Did you know that our generation of children today - for the first time in the history of America - has a life expectancy that is shorter than their parents?
We hear about alarming reports, from "diabetes and asthma in children on the rise" and "why is there so many obese children today" to "children in preschool ages treated for stress related diseases" and "suicide rates on the rise for children in middle school age".
What is going on? I will tell you what's going on.

First, I want you to think about this;
We are all worried about what the future has in store for us and the next generation. While my grandmother gave birth to 7 children and was just like every other woman of her generation, there's friends of my children today, telling me that they do not want to have children ever, out of fear of what kind of future they will have, out of knowledge (or perception) that the world we live in is just too polluted in every meaning of that word.

So like I said, we are all worried about what the future has in store for us and the next generation. What are we going to do about it? Or should I say what ARE we doing about it? Who should we turn to, what CAN we do?
I know this is going to sound like a cliche but I believe that the future is in our children, and we need to focus on them. They are tomorrows leaders, they are going to make decisions, and they are going to take care of us when that day comes, or they might just NOT take care of us right?

We need to teach them differently. We need to show them a different outlook on things.

Today the reality is that we are feeding them with unhealthy foods filled with preservatives and additives that often leads to cancer and almost always leads to obesity. I am talking about the foods that are the staples of our society as well as the foods we present them in the school cafeterias. From the beginning, in preschool and kindergarten our children are rewarded with CANDY of all things. Who allowed THAT to go through, and why is that now a common reward in our public schools? Then, we rob then from getting the release and exercice they need by cutting classes like Art and P.E. To top it off, we make rules like "No Running"
(That alone is insane - how can you tell a growing child with an explosion of energy inside, and a body made to be used - not to RUN around outside???!!! It's just beyond me)
And if they get in trouble for some reason, while on recess, they are punished by having to sit on a bench until it's time to go back inside - it doesn't take a genious to figure out that these children are not going to sit still and perform in whatever's going on in class after that!

We all remember Columbine. There's an increase in children whom does not love themselves, therefore are not capable of loving others. Our children are being brainwashed by the media, by movies and music that are focusing on viloence and prejudice, judgment and hate. It seems to me that when I think back and look at the way my grandmother told me her childhood was like, that we are going in the wrong direction today. We were right when we started changing things and making things better, but we have gone too far towards the other side of the scale. The younger generation of today seems to be a majority of lazy, self centered, indulgent, unhealthy people that demands to be entertained at all times. I am not blaming the youth, they are just a product of what we created.

The schools alone are not to have all the blame for the mess we are in today, a lot of it starts at home with bad habits of an unhealthy diet and too much t.v. and computer games, etc.
There's been so much focus on "freedom" in this country that there's no control on what is going on behind closed doors where children are raised. We've all heard the horror stories of adopted children as well, where there was supposed to BE some kind of "control" of the situation.
And we all can agree on the fact that any "idiot" excuse my expression, can have children. Americans are able to bring their babies and toddlers to R-rated movies in the theaters if they so want to. It's part of our "freedom" in this country. I think it's wrong. If the parents are not intelligent enough to understand that this is damaging to their young brains, then we need some rules to regulate it so that at least it won't be allowed in public! I mean, what they choose to show them of video's at home is one thing, but we can have rules of what's appropriate ages of the different movies being showed at the movie theaters.

I'm slightly getting off my track here because I just wanted to make you think about these things.

Back to my dream. I dream of a New School System that teaches them the basic things needed to become a functioning, strong, self thinking individual. They shouldn't need to want to become a doctor in order to learn the basic physiology of the body, and first aid. They shouldn't have to want to become a mechanic in order to understand the basics of how a car runs and is maintained. They shouldn't have to want to become a priest just to get to know about the different belief systems in the world. They shouldn't have to want to become a psychologist or diplomat in order to learn the basics of the mind and how it works, and interrelations between humans. All schools would have a swimming pool and the students to use it regularly. And nobody would have to stand up and pledge any allegience either. THAT is brainwashing if I ever saw it.

The curriculum would consist of things like psychology, compassion, self value, healing, alternative medicine, meditation, information about the different religions in the world, they would also learn survival techniques, first aid and also boy scout stuff like how to start a fire and and of course art in all forms, all the things we've complained about as we started our adult lives that: "Nobody thought us that in school" Well, WHY NOT??!!! When it is valuable information and knowledge that can change our society in a broader picture?! A broader picture. "The big picture".
Let's look at that for a second.

What would our world be like if our children, from an early age would learn about these things? Don't you think it would be different? What if instead of trying to squeeze every individual into a square box, and make them feel stupid and inadecuate when they don't fit the box - what if instead, we let every individual reach the best of THEIR OWN potential? Can you imagine? Wow, we would raise a generation of happy, complete individuals that would be capable of reaching the top within the fields they perform best in. A generation of strong, healthy souls that care about others in the whole world. What do you think that would do to our society?
I know one thing, their bumper stickers would not say "God Bless America" they would say "God Bless Humanity" Other would instead of bragging about their student of the month, (or a student that can beat up YOUR best student of the month - what is THAT all about) instead would be informing about an organisation that people could join to improve something in the world.

