Being the Change I Wish to See

I wrote an article about the current United States infant mortality rate, where we place in the world compared to other developed countries, and what our current infant mortality rate goals are. It is published on my Associated Content page.

Please check it out here:
U.S Infant Mortality Compared to the Developed World: 2000-2008

Be sure to notice that the U.S. may have a higher rate because of the way we count, but it doesn’t explain why our rates did not decline from 2000 through 2005.

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Today marks 60 days until President-elect Obama’s inauguration, and I thought it appropriate on this day to have a look back at history in about 3 minutes with about 95 images to the Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start the Fire.

Visit the link and sing along with the song. I’m sorry you have to leave this page. I wish I could embed the video here.

How many of those pictures do you remember living through or were a part of your upbringing?

The song covers the 40 year period between 1949 and 1989. I remember a heck of a lot of the pictures, and the ones that came before my time were still a part of the culture in which I grew up. It reminds me that a heck of a lot of what we must deal with now didn’t happen recently. A lot of history has brought us to this moment in time.

We can’t change history, but we can change the future, and one way to change the future is to know and understand that history. The world has grown up a lot since Billy Joel recorded that song in 1989 for his first digitally recorded album, Storm Front. (Yes, we had digital recording capabilities in 1989). With a historic election and a new era ahead of us, let’s hope we keep growing up instead of backsliding into our toddlerhood like we did during the G.W. Bush years.

I would love to do this song in karaoke and it would be great if I could show the video while singing it. It’s been a long time since I knew the words by heart, but if I practice I’ll be able to sing them again.

In case you kept reading, here is the link again: We Didn’t Start the Fire.

What about you? Do you remember this song? Please chime in with a note in the comments.

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