What if they frame Mom just like the Rosenbergs, and she goes to trial and they pin a bunch of lies on her, and she gets sentenced to death by electrocution? Fear grabs me and shakes me like a tree in a tornado.
                                                 from Red Menace
                                              written by Lois Ruby
             Carolrhoda Books/Lerner Publishing Group, 2020
   
    My sister and brother and I were not allowed to have pets with fur. We were allowed fish or turtles and preferred turtles. Each one lived in the same clear, oval, plastic bowl with a built-in ramp and a plastic palm tree. We bought them at the dime store (predecessor to the dollar store) with our allowance money and only had one at a time.
    None of the turtles lived very long. We named them all Oscar. Oscar I, Oscar II, Oscar III… and when their times came, we buried them in old shoeboxes in the backyard. After a succession of Oscars, we agreed to stop buying turtles. Maybe we were too sad. Maybe we just got tired of cleaning out the bowl time after time.    
    Some years after we had buried our last Oscar, I had my first real experience with death. My grandmother, Daddy’s mom, passed away after a fairly long illness (leukemia). Shortly after, my grandfather, Daddy’s dad, followed. I’m sure he was sick, but I chose to believe he died of a broken heart.
    I was eleven.
    Not long after, I was still in fifth grade, my best friend died of a rare genetic disease that no one had recognized. When her brother turned eleven, he died too, the same way.
    Sometimes death shocks us. Sometimes death is a guilty relief. Always there is grief. It is universal. We all grieve, but each death is singular, individual.
    It is a tragedy when someone dies before they have grown old enough for us to think they have lived out their “allotted” years. But who’s to judge how many years is long enough? And who does the allotting?
    When a young or even young-ish person dies, we console each other and ourselves, by claiming it is the will of the Universe. When an old person dies, we console each other and ourselves by claiming the person had touched many people and lived a long life.
    People die accidentally. People die of disease. And people die on purpose, by their own hand or someone else’s.
    In our country, we have laws about death. It is against the law to kill someone, but there is an escape clause: self-defense. 
    Some states impose the death penalty for particularly heinous crimes. DeathPenaltyInfo.org states that [a]ll of the prisoners currently on death row and all of those executed in the modern era of the death penalty were convicted of murder. In 1972, the Supreme Court declared capital punishment unconstitutional as it was then applied. It was reinstated in the US in 1976, but in 2008, the Court advised that the death penalty could only be applied where a death occurred. 
    The states are pretty evenly divided, 24 allow capital punishment and 23 do not. The governors of California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania have declared a moratorium on the death penalty. Each state that allows it has its own laws about capital punishment.
    Although Ohio has been a death penalty state since it became a state in 1803, no executions were carried out between 1963 and 1999, including 1972-76 when the Supreme Court considered capital punishment unconstitutional. Since then, several people have landed on death row in Ohio. Many sentences have been postponed. Many others, commuted.
    Here are a few facts you might find surprising. All are from DeathPenaltyInfo.org 

1. The death penalty does not deter murder. Since 1990, the earliest date I found, murders in death-penalty states consistently outnumbered those in non-death-penalty states. 
2. While proponents claim the perpetrator’s death offers closure for the victim’s family, the reality is a prolonged time of appeal. In Ohio, the average time for a prisoner on death row is 17 years and two months.
3. Life in prison without parole is less expensive for tax payers than an execution. Consider the high number of costly appeals, the cost of judges, the time involved in jury selection, the cost of the trial itself, expensive experts on both sides and a true cost of the death penalty comes into focus.
4. Sometimes, mistakes are made. Sometimes a person is wrongly convicted and put to death. Since 1976, at least 186 innocent people have been exonerated. Since the founding of The Innocence Project at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in 1992, 329 people have been exonerated through DNA testing in the United States, including 20 who were at one time sentenced to death. See here for more information. 

