad, where all three perished from the smoke and heat. I believe he was found beside their kennels upstairs.

Vote Result

My first real heartbreak happened when I was fourteen. I was infatuated with a boy named Tyler…He was a senior and I was in eighth grade, so there was a big age difference. With Tyler, I was always blushing and getting tongue-tied. After he found out that I liked him, he finally started talking to me, and I was thrilled. We hung out just as friends, then one night he kissed me and I swear I was the happiest girl in the world. We never dated though because he said I was too young, and he could get into a lot of trouble. One night Tyler spent the night at my house, and he tried to have sex with me. I didn’t want to so I told him no, and he respected that. But about a month later he kept asking me to have sex with him and I said no once again. But he just kept begging me and asking me with that smile I loved so much. I was afraid that if I didn’t sleep with him he wouldn’t like me anymore. So I gave in, and he took me to a freezing cold trailer that smelled like skunk. And that’s how I lost my virginity. It was nothing like I expected it to be and actually I hated it. To make things worse, Tyler stopped talking to me that night. I felt used and taken advantage of, but I had no choice but to move on and let go. Tyler didn’t even like me; he just took from me what I can never get back. At first I only told my best friend Brenda what happened and I wore a smile and pretended that my heart wasn’t broken.

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I never thought that through my moments of weakness I would find the strength I needed to keep moving forward. More importantly, I never thought I would look back and be disappointed in the person I was, the person I left behind. Seven years ago I wouldn't have considered myself a strong person. I was anything but strong, I allowed myself to take the easy way out. I would convince myself that if I could not control the situation, I could at least control the pain I felt from it. So it began...

I was sixteen, and too young to cope with what happened alone but too stubborn and embarrassed to ask for help. I kept reassuring myself that I had survived the toughest part and things would go back to normal. I thought I would go back to normal. I never imagined that I would never be able to get back to the girl I use to be. I never thought that the girl who was voted "best personality" for a school superlative would disappear forever. But I did, and I had no idea how much I would be tested in the years that followed.

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August 7th 2008, my fiance Glenn Salomon Ballard Jr. age 25, was murdered in front of My Place Tavern in the Fern Rock section of Philadelphia Pa. Across the street from this bar is the 35th district police station and a fire station.

The cops took their sweet time just to get across the street. Then when they finally decided to show they did not bother to call the ambulance.In Philly, if you are not responsive, you are considered dead.

He was shot in the back of his head and when my mother tried to help him the cops put hand cuffs on her. He was still alive when they put the sheet over him. Basically they stood there and watched him die.He had a chance of survival according to his autopsy report. My mother was trying to tell the cops that he was still alive and had a pulse.

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