What Made You Cry Today?

[Velvetkitten]

Realizing My only son is moving across the country in 3 weeks, my Daughter is getting married in 2 months and my Mom is starting to lose her memory

[maryam]

PMS.

[starryeyes]

Listening to the Michelangelo Signorile show on OutQ. It was all about parents not accepting their gay children. It really hit home for me, and I started crying in the Starbucks drive thru line. He was pretty much saying that if they don't accept you, they don't love you and don't deserve you and to move on. I love my family, but his points were valid. I almost called in to talk about my Easter experience this year, but decided not to. I was too shy.

[Gemme]

[girl_dee]

my mom having another hard day, and me fearing the meds are not working

missing my loved ones

those dang commercials of the animals in shelters

[Gemme]

Emerson's story.

[WingsOnFire]

Hearing this play on my phone...

[The_Lady_Snow]

This %#^% cold day...

[girl_dee]

a certain song.........

[candy_coated_bitch]

The fact that sometimes the person you love can turn into the biggest ass hole in the world during a fight.

[sierragirrl]

a friend from school had a stroke and was flown to UCSF.
they had to drill into her skull to releave the pressure
she has 3 little girls one of them is my youngest daughters age
and is a bit on the chunky side we talk about how our girls are
treated and such
the other two are just 2 and a half
my heart breaks for the babies
how they must miss their mom
as of now none of us know if she is going to pull thru this
and if she does if she will still be a functioning mother
to top this all off there is no health insurance as they own a
small buisness..
people from school have been posting pics & stories for the past week and a half
i try my hardest to read thru the tears
we are a small community up here and it seems everyone knows each other
so many prayers and light are sent everyday
she just has to pull thru this
she just has to..

[AnnRkey]

Marley and Me.

[MysticOceansFL]

The passing of my brother in law

[StoneOne]

Mary Thom died today
She was on her motorcycle and went down
I am sad
She died doing what she loved

[*Anya*]

Reading the Grieving your pets thread made me teary.

All the dear dogs and cats that we have loved and will love forever.

[midwest chick]

A person dying in the hospital, her family aware of her impending demise, and she was alone, except for staff at the end. The television was on a Catholic religious channel, and she left after mass this morning. She was an elder, and had celebrated her last birthday while in the hospital. Cards, balloons, notes and stuffed animals held vigil with the nurses; the family members didn't respond to the telephone messages to please call the ICU.

I used to think that I would prefer to die alone, to save my family a small part of the grieving process...don't look, and it won't hurt. That isn't true, of course. It robs those who are close, of the celebration of the life/love/foibles, the uniqueness of the individual. It steals the last chance to forgive, or be forgiven, to laugh or cry (or both) over special times and memories.

and it happens all the time...

[~baby~doll~]

A simple kindness with a love note signed with a lipstick kiss.

Also post #221 by midwest chick.

[RNguy]

Originally Posted by midwest chick

A person dying in the hospital, her family aware of her impending demise, and she was alone, except for staff at the end. The television was on a Catholic religious channel, and she left after mass this morning. She was an elder, and had celebrated her last birthday while in the hospital. Cards, balloons, notes and stuffed animals held vigil with the nurses; the family members didn't respond to the telephone messages to please call the ICU.

I used to think that I would prefer to die alone, to save my family a small part of the grieving process...don't look, and it won't hurt. That isn't true, of course. It robs those who are close, of the celebration of the life/love/foibles, the uniqueness of the individual. It steals the last chance to forgive, or be forgiven, to laugh or cry (or both) over special times and memories.

and it happens all the time...

We have the most gratifying , most depressing , most stressful, most disgusting , most Amazing jobs being nurses , ya know . Start a nurse thread for us to post and get it all out , vent , laugh and such. Not many understand the intensity of our Jobs , especially icu .

[WingsOnFire]

A song that made the walls crumble a little and was just what i needed to hear.

