This story is a testament to the human soul and the mind’s capacity for resilience and creativity. Truly amazing. 

Survivor, Thriver

King spent 29 years in solitary confinement in a six-by-nine-foot cell at Angola Louisiana State Penitentiary.

King was convicted of robbery in 1969 despite the testimony of the main witness who admitted he picked King out of a lineup after being tortured.

King escaped from the Orleans Parish Prison and joined the Black Panther Party in New Orleans—five years after the federal government passed the Civil Rights Act.

He was recaptured within weeks of his escape and sent to Angola, then considered the bloodiest prison in America, in the spring of 1972 where he met Black Panthers Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace in solitary confinement.

They became informally known as the “Angola 3.”  Woodfox and Wallace remain in solitary confinement, while King was released on time served in February 2011.

King learned the power of creative, physical activity while he was in Closed Cell Restriction (CCR), also known as extended lockdown, at Angola.

Unlike the other living spaces on Angola’s 18,000-acre prison grounds, the CCR cells did not have a slot for passing food to inmates.  King had to eat from his plate through the bars while the plate was on the floor or while he balanced the plate in mid-air.

As a solution, King built a cardboard food tray and hung it from strings outside his cell. “All the guys began to do it.  Some guys got creative about it. They drew pictures on their trays. They covered them in table clothes. We had fun with it,” King says.

They also made chess boards out of tissue paper.  They fastened sixty-four tissue squares to their concrete floors with toothpaste to make chessboards. They made expertly sculpted tissue paper rooks and kings.

Read more at Gimundo.

I found this bittersweet video last night while surfing and wanted to share it with you. Riley, a young girl, talks about the limitations of marketing for little boys and girls…and hits home some pretty big truths.

I hope you enjoy it and happy Monday all!

Little Girl Gets Mad about Pink Toys

Babies have been born in strange places. (Hey, you can’t always dial up birth, right?) This is a story that shows, as humans, even small humans, we persevere and adapt.

Mother Anna Liza Tumanda smiles as her children Edmar, left, and Vorach, right, play with their five-day-old baby sister Aizee at an evacuation center Thursday Dec. 22, 2011 in Cagayan De Oro city, southern Philippines. Mother Anna Liza gave birth to baby Aizee on the roof of a medical center after they were rescued by police. Their house were totally destroyed.

Source: Day Life

Whether you are for or against the Occupy Wall Street movement, one thing can be agreed on: people have the power to make change globally. If you believe in what these groups are doing around the world, help them in whatever way possible. Here are some suggestions.

We cannot go on expecting solutions to come from the political and economic elites who ride in limousines with security guards. They are not exposed to the impacts of their policies, so the feedback loop has been broken by the concentration of wealth and power in a few hands. This is why so many people are out in the streets demanding a transition from the dominant system (guns and money) to a new system that will give social justice and environmental restoration a higher priority than corporate profit-making.

By Kevin Danaher – Co-Founder,  Global Exchange

This year has been filled with natural disasters throughout the world. Most recently, a7.2 magnitude earthquake ravaged approximately 2,000 building in eastern Turkey. But some hope lay amidst the rubble, as an infant, mother and grandmother are found after 2 days.

ERCIS, Turkey — A 2-week-old baby girl, her mother and grandmother were pulled alive from the rubble of an apartment building in a dramatic rescue Tuesday, 48 hours after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake toppled some 2,000 buildings in eastern Turkey.

Television footage showed a rescuer, Kadir Direk, in an orange jumpsuit squeezing into the hulk of crushed concrete and metal to free the baby. The infant, named Azra Karaduman, was wrapped in a blanket and handed over to a medic amid a scrum of media and applauding emergency workers.

The baby’s mother, Semiha, and grandmother, Gulsaadet, were huddled together, with the baby clinging to her mother’s shoulder when rescuers found them, Direk, the emergency worker, told The Associated Press. There was a bakery at the ground floor of the building, which may have kept them warm, he said.

