Taking the week off to recuperate from a wonderful weekend filled with grandchildren and pride in their accomplishments.
Thanks for visiting!
See you here next week!
Shari
Thanks for visiting!
See you here next week!
Shari
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The year 1933 was different. [Muriel’s] father, like so many others, had lost his job.
. . . It would be impossible to buy all the food needed for their Passover Seder. . . . Muriel started walking quicker than she had before. She ignored the Washington Monument leaning in the fading sunlight. She rushed past the White House without a second glance. Gradually the stately buildings began to recede. When she got to her neighborhood, her stomach grumbled as she smelled the delicious food from all the other Seders. from The Passover Guest by Susan Kusel illustrated by Sean Rubin (adapted from the story “Kunstn-makher” by Isaac Leib Peretz) Holiday House, 2021 Alaska and Hawaii both achieved statehood in 1959. Alaska on January 3, and Hawaii on August 21. In preparation for their admittance to the Union, a high school teacher in Lancaster, Ohio, gave his students an assignment: Design an American flag to accommodate 50 states. It was a math problem for Bob Heft. He successfully arranged the 50 stars in nine horizontal rows alternating six and five stars in each row. He kept the 13 stripes and earned a B- due to “lack of originality.” Bob wrote to his congressman who convinced the government to adopt the design from over 1,000 that were submitted. His teacher changed Bob’s grade to A and Bob Heft’s 50-star flag went into production on July 4, 1960. At the time of his death in 2009, Bob is thought to have designed a 51-star flag, too. Let’s hear it for Puerto Rico! and Guam! That’s what I wrote in a post I called “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” It appeared on July 2, 2019. What was I thinking? I forgot to include Washington DC. The controversy for or against DC statehood is long and heated. statehood.dc.gov is admittedly pro-statehood, but the information is accurate. Here’s what I found under the “Why Statehood” tab. “Like [people] in all 50 states, DC residents pay federal taxes, serve in the military and on juries, start businesses and families, and contribute to our national economy. In fact, Washington’s residents pay more taxes than residents in 22 states and pay more per capita to the federal government than any state—yet they have no votes in Congress. “DC elects a non-voting Delegate to the US House of Representatives who can draft legislation but cannot vote [in a meaningful way]. The current Delegate for DC is Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton [who has served since January, 1991]. “DC has 712,000 residents, more than Vermont and Wyoming and comparable” with some others including Delaware and Alaska. Size is not an issue. The Constitution (Article 1. Section 8) provides an area not to exceed 10 square miles to accommodate the Federal District as the “Seat of the Government of the United States.” The proposed National Capital Service Area would be two square miles and include federal buildings, such as the White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, and the National Mall. Precedent was set in 1846, when an area west of the Potomac River was returned to Virginia. The rest of what now is Washington, District of Columbia would become Washington, Douglass Commonwealth. By becoming a state, DC would lose its mayor but gain a governor. Two Senators would watch out for their constituents’ needs and wants, and the population would have at least one Representative. These would all be voting members of the US Congress, unlike Delegate Norton, who can vote on the House floor, but not if her vote would be decisive. Since the Twenty-Third Amendment was ratified on March 29, 1961, residents of Washington DC have been allowed to vote for President and Vice President. The sticky wicket here is a provision in the Amendment. Electors to the Electoral College are chosen from the District. One solution: Congress repeals the Twenty-Third Amendment. Then Electors would be chosen from the new State and no Electors would be chosen from DC. Another is to admit the new state with a Constitutional Amendment of its own, a cumbersome and lengthy process which many Republicans favor. Congress has the authority to admit states into the Union. None of the 37 states since the original Thirteen Colonies has been admitted by a Constitutional Amendment. Here’s just a little more. In 2016, a referendum held in the District to make DC the 51st state was approved by 78% of the voters. Delegate Holmes introduced H.R.51 - Washington, D.C. Admission Act last year. It passed (232-180) in the House of Representatives, was placed on the Senate’s calendar, but not voted on. This year she introduced H.R.51 - Washington, D.C. Admission Act again. This time it passed (216-208) in the House, on April 22, 2021. Its fate rests with the Senators, who now hold the slimmest possible Democratic margin. The Senate may or may not bring it up for discussion and vote. Here’s the rest of the story. DC is historically overwhelmingly a Democratic stronghold. Why would any Republican worth his/her/their salt agree to add a Representative to the House, and two, count them, two Senators? All most probably would be Democrats. In the Senate, Tom Carper (D-DE) has introduced a similar bill encouraging statehood. He has 44 co-sponsors, the most ever, but still short of the 51 needed for a simple majority. So it comes to Party Politics, as usual. The residents of DC are disenfranchised. Granting statehood would most assuredly skew the Senate toward the Democratic Party. I looked hard for arguments against statehood and could only find Republicans stating the obvious. https://congressionaldigest.com/pros-cons-of-d-c-statehood/ In 2020, when the Admission Act passed out of the House, Mitch McConnell said he would not take up the measure in the Senate. This year, 2021, he’s not in charge. -—stay curious! (and speak up) “My name is Starr. I’m the one who saw what happened to Khalil,” I say into the bullhorn. “And it wasn’t right.”
