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They Plan To Set Up Their Own Country. Are You In?
Here’s their plan.Step 1: Grab some territory.Step 2: Write a constitution.Step 3: Set up a government.Step 4: Get recognition.Are you in?
11.24.14
Five new stories this week that restore our faith in humanity.
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Need a timeline cleanse? Of course you do. No matter what kind of week you’re having, we bet these five feel-good news snippets will leave you smiling.
This week we’re celebrating:
This Texas woman's breastfeeding superpower
Alyse Ogletree / The Guardian
Texas mom Alyse Ogletree isn’t able to give away money to good causes—so she’s managed to donate something much harder to come by: breastmilk. Ogletree has selflessly donated a record amount of breastmilk (over 700 gallons!) to nourish thousands of premature and medically-fragile babies. Superwoman!
More wishes granted for children fighting critical illnesses
Make-A-Wish® supports kids and families facing critical illnesses, granting “wishes” unique to each child—everything from meeting a celebrity to redesigning their bedroom. Subaru is proud to have helped grant more than 3,600 wishes for kids in need through the Subaru Share the Love Event®. Even better? From now until January 2, Subaru is donating at least $300 to charities like Make-A-Wish® with every new Subaru purchased or leased.
A plane full of strangers helps a struggling single mom
@notaregularnanny Sobbing crying making this video ❤️🩹🥲 my faith in humanity was restored after this whole experience #ittakesavillage #myvillage #motherhood #solotravel #solomom #travelingwithkids #stranded #momsoftiktok #faithinhumanityrestored ♬ Outro by m83 - 𝙡𝙤𝙡𝙖
When her flight was canceled, Gabrielle G., a 27-year-old single parent, boarded a flight back home to Florida with her 18-month-old son. Traveling solo with a toddler is a daunting task—but in a now-viral video, Gabrielle shares how a slew of helpful strangers made the trip bearable, offering their seats and entertaining her son while her plane was stuck on the tarmac for hours. More of this, please, humanity!
This bald eagle's new foster baby
World Bird Sanctuary
When a large, male bald eagle started guarding something on the ground at the World Bird Sanctuary in Missouri, keepers discovered that he had become fiercely protective over a rock. Thinking it was an egg, the eagle, named Murphy, began sitting on it, nudging it, and guarding it protectively (which is classic male eagle behavior, his keepers say, as they share equally in bird-raising and have a strong paternal instinct).
Months later, an eagle chick was brought to the sanctuary after surviving a fall from its nest. When keepers put the baby bird and Murphy in the same enclosure, Murphy’s fatherly instincts kicked into high gear, feeding the baby himself. Now, Murphy has a baby of his very own.
These hilarious animal interviews
In a stunning feat of investigative journalism (lol), YouTuber Maya Higa started a series titled “Tiny Mic Interviews,” where she approaches animals at the ZooToYou Conservation Ambassadors with a tiny microphone and asks them the burning questions we all want to know, including “Can I please touch your snoot?” and “What’s your favorite thing about being a capybara?”
Higa “translates” their answers into text on screen, and the results are adorable. BRB, watching this series all day.
For more ways to smile, check out how Subaru is sharing the love this holiday season.
17-month-old saves himself after falling in pool
There's nearly nothing more terrifying than your small child falling into a body of water when you're not looking. It's something that parents have nightmares about while some parents are left grieving that nightmare becoming reality. Accidents around pools are very common, resulting in massive public safety announcements about ways to keep kids safe around bodies of water.
There are initiatives ranging from discouraging parents from using Puddle Jumpers to making sure parents know to avoid putting blue bathing suits on children. Blue bathing suits makes it harder for people to see if a child has gone under water and the popular Puddle Jumpers give kids false confidence and teaches them improper form for swimming. But one of the most important message to parents has been to make sure your children know basic water safety skills and learn to swim.
