Lisa Harris McLean
Author from Seadrift

Now available in paperback as of Oct 4th, 2015 featuring 100+ short stories from women in 5 countries.

Hot Pink Publishing announces the official release of Chocolate and Diamonds for the Woman’s Soul, a compilation of stories featuring women from all over the world who wrote their story and took part in a unique mentoring system developed by Hot Pink. The company’s motto is “No Woman Left Behind” allowing the anthologies to provide an inexpensive manner of becoming an author.
Lisa Harris McLean who resides in Seadrift, Texas  is one of the American authors who wrote a chapter entitled “ Legacy “  in the book.

Starting in the spring of 2015, over 100 women brought their stories to the world. Each week the writers had the opportunity to be coached in mindset and writing skills. The writing team learned about social media marketing, grammar and modern publishing. Each story within creates an emotional impact, so be prepared to cry. When you open the book, it’s like unwrapping a little magic because each story contains a little bit of you.

Lisa Harris McLean

Lisa is an entrepreneur, teen life coach, wife, mother and advocate for girls worldwide. Her passion to empower girls inspired her to create a business that offers mentoring services, events and educational trips for girls & women called D.I.V.A Girl. (www.Divagirls.org)  D.I.V.A  Girl is an extension of her belief that every girl has a talent and purpose which can be discovered through guidance and exposure to real life experiences. Mentoring and supporting youth programs for over 25 years, she has worked with youth and teens in many community based programs, as well as hosting Youth & Teen Dances and Chamber of Commerce sponsored pageants in her community throughout the year in Seadrift, Texas.

As the President of the National Teen Chapter of Wealthy Sisters Network, she offers resources to empower girls and their caregivers. Lisa hosts virtual workshops for parents and caregivers of girls 11-17 years old featuring guest panelists who share their resources along with their valuable knowledge with others worldwide.

With her education, experience and natural talent to connect with youth, Lisa has touched the lives of many girls. Her programs, events and travel opportunities were developed and facilitated with the intention of enhancing the lives of each girl she reached. The love of exploring the world around her; lead her to host numerous local day excursions as well as national and international travel opportunities for girls. Her work continues to empower girls of today who will be strong, abundant women of tomorrow.

To contact Lisa or purchase a signed copy of the book visit her website: www.Teencoachdiva.com

Students in Ms. Peter’s Port O’Connor Kindergarten class learn about the five senses. They sampled lemons to learn how the sense of taste works. These are their sour faces.

B.O.A.S. at Port O’Connor School: Justice Epley (on left- 3rd Grade) and Carter Clark (on right – 5th Grade)

B.O.A.S
By: Gage Spencer, Port O’Connor School Fifth Grade
On Wednesday, September 23, we had writing buddies. That is when the 3rd graders come to our class room or we go to theirs. We talk about things that are important to our writing, because we all want to become better writers. This Wednesday we learned about the four main conjunctions: but, or, and, and so. That stands for B.O.A.S.
When we started working on the papers we wrote in puzzle pieces to show that they were connecting the sentences to make a compound sentence. When we were working we got to wear a feather boa. (Not a boa constrictor.) We went to the carpet and talked to the teachers (Mrs. Haynes and Miss. Dryden) about the sentences we made.
When it was time to go the teachers took up the boas but there were feathers everywhere! I had to roll around because the feathers would stick to my shirt. And that’s what happened in writing buddies.

“The Way I See It’ is an attempt by the columnist to enlighten readers on a subject as he views it,
and does not necessarily reflect the views of this publication.

More Anti-Gun Laws?

In the wake of the Oregon shooting, Obama immediately used it as an excuse for more anti-gun laws. This time he has threatened to use “Executive Action”, his buzz-word for dictatorship. Like most Liberals, he can’t seem to grasp the simple concept that criminals and crazies don’t obey gun laws. If draconian gun laws actually worked to prevent crime, Chicago, Obama’s “hometown”, should be one of the safest places on earth.

In Chicago during 2014, 2619 people were shot by criminals. The only “good news” is their firearm competency is rather low, because 2229 were wounded, only 390 killed. See: http://heyjackass.com/category/2014-chicago-crime-murder-stats/ On average, that is someone shot every 3 hours and 19 minutes, and killed every 19 hours and 12 minutes.

Also the Chicago Police Dept killed 17 criminals and wounded 28. Al least their accuracy is better, but nothing to brag about. Their 2014 Homicide clearance rate was 144 suspects charged, 7 murder/suicides, and 5 ruled self-defense. 286 murders had no suspect charged.

For multi-victim shootings they had one with 7 victims, 4 with 6 vics, 4 with 5, 20 with 4, 74 with 3, and 284 with 2 victims. They don’t even bother with statistics on shootings that aren’t fatal.

Obviously anti-gun laws are NOT the answer. Perhaps enforcing the ones we have, on the criminals that ignore them, might work better. Many of these shooting are gang related, but police are not allowed to “profile” gang-bangers because that might be ‘racist’. Black people pay a dear price to fight this possible ‘racism’. 78.1% of the murdered victims were black, 14.8% Hispanic, and only 7.1% white/other. The “known shooters” were given as 68.8% black, 11.1% Hispanic, and 8.3% white/other with 11.8% done by police.

The population of Chicago is approximately 2.7 million, which means their shootings are 97 per 100,000 and firearms homicides 14.4 per 100,000. There were also 70 more homicides by other means for a total homicide rate of 17 per 100,000. The National murder rate for all causes in 2013 was 4.5 per 100,000. For the State of Illinois – 5.5 per 100,000, and ‘gun-crazy’ Texas was 4.5 per 100,000. In Texas we have some cities with areas of high crime rates, but random shooters have a “very limited shelf life”, because many people are armed and the criminals and ‘crazies’ know that.

