Ethic Soup

Good News: Secret Santas Pay for Strangers' Layaway Bills

THE SPIRIT of Christmas can be seen in the smiles of children and this holiday is made more happy for a number of children -- and adults. Growing numbers of Secret Santas are popping up at layaway counters in stores across the country.  

They are paying the layaway bills for strangers who haven't enough money to pay for and pick up the presents that the stores are holding for them. And many are doing so anonymously.

The first incident reported in the media happened in Plainfield Township, Michigan, two weeks ago. At a Big Kmart, a 30-something woman walked up to the layaway desk, pushing a shopping cart full of toys she was going to donate, reported Money MSN.

DONOR INSISTED ON ANANIMITY

The shopper asked if she could pay a few customers' layaway contracts, only asking that the orders include toys and that she could remain anonymous. She randomly selected three and ended up paying about $500 -- all but $10 on each ticket.

GOOD NEWS: Anonymous Woman Pays Water Utility Bills for 17 Families

 

IT CAN BE a wonderful world. It's nice to have this belief reinforced during the holidays, which can be a time of despondency for many, especially during an economic crisis when so many have lost their jobs and can't even pay their utility bills.

Not having running water, a basic need, is a low blow. Needing to take buckets to a neighbor's house for some of their water, so you can flush your toilet, can be a humiliating chore.

To get clean you have to wash in the sink in a convenience store's bathroom and pray they don't ask you to leave because you can't buy anything.

Just hearing about the woman in Iowa City, Iowa, who insisted on remaining anonymous, has been inspiring to many. 

The woman walked into City Hall to pay her own water bill. Then she donated $1,640 to pay off the delinquent balances of 17 families, to ensure that they would have running water over the holidays, reported the Iowa City Press-Citizen. 

It Pays To Be Ethical: Billionaires Share Secrets to Success

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This one is a picture of one billion dollars.

Tonight on 20/20, Barbara Walters interviews four billionaires who share their secrets to success. The billionaires are:

John Paul DeJoria (left), founder of Paul Mitchell hair products and owner of Patron Spirits;

 

   Lynn Tilton (right) of Patriarch Partners;

 

 

 Guy Laliberte (left), founder of Cirque du Soleil

 

         

                       and Tony Hsieh (right) of Zappos.

 

 

Below is a list of the "Billionaire's 20 Keys to Success," according to ABC News 20/20. I was surprised, really surprised, at how many of the 20 tips for success involve ethics. In fact, I think the four billionaires might agree that it is very difficult to become so rich without being an ethical person, whose business and personal behavior is both ethical and moral.

A Few Needed Prayers: To Give Aid, To Eradicate Misery

 
When you cannot hide from awareness of the world's natural disasters, and then add to that knowledge of all the wars being fought in the world today...what do you do?

It's easy to put a few dollars in an envelope and send it off to a charity or two to help. It's harder to force yourself to try to not forget, taking the time and soul-energy to offer up a prayer or two. Both kinds of giving are sorely needed, along with acknowledgement of our great good fortune not to personally be in the middle of one of those natural disasters or wars, if you are so lucky.

For those not as fortunate as yourself, consider the following two prayers:

  
 

 Prayer to Eradicate Misery

We pray to God to eradicate all the misery in the world:

that understanding triumph over ignorance,

that generosity triumphs over indifference,

that trust triumphs over contempt, and that truth triumphs over

falsehood.

 
 

Buddhist Prayer to Give Aid 

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

May I become at all times, both now and forever

A protector for those without protection

A guide for those who have lost their way

A ship for those with oceans to cross

A bridge for those with rivers to cross

A sanctuary for those in danger

A lamp for those without light

A place of refuge for those who lack shelter

And a servant to all in need.

 

  

 

 by Sharon McEachern

  Artist & Blogger

 

Good Samaritans Help Dog on Cross-Country Journey Reunite with Family

OH NO, I'M LOST

After a separation of six months, "Liberty," a silver labrador retriever has finally found her family again -- thanks to two Good Samaritans.

Got Kleenex handy? Your shirt sleeve will do. This story comes with "happy tears." If you need some evidence of how there really are wonderful, loving people out there -- strangers who care -- this is it. 

Liberty's family was forced to move suddenly from San Diego, California to Winter Haven, Florida, and couldn't bring their beloved dog with them. They gave Liberty to someone who later lost her.

"The people who had the dog wouldn't give us any information when we would call to see how she's doing, to visit, or anything like that," said Heidi, Liberty's owner.

Britney Spears' Latest Obsession: Freeze Her Body After Death

If you had a beautiful face like Britney Spears, the one pictured above, wouldn't you want to save it -- the whole head -- after you died? Look at that clear skin, those perfect teeth, that blonde hair and smile.

Of course, hopefully, she'll live a long life and die when she's an old woman. Uh-Oh! There go all of those attributes of the young-bodied, replaced by wrinkles, leathery skin, yellowed and chipped teeth, brown-eyed glaucoma. And all of those skin tabs, liver spots and chin whiskers. Ewww!

Then again, it's the brain you really hope to bring back to life later.

SAME BRAIN AFTER AS BEFORE, IF ONLY...

