Is There Really Such A Thing As A Poop Time Capsule?

I saw this photo on Facebook along with the caption, "Something to think about — every conventional disposable diaper sent to landfills since their invention in the 1950s is still there and will be for generations to come." (Not sure of the original source, I grabbed it from a friend who shared it from Itsy Bitsy Bums LLC's page.)

I will admit that while I was going through my "Green Mama" phase, this "fact" that appalled me. I first learned this staggering statistic from gDiapers: "a single disposable diaper can take up to 500 years to biodegrade in the landfill." (You can read more of the gDiapers story here.)

That shocking statistic — 500 years!! — spurred me into action, so I ordered a starter set of gDiapers. For those not familiar, g's are a unique diaper that uses a biodegradable liner with washable outerwear system. They worked pretty well, but we had a lot of leaks and the liners were expensive. So I upgraded the system to cloth, and eventually made a switch to different brands of cloth diapers.

On the outset, the initial investment was costly and it generated an additional 3-4 loads of laundry a week, but I was helping the environment. And doing so gave me a feeling of superiority over those moms and dads with diapers in their carts. I was saving a ton of money. I was saving the planet.

And my child wasn't creating poop time capsules that last 500 years! Boy did I brag about that one to all my friends, both in real life and online friends. I'm pretty sure I drove my cousin "Chicken" absolutely crazy spewing all my anti-'sposies rhetoric.

Well Chicken, let me take this opportunity to publicly apologize and admit that I gave up on being super green mama. While researching this article last Earth Day, I found out the 500 year statistics I repeated ad nauseum isn't true.

I can't recall the exact figure I was quoted, but I was shocked at how minimal it was compared to five centuries. It was more like several months to a few years. I have a call in to the initial source to confirm the actual statistic, but since the photo is going around Facebook, I wanted to speak up and try to set the record straight.

To anyone who had to listen to me rant about the "Poop Time Capsules" in your diaper genie, I am truly sorry. There is no such thing as a Poop Time Capsule. It is apparently an Urban Legend. I'm hoping Snopes will look into it soon.

Thankfully our diaper days — cloth or otherwise — are over in our house!

Today is World AIDS Day

I wasn't going to blog about it because I hardly feel qualified to comment on it. To my knowledge, I don't know anyone who has or had AIDS, so other than growing up in the shadow of condom billboards, my life hasn't been touched by the disease.

But from my Christian perspective, I realized I do have some things to say.

In its early days, AIDS was miscast as a gay disease. I have heard loud Bible Thumping televangelists declare that AIDS is God's retribution for gay sin.

This is clearly not how I see the issue. Because this is not how I see God.

My God created Heaven and Earth. He created Man in his image and we are all perfect in His site, even if we are flawed by sin. We are all perfect creations of God. Born just as God intended each one of us to be.

I have spoken to enough gay people to know that they were born gay. I have grown up with enough gay people to clearly see— sometimes before it was even clear to them — that they're gay. I know being gay isn't something a person chooses. It is just who they are.

The God I know, the God I believe in, wouldn't punish someone for being who He created that person to be. I can't and won't believe that. The God I know is merciful and forgiving. Slow to anger and loves righteousness.

I have often wondered if God's intended purpose for homosexuality — or same-sex attraction as some churches call it — is to test pious religious people.

God calls us to love our neighbor, regardless of who that is. And our neighbor is defined as everyone else on Planet Earth. To not be able to love someone because of their sexual identification, or their race, or because they just annoy the ever-living daylights out of you, is not a true Christian way to behave.

Please Help Reunite This Family

My rational mind cannot make sense of this. This morning, a couple spoke at Community Bible Study and told a story I just cannot wrap my head around.

For 593 days, Major John Jackson and his wife Carolyn have been in a fight with DYFS for their five children. To see and hear the couple, it is unfathomable that they don't have their children. They appear to be a God-fearing and God-honoring family. The husband is in the military and the wife is well-spoken, poised and sincere.

I know that I have only heard their side of the story, and I know that I can be naive, always believing the best in people. But even if only a kernel of their story is true, this is still an outrageous travesty and miscarriage of justice. I will try to make sense of it.

The back story: In 2006, the Jacksons, who already had three biological children, adopted a little boy named Joshua. He was born addicted to drugs and six-months premature. In his short life, he endured multiple hospital visits (during one of which he developed MRSA) and multiple surgeries. In 2008, he died from a congenital seizure disorder.

