Sharon F. Kleyne Founder and Chairman

What an image! Family and friends sitting around a table. The heavenly aromas of a freshly prepared feast. Love, caring and lasting memories coming out your ears. And above all, gratitude to God for the many blessing bestowed in the past year.

It's too bad the real world isn't that way.

Whether or not you are fortunate enough to enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving image in your life, the customs of giving thanks, feeding the hungry and praying to God has much validity. If enough of us pray for peace, tolerance, understanding and wisdom, and if enough of us reach out not only to the needy but to those with whom we disagree, perhaps some hearts will be changed.

My personal prayer is for the health of the children of the world. But I use the word "health" is the broadest possible sense. And I believe that not no matter what your age, you are a child of the world.

Here are a few specifics I include in my prayers:

1. My personal concern is childhood melanoma, a potentially fatal skin cancer that will strike one child in seven during their lifetime. Even if the melanoma does not appear until decades later, it usually begins with chromosomal skin damage during childhood.
2. The children of the world must be nurtured, swathed in love and have opportunities for economic advancement no matter where they live or the circumstances of their birth and upbringing.
3. Children must be protected from abuse. This includes not only physical and emotional abuse inflicted by evil and sick people, it includes repressive governments and cultures that teach hatred, discrimination and killing of innocents.
4. All children everywhere must have humankind's best medical knowledge available to them. The world should strive to bring the death rate among children to zero.
5. Children should be protected from the ravages of worldwide pollution. Environmental degradation and overpopulation both trigger "density dependent" stress and disease reactions in most species, including humans.

The task may seem overwhelming but a start can be made if everybody does what they can to advance the cause, including pressuring governments. Above all, we should be constantly mindful of these things and keep them in our prayers.

SHARON F. KLEYNE, Founder and Chairman

Bio-Logic Aqua Technologies Biomedical Research

Water and Hydrotherapy