We need to educate our youth about what's good and what solutions can be made, instead of bombarding them with bad news and reminding them of negative stuff that happened generations before them, just out of our own fear that "we don't want it to ever happen again". Well if that's our concern, let's stop focusing on it! We all know by now that what we focus on, we create more of - so let's focus on what's GOOD and see what results we get. I think we need to start showing nothing but good news on t.v. for a while. Imagine what THAT would do!

Again, I am sliding off the tracks a bit in my attempts to cast light on the big picture of our reality.

World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Appeal February 2007

THE FUTURE OF WTCQD IS IN DANGER, AND IS IN YOUR HANDS - WTCQD T-SHIRTS ARE THE KEY!! -- Organizing a Global Event is Expensive -- WTCQD's Growth has Increased Costs -- Our Efforts to Promote and Refer Students and Media to Local Groups and Schools -- One Tai Chi Teacher Suggested, if this is a burden to me, why don't I quit World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Supporters The continuance of this global healing event is in jeopardy. It depends on funding from you. I am writing all the World Tai Chi & Qigong Day participating groups with a personal appeal. Please read this and pass it on to others in your group or area who participate in World Tai Chi & Qigong Day. Only about 30% of the people on our list actually open our emails, so we DEPEND on you to forward this email to every Tai Chi and Qigong enthusiast, school, teacher, etc. that you know. There is a FORWARDING feature in this email you can use. First, I want to personally thank each of you who has put so much work into making this global health & healing event possible. Together we've contributed to the well being of our entire planet. We have a crisis. WTCQD has been a leader on google in the "tai chi" catagory for years sending hundreds of thousands of new people to tai chi & qigong schools and teachers worldwide. For some reason, google has now bumped www.worldtaichiday.org, and its Directory sending people to your schools, off its top ten Tai Chi sites. I went thru the top 80 sites, and couldn't find www.worldtaichiday.org which leads people to your classes locally. This is a staggering set back. We must find other ways to promote your local work and classes through advertising, that cannot be bumped. It is important that you know why Official World Tai Chi & Qigong Day T-SHIRTS are important to us, and to your local efforts. You can view and order Official WTCQD T-Shirts at: http://www.smartaichi.com/WTCQDTshirtDispPg.html [Be sure to remove any blank spaces in above URL when pasting it in your internet browser.]

Organizing a Global Event is Expensive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~My wife, Angela, and I have literally invested our life savings into creating a vehicle for Tai Chi and Qigong lovers worldwide to celebrate, educate, and build interest in these health & healing arts. Initially when interest exploded in this event, we recieved requests from schools and groups worldwide who wished to be listed on our website as part of the global event. At that time I did not know how to build a website. So, I had to hire a webmaster to update each listing. I believed in this, as did my wife, so we bit the bullet and spent our precious savings to keep this global effort growing. We decided that we would keep this effort free to all, so that it could grow . . . limitlessly. You can view World Tai Chi & QG Day T-SHIRTs here...

WTCQD's Growth has Increased Costs As World Tai Chi & Qigong Day grew, it became impossible not to hire a professional email service. We pay a monthly fee for this. We created forums, hiring a service so that Tai Chi teachers, and health professionals, and those with chronic ailments could share information. We pay monthly fees for these, and other services. We'd like to do even more! Each year we've spent thousands of dollars to help generate media worldwide. I know that when local groups send out Press Releases for your local WTCQD events, it seems like you got the media on your own. However, our endless faxes and phone bills, and printing costs, and mailing costs to hammer the media locally, regionally, and nationally has played a role in your ability to gain media attention for your efforts. . . . I once saw an image of Buddhist Heaven and Buddhist Hell, which made profound sense to me. In the first image of Hell, a group of people sat around a steaming pot of stew, emaciated and starving to death, because their chopsticks were too long to get into their mouths. In the second image of Heaven, they all sat full and satisfied, because they'd learned to reach across the pot with their long chopsticks . . . and "feed one another." View Official WTCQD T-Shirts at ...

