Date: Thu, 30 Nov 1995 18:26:34 -0500 From: didom@usa1.com (Claude DiDomenica) Subject: The CAT Chronicle for 11-24-95 ISSN 1084-5585 THE CAT CHRONICLE ----------------- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE * * November 24, 1995 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Children's Animated Television (CAT) is a 501-C-3 non-profit organization that produces educational videos for children and teens on contemporary social issues such as AIDS, diversity, violence and GLB teen self esteem. As a public service, CAT provides a BBS, a weekly newsletter and a Web site for the Family of the Future: http://www1.usa1.com/~furball/ Through the use of all available technology, CAT's mission is to become a center for progressive family values, thinking, philosophy, ethical commerce and education. * Please note a full color version of this newsletter is available on the World Wide Web: http://www1.usa1.com/~furball/newslett/newslett.html/ Quote of the Week: "Life has few dead ends, many detours..." ---Quai Chang Furball --------------------------------------------------------------------- CAT Currents... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The holiday season is with us again. It is the time for giving ...giving to family and friends ...giving to your community ...giving to be charitable to your favorite non-profit organization. In this light, I have written a letter to Santa for my special wish for this Christmas... Dear Santa, My wish is for your help to keep my all-volunteer non-profit group from closing its doors... My organization is Children's Animated Television (CAT) from Needham, Massachusetts. Our goal is to help kids overcome problems like violence, racism and substance abuse. We use videos to educate kids, their families and communities to create solutions for these problems. What is my wish? I wish for Santa to drop us a bag filled with charitable people to help us keep our dream alive. We need their support to fulfill our dream to help all children create a positive future. My wish is not as compelling as a wish to feed hungry children. It is my wish to prevent problems before they become another issue that our children have to live with.=20 I hope you will consider my Christmas wish. My real wish is for peace on earth, but this may be too big a wish, even for Santa. Thank you, Santa Peace and hope, Bessie Hadley Children's Animated Television 1492 Highland Ave., Suite 3 Needham, MA 02192 617-449-9699 fax 617-449-2238 Web: http://www1.usa1.com/~furball/ According to a recent Boston Globe editorial, donations to non-profit organizations increased to $22.4 billion last year. People are more generous than we think! This time of the year, people are always asking for something. CAT is also asking. We are asking for your help. We are just about ready to close our doors. We can not afford to finance CAT without your donations. Only your help will keep CAT alive in 1996. Please remember CAT in your holiday giving. All donations are tax-deductible, so you can also benefit before the end of the tax year. Thank you from all the volunteers of CAT!!! Parent's Corner... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tip of the Week: Your Kids Can Skateboard Safely Children love to skateboard because it's a fun way to exercise. Here's some tips to keep your child safe from common skateboard injuries, such as abrasions, cuts, scrapes, broken or fractured bones, and head and neck injuries: * Make sure your child wears the proper safety gear such as a helmet, elbow, knee, and wrist guards, and long pants * Skateboard on smooth surfaces away from traffic. DON'T skateboard in the street * DON'T skateboard in sand, mud, or on water-slick surfaces.=20 These surfaces can clog the wheels and may cause your child to=20 fall * Only skateboard during the DAY. Kids can't see the surface they're skating on at night. * Be sure your child doesn't skateboard on homemade ramps. These ramps can be dangerous because they may be too steep, and they might not be sturdy enough to support a child * NEVER hang on to a moving vehicle and be pulled forward * DON'T skateboard on steep hills. The faster you go, the greater the chance for serious injury * DON'T try to carry bulky packages * DON'T skate with more than one person on a skateboard If you don't have a suitable area for your children to skateboard in, most areas have skateboard parks or places with professionally built ramps and pipes to skateboard on. Jeff Sam Volunteer Child Safety & Parents Coordinator, Co-Sysop of Dr Furball's BBS and CAT's Co-Webmeister Internet Address: jsam@usa1.com Please visit Jeff's Sam's Child Safety and Parenting Web page: http://www1.usa1.com/~furball/jeffsam/jeffsam.html GLB Youth Advisor: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CAT's current video project is on GLB teen self esteem. Our goal is to help put a stop to the unacceptably high rate of GLB teen depression and suicide. We also believe there is a direct correlation between low self esteem and unsafe sex practices. To this aim, as a public service we present to you the GLB Youth