. . . “Everybody wants to talk about how Khalil died,” I say. “But this isn’t about how Khalil died. It’s about the fact that he lived. His life mattered…” from The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas Balzer + Bray, 2017 I found four different definitions of immunity in my on-line American Heritage Dictionary.
According to the American Bar Association’s blog, December 17, 2020, “[q]ualified immunity is a judicial doctrine created by the Supreme Court that shields state actors from liability for their misconduct, even when they break the law.” In cases of qualified immunity, a court must decide two things: a constitutional right has been violated AND that right was clearly established at the time of the conduct. Qualified immunity is a balancing act. On one side is the need to hold public officials accountable for their actions, especially if their power is wielded irresponsibly. On the other hand, those same public officials deserve to be protected from unnecessary or excessive harassment and distraction from an individual or the public when their duties are carried out responsibly. Shortly after the Civil War, Congress gave Americans the right to sue public officials who violated their civil rights. The language Congress used in the Civil Rights Act of 1871 was very clear: “Every” state official who causes a “deprivation of any rights” guaranteed by the Constitution and laws “shall be liable to the party injured.” The Act was also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. It was a protection especially provided to Blacks who were still targeted in the South. But ironically, during the Civil Rights movement I remember, 1967 saw the Supreme Court put parameters around those state officials by inventing qualified immunity. The Court described their change as a moderate exception of the 1871 Act for officials who, acting in “good faith,” accidentally injured (physically or otherwise) someone. In other words, those officials (most usually police officers), were immune from prosecution if they believed they were acting legally. But, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to prove intent. Fifteen years later, the law was reinterpreted again. Now, even an officer who knowingly violates someone’s civil rights, (unless the victim can provide a prior judicial opinion in a previously decided case involving the same “specific context” and “particular conduct,”) the officer is immune from prosecution. In other words, unless the target of the police action can point to a judicial decision that proved an officer guilty of the same conduct in the same place, the officer will be shielded from liability. And that’s where we are today. An officer doesn’t have to prove s/he was acting legally. It is presumed that the officer knows the law, and if a person’s rights are trampled in upholding that law, it’s up to the trampled person to prove the officer was wrong. Whether using excessive force, conducting an unwarranted search, or controlling a crowd, officers hold enormous power. And they are protected from their actions by qualified immunity when they exert that power. The National Police Support Fund claims that qualified immunity benefits the public because it creates trust. I’m not so sure. How can a police force ensure that, because s/he has qualified immunity, “a police officer will take the best actions needed to maintain law and order and keep communities safe”? https://nationalpolicesupportfund.com/qualified-immunity-pros-and-cons/ Again from the ABA’s blog (12/17/2020) “Police officers rarely face meaningful consequences for their misconduct, and the public’s accurate perception of this fact has contributed to what can best be described as a crisis of confidence in our nation’s law enforcement.” https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_education/publications/insights-on-law-and-society/volume-21/issue-1/qualified-immunity/ Many police departments are looking hard at themselves. They are evaluating their training procedures and policies. Some even seem to understand that the best course of action may be to call for help from a different agency, one that does not shoot guns. According to a Forbes article published March 4, 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicksibilla/2021/03/04/house-passes-new-bill-to-abolish-qualified-immunity-for-police/?sh=23565f572daf the House of Representatives has just approved the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (H.R. 1280). It is a massive overhaul of American policing that includes the elimination of qualified immunity for all local, state, and federal law enforcement officers. The bill has been endorsed by the Biden administration. There may even be some bi-partisan support. The bill is not perfect; it is not finished. But people are talking about it. Politicians, and regular people, too. The wheels of change turn slowly. -—stay curious! (and patient) And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
