Take action TODAY and write a letter to the editor of your local paper.  I have attached draft letters to the editor that you can personalize and send in to your local newspapers.  Some of the letters to the editor can be in response to local pick-up of any stories related to our campaign to specifically react to, including Friday reviews of the movie.

Also use our national press gained from this to solicit online petition signatures from your family and friends by sending them this link: http://www.screenout.org/petition/index.html.

Please submit a letter and get our voice out loud and clear that we will not allow Hollywood to continuing pushing smoking on our nation's kids!

 Bullies in Cyberspace

You may remember getting 'bullied' as a kid in school or on the playground, but nowadays your kids might be getting 'bullied' online as well and the bad guys are not always who you think.  A bully can be a girl spreading rumors about a former friend, or a student trying to get revenge on a teacher who gave them a bad grade, or a group of kids playing a prank on an unsuspecting schoolmate.  Cyberbullying is a complex beast.  Often it starts with otherwise nice kids from nice families who go online to "have a little fun" at someone else's expense.  But it can get out of hand very quickly.

Bullies are resourceful.  With all the high-tech tools out there, they can take their pick from cell phones, pagers. websites, blogs, chat rooms or e-mails.  They can go on a site and invite other people in to help bully their victim, by asking them to comment on their picture.  They can create a webpage that looks like it belongs to the person being bullied, but it is malicious.  They can enter an e-mail address and have their victim spammed with messages from websites they've never visited.  They can put up embarrassing pictures, or even use a tool like Photoshop to adjust a picture and make it look diffferent.

Although cyberbullying is a relatively new phenomenon, there are things that you can do to help.  The following tips are provided courtesy of the Princeton Review. 

You can't help with cyberbullying if you don't know it's going on.  Make sure that your children feel comfortable coming to you with a problem.  Many kids worry that their parents will blame them and  react by taking their web privileges away.

Don't confront the bully or the bully's parents unless you are 100 percent sure it won't make things worse for your child.  Bullies will often become worse when parents intervene.

Do a Google search for your child's name on the web so you can identify any instances where they've been mentioned, bullied or publicly embarrassed.

Don't let your child keep profiles of themselves on websites.  They become easy targets for bullies, in addition to being magnets for solicitation.

Know everyone on your child's buddy list.  Learn how to block unwanted interaction.

Keep printed copies of all bullying messages in their entirety.  It's especially important to save the header information, which helps law enforcement track the problem.

Introduce the idea of a bullying curriculum for your child's school.

Mary Lou Mathias  RN; BS;MA

Health Promotion Chairman----GCMS Alliance

               SHAPE UP for LIFE CHALLENGE-  Get more from your walking

                                           By Mary Lou Mathias

Walking is a simple activity with surprising benefits.  But avoid these common mistakes, says a walking consultant from BC/BS of Michigan:

Giant steps.  Long steps make you land flat-footed, jarring your knee joints and back.  Shorter steps mean a smoother stride.

Flying arms.  Many people believe extending their arms will increase walking speed.  But bending your arms at a right angel offers better speed and balance.  Arm swings should be smooth and short.

An uptight body.  A lot of us keep our bodies stiff and tight.  But relaxed muscles offer a better workout and less joint stress.

Bad posture.  Don't slouch.  Instead, hold your body straight and tall:  head over shoulders, shoulders over torso, torso over hips.