Advisor... Holiday Blues Most people enjoy the holidays as a time of great cheer and an opportunity to enjoy the company of family and friends. However, for others, the holidays bring on depression and loneliness. Many GLB youth face these additional problems during this season because their sexuality alienated them from the same family and friends they celebrated with just last year. A high school student wrote me a few days ago. He said his parents kicked him out of the house because he told them he was gay. Unfortunately this never ceases to amaze me. How can a parent spend so many years raising and loving a child, then simply shut down their feelings because the child revealed an important part of his or her identity? Many parents stand by their child who is found guilty of a serious crime. The simple matter of sexual preference causes such adverse reactions. Feelings of guilt might be one cause for parents to react this way. The parent might feel that he or she failed to raise the child properly. Some parents feel the child has 'chosen' to be GLB simply to shame them or rebel against authority. This is why most 'experts' recommend that you should never 'come out' in anger. In other words, do not suddenly reveal your sexuality in the middle of an argument or debate with your parents or family. Trust me on this one. I made the mistake of trying to come out to my family during an argument over a phone bill. I seldom associated with boys my own age because I felt so different and my feelings confused me. Thus, I latched onto the computer and modem to talk with other gay guys. I ended up spending $250 in one month, prompting an argument between me and my grandparents. Finally, they demanded to know why I never spent time playing with the other boys and spent so much time on the phone. So I shouted out the truth. Well, luckily I did not get kicked out of the house. Instead I got the age-old argument, "It's a phase. You'll grow out of it. You were brainwashed. You're just confused." (Yes, they threw all four clich=E9s at me in one=20 sentence!). Perhaps if I used a little more tact and talked to them later that night, when cooler heads prevailed, things might have gone better... Anyway, the point of this discussion is twofold. Many GLB youth right now need friends to carry them through the holidays. Losing touch with one's family hurts more deeply during this season. In fact, anyone who feels lonely usually becomes seriously depressed during the holidays. However, if you find yourself isolated this time of year, it's the perfect time to reach out and find other GLB youth. This is the time to make new friends and develop your own sense of family with members of the GLB community. The holidays offer many parties and dances held by GLB organizations providing the perfect opportunity to meet new people! Remember, you don't have to get the Holiday Blues! Mike Reddin Volunteer GLB Youth Advisor for Children's Animated Television Internet Address: wxman@pcix.com Mike has an area on our Web site dedicated to GLB youth: http://www1.usa1.com/~furball/glb/glb.html "The problems faced by GLB youth are a national disgrace and tragedy" ---Claude DiDomenica The disABLEd Corner ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A New Kind of Hate Crime Hate crimes... What an ugly phrase. Hate is defined as: "To have strong dislike or ill will for, a strong feeling of dislike, to wish=20 to avoid. "(Websters, 1995). We are probably familiar with hate crimes of the past twenty years. We all know of groups like the Ku=20 Klux Klan, the White Supremacists, the Aryan Nation, the Black Panthers. And we know about hate crimes they have committed to forward their goals of ridding America of persons they consider "undesirable." A new type of hate crime has recently come into the spotlight. It is a hate crime against disabled persons. There have been instances of stealing a blind person's cane, then spinning the blind person around=20 to make them lose their bearings. Or pushing someone in a wheelchair down a stairway. Or yanking out someone's oxygen hose, or jamming a piece of wood in the wheels of a wheelchair. These are some of the newest hate crimes in America. Just as the phrase is ugly, so are the perpetrators. The small-minded, cowardly=20 perpetrators of these heinous crimes deserve to be removed from society. Thanks to the Department of Justice, they often are. The Hate Crimes Act authorizes the FBI to investigate and prosecute hate crimes against persons with disabilities as a federal crime, with sentencing to a federal prison as the end result. If you witness any hate crimes, do yourself, the victim and your entire neighborhood a BIG favor. Call your local FBI office and report it! Rev. Jim Sutter E-Mail: IRISH38@aol.com Web site: http://pages.prodigy.com/OH/zrjj15a/revjim.html What if??? ~~~~~~~~~~ Our President, Claude DiDomenica writes this weekly column to stimulate the minds of our youth and adults who haven't lost their "youthful imaginations..." What if... I were an alien visitor from another star system??? I just arrived from Alpha Centauri in my starship. Before we