According to the Jacksons, the death was investigated by both State and Federal agencies (because they lived on a military base), as per protocol, and they were cleared of any culpabilities in his death.

A month after Joshua's death, the couple became foster parents to two little girls (their cousins) under an interstate agreement between Indiana and NJ DYFS. They had to pass home studies and DYFS scrutiny and in July 2009, the Jacksons formally adopted the two girls. The next month, John was deployed to Iraq.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas, with John still in Iraq, Carolyn took their five children to visit family in Indiana. When they returned home in January, the entire family came down with the flu. The baby, Chaya, was taken to the hospital and treated for extreme dehydration. In follow-up visits with the family doctor, the child was diagnosed with failure to thrive, and underwent monthly doctor visits and blood draws.

The injustice: In April 2010, Chaya became sick again, and was taken to St. Clare's hospital in Dover, N.J., then transferred to Morristown Memorial Hospital. There, a social worker who remembered the couple from Joshua's trips to the hospital, became suspicious ad contacted DYFS. According the Jacksons, the social worker failed to check records and told DYFS that Joshua died at home (instead of in the hospital where he actually died) and was cremated before an autopsy (which he actually had).

Instead of verifying the facts, DYFS did the unthinkable. They removed all the children from their care, citing imminent danger. They did not get a court order or followed the routine channels. Instead they took all five children from their home and split them into three homes. The children were denied comfort items from home. As a mom, the thought of Dan being denied his puppy and blanket — because they are reminders of home — is completely unfathomable. The kids were also denied family prayer books and even their Bibles.

The unbelievable: The DYFS that took these children from their home is the same Social Service organization that failed to act on allegations of abuse of children who ultimately died in both Newark and Irvington. Is the agency overcompensating now? If so, I think they are sorely off the mark.

John and Carolyn Jackson appear to be upstanding, Godly people. They are well spoken. They are hurting. They are standing firm on God's promises with a faith I hope I am never forced to display.

I feel very powerless that there isn't more I can do to bring justice for this family. I can send a letter to Gov. Christie. I can pray. I can send money for their legal fund. But that, and this little blog to try to bring awareness, really doesn't feel like much.

I heard they have a Facebook page, but I couldn't find it. I did find links to other articles about the Jackson Seven:

http://reunitejackson7.blogspot.com/

http://reunitejackson7.webs.com/

http://joyfulwith3.blogspot.com/2011/04/reunite-jackson-7-tell-nj-dyfs-to.html

Please pray that this family can be reunited soon. (And please, hug your kids extra tight!)

Green Grappling

My first Earth Day as a mother sent me on a green spin for a while. I opted for Ecologically-friendly alternatives for everything I did. I started recycling religiously, stopped buying petroleum-based cleaning products, and even cloth diapered for a little while.

I felt good. I felt smug. And maybe just a little superior. But by the next Earth Day my greening was seriously waning, with the exception of my Green Cleaner and recycling.

Last Spring, as editor of Franklin Lakes Patch, I produced a Green Patch series for Earth Day. One article for each work day in April. In doing so, I discovered that recycling is actually big business. Our garbage is our largest export, and in this down market, commodities like paper and steel are actually thriving.

In interviews with local garbage and recycling companies, I found out that recycling helps the economy at the local level. Municipalities are actually get paid by the companies who pick up our recycling, which off sets our taxes. American paper products are particularly valuable. China is paying good money for our paper because our tree-derived pulp is superior to their rice paper.

With this knowledge in hand, I no longer feel guilty about the huge pile of paper I recycle each month. Instead can rejoice while buying a box of two soy milks, that I'm not only saving a dollar, I'm helping to generate to offset my property taxes. Or something like that.

Guilt-Free Gift Guide

Looking for Christmas gifts that doesn't leave you feeling guilty? Here are a few ideas:

Toys Made in the USA: Pure Play Kids sells natural, battery-free creative toys and play things, most of which were made in America (or Europe) and produced under environmentally friendly conditions. From infants to grade school, the company offers a wide selection of toys you can feel good giving.

A Hand-Up: The nonprofit Kiva.org provides micro loans to small businesses around the globe. Kiva users can lend as little as $25 (which is repaid 100-percent) to their choice of more than 3,500 small businesses around the world. A Kiva Gift Card is a feel-good gift that can be recycled over and over again as the loans are repaid.