Two-week old Azra Karaduman is carried by rescue workers from a collapsed building in the Ercis province of Van, in eastern Turkey, on October 25, 2011. (ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images)

The baby was in good health but was flown to a hospital in Ankara, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. Hours after she was freed, the two others were pulled from the large, half-flattened building and rushed to ambulances as onlookers clapped and cheered. The mother had been semiconscious, but woke up when rescuers arrived, Direk said.

“Bringing them out is such happiness. I wouldn’t be happier if they gave me tons of money,” said rescuer Oytun Gulpinar.

Source: Chron.com

Anyone out there remember Wild Kingdom? Well, the host of that decades-old television show has taken it upon himself to make a worldwide difference to people in medical need. Kudos to this man and his flying-high medical organization, Remote Area Medical!

Letter From The Founder of Remote Area Medical Stan Brock

A half century or more ago, I was living in a part of the upper Amazon basin where health care was a 26-day march away on foot. I survived malaria, dengue fever, numerous wild animal attacks and various encounters with Longhorns and mustangs without the help of a doctor. Others were not so lucky and I buried a number of them. It occurred to me that designing an all-volunteer health and veterinary care program for such desolate places might make life easier for a whole lot of people. It took a few years to work out the concept, but in 1985, Remote Area Medical® was born. We have been called RAM ever since and in quite a few parts of the world, the appearance of a RAM Team means an opportunity for poor folks to get some real treatment free of charge from real doctors and veterinarians. But real doctors can’t do it without real help from nurses, technicians and all sorts of support people. In fact, over 26,000 of you have temporarily left your comfortable homes, jobs and families behind and signed up as RAM volunteers and about 300,000 patients are very glad you did.

Let’s take a moment of thanks and appreciation for the Occupy Wall Street protesters. You don’t have to agree with them. But they are exercising their rights as US citizens and taking a stand and attempting to make a positive change.

What can you do today to take a stand, no matter how small? Make a difference in your own life first and the ripple effect will occur. How can you instill in others around you the importance of standing up for your rights?

Sometimes, we create wonderful events in our lives. And sometimes amazing events happen to us. This story exemplifies people’s innate connection to wildlife and their occasional need for our aid. How can you help out an animal today (and yes - as little extra love and attention count!)

4 Deer Saved from Certain Death in Alaska Sea Passage Way

A foursome of young button bucks fell upon some good luck Sunday as they were pulled from the icy waters of Stephens Passage by a group of locals out to enjoy the last few days of recent sunshine.

These good Samaritans describe their experience as “one of those defining moments in life.” A group of four juvenile Sitka black-tailed deer. They swam right toward the boat, then, they started to circle the boat. They were looking up and looked like they needed help.

Four deer swim toward the Satre’s boat Sunday. Once they reached the vessel, Satre said they began to circle the boat and looked obviously distressed. The typically skittish and absolutely wild animals came willingly and once on the boat, collapsed with exhaustion. They were shivering.

Four Sitka black-tailed bucks pulled from the waters of Stephens Passage Sunday recover on the back of Tom Satre’s 62-foot charter vessel, the Alaska Quest. All deer were transported to Taku Harbor and witnesses reported they all recovered from what appeared to be exhaustion and a bit of hypothermia. Once the group reached the dock, the first to be pulled from the water hopped onto the dock, looked back, then leapt into the waters of the harbor and swam to shore. He quickly disappeared into the forest. Two others followed suit, after a bit of prodding and assistance from the group.

One of the four Sitka black-tailed bucks pulled from the waters of Stephens Passage Sunday is seen being transported via wheelbarrow by Tom Satre after reaching Taku Harbor . Witnesses reported all the deer recovered fully from what appeared to be exhaustion and a bit of  hypothermia.

From left: Tom, Anna and Tim Satre help one of the “button” bucks to its feetafter they rescued it from Stephens Passage. Four bucks in all were rescued.

Source: Northern Sports Network

Around the world, we watched in silence, as the Norway massacres unfolded last month. But some did more than just watched; they risked their lives for others, like this German man.

