Be A Show Host Tips

This month my video pick is a moving that touched me so deeply and inspired me beyond words. After watching this film and seeing what women before us had endured to have the right to vote and be treated as an equal citizen, I cannot imagine any woman not using this hard fought right to cast their vote this upcoming election.

This amazing film was released on HBO in 2004 and had some of the greatest women actors in Hollywood portraying the true story of the Women Suffrage that began in the 1800's but focused more on the efforts of the (CUWS) that was formed in 1913.

The line up of female stars include: Hilary Swank, Frances O'Connor, Julia Ormond, Anjelica Huston, Vera Farmiga, Laura Fraser, Molly Parker, and Brooke Smith. The lead male actor Patrick Dempsey played a very endearing man, Ben Weissman of the Washington Post, that had the greatest respect for women.

These incredible women: Alice Paul, Lucy Burns, Doris Stevens, Mabel Vernon, Olympia Brown, Mary Ritter Beard, Belle LaFollette, Helen Keller, Maria Montessori, Dorothy Day and Crystal Eastman, just to name a few, helped pave the path that made us the women we are today.

Many were imprisoned, beaten, rediculed and still they persevered to ensure that women had rights. There has only been one monument ever created for the women of this courageous fight that gave women the rights they have today. The monument was created by a woman Adelaide Johnson and portrays three women suffragists, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott, located in the Capitol crypt, Washington, DC.

We, as women, have come a long way, thanks to these amazing women that stood up, and never gave up, to ensure our position in society. In their time, married women could not sign a contract of any kind, only their husbands. The children of a marriage belonged to the husband, not the wife...and this was only 88 years ago.

I grew up watching George Carlin in the 60's and 70's, he was one of the cultural renegades of our time.

In 1975, he was chosen to host the first episode of the late-night comedy how "Saturday Night Live."

George once told an interviewer "Stand-up is the centerpiece of my life, my business, my art, my survival and my way of being".

George's career began after dropping out of high school and joining the Air Force. While stationed in Shreveport, La. he worked as a radio disc jockey and after being discharged in 1957, he moved to Boston for a radio announcer's job, then to Fort Worth, where he was a D.J.

George passed away this past Sunday, in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 71 years young.

George is our honorary show host this month. Thank you George for all you shared with us and being true to who you are.

A Message by George Carlin:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but Learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, 'I love you' to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

If you don't send this to at least 8 people....Who cares?

George Carlin

George, we will miss your humor, your courage and your loving soul.

Stan Winston, the Oscar-winning visual effects artist, died at age 62 in his home in Malibu, California after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma.

Stan won four visual effects Oscars and earned multiple nominations. His first Oscar was for James Cameron's "Aliens" (1986). Winston later won two Oscars for "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1992) (visual effects and makeup) and 1993's "Jurassic Park." (See Stan Winston's Creature Features, by LAT's Patrick Kevin Day.)

Thank you for sharing your amazing talent with us Stan, you will be missed.

Here is a poem in memory of Stan's incredible imagination and talent. I had the pleasure of meeting Stan many years ago, how fortunate for us all to have had this precious time with him.

This poem was written by my mother Joyce Colvard, another amazing soul, before she herself passed away in 2001. I miss you dearly Mom!

In my dreams, I am a shadow dancing to and fro.
Going through dimensions where mortals cannot go.

I visit many mansions god has built for me.
I live my time in another place and fulfill my destiny.

I'll weave myself a golden web reflecting in the night.
I'll walk up stairways to the moon and exalt in it's glorious light.

There are no boundaries in my dreams, I go where none have seen.
I wake up in my daytime life, then sleep and go home again.

There I am a youthful soul, time has ceased to be.
The structure of the nether world molds itself to me.

I will build myself a marble hall with fountains flowing free.
I will move through different realms in time, there are no boundaries.

~Joyce Colvard
1938-2001

The wise words of my mother before she left this world:
"Don't cry for me, I am waking up...you are still sleeping.

Stan say hello to my mother for me.