There is a story running on the CNN page about how a Vegan magazine that had been illustrating photos that have now been found to include meat. There is a photo of Chicken stew that was re-used in the magazine indicating it was vegan.

Raises the question about truth in media and advertising. When photo shoots are done, how much of it is 'real' in the final product? Watching the 'September Issue', Wintour's honest account and indirect response to 'The Devil...' there is plenty of discussion about what photos stay and go and how a wig needs to be brought in because the real hair does not look good after a bad cut. Push up this, real in that, puff up this and minimize lines on photo shop. Does soy look as sexy as chicken? Does cropping the hair off a model or bone off a spare rib make a difference? They say sex sells. We all want something different. Vegans want no bones, no eggs cheese or milk.

It lies within the consumer's eye and our decision to buy the product and magazine. With 1 million in circulation, VegNews takes some risk slipping in a little chicken where there should be soy. In the end, it is up to the readers to decide whether or not they continue to buy the magazine. It is a choice, one we make each day.

And to Ms. Quarry Girl who has her 'barf bag' popped and ready for use - your controversal post may not have put food on your table, but it stirred up plenty of PR for this magazine! And on some level, they are thanking you.

Two years ago was the end of a very long journey. Faith is a hard thing to hold on to sometimes but when you think you can't do it any longer, push a little harder one more time....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Countrywide writes its wrongs, at last! One mortgage company leads ethically and with a heart.

After an adjustable arm FHA mortgage was refinanced on an over-estimated home value and mortgage payments increased by 50% in a downward spiraling housing & mortgage market, Countrywide approved a short sale and not only helped sell a house, but make a home for a new family.

Mandeville, Louisiana, April 9, 2009 – 18 months, a 6 page hardship letter, volumes of financial and legal information, in excess of 150 emails and numerous phone calls, our home was finally sold and title passed thanks to two wonderful ladies at Countrywide Mortgage. It may take a village, but in this case, it took two women who believed, who persevered and who relentlessly partnered with me to fight the good fight and truly make a difference.

In my lifetime that has included the end of the Vietnam war, the sexual revolution, our first president up for impeachment, Madonna, the crash of 1989, waves of real estate booms, desert storm, Madonna, our first black president and all the wonderful highs and the few lows, I never imagined that avarice would take our country to where it is now and how it would impact me and my family personally. After all, we even survived Katrina and housed a family of five virtual strangers in our little three bedroom house across the lake because theirs was destroyed by 11 feet of water.

Financial hardship as a result of the American nightmare – credit cards - a judgment and garnishment of wages led to my only recourse of re-financing the mortgage. Our house survived Katrina suffering only wind damage and needed only a replaced roof and was overvalued by the refinancer. I bought the house in August, 2003 for $156,000 and it is a great 3 bedroom house with an open floor plan in a wonderful subdivision with a pool and clubhouse with rules and regulations that keep the area safe, tidy and very well maintained with the best public school systems in the state. In just 2 short years it was preposterous to think that sweet little house was worth $250,000. I was desperate and need the surplus ‘equity’ to pay some bills and get my financial health in order. My mortgage payments (including real estate tax and homeowner’s insurance) went from a palatable $1,200 to over $1,800 per month.

We had decided that we would head back to the northeast to be nearer to family. I moved to Washington, DC taking a lower paying position and it made it nearly impossible to maintain the mortgage payments and my family stayed behind. I was offered a better paying job in Boston and this was a destination that was best for me and my family so after only 5 months in DC, I moved to Boston in August, 2007 and immediately took advantage of my relocation benefit and put the house in Mandeville on the market. We worked closely with Kathy Petz, a dynamic real estate professional with Coldwell Banker who poured her heart and soul into ensuring the home was staged well, priced right and anything it took to find a buyer. Open house after open house, advertising, last minute showings and all that goes into selling, we only had two offers. The first offer made in April, 2008 fell through because no one from Countrywide Mortgage ever contacted us to approve/deny/comment on a short sale and a three month period expired and the prospective buyer moved on.

Nearly one year later, mid February, 2009, the second offer came. The balance on my mortgage was just over $200,000 and the offer was for $185,000. Enter Countrywide mortgage and now the magic begins!

Lori Raya, Workout Negotiator, who works in the Office of the President at Countrywide worked very closely with me and requested payroll data, checking account information, a hardship letter, personal financial records and balance sheet and every available piece of information so she may make a reasonable business decision. In a short sale, she used a percentage of market value to the balance of the mortgage as one piece of the multi part puzzle to make her determination. Throughout my interactions with Ms. Raya, she treated me with respect, dignity and as if I was a million dollar customer and not someone on the edge. On Monday, March 9, 2009 Ms. Raya sent the approval letter of the short sale. Ms. Raya then turns over the process to another Workout Negotiator to close the sale.

Debra Spaulding, Workout Negotiator II with Countrywide took over. She was responsive, professional and again, treated me as a valued customer and in her case, she partnered with me through some very touch-and-go times and at two specific times, thought we would have lost the entire sale. We were at the home stretch and nothing could go wrong. Expect paragraph 15.