was a small pile of rocks with the one word… “UNLESS” Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn’t guess. . . . “But now,” said the Once-ler, “Now that you’re here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not…” from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss Random House, 1971 accessed on YouTube April 19, 2021 I like to believe that no one is as mean and as greedy as the Once-ler who only wanted to make more and more Thneeds, a clothing item that nobody really needed. He used up a resource until it was gone, then packed himself up and let his factory go to rack and ruin while the nearby forest, pond, and the very air suffered mightily. I like to believe that, but I know it’s not true. There’s plenty of greed fed by over-consumption, thoughtless disregard for natural resources, and careless disposal of trash. Who knew that cigarette butts are the largest source of plastic pollution? According to EARTHDAY.ORG, as of August 28, 2020, 4.5 trillion butts are littering the world. It takes 10 years for the plastic in the filters to completely degrade. The toxic chemicals stay in the ground much longer. I’ll stop myself before a rant begins about the deplorable state of the world and the humans who inhabit it. Look around. Lots of good is going on. In two days it will be April 22, the day the whole world celebrates Earth Day. Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin who served from 1962 to 1980, decided to pivot the energy college students displayed in their anti-Viet Nam War protests, civil rights protests, and women’s rights protests to the growing environmental movement. He was concerned about the spewing smokestacks, overflowing garbage dumps, and oil spills. In January, 1969, he witnessed a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California and the destruction that followed. Nelson and a fellow Congressman recruited Denis Hayes, an activist, to lead teach-ins on college campuses. April 22, a date half-way between Spring Break and finals seemed a likely time to reach lots of students. The name Earth Day caught the ear of national media who shared the story far and wide. On April 22, 1970, over 20,000 people attended the first Earth Day celebrations across the US, over 10% of our entire population. Earth Day grew and continues to grow. Earth Day went global in 1990. Recycling efforts worldwide got a huge boost and countries began to mobilize for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. President Bill Clinton awarded Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, for his role as Earth Day founder. Thirty years after the first Earth Day, the millennium year saw citizens around the world sending a clear message to their leaders to take “quick and decisive action on global warming and clean energy.” Today EARTHDAY.ORG provides volunteer opportunities and outlets for civil engagement to over one billion people in 193 countries. Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world. According to their website, “The social and cultural environments we saw in 1970 are rising up again today — a fresh and frustrated generation of young people are refusing to settle for platitudes, instead taking to the streets by the millions to demand a new way forward.” Digital and social media are bringing people together as never before, “catalyzing generations to join together to take on the greatest challenge that humankind has faced.” This year’s world-wide celebration begins at noon eastern time on April 22, 2021, and can be accessed here: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2021/ Scroll down to find the Global Youth Summit beginning today (April 20, 2021) at 2:30 ET. Continue your scroll to find the rest of the three-day-long activities. Further down the page you’ll come to the Five Pillars of Restore Our EarthTM where you’ll find hundreds of ways to be informed and involved. Since 2010, the Canopy Project has planted millions of trees all over the world in communities most at-risk from Climate Change and in communities cleaning up after natural and human-caused disasters. During The Great Global Cleanup you can register your group or yourself to clean up a lot or a little and get a pin on the world map. Their slogan is “Sign Up, Show Up, Clean Up.” The Global Earth Challenge is a citizen science initiative to explore current issues like plastic pollution, changes in insect populations, and how air quality differs in different locations. And EARTHDAY.ORG is not the only organization working hard. Here’s a list (in alphabetical order) of organizations whose missions make our Earth their priority. The Arbor Day Foundation https://www.arborday.org Audubon Society https://www.audubon.org Environmental Defense Fund https://www.edf.org Greenpeace https://www.greenpeace.org/international/ NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) https://www.nrdc.org Sierra Club https://www.sierraclub.org The Wilderness Society https://www.wilderness.org World Wildlife Fund https://www.worldwildlife.org A very handy source to find information about your favorite nonprofits and charities is The Charity Navigator. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3671 Type in the organization’s name and discover their mission, their history, their staff, how much of their donations go to programming, salaries, and how much it costs them to earn each dollar. Celebrate our Earth on Thursday (and every day.) -—stay curious (and hug a tree, or two!) And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
was a small pile of rocks with the one word… “UNLESS” Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn’t guess. . . . “But now,” said the Once-ler, “Now that you’re here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not…” from The Lorax by Dr. Seuss Random House, 1971 accessed on YouTube April 19, 2021 I like to believe that no one is as mean and as greedy as the Once-ler who only wanted to make more and more Thneeds, a clothing item that nobody really needed. He used up a resource until it was gone, then packed himself up and let his factory go to rack and ruin while the nearby forest, pond, and the very air suffered mightily. I like to believe that, but I know it’s not true. There’s plenty of greed fed by over-consumption, thoughtless disregard for natural resources, and careless disposal of trash. Who knew that cigarette butts are the largest source of plastic pollution? According to EARTHDAY.ORG, as of August 28, 2020, 4.5 trillion butts are littering the world. It takes 10 years for the plastic in the filters to completely degrade. The toxic chemicals stay in the ground much longer. I’ll stop myself before a rant begins about the deplorable state of the world and the humans who inhabit it. Look around. Lots of good is going on. In two days it will be April 22, the day the whole world celebrates Earth Day. Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin who served from 1962 to 1980, decided to pivot the energy college students displayed in their anti-Viet Nam War protests, civil rights protests, and women’s rights protests to the growing environmental movement. He was concerned about the spewing smokestacks, overflowing garbage dumps, and oil spills. In January, 1969, he witnessed a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California and the destruction that followed. Nelson and a fellow Congressman recruited Denis Hayes, an activist, to lead teach-ins on college campuses. April 22, a date half-way between Spring Break and finals seemed a likely time to reach lots of students. The name Earth Day caught the ear of national media who shared the story far and wide. On April 22, 1970, over 20,000 people attended the first Earth Day celebrations across the US, over 10% of our entire population. Earth Day grew and continues to grow. Earth Day went global in 1990. Recycling efforts worldwide got a huge boost and countries began to mobilize for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. President Bill Clinton awarded Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995 for his role as Earth Day founder. Thirty years after the first Earth Day, the millennium year saw citizens around the world sending a clear message to their leaders to take “quick and decisive action on global warming and clean energy.” Today EARTHDAY.ORG provides volunteer opportunities and outlets for civil engagement to over one billion people in 193 countries. Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world. According to their website, “The social and cultural environments we saw in 1970 are rising up again today — a fresh and frustrated generation of young people are refusing to settle for platitudes, instead taking to the streets by the millions to demand a new way forward.” Digital and social media are bringing people together as never before, “catalyzing generations to join together to take on the greatest challenge that humankind has faced.” This year’s world-wide celebration begins at noon eastern time on April 22, 2021, and can be accessed here: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2021/ Scroll down to find the Global Youth Summit beginning today (April 20, 2021) at 2:30 ET. Continue your scroll to find the rest of the three-day-long activities. Further