A live tiger for Mizzou? I can think of better ways to spend $2 million

Tim Noce, the president of the Missouri Students Association is pushing to have a live tiger at Faurot Field for Mizzou football games.  According to Noce, a real tiger - as opposed to Truman - would "increase school spirit and draw attention to Missouri athletics."  The cost . . . ONLY two million dollars.  (Link to                                                                                  story here.)

Thankfully, Noce is looking for private donations and not tax dollars to pay for this idea but still, in the midst of a pretty big recession, two million dollars is a lot of money.

I would respectfully request that if this young man can attract two million dollars in donations, he ought to be doing it for a cause more worthy of the money than a new school pet.

Here are just a few such causes . . . 

starting scholarships for kids who want to get an education at Mizzou but can no longer afford it because of the recession,

donating to the American Red Cross's Haiti Relief and Development fund, or 

purchasing 200,000 mosquito nets to fight malaria, one of the largest killers of children in Africa, through Nothing But Nets.

Wouldn't you rather support a good cause, save a life, combat poverty, or provide an education to someone in need than look at an animal at a football game?  Rah, rah!

Here's hoping Mizzou gets its priorities in line.

Haiti

I simply cannot imagine what people in Port-au-Prince are going through.  At least tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost to a massive earthquake.  Link here for one of the latest stories.

My prayers are with those in need.  All of us should be praying for the health and safety of those victims still alive and the families and friends of those who have been taken.  May they all be at peaceful rest.

If you want to help, here's a link to give to the American Red Cross.

A Sad Story at the St. Louis City Courthouse

Not one to be overly emotional, I did see a sight today that deeply saddened me.  It happened at the courthouse in downtown St. Louis.  While I was walking through the corridor, the elevator doors opened and sheriff's deputies escorted four prisoners in orange jumpsuits out and toward one of the courtrooms.  Waiting for one of these prisoners was a little girl, I guess about two years old, in the arms of her grandmother.  She was excited to see "Daddy" and he was excited to see her, waving and calling out as he was ushered along with all the other prisoners.

The scene started me thinking.  What must it be like for a two-year-old to be separated from an incarcerated parent?  How wonderful it must be to see "Daddy" at any time but how horrible that the best opportunity to do so comes when he's being escorted from jail to a court hearing.

While I feel genuinely sorry for the parent in this situation, thinking of the child truly breaks my heart.  If your heart breaks at stories like this one too, check out Project Angel Tree this holiday season.

Our Military Kids

I enjoyed a front page story by Jonathan J. Cooper in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  In it, Cooper highlighted the work of an organization called Our Military Kids, which serves the families of American National Guard members and reservists deployed overseas.  The organization's mission statement reads:

Our Military Kids provides tangible support to the children of deployed and severely injured National Guard and Military Reserve personnel through grants for enrichment activities and tutoring that nurture and sustain the children during the time a parent is away in service to our country. OMK grants are made to honor the sacrifices military parents make and to ensure that the children have access to activities and support that help the children better cope with challenges arising during a parent's deployment or injury recovery.

Our Military Kids made the Post because they issued a grant to pay for a Valley Park Guardsman's two sons to participate in a summer baseball league.  The cost was only $346.00 but will make a big difference in 10-year-old Will and 9-year-old Jake Bacon's lives this summer.

Anybody who wants to read more about Our Military Kids or make a donation, please click here.