In the short sale approval letter, there is legal language that Countrywide put in to protect themselves from fraud. My relocation company who assumes power of attorney and ‘buys’ the house from me and sells it to the buyer refused this language and in the 11th hour, walked away from it and set policy refusing to work with short sales. Here we were left to start from scratch and the short sale approval was only valid until 4/6/09 so a week and a half before the expiration and about a week before the close, we had to have new contracts written, a HUD form and all new documents and papers signed, notarized and passed. Then the title companies hit a legal road block with this language and were not willing to neither write insurance on the sale nor participate in the close.

At this point, title companies were sending blast emails and memorandums to their affiliates not to accept short sale language such as this and specifically cited Countrywide. Ms. Spaulding went back and forth with her superiors and legal team and Ms. Raya was consulted and both of these ladies were not going to see this sale dissipate. They made it their personal mission to make sure nothing barred this sale from going to fruition; both of them had worked too hard to get to where we were. Through the power of persuasion, the legal expertise and years of mortgage experience and the old fashioned business ethic of truly caring for your customer; Ms. Spaulding and Ms. Raya were able to make the appropriate legal refinements and the title company accepted the change. Ms. Raya wrote, “I have done everything in my power to help you accomplish closure of this transaction. I know that you have great things to come and look forward to offering as much assistance as possible to help you complete this short sale.”

On April 2, 2009 1140 Milan Drive in Mandeville Louisiana was graciously delivered to a wonderful family and proud parents of a newly born baby girl. Countrywide has been in the papers, they have been in the news and under extreme scrutiny for their business practices. Ms. Spaulding and Ms. Raya, who represent Countrywide, singlehandedly forever changed the face of this company and I am forever grateful for all they did for me, my family and the family that will be able to have years of memories in their new home because two women genuinely cared.

# # #

Timothy Kirkpatrick, former homeowner and advocate for Countrywide

Yesterday was one of those days you finish with some leftover Chinese food and a couple of glasses of wine and pass out by 9. We lost an employee at work and my job as a friend and professional was being there for them. I cannot imagine some of the pain that these men endured and will have to function with in the coming days. You come in every day for the past 11 years and there is this beacon of a man who smiles everyday, is always early and in form to assist the others and do his work not just to the best of his ability nor to be the simple perfectionist, rather his purpose was to make sure he did not let his team; his family down. He never complained and took any conflicts within the department in his own caring hands and as he did with everything else, he looked at it, diagnosed it and healed it in his own way. Although I may have felt somewhat helpless along with some of my peers, I know that caring is not something you can put into a powerpoint or measure in a cup or with a ruler but when others know you are there and are feeling for them and with them, it is the best we can do.

Fleetwood Mac/ Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks ~ 2004 Australian Interview

I have a Dream Speech

Sometimes it takes a dream - it is how most influential things happen in this world. We wake up and remember; we feel the water wash the soap from our hair and we wander out of our world into another and come back together in our minds with something better. We are running in the park and losing our mental footing to the beat as we encompass a plan to change the world in some small way and there are times when we are chatting with friends planning a trip to Fripp Island to write a screenplay. Or listen to a famous chef who towers over you who in the midst of opening a new restaurant tells you he just finished his own book - a candid account of how to live life with a condition that others may be stifled by and now he says - you have a friend.

So as I listen and read the words of King, it inspires me to do more. To say more. To stand up for those who cannot and to hold someone's hand in need and let them know they are not alone. Make a difference, a small one; a big one - one that you can just by pouring your heart into it. Take the risk. Rather than sit back and wish you would have made the call, sent the card or hugged someone - do it. You will be energized by the smile, the laugh, the hug back.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

In 1945, Jackie played one season in the Negro Baseball League, traveling all over the Midwest with the Kansas City Monarchs. But greater challenges and achievements were in store for him. In 1947, Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey approached Jackie about joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Major Leagues had not had an African-American player since 1889, when baseball became segregated. When Jackie first donned a Brooklyn Dodger uniform, he pioneered the integration of professional athletics in America. By breaking the color barrier in baseball, the nation's preeminent sport, he courageously challenged the deeply rooted custom of racial segregation in both the North and the South. Rickey made it clear and told Robinson, “It’ll be tough. You’re going to take douse you never dreamed of. But if you are willing to try, I’ll back you all the way.” And Rickey was right.

Racial slurs from the crowd and members of his own team, as well as from opponents, were standard fare. During one game as a Dodger, Robinson was up to bat and the crowd started yelling racial slurs and throwing debris on the field. He had booted two ground balls and the boos were cascading over the diamond. In full view of thousands of spectators, Pee Wee Reese, the team captain and Dodger shortstop, walked over and put his arm around Jackie right in the middle of the game. “That may have saved my career,” Robinson reflected later. “Pee Wee made me feel that I belonged.”

At the end of Robinson's rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he had become National League Rookie of the Year with 12 homers, a league-leading 29 steals, and a .297 average. In 1949, he was selected as the NL's Most Valuable player of the Year and also won the batting title with a .342 average that same year. As a result of his great success, Jackie was eventually inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.

The power of belonging, of being part of a team, enables us to conquer and win.