Caylee Has Been Found

I had so much hope that maybe, just maybe, Casey Anthony had simply given her away. Just to spite her mother.

But, as probably everyone now knows, Caylee’s remains were found about a week ago and today were positively identified.

Cry with me.

I Voted!

Yes, that’s right. I finally, FINALLY, got to vote, after years of fake-voting in school and all of us kids yelling at each other fighting over who’s candidate was best.

I GOT TO VOTE!

America is so amazing. We get this right, to vote for who we think should run our country, and our state. It’s disappointing to think about how many people actually don’t take advantage of this every year. We live in AMERICA! We get a VOICE! Why not use it??

I don’t care who you vote for, I don’t care if you agree with me or not. I just hope you vote today, and realize that it does affect you and it MATTERS! Realize that you live in America, where our forefathers fought for this freedom for us. Use what has been given to you.

Gay Marriage

I don’t believe I have ever, ever, written a political entry on this blog. Which is funny, since I love to open my big mouth and tell people exactly what I think. I guess I’ve never gotten around to it. I remember writing a note to myself in an entry long ago to keep religion in mind as a future topic, but I have yet to get around to that as well.

Proposition 8 is the current huge issue on California’s ballot November 4th. Celebrities have donated to support the anti-Prop 8 campaign, as well as numerous companies, such as Apple. Somewhere on the news lately it stated that the Mormons have donated around $20 million to the pro-Prop 8 campaign, and making up something like 80% of the funds.

Seriously, $20 million? You couldn’t do something BETTER with the money than deny people civil rights?!

Gay marriage is completely a civil rights issue. Separation of church and state is stated in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Religion should play absolutely NO part in deciding whether gay marriage should be legal or not. When you take out the religion aspect, what really is the question? Two people that love each other enough to get married should be allowed to do so, whether they are man and woman, woman and woman, or man and man.

Yes, I’m sure the Bible states that only a man and woman are to be married. But guess what? Separation of church and state is RIGHT THERE in the Constitution!!!

I’m pretty sure I’ve made myself clear on where I stand on this issue, but if not, I wholeheartedly oppose Prop 8 and gay marriage. People should be allowed to choose whom they marry. This isn’t the 1920s, this is a changing world where diversity is (should be) accepted and embraced.

VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 8.

Chili’s for Childhood Cancer

I went to Chili’s a few hours ago with my family to support St. Jude’s.

It was great =) We went to our hometown one, in Lawrence, and the ceiling was LINED with Create-A-Peppers, which you then use to donate more money to St. Jude’s. I created two, my brother did one, and my mom donated money for all of them.

Here is the one I drew for Kennedy:

Kennedy Garcia is Renee’s four-year-old daughter, from my previous Childhood Cancer post. She had leukemia, and is now in remission. =) She calls herself a ‘sincess’ (princess), hence the name on the pepper.

Here is Emily Mandell’s:

Emily Mandell is the two-year-old daughter of one of our science teachers at Thoreau Middle School in Vienna, VA (where I attended seventh and eighth grades.) Doctors found a golfball sized malignant tumor in her head last spring break, and she has been hospitalized mostly in Boston ever since. Her CarePage username is Emily12806 if you guys want to look.

I have to admit, Chili’s food kinda sucks… but it’s wonderful what they’re doing for childhood cancer.

Childhood Cancer

One of the blogs I read is Life With My Special Ks. Renee, the writer, is the mom to four beautiful kids, one of whom has Down syndrome and HAD!!! leukemia. The little girl, Kennedy, is only four.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Like Renee and many others that have been through cancer with their children have said, breast cancer now gets tons of press, but childhood cancer doesn’t. People want to look the other way; if I don’t acknowledge it, maybe it won’t happen to my family. But the truth is, forty-six children are diagnosed with cancer every school day.

Here are more facts:

*On the average 12,500 children and teens will be diagnosed with some form of cancer each year in this country.   

*One in 330 children will develop cancer by age 20.

*Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis.

*Cancer remains the #1 disease killer of America’s children – more than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Asthma and AIDS combined.

*In the U.S. almost 3,000 children do not survive cancer each year.

*Over the past two decades, only ONE new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use.

*Currently there are between 30-40,000 children undergoing cancer treatment in the U.S.

*As a nation, we spend over $14 BILLION per year on the space program, but only $35 MILLION on Childhood Cancer Research each year.