Typically when small children fall into a pool while briefly unsupervised they panic causing them to quickly become submerged, sinking to the bottom of the pool. The drowning child is then only rescued if a parent, caregiver, older sibling or family dog sees them and jumps into action. But for one San Diego family, their 17-month old knew exactly what to do when he was running by the pool and fell inside. The entire thing was caught on home surveillance camera, piquing interest in the life saving swim lessons.
girl in white tank top on swimming pool during daytime
Photo by Rendy Novantino on Unsplash
Little Frankie had been taking Infant Self Rescue (ISR) water safety training for months where the instructor teaches babies how to prepare for falling into water before righting themselves and floating. Watching the video you can see the training immediately kick in as the boy realizes he's going into the water. He immediately takes a deep breath as he's falling. While his little feet were above his head he didn't panic, he maneuvered his body until he could safely turn over to take a breath.
The baby floats on his back until his father sees him. Frankie's dad runs to his side only to stop for a minute in shock that his son was perfectly fine. He saved himself from a possible deadly situation by doing exactly what he was taught to do through those survival swim lessons.
boy in red t-shirt playing with water
Photo by Yianni Mathioudakis on Unsplash
"I immediately thought, 'oh my gosh, he did exactly what he was taught to do," Frankie's mom says in part to Fox 5 San Diego. "He did what he was supposed to do and those lessons were invaluable."
The instructor for the ISR classes says he has been inundated with class sign ups after the story of Frankie got out. Witnessing the training save a small child in a real-life situation that could've ended in tragedy encouraged parents to take this type of training more seriously. Thanks to the toddler's months of training, falling into the pool didn't cause him any fear around falling into the pool. The little guy might have thought it was just another part of his training, especially since his dad didn't panic and pulled the boy out of the pool quickly.
ISR lessons can be cost prohibitive but community centers and places like the YMCA offer swim lessons for people of all ages, including infants. They're not the same type of lessons but they all teach water safety, including floating. Learning how to be comfortable in and around water to include some basic water survival skills will help children have safer experiences around water.
In act of kindness Louisiana church returns land to Indigenous tribe
In recent years the Land Back Movement has come into public consciousness, it doesn't always necessarily mean physically return the land, but to return the stewardship of the land. Some Indigenous communities work with local government officials to care for the land in a way that will restore lost ecosystems and help the land thrive.
But in some recent instances, land has been physically returned to the local Indigenous communities. One example of physically returning land is California's governor Gavin Newsom returning 2,820 acres of ancestral land to the Shasta Indian Nation in Northwestern California. This move will help restore the natural environment to the area and allow the Shasta members to access sacred ceremonial ground.
a body of water surrounded by lush green trees
Photo by Michael Sanchez on Unsplash
In Louisiana a small Indigenous community acquired some of their ancestral lands after the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana started working with the Takapa Ishaq Chawasha tribe to protect the coastline with recycled oyster shells. But in order to move forward with their project they need to know who owns the property. After some searching, the group discovers the coastal area known as Lemon Tree Mound is owned by St. Pauls Episcopal Church.
A parishioner willed the land to the church after his death in the 80s and after the discovery that the land previously belonged to the tribe, the church has recently given it back.
Indigenous People Thanksgiving GIF by INTO ACTIONGiphy
"We at the Episcopal church have strong commitments these days to restorative justice and to creation care. Maybe it's been a while in coming but better late than never," St. Paul's vestry member Greg Williams shares with WUVE Fox 8.
It's not just the local tribe that is excited for the land to be returned but their sister tribes have been expressing their excitement as well, tribal member Rosina Philippe tells the station, "even some of our sister tribes, you know. I got emails from different people saying, you know, doing that AH YEE YEE YEE YEE YEE in the email, spelling it out knowing that they're rejoicing and dancing with us."
The church leaders say they never hesitated to with the thought of giving the church back to the Indigenous tribe, calling the act "a very small thing" for the church. But that small act for the church was a huge thing for the Indigenous community in Louisiana.
"We're filled with gratitude first of all, and we're rejoicing to be connected to the land, to be tied into the land and you know, to have the land returned to the tribe. It's a rematriation, so connecting the tribe back to mother earth is more significant. You know, in that respect they may think it's a little thing but to us it's one of the best things that the church could ever have done. We're rejoicing. We're so very, very happy. It's a very big thing, a big thing," Phillipe says.
While the lemon trees are long gone, the oral history of how the land helped feed their ancestors and served as higher ground during flooding has been a memory passed down for generations. Since the land has been in the hands of the tribe for care, the recycled oysters used to build a barrier to protect the land's edge has grown coral and new oysters are beginning to thrive.