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Your lifesaving tax-deductible gift to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF will be matched $1-for-$1, doubling your impact that will help save children’s lives. |
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Escalating violence in Syria and Iraq. Hunger and near-famine levels in South Sudan. Ebola still spreading in West Africa. This year’s emergencies are completely unprecedented, and there are countless children in peril. UNICEF is racing to save them – but we need your help. Thankfully, we have some good news: Until midnight December 31 every dollar you give will be automatically doubled, up to $1 million thanks to an anonymous group of donors. It’s the single, largest matching gift this year, and it came just in time. Donate before midnight on December 31 and every dollar you give will be doubled – 100% of your gift is tax-deductible. You + UNICEF = relief on a massive scale. UNICEF can deliver lifesaving relief, to any child, almost anywhere in the world, in just 72 hours. All that’s needed is your help, and UNICEF can rush:
You and other supporters like you have helped kids beat terrible odds like this before. When famine threatened countless children in the Horn of Africa in 2011, UNICEF treated 1 million children with therapeutic food. Those kids are alive today because you and others believed that we could make a difference – even when the odds felt overwhelming. Let’s help kids beat the odds again this holiday season. With gratitude, Caryl M Stern |
2015 and kids
moneytalksnews.com posted
Things kids born in 2015 may never know
1. The post office. Instead of email, someone used to come all the way to your house just to drop a bunch of ads into a box on the front porch. This service was a big money loser.
2. Parking meters. There was a time when you had to pay for parking by putting coins into a little steel box on a pole.
3. Bank tellers. People used to visit a bank branch to make deposits and withdrawals. What a lot of effort expended on something that can be done digitally in mere seconds with no travel involved.
4. Paper statements. Trees used to give their lives so that those who refused to go digital could get bills and other statements in the mail. (See No. 1.)
5. Paper checks. While it was illegal to make your own paper money, it was OK to write an amount of money on a piece of ordinary paper. Once you signed it, it somehow magically became the same as money.
6. Cable TV. Before universal Wi-Fi, there used to be a wire running from downtown to bring entertainment into the house. Judging by the price, you’d have thought it contained a cure for cancer.
7. Toll booths. Before they started charging tolls by taking a picture of your license plate, you had to stop at a booth and either throw money in a basket or hand it to someone. They were kind of like phone booths on the turnpike.
8. Phone booths. Before everyone had wireless phones, there used to be little glass rooms on street corners where you’d go in and use coins to make a call. For some people, they also doubled as bathrooms.
9. Newspapers. In days before everyone had computers in their pockets, printing presses made paper versions of websites. People would then drive around and throw them on your lawn.
10. Car keys. Cars had keys you’d insert into a keyhole in the doors and dashboard to unlock and start the car. Sometimes you’d lock them in, then try to retrieve them with a coat hanger. Other people would stop and try to help.
11. Bookstores. A retail store where you’d go to buy books.
12. Books. There used to be a physical version of e-books made out of paper.
13. DVDs. Before movies were delivered online, they came on discs you’d stick into your computer or a player attached to your TV.
14. Incandescent lighting. This kind of light bulb didn’t last as long or cost as much as LED lighting, but it had a nice glow to it.
15. Fax machines. These devices transmitted a piece of paper to another fax machine anywhere in the world. It worked over phone lines.
16. Phone lines. Before wireless, calls were carried on wires. Like power wires, they were strung everywhere and stopped working during snow and ice storms.
17. Non-digital picture frames. There was a time when a picture frame could only display one picture at a time, so you needed a frame for every picture. Some were better looking than the picture they contained.
18. Cursive handwriting. You’d pick up a pen or pencil and actually write things by hand. Not only that, but the letters of each word were all connected in such a way that it was often impossible to decipher.
19. Camcorders. Before HD video cameras became standard in phones, you had to buy a separate device if you wanted video selfies.
20. Blind dates. In the days before dating websites, people were forced to meet one another any way they could, including being introduced to friends of friends. It was awkward, because there was no way to IM, text, exchange pics or otherwise communicate before actually meeting. The people you met this way usually weren’t as good looking as you.