down the page you’ll come to the Five Pillars of Restore Our EarthTM where you’ll find hundreds of ways to be informed and involved. Since 2010, the Canopy Project has planted millions of trees all over the world in communities most at-risk from Climate Change and in communities cleaning up after natural and human-caused disasters. During The Great Global Cleanup you can register your group or yourself to clean up a lot or a little and get a pin on the world map. Their slogan is “Sign Up, Show Up, Clean Up.” The Global Earth Challenge is a citizen science initiative to explore current issues like plastic pollution, changes in insect populations, and how air quality differs in different locations. EARTHDAY.ORG is not the only organization working hard. Here’s a list (in alphabetical order) of organizations whose missions make our Earth their priority. The Arbor Day Foundation https://www.arborday.org Audubon Society https://www.audubon.org Environmental Defense Fund https://www.edf.org Greenpeace https://www.greenpeace.org/international/ NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) https://www.nrdc.org Sierra Club https://www.sierraclub.org The Wilderness Society https://www.wilderness.org World Wildlife Fund https://www.worldwildlife.org A very handy source to find information about your favorite nonprofits and charities is The Charity Navigator. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3671 Type in the organization’s name to discover their mission, their history, their staff, how much of their donations go to programming and salaries, and how much it costs them to earn each dollar. Celebrate our Earth on Thursday (and every day.) -—stay curious (and hug a tree, or two!) I had a wonderful long weekend with my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters,
reconnected with friends, I learned about ZOOM school, and met our new grandpuppy, Roger. Still basking in the afterglow. See you here next week! --stay curious! (and safe) I copied that BEST
poem and hung it on my bedroom wall right over my bed where I can see it when I’m lying down. Maybe you could copy it too and hang it on the wall in our class where we can see it when we are sitting at our desks doing our stuff. from Love That Dog written by Sharon Creech HarperCollins, 2001 (ebook, pub 2014) [Poetry: a] literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm; poems collectively or as a genre of literature. (definition from Google on-line dictionary) In April 1996, the Academy of American Poets instituted National Poetry Month to remind us all that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters. In 2021, we are celebrating the Academy’s 25th anniversary of National Poetry Month. Since 2008, the Academy of American Poets has called attention to poetry in all 50 states with Poem in Your Pocket Day, this year on Thursday, April 29. If you don’t have a favorite poet, try one of mine. Mary Oliver, Robert Frost, Allison Pitinii Davis. Here’s how you can participate:
You can sign up for A Poem A Day in lots of places, too. Poetry Foundation https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/154719/april-1984 Academy of American Poets https://poets.org/poem-a-day Cuyahoga County Public Library https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/Services/William-N-Skirball-Writers-Center/Poetry/Read-Write-30-Days-of-Poetry.aspx Why even do it? Sara Letourneau, https://saraletourneauwriter.com/2018/07/25/five-reasons-daily-poem-reading/ has five reasons. Her reasons, my comments.
Sometimes it is a poem’s sound, its visual look on a page, or a stand-out image that gives me a smile, a nod, or an a-ha. Here’s a poem I wrote about not being able to write a poem. And I had a deadline. Stuck, Unstuck When a palm, potted and rootbound pursues the clouds, its fronds clatter applause. When a ship, bottled and corked dreams of tides, its sails luff in song. When this poet, soft-brained and pliable explores the past, her synapses spit encouragement. When a pen, ink-heavy and uncapped sits impatiently, full of promise, a poem appears. I’ll leave you with one of my favorites. Keep A Poem In Your Pocket Beatrice Schenk de Regniers Keep a poem in your pocket And a picture in your head And you'll never feel lonely At night when you're in bed. The little poem will sing to you The little picture bring to you A dozen dreams to dance to you At night when you're in bed. So - Keep a picture in your pocket And a poem in your head And you'll never feel lonely At night when you're in bed. stay curious! (and think spring) …Ramona thought vaguely of all the exciting things she would like to do—learn to twirl a lariat, play a musical saw, flip around and over bars in a gymnastic competition while crowds cheered.