Our Efforts to Promote and Refer Students and Media to Local Groups and Schools  Our free Organizing Kits, Media Kits, and hundreds of hours of research to provide a comprehensive free Medical Research Library, have helped groups worldwide gain more students for their classes. IN FACT, our endless efforts creating researched medical source articles on Tai Chi and Qigong, and our ongoing media efforts have brought, just in the last year since Jan. 1, 2006 . . . 42,802 people to schools listed in our free SCHOOLS DIRECTORY. If every teacher who gained a new student sent us $1 for every new student directed to them through our work here . . . WTCQD would have $42,802 to operate with. Imagine what we could do for the Tai Chi and Qigong world with such funding. But, we're not asking for donations. [ALTHOUGH IF YOU KNOW OF MAJOR FUNDERS WHO CAN SUPPORT THIS EFFORT, WE BELIEVE IN IT ENOUGH TO ACCEPT SUCH FUNDING] But, we'd rather provide a lovely, meaningful vehicle for you to spread the word about Tai Chi and Qigong, and to raise funds for your local efforts. Yes, from the beginning we dedicated ourselves to keeping WTCQD "free for all." Our World Tai Chi & Qigong Day Official T-Shirts were created in the hope that we could: A) Grow this global health & healing movement and world awareness of Tai Chi and Qigong exponentially. B) and yes, my wife and I would like to recoup just a bit of the massive investment we've made in creating a FREE global outreach mechanism to support groups, teachers and schools worldwide. and C) Provide a vehicle for local groups to help fund their local health & healing educational work. Every day we spend time working to keep this effort going. We get calls and emails from people worldwide seeking schools in their area, which we send them to. Not to our Kansas City classes, but to other schools worldwide. This effort has often been a full time job for us. As the South China Morning Post pointed out, my wife and I spent $2,000 US dollars (just in one month) on our telephone bill alone, sending out faxes to media . . . not to promote our local Kansas City classes, but to promote media attention for schools worldwide ( nationally & internationally).

One Tai Chi Teacher Suggested, if this is a burden to me, why don't I quit ?

Once when trying to convey the investment of time and money World Tai Chi & Qigong Day organizing has imposed on me and my family, one Tai Chi teacher suggested, "if this is a burden to you, why don't you quit?"

Yes, that is an option. However, I've felt since the beginning this event was important. I've felt it was important to support the work you all are doing out there.

LET ME EXPLAIN. Both my parents died of stress disease years ago. I tried to teach Tai Chi and Qigong to both of them, with a bit of success. But, in the end, because they had no physician or popular magazines, or television re-enforcing what I was telling them . . . they didn't keep up with their practice.

They both died of heart disease within months of one another. Heart disease, we all know, from reading the medical research we've worked so hard to catalogue and distribute to media, healthcare, and the public . . . disease that Tai Chi and Qigong may have saved them from.

The night before my mother unexpectedly died in a routine angioplasty procedure, she had a premonition of her impending death. She wrote a note the night before she died, that my sister found in a book I'd loaned her. I'd loaned her my copy of The Tao Te Ching to read in her hospital room that night.

The note she left had a personal message for me. It read, "I wish I could go back a few years and learn the arts of relaxation you tried to teach me for a longer life. I so would have loved to see my grandchildren grow up."

So, yes, I could quit, as that Tai Chi teacher suggested I should. But, my heart tells me we can do great things together. I believe this movement can grow so much more rapidly if it remains a free organization, with no dues, and free resources.

This can only happen with your support. The Official World Tai Chi & Qigong Day T-SHIRTS, were a hope that we could help local groups and schools use them to raise money, using the T-Shirts as local fundraisers, but could also support our efforts here.

This week and beyond, we'll be sending out Press Releases to media worldwide. We'll be working full time . . . for little pay. We'll be encouraging media to contact other schools in other cities that we have no financial stake in. Because we believe in what you do.

If you believe in what we do, let us know. If you can use our Official T-Shirts as a local fundraiser, you'll be contributing to a global health & healing event that has been nothing less than a miracle.

Togther we have gained official recognition for our efforts from 18 US Governors, senates and mayors of various states and nations. We've gained recognition from the United Nations World Health Organization, the US Department of Heatlh & Human Services, Australian government agencies, and other health organizations worldwide.

We've gained media attention including Brazilian National Television, Dutch National Television, the BBC, CNN, FOX News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Omsk Russia's Weekly News, The South China Morning Post, etc. etc.

Imagine what we could do if schools worldwide that participate in our events, use our Organizing Kits, our Media Kits, our Medical Research, and benefit from our annual media work . . . all used our Official WTCQD T-SHIRTS as local fundraisers.

If our nearly 10 years of dedicated service to the Tai Chi and Qigong community doesn't prove our efforts are sincere . . . I'm not sure what will.

Again, we created the Official T-Shirts because we did not want to be a burden to participating groups and schools, but rather provide them a meaningful opportunity to raise local funds. And we wanted to keep all the WTCQD resources free.

Thank you all for your efforts to create local events that have been historic and profound. I hope our efforts on a national and international level have been helpful.

You can view or order Official WTCQD 2007 T-Shirts at:

http://www.smartaichi.com/WTCQDTshirtDispPg.html
[Please be sure and remove any blank spaces in the above URL when pasting it into your internet browser window.]

REMEMBER, YOU CAN STILL GET THE LOWER T-SHIRT RATES, BY ORDERING BY FEB. 13TH, prices raise slightly after that. [We get a better price bulk ordering all at once, which is why pre-11th orders are less.]