If Britney has her wish come true -- a long, long time from now, if at all, she'll still have the same brain...

That's right, Britney Spears wants to be frozen in liquid nitrogen after her death so she can be brought back to life later, reports The Sun (UK).

Golden Girl Bea Arthur Left $300,000 to Support Gay Homeless Teens

Bea Arthur died of cancer last April, at 86, and her generosity lives on. Arthur had a big gay following, who loved her as the acerbic Maude Findlay in Norman Lear's sitcom "Maude" and as the strong feminist Dorothy Zbornak in "The Golden Girls."

Everyone loved her deadpan delivery and her flair for the comic jab. Arthur's gay fans loved to imitate her and dress as her in drag. It was a perfect mix -- she was tall, with a commanding stature, and she had a sharp-tongue in a husky, basso voice.

ARTHUR'S GENEROSITY LIVES ON

Bea Arthur didn't forget her gay fans in her will. She left a $300,000 donation to New York's Ali Forney Center. The organization assists more than 1,000 youth each year, providing shelter for those who had to leave home "for being who they are,"  Executive Director Carl Siciliano told CNN.

Arthur's gift could not have come at a better time. It arrived a week ago, a $300,000 check delivered by a FedEx carrier.

Free Rice to Feed the Hungry: Just Play Free Internet Games

 

  Would you like to help end world hunger? You can and it won't cost you anything. In fact, all you have to do is play a game at FreeRice.com. This ingenious website is "in the best spirit of the Internet, it offers education, entertainment and a way to change the world -- all for free," says the Los Angeles Times.

"FreeRice.com is an international, viral sensation," says CBS Evening News. "Folks from Thailand to Germany and India are just as enthusiastic ...improving thousands of lives, all with a simple, collective, click of a mouse."

TO END WORLD HUNGER & EDUCATE

FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program and its partner the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Its two goals are to help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free and provide education to everyone for free.

Hoarding Time Part II: Guns & Ammo, Gold & Cash, Cigarettes & Delicacies

 Neon Hoarding Collage  -- Copyright by Sharon McEachern

There's a whole lot of hoarding going on. Of course, if you're among the poorest of the poor, you don't have anything to hoard -- nor do you have the means to get the money to buy something to hoard.

HOARDING FOR THE APOCALYPSE

But, if you're rich you could be "hoarding up for the apocalypse." That's what Baltimore Sun writer Dan Rodricks says about CEOs' desire for even more wealth being a preparation for "end-times luxury."

The concentration of wealth in America has accelerated in the last decade, with the gap dividing middle class and rich becoming bigger and bigger, and the division between rich and poor has become "so vast as to be immeasurable," says Rodricks. That sounds familiar Dan -- the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, right?

But, it does become shocking when you realize that the ratio of total CEO compensation to average worker pay increased from 24:1 in 1965 to 262:1 in 2005, according to the Economic Policy Institute.  Four years ago, in 2005, a CEO earned more in one workday (there are 260 in a year) than an average worker earned ($41,861) in 52 weeks.

An example of hoarding for the apocalypse is the decision by JPMorgan Chase to go ahead with plans to spend $138 million on new jets and build "the premiere corporate aircraft hangar on the eastern seaboard" to house them, says ChattahBox. It fits into Rodrick's theory about why the corporate rich continue to indulge and reward themselves despite a public uproar amid financial crisis. Hoarding for the apocalypse calls for belief that the end is coming and that wealth will insulate the wealthy from the misery that will befall the rest of us, he says:

"The apocalyptic rich have hoarded cash and assets -- and they continue to accumulate as much as possible -- and they've built retreats to allay a deep fear that, when the world starts to fall apart, they will be at the top of a mountain, in a secure compound with its own source of energy and potable water (and a decade's supply of Cabernet), isolated from the screaming, rioting masses" writes Rodricks.

It's Hoarding Time Again: Guns & Ammo, Gold & Cash, Cigarettes & Delicacies

Hoarding Collage -- Copyright by Sharon McEachern 

 

"Oh, it's hoarding time again, you're gonna leave me..."

I can hear Ray Charles singing now. The hoarding news is everywhere, -- everywhere people fear that they could lose what they value most, that it will disappear when they need or want it.

What's being hoarded? Everything from cash and gold, guns and ammunition, cigarettes and cigars plus delicacies like Roquefort cheese, fine chardonnays and hand-made chocolates.

The hoarders are individuals, businesses, banks, charities, universities and governments. If you're willing to do some digging, there might even be extra bones in your dog's secret stash buried in the back yard. Like fleas, the hoarding bug is catching.

CASH HOARDING

We're six months into a supposed rescue, but it now looks like many of the banks that got money from the taxpayers have been hoarding it instead of lending it. Now we have even more small businesses that still can't get the credit they need. Combine that with the number of jobs that have been lost and the result is fewer and fewer people spending money.

Big investment-grade companies are hoarding cash in the face of economic uncertainty, raising record amounts of debt in the bond markets, as they are cutting dividends and capital expenditure. Analysts and economists are concerned that this building up of war chests and liquidity buffers -- at a time when banks are still hoarding funds -- means that more money is moving away from promoting economic activity, reports the Financial Times.