On Friday, a gunman took the lives of 86 people on Norway’s Utoya Island. It’s an unspeakable tragedy—yet the damage may have been far worse if not for the heroic acts of Marcel Gleffe, a German tourist who was camping on the mainland nearby when the shots began to ring out.

At first, he thought the sounds might have been fireworks—but when he saw the plumes of smoke from the gunfire, he knew that the situation was deadly. Even so, he didn’t hesitate to get involved.

Gleffe raced his motorboat over to the island, where he found a group of people in the water. Some of them had already been shot, and were in serious condition. He threw out life jackets, and helped as many of them as possible climb into his boat to return to the mainland, taking those with the worst injuries first.

Police hadn’t responded yet, so Gleffe was the first rescuer on the scene. He made four or five trips before the police arrived and told him they no longer required assistance.

Gleffe knew that the gunman was still roaming the island when he made his rescue missions, but he was prepared to risk his own life to save as many people as he could. Altogether, he rescued 30 people.

“I just did it on instinct,” he told the Telegraph. “You don’t get scared in a situation like that, you just do what it takes. I know the difference between fireworks and gunfire. I knew what it was about, and that it wasn’t just nonsense.”

Source: Gimundo

What an amazing story of a community realizing a need and then stepping up to the plate to meet it. Read more about how you can help (at bottom of piece.)

Inside Whitney Elementary School in East Las Vegas, nearly 85 percent of the children are homeless. That’s 518 kids out of 610.

Learn more about the Whitney Elementary School

Principal Sherrie Gahn says, “I thought that I saw the ultimate poverty when I got here eight years ago and every year it has gotten worse and the recession made it ten times worse.”

Gahn knew she had a problem that a traditional public school could not fix. “When I saw the children eating ketchup for lunch, and wanting to take it home,” she says, “it just crushed me.”

So Gahn came up with a plan involving the kids, their parents and the community.

“I told the parents that I would give them whatever they need,” Gahn says. “All I need them to do is give me their children and let me teach them. In turn I will give you food and clothes and we will take them to the eye doctor. I will pay your rent, pay your utilities, but keep your child here.”

The children get free clothes, free bread to bring home and even free haircuts. Almost all of it given by 500 donors and local businesses who drop off donations daily. Gahn creates a wish list, and her army of volunteers makes it happen.

The contributions are large and small. One woman in Philadelphia sends $20 per month. A gambler gives $2,000 monthly - a portion of his earnings. This is Vegas.

Las Vegas has long been the city of bright lights and broken dreams. But especially now - with 12.1 percent unemployment, and the highest foreclosure rate in the country. One in every nine households receives a foreclosure notice.

Like most of her classmates, Charlee lives in one of the many rundown crime-ridden motels in the shadow of the Vegas strip.

Her family lost its home to foreclosure three years ago. Her father Chad is a construction worker. He hasn’t had a fulltime job in two years.

“There is not a lot of people moving dirt right now in the Vegas valley,” Chad says. “That’s what I do. That’s what I love to do.

As for Charlee, she dreams of being an actress. Principal Gahn has a bold dream of her own.

“I tell every 5th grade class if you make it through junior high you make it through high school and you can’t afford to go to college come see me and I will make sure that you go to college,” Gahn says. “We have a small trust fund that we started.”

Gahn says the children are worth the big promise. She defines success as “The look in their face that I made their life better. That’s my success rate when they hug me and thank me for the food, the clothes. Then I know it’s a good day.”

Today is especially emotional for Gahn - it’s the last day of class. Many of these kids and their families will be on their own until September. So next fall, she hopes to open an after-school program. So Charlee and her classmates can have a safe haven when the school day’s done.

Homeless children of the recession one year later

60 Minutes: Homeless kids: the hard times generation

60 Minutes: Hard times generation: How you can help

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/09/eveningnews/main20070437.shtml#ixzz1Pp650Mff