Desert Messenger

6 www.DesertMessenger.com March 7, 2018 Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com /DesertMessengerNews Follow on Twitter @DesertMessenger @QuartzsiteRain LETTERS TO EDITOR POLICY Desert Messenger encourages letters from its readers. Letters should be no longer than 300 words, and may be edited for grammar, content and length. OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THOSE OF THE DESERT MESSENGER. We invite you to not only see a problem, but search for the solution to share with the community, keeping the benefit of all in mind. Letters considered libelous, in poor taste, on a personal issue, mean spirited or dominated by Scripture quotes will not be published. Third party letters will not be accepted. To avoid confusion over people with common or similar names, writers must provide a full name and indicate the name they are known by. Writers must provide a full street address and phone number. Rvers can provide the location of park/BLM land, etc. Street addresses will not be pub- lished. Phone numbers are for verification only and will not be printed. Mail letters to: Desert Messenger, P.O. Box 3185, Quartzsite, AZ 85359 or E-mail to Editor@DesertMessenger.com 928-916-4235 DESERT MESSENGER Quartzsite's FREE Community Paper Proud to be a Quartzsite Licensed Business 928-916-4235 O� T��� - E���� T���! Founded by Walt Akin October 1, 2004 P�������� �� P���� R��� P��������� C�. P.O. Box 3185 Quartzsite, AZ 85359 P�������� ����� � ����� 1st & 3rd Wednesday Sept. thru May with Special Summer Editions June, July & August EDITOR/PUBLISHER Shanana "Rain" Golden-Bear CONTRIBUTING JOURNALIST Joanne Winer GUEST COLUMNIST Gypsy Jane Finley CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Starr BearCat NAME PLATE LETTERING Paul Winer www.DesertMessenger.com www.MyQuartzsite.com E-mail: Editor@DesertMessenger.com 2018 © Copyright All Rights Reserved Copyright 2013 Opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Desert Messenger. LIKE US on Facebook.com/ DesertMessengerNews FOLLOW US on Twitter @QuartzsiteRain By Shanana "Rain" Golden-Bear Editorial "Grandfather says...you must not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must not fight. Do right always. It will give you satisfaction in life." -- Wovoka, PAIUTE Monday, March 5, Monica Tim- berlake, President of Quartzite El- ementary School (QES) PTA and QES School Board, spent an hour in a meeting with the Governor and parent groups speaking about safety in Arizona schools. Arizona lawmakers had pushed Governor Doug Ducey to act on school safety after the massacre of 17 students and teachers at a Florida school last month. Legislators asked the governor to form a task force to protect Arizona school children and to prevent potential school violence. They suggested the panel should include parents, teachers, school administrators, counselors, law en- forcement and behavioral health professionals and be charged with fi nding a way to identify students "at risk of infl icting violence upon oth- ers and protocols for interventions to safeguard our children." Timberlake said the discussion included sharing ideas from local school districts, teaching kids to care about each other, enforcing laws we already have on the books, leading from the front. "The fi rst step is starting the con- versation. It's still a conversation, but action can come from conversa- tion. If you're not in the conversa- tion, nothing is going to happen." Local PTA president meets with governor more they fall into the "spiritless trap!" (Yes, one can be spiritual without belonging to an organized religion.) How our children behave is a di- rect refl ection upon, not just the parents, but our society as whole. With more shootings and bullying behaviors appearing in our schools, this refl ects how adults are behav- ing in our society. Our children should not have to worry about going to school in fear of what the "bully" will do next. Community leaders are the role models the younger generation looks up to. Leaders could be teach- ing our youth how to deal with con- fl ict in a peaceful manner. What healthy communication skills are our teachers and community lead- ers demonstrating? I remember living in a society, not so long ago, that welcomed peace- ful expression as the normal way of living. I remember being taught to treat each other with respect. I re- member being shown how to make things right when we strayed from the spiritual path. Where is the "Golden Rule" in our society today? Let each of us seek to fi nd it today! In a world where Domestic Vio- lence and Child Abuse/Neglect scored in the top three health concerns in a 2013 Healthy La Paz survey, it's obvious just how far we have strayed from our spiri- tual selves. All major religions and spiritual teachings focus on treat- ing others with kindness and the "Golden Rule." But in our society today, people have strayed so far from those sim- ple teachings. We all can get caught up in jealousy of others, wanting to be right, having power over an- other; with an epidemic of bullying in the schools, the workplace, and on the Internet. National politics is not helping the situation at all. Even in local social media groups, it has become the norm to ridicule others for just being happy, nice or having hope for a better commu- nity. It really is getting old, and the more people believe that crap, the Monica Timberlake

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