The last few months have been an exciting, challenging and very important part of my college career. An internship is an experience that follows and guides a person throughout their entire life. It is often the first actual work experience they have and therefore it is quite important to them.

I can’t believe how quickly the last few months have flown by. When you first begin college you think about all those big moments that you can’t wait to accomplish but have years to worry about. Graduating, your last final exams, your internship, so on and so forth. This is a defining chapter in my life book and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

With all I have learned during this internship I have no doubt in my mind that I will be successful when I graduate. I have seen a side of myself that I didn’t know existed until recently and it has brought out my confidence and shown me what I can achieve. It’s incredible how much a person can learn about themselves by working a few months in an environment they aren’t used to. With the year at an end, I think back on everything that has made this such an unforgettable experience: all the great meetings I was able to attend, the hands on learning experience (which so far surpasses any knowledge one could gain from reading a book), the countless hours I spent working on blogs, learning about the industry I will be involving myself in, and the amount of time that my supervisor has spent teaching me and guiding me along my way so that I am nothing but my best when I leave. Looking back on this one experience, I see how much it will shape and mold the woman I am going to become.

Like all things in life this internship wasn’t always easy. However, I feel that before college, people spend their lives making things easy for themselves, taking the easy way out to avoid any hard work. This was one of the first times in my life I have taken the road less traveled and put myself out there. I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t know how well I would do in the end. All I can say is that I feel as though I have come so far and if it were not for the help and guidance of A Private Guide Inc., I might never have discovered this side of me.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to read my blog over the last few months, even if you only just read one entry because I wouldn’t stop nagging you to do so! I want to thank my family and friends and my supervisor for all of their support while I was attending school and working a full time job! I wouldn’t have even met my supervisor, Daphne Marrable, or been introduced to A Private Guide, Inc. had it not been for its President, Sid Wilson. Sid, thank you so much for everything! If I could go back and change anything, there wouldn’t be a thing I would want to change.

-Kelli Wilson
A Private Guide Inc. Intern

BROTHERS, SISTERS, WHERE ART THOU?
By Helen L. Burleson, Doctor of Public Administration

Brothers, Sisters, there were millions of us who voted for change! There were millions of us who got involved in the political process, some of us for the very first time. Some of us for the very first time exercised our Constitutional rights as voters to help make our country what we thought it should be. Many of us acted like citizens for the very first time. Where are you now?

Remember when we went to the polls en masse, many taking advantage of early voting, to select the leader of our country. Most of us followed the issues carefully and read and studied and liked what we heard coming from one candidate who promised us change. We had hope and great expectations.

We must also remember what Candidate Obama told us. He told us he was not perfect. He told us that he would make mistakes. He told us that change was hard and it wouldn’t come easy. Why did he tell us those facts? He told us because he wanted us to be realistic. He told us that because he is only a MAN. Some people elevated him almost to the status of a Messiah. He was not. He told us so. He urged us to be patient because change takes both time and patience. He was fair with us. He was honest with us. He did not try to deceive us. He also told us he needed us to work with him because he was going to need our support; he could not do it alone.

Have you forgotten already in just 11 short months? Some of us started getting impatient when it was just 6 months forgetting that it takes nine months for a baby to complete gestation. Then, when that baby finally arrives, that baby is totally helpless and depends upon others for support. It takes that baby 5 years before going on to the next stage, going to kindergarten. All during these first 5 years, that baby is learning to walk to talk, to listen, to differentiate between hunger and satiation, between want from need, between joy from pain, and between friend and foe. This is all a normal part of human development.

Likewise, it takes a new president time to learn which priorities take precedence, to learn which members of his team are most effective and how, and to learn how the opposite party is either going to cooperate or hinder. Never before in my 80 years have I seen a new president inherit so much that was so grossly wrong: 2 active wars; several potential wars; a failed economy with greed and corruption gone unchecked for decades; a failed health care system that did not provide for wellness and millions of people died because of lack of access to medical care; a military that was over-stretched and under equipped and under paid; an infrastructure that was so deteriorated that bridges fell and levees broke and electrical grids failed; an education system that was going backward instead of forward and was under-funded and lacking quality standards; and, almost nothing going right in our Democracy for we, the people.