[Hollylane]

US animal activist laws 'may impact globally'
By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News

Animal rights activists in the US have told the BBC that so-called "ag-gag" laws could be copied in other countries including the UK.

The laws are designed to limit undercover investigations on factory farms by campaigning groups.

Around a dozen states have passed or are proposing legislation banning these activities.

Supporters say they are designed to protect the privacy of farmers and agriculture businesses.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

Such atrocious public policy sets a dangerous precedent for UK industry, as does the introduction of US-style mega-farms.”

Ben Williamson PETA

Large, intensive factory farms have shown significant growth in the US over the past 20 years. Between 2002 and 2007 the total number of livestock on the biggest of these farms grew by more than 20%.

But concerns over the conditions in which cattle, pigs and poultry are raised and slaughtered have prompted many animal welfare groups to mount undercover investigations.
Candid cameras

Because there is no single US federal law that protects animals, welfare investigators have played a significant role in bringing public attention to inhumane practices.

In 2008, a distressing video of staggering cattle secretly recorded at a California slaughter plant led to the biggest meat recall in US history. Last year a recording from a pig farm in Wyoming was used to secure convictions against a number of workers for cruelty.

However in Utah and Iowa the undercover recording of videos like these is now illegal. Several other states including Indiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania are considering similar laws. Other provisions in these bills require prospective farm employees to disclose any link to animal welfare groups.

These regulations are already having an impact, says Cody Carlson, a former investigator who has documented inhumane activities on farms in several US states.

"When I applied for a job in Iowa in 2009 and they asked me if I had any affiliations to animal protection groups, I would have had to say yes, I wouldn't have gotten the job and I wouldn't have been able to expose the conditions that raised questions about the egg industry there," he told BBC News.

"It is exactly what these industries want - they want to shut down the conversation that's going on about what is happening with the animals we raise for our food."

In California an animal welfare bill, doesn't appear to be as restrictive as many of the others under consideration. It is supported by the California Cattlemen's Association and it requires anyone who records video or other evidence of cruelty to turn it over to the authorities within 48 hours.

But campaigners are highly sceptical, arguing that requiring the handover of material so quickly would undermine an investigation and prevent the collection of wider evidence of inhumane behaviour.

"They've done a clever twist on it," Charity Kenyon from the Slow Food Movement told BBC News.

"They want to make it look like their concern is animal abuse, but it is all part of the same deal which is to prevent ongoing investigations of the type that ended in the largest recall of beef in the history of the US," she said.
Global impacts

Welfare groups say that the American Legislative Exchange Council is the moving force behind these laws. This group supports conservative causes and promotes legislation to limit the role of government.

They have described animal rights campaigners as terrorists. They support the laws because they believe investigators are threatening the privacy rights of individuals and businesses. However they declined to be interviewed by the BBC for this article.

While the "ag-gag" laws are primarily designed to have impact within the US, many feel they will also have an impact outside the country.

"As factory farming spreads like a plague around the world," said Matt Rice from Mercy for Animals, "international agribusiness interests will certainly attempt to import America's ag-gag laws along with its tainted meat and animal abuse.

"The UK and other nations should be on high alert."

In the UK, Peta the animal welfare charity said these US laws were "shameful".

"Such atrocious public policy sets a dangerous precedent for UK industry, as does the introduction of US-style mega-farms," said Peta's Ben Williamson.

"Legislators should instead be passing laws to require cameras in all abattoirs and factory farms in order to catch animal abusers," he said.

Others are concerned that if these laws are passed, consumers around the world will no longer be able to trust that exports of US agricultural products are produced without cruelty.

"A significant amount of meat, dairy and eggs produced on US factory farms goes to foreign countries," Matt Dominquez, from the Humane Society of the US told BBC News.

"Anyone who consumes animal agricultural products imported from the US should be scared. This prevents them from knowing what's going on - it blocks an entire industry from transparency."