make contact with other indigenous life forms in the universe, my mission is to study these bipeds called "Humans" here on Earth. Here are some of my observations: I have seen that violence and prejudice seem to be a "normal" part of=20 many societies of Earth. Thousands of years ago, on my home planet we were close to our own extinction. Our world was ruled by hate and violence. Fortunately, we had the wisdom to end the violence and prejudice. Different types of beings on my planet are treated as equals. In our minds, violence is just NOT an option to conflict. Since I have seen the violence of the Earth, I am reminded of my world when we lived in these primitive ways... Another observation is the overpopulation of Earth with so many people. Once on my planet, we also believed that everyone had to have children. Now we realize that we only need enough beings to maintain a population that our ecosphere can support. Maybe we can teach the Humans to learn to live without this "need to breed" mentality... Many Humans seem to ignore the impact of their action or inaction, in relation to each other. On my world, every action a being takes is viewed as having an impact, or reaction, on all other beings. I suppose you would consider this our capacity for a "collective conscious." On Alpha Centauri, happiness is not judged by how many possessions or the amount of money one has attained. It is based on each beings' personal accomplishments, particularly ones that help the community as a whole. I find it very curious how many Humans idolize people of the least importance, such as the "richest" movie/television/rock "stars" or sports "heroes". I have found little reference in the Earth media to the great thinkers, philosophers and humanitarians as heroes... Despite my observations, I see great promise for the Earth. But I do fear that Humans will destroy their environment prior to the necessary transformation to a peaceful and unselfish civilization. =20 A Visitor, Claude DiDomenica The CAT Credo... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Children's Animated Television (CAT) believes in a positive future for all children... CAT's philosophy is to help solve today's complex social problems through honest and open dialogue, education, information and compromise... CAT will produce video programs for pre-teens and teens to stimulate their minds, harness their creativity and imaginations to cultivate long-lasting answers to problems in their world... As a public service, CAT will also provide educational information using all available technology including a computer bulletin board, World Wide Web site and other electronic media. CAT will supply this knowledge for children, parents and educators to enable our society to develop ideas and solutions for a better tomorrow... Claude DiDomenica & Bessie Hadley Founders of Children's Animated Television July 15, 1995 --------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: The opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of Children's Animated Television. Use any advice or information at your own risk. To subscribe to "The CAT Chronicle" via E-Mail: E-Mail to didom@usa1.com Subject: Subscribe CAT Chronicle CAT is a 501-C-3 non-profit organization and all donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. Contact Information: Bessie Hadley Executive Director Children's Animated Television, Inc. 1492 Highland Ave, Suite 3 Needham, MA 02192 USA Voice: 617-449-9699 FAX: 617-449-2238 Dr Furball's BBS: 617-455-8415 node 1 617-433-0026 node 2 Internet: hadley@usa1.com Claude DiDomenica President of CAT and Sysop of Dr Furball's BBS Internet: didom@usa1.com CAT's WEB Home Page!!! http://www1.usa1.com/~furball/ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Get CAT's latest info releases from Software Creations BBS * * "Home of the Authors" * * <<*-*-*-*->> * * Internet Access: Telnet BBS.SWCBBS.COM * * <<*-*-*-*->> * * WEB Access: http://www.swcbbs.com * * <<*-*-*-*->> * * 2400/9600/14.4 USR HST/Dual Standard Public Access (508) 368-7036 * * 2400/9600/14.4/28.8 USR V.Everything Public Access (508) 368-6604 * * 2400/9600/14.4 USR HST/Dual Standard Member Access (508) 368-7139 * * 9600/14.4/16.8/28.8 USR V.Everything Member Access (508) 368-3424 * * <<*-*-*-*->> * * At Main Menu, type: J 178 * * for "Dr Furball's Educational & Philanthropical Conference" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * --------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1995 Children's Animated Television, Inc. All Rights Reserved This newsletter may be freely distributed as long as it remains intact and this notice is not removed. Please do not post on USENET, FIDONET, WILDNET etc. without permission of the conference moderator. # # # -- =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Children's Animated Television CAT a 501-C-3 non-profit organization Claude DiDomenica * didom@usa1.com * President of CAT Web Homepage http://www1.usa1.com/~furball/ Top 5% of ALL Web Sites! Providing hope and information for "The Family of the Future" =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D