Regulation was relaxed and even omitted from some of our most important industries and because of deregulation; financial institutions were running amuck with no restraints and controls. The executive officers were awarding themselves vulgar and obscene salaries and bonuses while accepting government money, to continue playing tiddly winks and refusing to lend money to the businesses and people so desperately needing those funds to keep people working, and people to be able to stay in their homes. The full implementation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in 1890 followed by the Clayton Anti-Trust Act in 1914 to supplement and strengthen Sherman were designed to prevent this wanton, wayward way of doing business. The Clayton Act led to the Federal Trade Commission which was set up in 1914 and the Hart-Scoss-Rodino Anti-Trust Act in 1976, made it easier for regulators to investigate mergers for anti trust violations. Where did the breakdown occur? If we follow the money and connect the dots, we will understand why bankers, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies favor deregulation.

Now we have a hand full of misled, misguided zealots out shouting, demonstrating, fired up with animosity toward our President and his Administration fueled by the likes of people like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheyney, Michele Bachmann and other extremists with ulterior motives trying to bring the Administration down. Despite the fact that they cannot bring the Administration down without bringing America down, they are so blinded by hatred, hostility, jealousy, paranoia and greed that they seem not to care. Don’t forget Dick Cheyney’s Halliburton connection, the company that was awarded no bid contracts in Iraq.

The obstructionists are out there in full force while we sit back and complain about what our President has not accomplished. We are becoming faint hearted. Why? Are we doubting ourselves and our selection? We should not. We should be doing what we did to win the White House; and that is to fight, fight as if our lives depended upon it because it does. This is our lives. This is our future. We had a clear vision. We made a commitment. Was it just a temporary commitment that we believed in only if things were going well? Where is our tenacity? Where is our determination? Why are we not seeing that our President needs our help? Why are we allowing the destructionists to play center stage and capture all the attention? You know what happens when good people fail to speak out, we lose out!
We are losing because we are silent and we are being apathetic. Apathy did not occupy our time when we were fighting for the White House. Some of us went from state to state, from town to town, from door to door, hosting calling parties, hosting viewing parties, passing out literature, talking to our families, friends and neighbors. We did it! Now when we are most needed, we are absent! Okay Change Agents, it is time to get busy. It is time to roll up our sleeves and put on our battle faces and demand that Congress give us what we deserve – THE RIGHT TO LIVE! We need affordable, accessible, wellness care with a robust public option that does not discriminate against those who were either, through no fault of our own, born with or developed pre-existing conditions. It is unjust to have our premiums raised as punishment when we get ill, or to have our insurance canceled when we need it most.

Our voices and our muscle must be so strong that we hound, pound and astound stubborn, selfish legislators who enjoy a privilege that, we, the people pay for them to have; and, yet they want to deny us the same. Good health care is a right when it is given democratically and equitably to all AMERICAN CITIZENS. GOOD HEALTH CARE ONLY BECOMES A PRIVILEGE WHEN IT IS LIMITED TO A SELECT FEW!

BROTHERS, SISTERS, WHERE ART THOU?

Though the president has said that there will be an exit strategy for getting out of the business of the people of the Middle East and restoring peace for the first time in our life time, the news is sobering. The predicted increase in strength of the troops in the remote country of Afghanistan is bitter news that we will hear this Tuesday night.

40,000 people's lives will be thrown away in the craggy and desolate reaches of the terrain; where most of those who are fighting have been invested in this fatal effort for life times. America is limping along and settling for a minor role in the effort to restore order where there is none.

Afghanistan has been victimized by countless generations of foreign troops and has weathered the withering fall out of desolation and obliteration for eons. If the president is sending 40,000 people to the region it means that 1,000's more will die everywhere and worse, that ethically we moved away from caring for the world by another step.

Bless the president and the world, we need some reflection of what it means to kill or subject another person to the tragic consequences of occupation? The Civil War grimly reminds us how deliberate and destructive use of our energy to rid the world of our foes never serves peace. The enemy always is us in these affairs of brazen contempt for life.

There are several local memorials from the Catholic Worker House at the steps of the City and County Building of Denver every night before Christmas starting on December 18. The memorial for the homeless sponsored by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless will be held on December 16 at 5:30 p.m. at the same place.

National Events

National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day
Each year since 1990, on or near the first day of winter and the longest night of the year, National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has sponsored National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day to bring attention to the tragedy of homelessness and to remember our homeless friends who have paid the ultimate price for our nation's failure to end homelessness. This year, the National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC) has joined us in co-sponsoring this event.

