Sex Offender Tells Neighbors Not to Worry About Him

zondag 22 september 2013

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AppId is over the quota
by Kiri Blakeley 4 hours ago

A dozen years ago, 48-year-old Carl Peterson was sentenced to four years in jail for raping his 14-year-old niece. Recently, he stood up before the community he now lives in with his wife and 14-year-old daughter to tell them he's no threat to them. "'I'm the level 3 sex offender all of you have been talking about," he told the gathering of about 100 people at the Belmont, Massachusetts high school auditorium. "It seems as though the big reason why we are here tonight is me."

Carl explained to the community that he has been seeing a therapist for eight years, and is certain he will never recommit that crime. According to the Belmont Patch, he told them:

The problem is all you know, all you get to know about my problem is what you read ... which says I'm the most dangerous and the most likely to reoffend of all sex offenders. It also says my offense was the rape against a child. What's important is that I'm not the victim. I'm a sex offender and I committed a crime and I did spend four years in prison for.

Some in the audience yelled at him, while others shushed those and said it was important to hear what he had to say. Peterson went on to say that his crimes were not against "pre-school children" or "many children" but a girl he knew. And he promised: "At this point, I know that it will never happen again." He then offered to speak to anyone who wanted to approach him.

We can despise this man's crime, but I think it's admirable for him to stand up and announce himself in front of his community. Many didn't even know him, and yet he just made himself a target in the hopes of allaying people's fears. But he also planted a seed a trust, which may bloom. Isn't it better to know the people in our community we may have doubts and fears about, rather than let our imaginations get the better of us?

What this man did a dozen years ago was inexcusable. What he did now was brave.

Forgiveness is something we must practice, if people are showing themselves worthy of it. So far, he is.

Could you forgive this man living in your community? What do you think about what he did?

Image via Belmont Police

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BPA Strikes Our Kids Again! Why We Need to Worry

woensdag 21 augustus 2013

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by Michele Zipp 17 hours ago

It's terrifyingly clear that there are so many products that we cannot blindly trust. We have to research and be vigilant and worry about everything. It just comes with the territory of being a parent. It's exhausting, but parenthood is exhausting and wonderful at the same time, so we do what we have to do to keep our kids alive and well and thriving and not ingesting toxins that can seriously harm them. Enter one of our enemies BPA -- bispehnol A -- once commonly found in baby bottles and sippy cups and believed to disrupt the endocrine system, causing chromosomal and reproductive system abnormalities and impairing brain functions.

The great BPA ban that went into effect in many places made us able to breathe a little easier, but it's still around along with DEHP (di-2-ethylhexyl) and found in food packaging. It's not the food that it's packaged in that is necessarily making our kids obese, it's these toxins in the packaging itself.

Aside from getting your food from the farm or local CSA, which many of us cannot always do, what can we do here? Ban plastic in all its forms? What happens when we send our kids out into the big bad world and they eat in places whose food or drinks has traces of BPA and DEHP? We really cannot control everything. But the health risks associated with obesity are too great to ignore.

BPA and DEHP found in urinary concentrations of kids 6 to 18 showed a greater risk for obesity and insulin resistance, along with body mass index in the 95th percentile or higher and an abnormal waist circumference-to-height ratio. These toxins are shown to raise testosterone in men, and seriously affect the thyroid, along with an earlier risk of kidney and heart disease and diabetes.

This isn't what we want to hear. This is another thing to worry about.

Should BPA be banned in all drink containers and food packaging now? It's not just an issue for infants being exposed. 

The study's researchers of course cautioned that more needs to be examined before anything is banned, but they also say that if we do our own ban of BPA and DEHP by using alternatives to plastic (wax paper and aluminum wrap is a better substitute) and not purchasing items in cans made of in this toxin as much as possible, we can reduce our exposure by up to 56 percent. 

Worth doing.

Does this BPA/obesity link worry you? What do you do to reduce exposure?

Image via Iwan Gabovitch/Flickr

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michele Zipp

loves vintage and will defend skinny jeans to the death though she is highly superstitious and "death" is probably a bad word choice. She has a touch of the hoarding disease and enjoys sleuthing, the worst reality shows, and wearing high heels, even at the playground. She's an AP mom of twins, slightly crunchy but with a pedicure.

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6 Reasons Not to Worry If You Haven’t Found Your Soul Mate

vrijdag 16 augustus 2013

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by Kiri Blakeley 16 hours ago

Do you believe in soul mates? It's easy to get caught up in the idea of the ideal "soul mate." Someone who is absolutely perfect for you in every way, who is wandering around out there, just waiting for that magical moment when the two of you will instantly merge into one and everything from that moment on will be loving, sparkly, and free from any kind of real world distress. You two will immediately recognize each other as "soul mates," and live happily ever after. Hey, we've been brought up on this idea since we were kids and had it jammed down our throats with a million romcoms. But the older we get, the less we might believe in this fairytale. One married woman has written about how she doesn't believe in "soul mates." And, hey, that's okay. Here's six reasons why it's fine if you haven't found your soul mate.

1. It might stop you from finding someone to love. Depending on what your idea of a "soul mate" is, you could actually be missing out on a lot of love. Maybe he's the friend you share good times with but who doesn't fit your ideal. Maybe he's the guy you've been dating forever, but who has -- gasp! -- some flaws. It's time to take your head out of the storybooks and look around at the real men in your life.

2. There's no such thing. The idea that there is just one person out of the billions on the planet for you is insane. If you've found someone who is your "soul mate," that's great. But what were the odds that he happened to come across your path? Not very good. Your soul mate is what you make of him.

3. It's unrealistic. The idea that anyone can fulfill every single wish, hope, and dream you have; who can be everything you want on an emotional, physical, and mental level -- well, that's just a tad unrealistic. Better to look for people who suit you on many levels and whom you can work with to make the relationship better and stronger. And whose flaws are at least forgiveable if not adorable.

4. Your soul mate might be bad for you. Often when we feel connected to someone in some deep, mysterious way we can't explain it's because that person is hitting some very powerful but subconscious buttons. That could mean that we feel compelled to act out childhood traumas with that person. In other words, our soul mate might not be the healthiest choice for us. It can be better to be with someone who makes us feel loved and safe rather than constantly excited and tingly.

5. Soul mates can keep you trapped. If you're convinced someone is your soul mate and the relationship isn't good or healthy, you could be reluctant to move on because you tell yourself you can't leave your "soul mate." Never mind that your soulmate has all kinds of difficult issues.

6. Soul mates change. The person you might have thought of as your soulmate at 16 might be very different from the soul mate you'd want at 40.

If you feel you've found your soul mate and are happy, then that's awesome for you. But it's not a broad, sweeping generalization that should be applied to the romantic world. There's a saying: Happiness is wanting what you have. So if you're not with your "soul mate" but are with an awesome guy, then think of him as your soul mate!

Do you believe in soul mates?

Image via Denise Mayumi/Flickr

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