“Ramona, clean up your room!” Mrs. Quimby raised her voice. from: Ramona Quimby, Age 8 written by Beverly Cleary illustrated by Alan Tiegreen Morrow, 1981 (newer reprint editions with various illustrators are in print.) The world of children’s literature lost a shining star last week. Beverly Cleary passed away Thursday, March 26, 2021, at age 104. Her books were filled with what she called “the minutiae of life,” those details that make a work of fiction feel real and universal. She wrote stories of regular kids (and Ralph S. Mouse and Ribsy, a child-like mouse and a dog) for regular kids. In a 2006 interview for her 90th birthday, Mrs. Cleary was asked how she wrote for children so well. She told an NPR interviewer, “I do have very clear memories of childhood. I find that many people don't, but I'm just very fortunate that I have that kind of memory.” She was fortunate and so were her readers. Cleary published Henry Huggins in 1950, two years before I was born. Ellen Tebbits came along in 1951, and Henry and Beezus in 1952. Ramona, Beezus’s little sister appeared in Beezus and Ramona in 1955. Her real name is Beatrice, but Ramona had a hard time pronouncing it correctly. In between and until she was in her 90s, Beverly Cleary published about one book per year, over 40 different titles in her 50-year career. Her books have sold over 85 million copies. Most of her titles starred children in about third or fourth grade, but she published picture books and books for young adults, too. She wrote a short story collection and two memoirs. She was the definition of prolific. Although I might have grown up with Ramona and her crowd, I did not. I wasn’t much of a reader growing up, although I loved to spend time at the library. (I still do!) It took me a long time to read a whole book, and during the school year I mostly used my time for homework and playing outside. I found Beverly Cleary’s books when my girls read them and loved them. I have since become an avid reader. Sometimes I read to learn. I’ve been on a non-fiction binge the last few weeks.* Sometimes I want to experience someone else’s point of view or imagine what might have been. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (Viking, 2020) is a new favorite. I read picture books for new ideas and to study the craft. I also read lots of Middle-Grade books, written for kids from about 8-12 years old. I study them, too, and read them because I like them. Last week I began a 4-week on-line course with Tricia Springstubb called “Using Personal Experiences to Write for Children.” Writing from memory feels nostalgic. The trick is to capture the emotion without being sappy. Tricia’s an excellent teacher who is continuing her successful writing career with a new book coming out June 1, 2021, The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe. Like Beverly Cleary, Tricia mines her childhood for ideas to include in her books. She’s teaching us to trust our memories and find our own good ideas. Of course that’s not all. Writing is a craft, but it’s also an art. Mrs. Cleary spoke of her art and craft. She said “Nothing in the whole world felt as good as being able to make something from a sudden idea.” I’m pretty sure not all her ideas were sudden, but she sure made the most of them. When she was asked, “What year do your books take place?” her answer was always, “In childhood.” She saw in children’s books “there are more and more grim problems, but I don’t know that I want to burden third- and fourth-graders with them.” Although she recognized that the world changed since Henry Huggins, and continues to change, she didn’t think children themselves have changed that much. Beverly Cleary’s stories about Ramona and her big sister Beezus ring true for me. My big sister knew everything. Her friends were cool. She wore all the right clothes. Sometimes it was a pain being the little sister, though. I’m sure having one must have been a challenge, too! Thank you, Beverly Cleary, for helping me remember what it was like to be a child. Thank you, Tricia Springstubb, for helping me use those memories for something good. In an interview with author Reyhan Harmanci, Judy Blume mused about Mrs. Cleary. “Beverly’s books have touched generations of readers and I can’t imagine kids growing up without them," she said. "What kind of world would that be?” Indeed. While Mrs. Cleary is no longer with us here on Earth, her shining star lives on in her many delightful characters and in all the children (and adults) who read their stories. I found this quote from Beverly Cleary which has become my favorite. “I wanted to be a ballerina. I changed my mind.” RIP Thank you for making our world a little better.