*There are 15 children diagnosed with cancer for every one child diagnosed with pediatric AIDS. Yet, the U.S. invests approximiately $595,000 for research per victim of pediatric AIDS and only $20,000 for each victim of childhood cancer.

*Research funds are scarce as most money is diverted to well-publicized adult forms of cancer, such as breast and prostate.

*Right now, this second, somewhere in America, there are 7 children fighting for their lives who won’t live through the day.

 

So guys, don’t turn the other way. Go to Gold Ribbon, buy something, wear it proudly, and answer those who question what the ‘gold one’ stands for. Give a little more information, even when they say “ohh” and divert their eyes.

As a side note, Chili’s is donating 100% of their proceeds on September 29 to St. Jude’s. Go have a meal and feel good about helping out.

Don’t shy away- as you already know, cancer isn’t contagious. Educate yourself, and educate others.

Caylee Anthony

Caylee Anthony is the little nearly three-year-old girl who is the center of the media’s attention because of her whackjob mother. The case is one of the strangest I have seen; actually, it IS the strangest I have seen, and I follow a lot of cases.

The backstory on Caylee is that she was last seen somewhere between the first week of June and late June… or dates around there. Reports say June 9, but the grandparents are backtracking all the time about when they last saw her, and now say June 15. The details are so murky that everything is so hard to pin down, and this all sits on the fact that Caylee’s mother, Casey, did not report her missing until July 16.

Missing Caylee came to light after Casey’s mom, Cindy (Caylee’s grandmother,) reported her car stolen. The car, in fact, was NOT stolen, but borrowed by Casey. Cindy was concerned that she had not seen her granddaughter in awhile; Casey always had excuses for her not coming to the phone, not bringing her over for visits, etc. Why she called 911 to report her car stolen instead of expressing concern over her granddaughter, no one knows. Could be that she did not want bad press for her daughter, could be she knows more than she says. No one knows.

When law enforcement found out about Caylee and set off to question Casey, Casey insists she dropped Caylee off at a babysitter’s home and now cannot find the babysitter. Law enforcement has concluded that there is no babysitter, there never was a babysitter, and Casey had lied about that.

There is so much conflicting information in this case. Police say there was a ‘decomposing body’ smell in Casey’s car. Her daughter is missing. People believe she killed her daughter. And people are angry because in every video, every taping of court appearances, she seems incredibly calm.

Casey is currently sitting in jail on charges of child neglect, making false statements, and obstructing an investigation. If you take a look on the Websleuths forums, Caylee has her own subforum and theories abound.

Personally, I have no idea what to think. Part of me thinks she’s dead, but by accident… maybe Casey left her in the hot car in Orlando, freaked, and disposed of her body. Maybe she wandered into the pool in her grandparent’s backyard while Casey was high, and Casey covered that up. Maybe she purposely killed her in a fit of rage. I find this part hard to believe, simply because she is so composed during every video you see. The old pictures of her and Caylee look like they were happy, even though Casey was a pretty hard partier and drug addict. Adding in those facts make it seem a little more probable she killed her while under the influence and now is so guilt-ridden she is silent.

Yet, the biggest part of me feels Caylee is alive. That Casey sent her with someone to spite her mother. That maybe the decomposing body smell in her car wasn’t that of Caylee’s body, but someone else, and that is why law enforcement is still holding her yet not charging her with murder. Casey just appears so at ease that it makes me think she knows exactly where Caylee is, knows she’s safe and is not worried.

I really hope the latter theory is true. Cindy, the grandma, changes her statements so many times it makes me think she had something to do with the coverup of Caylee’s death, if that is what happened. The family is so dysfunctional it wouldn’t really surprise me if she actually knows nothing and is just an idiot.

Please guys, pray for Caylee and hope she is safe and at peace wherever she may be.

 

Caylee Anthony’s NCMEC Poster

Help Find Caylee Website

 

And everyone, she turns three August 9, in six days, so please keep her in your thoughts especially then.

Cinderella

Steven Curtis Chapman-Cinderella *Includes Lyrics*

The best song ever. The guy who wrote this, Steven Curtis Chapman, is the one who’s teenage son accidentally ran over his five-year-old in his SUV a couple weeks ago.

Physically CHECK behind and around your car before you back out, guys.