Happy Mother’s Day!

Anna_jarvis

Face Activities extends a Happy Mother’s Day Greeting to all our members and their mothers, around the world! Millions of us will gather with our families to celebrate the most important person in the world–Mom!

There are as many ways to celebrate the day as there are mothers, of course. Traditionally a nice breakfast, or brunch, is followed by a card, along with a cake, flowers and gifts, and fun activities and outings throughout the day. And for many, religious observances are part of the celebration. There have been many celebrations of mothers and motherhood throughout human history, dating back to the ancient world, but the modern holiday of Mother’s day is a relatively new tradition.

The holiday now has a strong commercial side, but the original founder, Anna Jarvis, strongly rejected the growing commercialization around Mother’s Day that she observed in her lifetime. A peace activist during the American Civil War, she had campaigned for a holiday to honor and celebrate mothers since 1905, following the death of her own mother.

Jarvis celebrated the first Mother’s Day in 1908, as a memorial to her own mother, in West Virginia. Thanks to her efforts, by 1910 West Virginia had adopted the day as a state holiday, and by 1914 President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation, setting the date for the national holiday we know today. The holiday eventually went international and is now celebrated all over the world.

As the holiday gained popularity, Jarvis maintained that hand written notes to mothers, rather than store bought greeting cards, expressed the proper holiday sentiment, and she organized protests and boycotts against greeting card companies, called for law suits, and even went as far as protesting a candy convention and a meeting of a War Mother’s group, where she was arrested for disturbing the peace. She was most definitely passionate about the holiday she founded, perhaps to the point of extremism.

Learn more about Mother’s Day (Wikipedia)

Watch The 2019 White House Correspondents Association Dinner 2019: 9:30 pm ETA

The traditional event, a yearly suaret celebrating journalism since 1911, will be very different this year. Not only is President Trump boycotting, but he has forbidden his staff to attend, in light of the harsh criticism levied against him and his administration in previous years.

In addition, and even more surprising, the tradition of the event as a comedy roast will be broken: today an historian (The writer of Hamilton) is the featured speaker. It will be a very different, and interesting correspondents dinner, dedicated to the 1st amendment and  the role of journalism in American society.

Watch the event live:

The Oscars tonight!

How did the Academy Awards Start?

The Academy awards are tonight! It’s definitely Ladies’ Night: Glenn Close is up for a seventh time for best actress, and a life time achievement award is a definite possibility, while Lady GaGa is giving her a run for the money for her role opposite Bradley Cooper in the remake of a Hollywood Classic—A Star is Born. Melissa McCarthy, the consummate comedienne, challenges both with her moving portrayal of misanthropic struggling author turned literary forger Lee Israel in Can you ever forgive me?

Some very diverse films are up for best picture, ranging from Black Panther, a popular smash hit based on a comic book with a nearly all black cast, to Bohemian Rhapsody, the epic story of the Uber popular rock group Queen and the multi-talented Freddie Mercury.

ABC will be streaming the broadcast live, online for people logging in with certain online services. To find out how to watch online, click on this link.

 

LIVE: President Trump’s Prime-Time Address from the Oval Office

LIVE: President Trump’s Prime-Time Address from the Oval Office – 9:00 PM

Watch President Trump make his case to congress and the American People that there’s an emergency at the southern border with Mexico that requires $5.6 billion to build a wall to keep undocumented immigrants, and as he alleges, terrorists, out.

The President’s claims have been widely disputed by politicians, journalists and border security experts, so his statements tonight will be carefully analyzed.

Tuesday, January 8, 2018: 9:00 PM

Video: Fox 10 Phoenix/ Youtube

Photo: Fox 10 Phoenix/ Youtube / screen capture

Immigration Reform: attention Nancy Pelosi!

Dear Madam Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, United State’s Congress:

The management team of Face Activities and I would like to congratulate you on regaining the Speakership. We hope you continue to be a major advocate for improving the lives of Americans, including immigration reform. And We believe by working in a bipartisan manner, we can achieve success.

The immigration system in the United States is broken and needs major reform. I have some ideas that may help to facilitate this reform process, if they are accepted and utilized by congress:

  1. Immigrants already here for more than 5 years can apply for these reforms, and there will be a two  to three year time frame to complete this process.
  2. The details of immigration reform, which were written by the legendary Senators Kennedy and McCain, need some changes that would benefit everyone.
  3. Regarding current illegal immigrants, it is unrealistic to send up to 15 million people out of the United the States. So instead, charge adult immigrants, who haven’t committed any crimes, $8,000.00 for their green card in three installments, and only grant them legal status after the full payment has been made. Also, in households with children, charge the children $3,000 each, with the same payment plan. But for those who have committed crimes, they must return to their country of origin immediately. So, these payments would serve as fines for those who are here illegally. That’s far more practical than forcing them to go back to their native country and then return to the U.S. after waiting in line. As we are all aware, that’s not at all practical and can cause endless difficulties for undocumented individuals and their families. And it also strains the American Bureaucracy. 
  4. The U.S. can generate billions of dollars for the government by charging these immigrants $8,000.00 during the above mentioned window of opportunity of up to three years.
  5. With this significant revenue increase Homeland Security can hire more staff to process more immigration paper work, thus creating more jobs and more revenue for border security.
  6. This will cause a boom in the economy, and a better economy will result in even more jobs available to Americans, and the applicants too. And Americans shouldn’t fear losing their jobs either, since after immigration reform passes, any available jobs for the same profession should first go to American citizens, not recent immigrants.
  7. One of the most important elements of legalization, which will tremendously decrease the amount of fear and tension among American citizens, is for members of the House of Representatives to be in bipartisan agreement on this key issue: Individuals and families who are already here and then obtain their legal status as citizens should not be given permission to provide citizenship for their parents. Everybody fears that if that happens, it will financially bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid. This is very important: Parents of these new immigrants can come to visit but should not permanently come to get green cards and citizenship.
  8. In the interests of bipartisanship, the Democrats should seriously consider giving President Trump $5 billion for border security, to spend as he sees fit, which amounts to only about 0.11% of the federal budget.
  9. For the world-wide green card lottery, applicants all over the world should pay $300 to enter for each year they enter, providing additional income for the U.S. government to support the immigration system.
  10. The government needs to clearly state how many people we will accept as refugees and asylum seekers per year, so other countries will understand our nation’s limit.
  11. There should be no open borders, because border security is important, as everyone agrees, and the reformed immigration process should be enough to ensure proper immigration. Work authorizations can be issued on a temporary basis, for six months or a year, to accommodate foreign workers here for legitimate employers.

I believe that if these conditions become part of comprehensive immigration reform, then we have a chance for the reforms to pass. Otherwise, public opinion, especially among the many concerned American citizens, won’t allow a comprehensive reform to happen, and the bill will go to the archive once again.

Sincerely,

Sherry Asstin & The Management Team of Face Activities

 

Photo: Public domain – Wikimedia Commons

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