One light, one sun
One sun lighting everyone One world turning One world turning everyone from One Light, One Sun Written by Raffi Illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1988 Here’s the truth. Daylight Savings Time puts an extra hour of daylight at the end of the day. And here’s the whole truth. We pay for that hour of daylight with the loss of one hour. At 2:00 a.m. March 13, we all rolled the hands of our clocks around one full turn to make them say 3:00. a.m. March 14 was a 23-hour day. Personally, I moved the hands of my clock at 9:30 p.m., before I called the day over. Don’t get me wrong. I like daylight as much as anyone. It’s just getting harder and harder every year to make the switch. We’ve just passed the one-week mark and I’m still adjusting. I expected Wilson, the cat who lives with me, would wake me up at 5:30 instead of 4:30. I was wrong. He probably mis-counted the hours since his evening snack. So, what happened to that hour? Does anyone really know? Does anybody even care? Well, the way I see it, that hour is in limbo until the first Sunday in November when we all move the clock hands counter-clock-wise and re-place that lost hour in a 25-hour day. Representative Vern Buchanan of Florida introduced The Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 (HB 69) on January 4. Fifteen co-sponcers from ten different states and both political parties signed on. The Act would make DST permanent, so we’d all stay sprung forward. No time changing in November. It’s in the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce now, either being discussed or waiting to be discussed. But introducing permanent DST is nothing new. Benjamin Franklin sent a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris in 1784 suggesting Parisians move their clocks back one hour in the dark days of winter while they slept to better enjoy the short daylight hours more fully. He proposed the money saved in buying candles would be enormous. Nothing came of his suggestion; most people think it was said in jest. Congress has been debating the idea since adopting the Standard Time Act of March 1918. It set summer DST from March 31, 1918, to October 27. The idea was unpopular, especially with farmers. More daylight at the end of the day meant more darkness in the early morning hours when they did their milking and other morning chores. After WWI, Woodrow Wilson abolished the law, leaving the option to continue fooling around with Time up to individual localities. Franklin Roosevelt established year-round DST in 1942. He called it “War Time Hours.” It lasted until the last Sunday in September, 1945. From then until 1966, it was up to the various states or cities to follow DST or not and establish their own start and end dates. As you can imagine, that led to a complicated patchwork of chronology. Imagine truckers, shippers, and railway engineers delivering goods across many states. Or the arrangements you’d need to make to phone friends and loved-ones who lived far away. In 1966, the transportation industry asked for federal legislation to sort out the mess and in 1967, the Uniform Time Act became the law of the land. Clocks would spring ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday in April and fall back one hour at 2:00 a.m. on the last Sunday in October. The Department of Transportation was charged with enforcing the law. States were allowed to exempt themselves. Arizona and Hawaii do not observe DST. Neither do the US territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, or the US Virgin Islands. Turns out DST is more than an inconvenience. I checked with some experts. According toThe Sleep Foundation, even though the effects of DST subside gradually after a few weeks, the move has been linked to a higher risk of obesity, depression, and cardiovascular disease. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm/daylight-saving-time Studies have also linked the time change to increased car accidents and workplace injuries.https://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/daylight-saving-health.html
And
They also say the nighttime crime rate diminishes. We enjoy a 7% decrease in robberies. Pedestrian fatalities decrease by 13% in the dawn and dusk hours. I wonder, could these decreases be attributed to more daylight in general? After all, the hours of daylight will continue to increase until the Summer Solstice, Sunday, June 10, 2021. I don’t plan to move to Hawaii, (or Arizona or any of the US territories, for that matter) but I would like to stop fooling Father Time. -—stay curious! (and enjoy an evening walk) Just when it seemed things couldn’t get bleaker,