In an effort to maximize the impact of the day, NCH and the NHCHC have encouraged local and statewide organizations to hold memorials of their own. Last year, over 100 cities across the nation, from Detroit to Seattle to Washington, DC, sponsored events to honor those who had died and to recommit to the task of ending homelessness.

This Year, once again, NCH is encouraging groups to plan a special event on or around December 21, 2009. Some groups may decide to hold their event a day or so before the date. To find out more and to get involved, please visit:
http://nationalhomeless.org/projects/memorial/index.html

Posters commemorating this annual memorial are available at:
http://nationalhomeless.org/store

HOMELESS PERSONS’
MEMORIAL VIGIL

We will remember those who lived and died on the streets in 2009

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16TH, 2009
5:30-6:15 P.M.

ON THE STEPS OF THE DENVER CITY & COUNTY BUILDING
1437 BANNOCK STREET, DENVER, CO 80202

John Parvensky
President, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless

The Honorable John Hickenlooper
Mayor, City of Denver

Reverend Cynthia James
Associate Minister, Mile High Church

Randle Loeb
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless Board Member

The Sad Story of Shaniya Davis Should Shake Us to the Core
"Innocent until proven guilty" is an axiom we apply in our criminal justice system. But the case of 5 year old Shaniya Davis is one of the saddest I've heard about in a long time. I attended the National Council of Churches of Christ General Assembly held in Denver in 2008 and learned about the horrific problem of human trafficking in our world today. Folks at the PolarisProject.org report that, "over 200,000 children in the United States are at high risk for human trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation."

It is Shaniya's mom, Antoinette Davis, who stands accused of starting the chain of events that led to Shaniya's eventual death.

Human trafficking is one of the greatest tragedies of our world today. It happens under the radar screen of the things that often hold our attention. But for people of faith, good will and good conscience there is an organization that is working on this and they deserve and very much need our help. Click on the PolarisProject.org and see how you can help stop human trafficking problems in the future. It would be great if no other 5 year olds like Shaniya would ever have to die again.

Rev. Dr. James E. Fouther, Jr. is the Senior Pastor at The United Church of Montbello (http://ucm.ctsmemberconnect.net). He's from Chicago originally and enjoying the mile high experience. He's married to Angelle Collins Fouther and father of two girls, Danielle and Daryn.

Rev. Fouther enjoys golf, exploring, cooking and reading. His favorite books are many by W.E.B. DuBois, "Biography of a Race" by David Levering Lewis, "Prophetic Fragments" by Cornel West, "God of the Oppressed" by James Cone Lif, "Every Voice" by Susan Thistlewaite & Mary Potter Engel, and "The Third Wave" by Alvin Toffler.

These gifts that we heartily receive at the year’s end as we begin the year we face, we live with loving kindness and compassion for all. We are blessed with this form and life. We are grateful and wise to accept the gift no matter what turns out because it is all that we have and it is over in a glimpse of a flicker of a smoldering candle.
Thankfully embrace the light and allow its warmth to penetrate the inner recesses of your life that your grace can touch all of those who pass and lift up those who are resolute on their way of suffering and misgivings. No matter that the verdict be harsh and the road through brambles on unchartered courses, maintain a feeling of compassion and grace for everything.
We can do better today, tonight and rest our weary head in the expectation that in the morning that we will stir again and encompass all that is possible. Allow the world to unfold and expect to face the day with joy. This is a path that follows from the beginning to the end without interruption.
I was diagnosed fortunately with cancer that has developed in my left kidney. They will operate next year and then I will face new gifts, responsibilities and be blessed. May this season be a magical time for all of you and the year that follows stir new fires from dying embers. May the gifts we share go out in ripples throughout the community and transform the everyday humdrum to heights of ever widening fulfillment. May all that we touch be blessed with these gifts that we humbly share together.

In the spirit of sympathy, I offer the following:

WHAT IS PAIN?

Pain is the penalty for living: a toothache is the penalty for eating;
a backache is the penalty for moving; and a heartache is the penalty
for loving. Alas, life and pain are inseparable.

Hugh Mann
http://organicMD.org
http://www.organicmd.org/aphorisms.html
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/338/jan14_1/b107#207692