Anti-gun laws do NOT stop the criminals and crazies, only a “Good Guy (or Gal) with a gun” can do that. The police can not respond quickly to a random shooting, especially in rural areas. The Liberal/Progressive Democrats refuse to recognize that simple fact. There are already 37 Federal gun laws. They only affect and inconvenience law-abiding people, not criminals, and certainly not the crazies.

Mass killings can not be prevented by more anti-gun laws, but possibly could by better supervision of the mentally impaired. The problem is not the guns, but the sociopaths and psychopaths that use them as a means to become “Famous”. The Liberals have insisted on “Mainstreaming” the mentally disabled for over half a century. That coupled with high expectations, low marketable skills, and the “Me!” culture of Facebook and other social sites feeds the psycho’s desire for fame and importance. Doing something incredibly stupid like shooting up a school is guaranteed ‘Instant Fame’. Gun Free Zones give these psychos a ‘Protected Free Fire Zone” to commit their heinous crimes with little chance of their victims to defend themselves.

Hillary Clinton immediately followed Obama in declaring her willingness to institute gun-bans by Executive Decree if she is elected. The Constitution, laws, and the needs of the citizens to defend themselves are all immaterial to these totalitarian elitists. A rational and effective gun law to prevent mass shootings was suggested by: http://www.michellesmirror.com/2015/10/the-only-gun-law-that-will-end-mass.html#.VhfXvq2FOZM

“I know a gun law that will prevent future mass shootings; one that requires every law-abiding citizen over the age of 21 to own, train with, and carry a gun for the express purpose of defending one’s self and the lives of others. Then when some maniac decides to go on a shooting spree then there will only be two casualties and the second one will be the maniac.” Michelle Obama’s Mirror

But a ‘rational and effective’ solution does NOT fit The Agenda. Effective tyranny requires unarmed subjects. That is the true goal of “Gun-Control’. It is mostly about the “control” part.

Furthermore, while trying to disarm law-abiding citizens, Obama has ordered thousands of criminals released from prison for “drug related offenses”. http://www.allenbwest.com/2015/10/while-the-left-freaks-about-your-guns-look-what-its-letting-these-criminals-do/ reports:

“About 6,000 inmates are due to be freed in the coming month, the result of changes made last year to guidelines that provide judges with recommended sentences for specific crimes. The Justice Department says roughly 40,000 inmates could benefit in coming years.

Many of them are small-time drug dealers targeted by an approach to drug enforcement now condemned by many as overly harsh and expensive. But an AP analysis of nearly 100 court cases also found defendants who carried semi-automatic weapons, had past convictions for robbery and other crimes, moved cocaine shipments across states, and participated in international heroin smuggling.”

These criminals were convicted of drug offenses this time, but many are career criminals with violent crime histories. Those people should not be released early. But Obama and the Liberal/Progressives are more concerned over the ‘rights’ of inner-city gang-banger dope-dealers than the citizens’ need for self-defense, which really is a ‘Right’ guaranteed by the Constitution.

My neighbors Parker and Patty are always telling me how proud they are to be a part of Port O Connor, Texas. They say it is a great community and so friendly.

Recently Parker and Patty invited the kids and grandkids to meet at the pancake restaurant for breakfast and then go to the museum. They all arrived and began settling in. They scooted into the booths with three grandkids under 10 sitting at the grownups’ table and four teens taking their own space right next to them. The waitress came and asked for orders at the younger kids table. One was playing with a tablet, one had a handheld game, and one had daddy’s phone taking silly pictures. After the waitress asked twice, Patty and Parker ordered the electronics turned off and told the kids to join the breakfast visit.

Things were even worse at the teen table. Not one of the four teens even looked up when ordering or addressing their grandparents. They were texting, networking, and ignoring the live people at their breakfast get together. Parker watched and Patty fumed as the grandkids and their parents made calls, sent texts, admired pictures and failed to connect with each other. Parker asked questions, Patty made small talk, but nobody was really visiting. They both felt frustrated and wanted time with their family. They asked the kids to stop looking at the electronics and look at them and converse, but they would glance away as email dinged or texts came in. Things were not getting better.

Finally Parker asked the waitress for a takeout sack. He took the sack and collected each person’s phone and the little one’s tablet amid grumbling and complaining, but they did comply. Parker then sat the sack in front of him on the table and told the group they could now have a family breakfast with good conversation and eye contact. About every five seconds, someone’s electronics in the sack would ding, ring or buzz. Parker ignored it all. One teen grandson reached for the sack saying he wanted to check his phone. Granddad smiled and said he could wait. Food arrived, they ate, laughed, talked and joked; and for a time the electronics were forgotten.  After everyone had their fill and their second cup, they stood up to leave and Parker picked up the takeout bag. He calmly said, “Whoever wants their takeout here will have no museum ticket and no lunch paid for by me and your Grandmother. But if you want to let me bring this takeout to lunch after our trip to the museum, I will pay the bill and share this special day we planned with each of you.” There were frowns, foot stomping, a bit of discussion between mom and one teen girl, but after a bit of processing, all agreed to wait for lunch takeout.

They left the breakfast place, drove to the museum, shared a wonderful exhibit, went for hamburgers and ice cream and then met at Parker’s table afterwards to retrieve their electronics. To the very last child they said they had fun, enjoyed the day and survived without their phones. The consensus was they would not want to do it all the time, but Granddad’s ‘takeout’ break wasn’t all that bad.

Parker said, ‘You never know what you might miss if you are always limited by small screen living. Have some live action. It will be fun.’ As they all hugged and said goodbye, one of the grandson’s said he just might take a takeout break with his granddad next weekend if Parker was available.