The Mouse-jority Leader agreed with the Squeaker To gather the brightest on Capitol Hill To figure out how they could rescue this bill. House Mouse, Senate Mouse written by Peter W. Barnes illustrated by Cheryl Shaw Barnes Little Patriot Press, 2012 When I thought I would not be home on Election Day a few years ago, I early-voted. I had to travel a little farther, but my county Board of Elections proved efficient. The poll workers were courteous and knew how to do their jobs. I felt secure that my vote would be counted. I have early-voted since then, but prefer to vote in person. That changed last May. I did not vote early in our Primary and I did not request an absentee ballot. I planned to be home and wanted to vote in person, until I didn’t. COVID-19 was ramping up. The governor decided at the last minute to close the polls and allow any registered voter to vote by mail in the Primary election. That’s what I did. I felt pretty sure my vote would be counted. I planned to vote absentee for the 2020 November General Election. In Ohio, we have a two-step process. As soon as I could, I requested my application for an absentee ballot. I completed and mailed back the application on the day I received it. My ballot came, I filled it in, and drove it back to the Board of Elections. (We know what the US Postal Service was like by then.) I put it in the dedicated drop box. Ohio’s Board of Elections has a page on its website that tracks when your ballot was received, when it was processed, and when it was counted. I checked back often and was delighted when I saw a check in the “counted” box. The process was not without controversy. How many drop-boxes should be permitted in each county? Where should they be placed? What would happen to the huge backlog of ballots being mailed to citizens and mailed-in ballots being returned, due to lack of foresight and mismanagement (the nicest way I can say it) starting at the highest levels of the Post Office? You know. You were there, too. What about voter fraud? Well what *about* that? For all intents and purposes, there just isn’t any. It doesn’t matter who’s using the system, who’s accusing, or who’s scrutinizing. From the BBC to the US Department of Justice, it’s been determined that voter fraud is about as common as a snowflake in August. Yes, it happens, but it’s very rare. To fix this non-existent problem, President Biden signed an Executive Order to “promote voting access and allow all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.” John Sarbanes, a Representative from Maryland, introduced the "For the People Act" (HB 1) on January 4, 2021. It passed on March 3. Some senators are crying "foul." It is sitting now in the Senate, languishing. The For the People Act is really a bill. A bill is legislation that has been formally introduced in the House (HB) or the Senate (SB). The numbers are consecutive beginning at the start of the new Congressional session. An Act has passed both houses of Congress and either been approved by the President or passed by Congress over his veto. According to https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/hr1/text/eh, the purpose of the bill is [t]o expand Americans’ access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy… You can access the text of the bill at the above website. In 2019, a bill of the same name sought to correct damage that was done by the Supreme Court’s decision of Shelby County v. Holder in 2013. In short, Shelby County, Alabama, sued US Attorney General Eric Holder over the part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that required certain states and local governments to obtain federal pre-clearance before making any changes to their voting laws or practices. These certain states and local governments were subject to a formula to investigate their histories of discrimination in voting. Shelby County, argued that the county’s environment was "totally different" in 2013, than when Section 5 was first enacted in 1965. Which was true. Since 1965, more voters were registered and voted. A more diverse slate of officials was elected. After the Shelby decision, nearly 1,000 U.S. polling places closed, many of them in predominantly African-American counties. In her dissent of Shelby, Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated that “[t]hrowing out pre-clearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” Hmmm. The 2019 bill passed the House along Party lines but languished in the Senate. This year, with a Democratic Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, the 2021 version of the bill may be brought to the floor. It might be discussed and voted on. It might even move on to the President’s desk. But it is highly unlikely. Apart from setting the date for a Federal Election, each state has lots of leeway in the governance of the polls. Some of the opposition to HB 1 claims Federal over-reach into States’ Rights in determining how accessible the whole process of voting should be. According to the Washington Post, at least 250 new laws have been proposed in 43 states. They would limit mail, early in-person, and Election Day voting. These restrictions could affect tens of millions of Americans. Not surprisingly, these are states run by Republican lawmakers. The opposing Republican Senators want to limit hours and days of early voting, make the process of voting by mail cumbersome, require photo IDs at polling locations. All those proposals restrict access for people with limited mobility, jobs with no paid time off to vote on a typical workday (Tuesday), family caregivers and others. Republicans deny the bills are aimed at suppressing turnout. They say the bills are essential to improve public confidence in the integrity of elections. But voter fraud is so rare as to be non-existent. So what are they really saying? The wheels of government turn slowly. Maybe that’s a good thing. -—stay curious! (and Think Spring!) |
I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .
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