21. Talking to one person at a time. Before pocket computers, you weren’t required to stay in constant communication via text. Nor was it customary to let everyone you’d ever met know where you were and what you were doing via Facebook. As a result, you’d often find yourself forced to communicate solely with the people in front of you.
22. Driving a car. Before self-driving cars, you had to do it all: gas, brakes, mirrors, turn signals, talk on the phone, text, put on makeup and eat, all at the same time.
23. Setting a thermostat. Before “The Internet of Things,” you had to manually set the temperature in your house.
24. Forgetting someone’s name. Before Google Glass came along, we had to recognize faces all by ourselves and remember their personal information.
25. Buying music. Before Pandora, Spotify and Songza, we bought our music one song or album at a time and built collections.
Can you add to the list?
If you can think of more things babies born in 2015 might never experience or know, or if you disagree with some of the things I’ve listed here, let me hear from you. Leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.
This article was originally published on MoneyTalksNews.com as ’25 Things Babies Born in 2015 May Never Know’.
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A Year in Review
A responsible end to the war in Afghanistan. A historic agreement to combat climate change. A strong pace of job growth that we haven’t seen since the 1990s.
And those are just a few of the achievements for President Obama and the American people this year.
As 2014 comes to a close, we put together some highlights from the past year — historic accomplishments, economic milestones, and unforgettable behind-the-scenes moments. We even got Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to tell us his own favorite moments from the year.
Take a look at our year in review — and share these highlights with your friends and family.
The Faces of Health Care: Tricia T.
Tricia wrote the President to share the impact that the Affordable Care Act has made on her life. Read her story here.
On Christmas Day, President Obama Thanks Troops in Hawaii for Their Extraordinary Service
On Christmas Day, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dropped in on service members in Kaneohe, Hawaii to thank them for their “extraordinary service on behalf of our country.”
Happy Holidays from the President and First Lady
In this week’s address, the President and First Lady wished Americans a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, and thanked our brave troops for their service.
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A Better Balance
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U.S. and Cuba
Yesterday, after more than 50 years, we began to change America’s relationship with the people of Cuba.
We are recognizing the struggle and sacrifice of the Cuban people, both in the U.S. and in Cuba, and ending an outdated approach that has failed to advance U.S. interests for decades. In doing so, we will begin to normalize relations between our two countries.
I was born in 1961, just over two years after Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, and just as the U.S. severed diplomatic relations with that country.
Our complicated relationship with this nation played out over the course of my lifetime — against the backdrop of the Cold War, with our steadfast opposition to communism in the foreground. Year after year, an ideological and economic barrier hardened between us.
That previous approach failed to promote change, and it’s failed to empower or engage the Cuban people. It’s time to cut loose the shackles of the past and reach for a new and better future with this country.
I want you to know exactly what our new approach will mean.
First, I have instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to immediately begin discussions with Cuba to re-establish diplomatic relations that have been severed since 1961. Going forward, we will re-establish an embassy in Havana, and high-ranking officials will once again visit Cuba.
Second, I have also instructed Secretary Kerry to review Cuba’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism — a review guided by the facts and the law. At a time when we are focused on threats from ISIL and al Qaeda, a nation that meets our conditions and renounces terrorism should not face such a sanction.
Third, we’ll take steps to increase travel, commerce, and the flow of information to — and from — Cuba. These steps will make it easier for Americans to travel to Cuba. They will make it easier for Americans to conduct authorized trade with Cuba, including exports of food, medicine, and medical products to Cuba. And they will facilitate increased telecommunications connections between our two countries: American businesses will be able to sell goods that enable Cubans to communicate with the United States and other countries.
Learn more about the steps we’re taking to change our policy.
These changes don’t constitute a reward or a concession to Cuba. We are making them because it will spur change among the people of Cuba, and that is our main objective.
Change is hard — especially so when we carry the heavy weight of history on our shoulders.
Our country is cutting that burden loose to reach for a better future.
Thank you,
President Barack Obama
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