Drink More Coffee

Ok so I got an earfull the other day. It wasn't anything I had done wrong, but every now and then my wife works an overnight shift at the local children's hospital. One would think that working with kids even sick kids would be an uplifting experiance, but when you have a floor where half a dozen of your patients that night are labled "non-accidental Trauma" it is hard to remain upbeat, and when she comes home I serve as the outlet. "Non-accidental Trauma" is a steril way of saying that mom or dad beat their toddler or infant nearly to death. How someone can throw an infant against a wall, or hit their own child in the back of the head so hard that his eyeballs explode, or otherwise bludgon a child to the point that the bleeding in their head causes the brain to swell leading to brain damage and a life on the ventilator, is completely beyond me. But apparently it is not that uncommon.



Many of these children, simply die. And in many cases this is a blessing. Still many of them live as vegitables or in constant pain at least long enough for their parent to be charged with the lesser crime of child abuse rather than murder.



Some of them survive and regain some degree of functionality, and yes some do recover completely from their wounds, and if they are luckey find a loving home that will take them.



So I hear these stories a lot, and I usually become mad enough that sit around and contemplate ways to get even with people who do these things, and invision myself as some crazed vigilanti. Unfortunately, I have no way of tracking these people down, and even if I did there would be legal issues to contend with. All this is topped off by the fact that I am probably not strong enough to pull off what I would want to do. The way I see it, any worthless, sissy-faced pansy can throw a 13 month old at a wall, but I would have a little more difficulty throwing an adult hard enough to cause his brain to hemorage on impact. So as all these fantasy of being some sort of masked avenger fade into a pile of logistical problems, I have to focus on what I can do.



And what I can do, is drink more Coffee.

Not long after we started this business we started our Koffee for Kids program. The idea was origionally that we would give $1 for every bag of coffee we sold to the Home of the Innocents. When we got around to sending that first payment (aproximately $3) it was just impossible to send a $3 check so we sent one for about $20 instead. Sales have picked up slightly since then, and we finally gave in and just said we would give 100% of the profits, but every time I go to write the check, it doesn't seem like it is enough, so despite our advertised 100% of profits, we usually come in well above that. I just sent in our payment for our march sales, and realized we still have yet to have a month were we send over $100 from coffee sales. In my book this falls roughly between pathetic and shamefull, especially considering that most of the kids I talked about in the first part of this eventually end up at Home of the Innocents. So I am going to drink more coffee. It would be awesome if everyone else bought a buch of coffee too, but it would be even cooler if they just sent a bunch of money to the home. (www.homeoftheinnocents.org)

If all this just sounds like one big guilt trip, please know that I am not intending to guilt everyone, I am just letting you in on the guilt I have been having every time I hear one of these stories. Any letting you know why I am sitting here at 10:30 at night drinking decaf.