The Gift of Life: By the end of 2011, close to 1 million people living in third world countries will die from malaria. Enter the Moskeeto HoodE, a technologically advanced garment that repels insects, including mosquitos that carry malaria. For just $22, you can purchase a Moskeeto HoodE to protect someone living in an area where malaria is prevalent.

Educational Opportunities: In America, we take going to school for granted. But just across the Texas border, children in Juarez, Mexico, don't get a free-education. For $35 a month, or $420 a year, you can sponsor a child's education in one of the poorest and dangerous communities in the Northern Hemisphere.

Clean Water: Nearly 1 BILLION people do not have access to safe, clean drinking water. For as little as $10, you can make a difference thanks to The Water Project. The organization does more than just dig wells in Africa, they engage communities and help to change lives.

Have any suggestions for guilt-free gifts? Share them in the comments!

I AM AN AMERICAN

Whenever I am asked my nationality, I always say, "American." The typical response is, "Well, yeah, we are all American. I mean, where is your family from?"

My family is from America. I'm not Irish American, or German American, or Swedish American. I am American. English-Irish-Scottish-Welsh-German-Swedish-Dutch 14th generation American.

My first ancestor came to America in the first half of the 1600s. Richard Stout settled in Salem, Mass. in mid-1630s. From there, he moved to Gravesend, NY.

His future wife, Penelope Kent Van Princes, came to America in 1639. She was born in 1622 in Holland and came to America with her first husband on their honeymoon. On the passage over, her husband got sick. The voyage ended when then were shipwrecked on the Jersey Shore (at Sandy Hook). The rest of the passengers travelled on to safety, but Penelope's husband was too sick, so she stayed behind with him.

According to legend, the Indians came, killed her husband, scalped her and left her for dead. She was reportedly disemboweled and crawled to safety in a hollowed out tree where she subsisted off maple sap for days until she was rescued by other indians (Kind Navesink/Leni Lenape Indians). These "Good Samaritan" indians took her back to their camp, nursed her back to health and allowed her to live among them — as an equal.

From what I understand, Penelope lived with the Indians in what is now Monmonth County, NJ, for about a year. At that time, her people came back for her. The Old Indian who saved her life asked her if she wanted to stay with the Indians who treated her so well or go back with her own people, who basically left her for dead. She missed her culture and her religion, so she went with them back to Gravesend.

Years later, she returned to Monmonth County where she and her second husband, Richard Stout, are said to have purchased property from the Indians and co-existed peacefully with them. (I don't know if that is really a fact, or just legend.) My family has pretty much stayed in New Jersey ever since.

I am 14th Generation American. My family tree has some interesting people on it: Abe Lincoln (sixth cousin, fourth removed), John Bowne (author of the Flushing Remonstrance, which was later taken nearly word for word as the Freedom of Religion doctrine of the Bill of Rights), and revolutionary war general, Mad Anthony Wayne. (But I think my coolest ancestor is my Great Aunt Carol, who was a Roxyette, the dance troupe precursor to the famous Rockettes.)

I am the 14th generation of my family born in America.

I AM AN AMERICAN.

Taking Christianity to the Streets

We all have walls. I live in an area that's just spacious enough that I see my neighbors sporadically, rarely even. I don't really know most people who live on my street. Except for the ones with kids, which aren't many, and I don't even know all of those.

We stay inside and see each other in passing. Extended conversations during power failures, and when fire trucks or ambulances stop on our street. And the only time we ring our neighbor's doorbells are on Halloween. The rest of the time, we hide behind our walls.

One of the things I find interesting about Occupy Wall Street is that people are taking to the streets and not hiding behind walls anymore. That includes faith communities. A loosely organized group of pastors calling themselves The Protest Chaplains have emerged from the Occupy movement. It is inspiring to see.

On Sundays, they hold interfaith services in Zuccotti Park. (Yesterday, The Council of Elders from the Civil Rights movement spoke. I wished I could have been there! I hope to find footage to watch.)

After the protestors were kicked out of the park last Tuesday, many churches in the area opened their doors to occupiers, showing genuine Christian hospitality. It makes me happy to see Christians openly acting like Christians should.

One thing I hope comes out of Occupy Wall Street is that we tear all our walls down.