    While there is plenty of support for the death penalty, more and more people say life in prison without the possibility of parole is more humane and fits better with their personal moral code. A Gallop Poll posted earlier this month (11/19/21) showed support for capital punishment  is at its lowest since May, 1966.
    Two bills to repeal the death penalty are working their way through the Ohio congress .  
    Some crimes are heinous. Some despicable people commit heinous crimes. People die, some needlessly. 
    Death is always a tragedy. We will always grieve, each in our own way. The fact of death and grief is universal. 
    Mistakes happen. That is inevitable, but let’s keep them from becoming irreversible. 
                             -—stay curious! (and compassionate)    

    “Mr. Owens, I’ll repeat my question. Are you the one who attacked Mr. Hampton?”
    “Yes, sir,” Arthur whispered.”
            …
    If it had been up to the judge, he would have thrown the book at Arthur T. Owens. He didn’t believe a word of the boy’s story.
            …
    “In other words,” the judge continued sternly, glaring at Arthur, “it is not the punishment I would have chosen for you.”
                             from The Seventh Most Important Thing
                                                        by Shelly Pearsall
                               Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2015
    My most memorable, but by far not my only punishment was handed down and carried out by my mom. I’m pretty sure it had something to do with her let-the-punishment-fit-the-crime philosophy. Here’s what happened.
    I said a bad word.
    I don’t remember which word it was. I was young. Young enough for her to lift me up and sit me down on the closed toilet seat. Because that word must have been a “dirty” one, Mom cleaned my mouth out with soap. It was a new bar of Ivory, but still.
    Maybe it really was just as painful for her. But, years later, when I asked her about it, she did not remember the incident. Well, that’s fair, I still don’t remember the word.
    In our free democratic republic where laws are made by our elected officials and we agree to be governed, laws should be fair. After due process through our judicial system, punishments, when warranted, should fit crimes committed. Punishments should be administered fairly, regardless of a person’s background, color, gender, religious beliefs or no religious beliefs, economic status, political affiliation or no affiliation, well, you get the idea.
    But life isn’t fair.
    And we live in a violent society. 
    I could say the current mood of our country started with George Floyd’s murder. Or maybe it started with beating Rodney King to within inches of his life. But anytime one person has authority over another, there is a chance for violence to raise its ugly head. And that has been true for a very long time. Sometimes people take the law into their own hands. Sometimes, they feel justified in killing someone because they feel threatened. Sometimes they just get carried away. 
    In the United States, murder is a capital offense. If a perpetrator is found guilty, the death penalty can be imposed. Treason, espionage, large-scale drug trafficking, and a few other seriously heinous crimes are also capital offenses. 
    Trying to pass a counterfeit bill is not a capital offense, but death could be the horrible end result. Just ask George Floyd’s family.
    Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can also result in death. Heather Heyer paid with her life.
    The law gives police officers lots more leeway than the public. (You can look up my blog “All Kinds of Immunity,” posted 4/27/21 for my deep dive into “qualified immunity.”) 
    Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people and injured a third when he drove 30 minutes to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Rittenhouse claims to have answered a call to help quell a protest after police wounded Jacob Blake on August 23, 2020. Rittenhouse was 17 years old.
    It took the jury 3-1/2 days to clear him of all charges.
    The Department of Justice is not seeking charges against the police officer who shot Mr. Blake seven times in the back and the side. He is paralyzed from the waist down. 
    Meantime, Rep. Matt Goetz (R-FL), Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and Rep. Madison Cowthorn (R-NC) all want Rittenhouse to become a congressional intern!
    The three men accused of killing Ahmoud Arbery are charged with murder. Jury deliberation will begin this morning (11/23/21). 
    In 2017, white nationals traveled to Charlottesville to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, Confederate general during the Civil War. They called their protest “Unite the Right.” It turned deadly when James Fields, a neo-Nazi, plowed his car into the crowd of counter protesters and killed Heather Heyer. He injured several others. Fields was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. 
    Last Friday, (11/19/21) a jury began deliberating the civil case against the white nationalists who organized that 2-day rally. They are being tried for conspiracy to commit racial violence, [regular] violence, harassment, assault, and emotional distress.
    The wheels of justice roll slowly. Facts are still being uncovered surrounding the January 6, 2021 insurrection. I first addressed this May 25, 2021, shortly before my blog break.
    That riot was deadly. It was probably traitorous.
    In these last few days before Thanksgiving, as I plan for food and family, I’m also thinking of those families who can’t be together, for whatever reason. 
                                       --stay curious! (and thoughtful)

This is the light 
that brings the dawn,
                   .    .    .
This light is you. 
And you are light.
                                                   from You Are Light
                            written and illustrated by Aaron Becker
                                                        Candlewick, 2019
                                          accessed on YouTube, 11/16/21


    As the sun sets earlier and days get colder, we calm our collective fears with re-direction. We celebrate. 
    Just when it seems that Darkness will indeed conquer Light, we reach Winter Solstice. This year (2021) it arrives in Northern Hemisphere at 10:59 AM (ET) on December 21 when the days, miraculously and seemingly imperceptibly, will begin to lengthen. 
    This time of year is cause for great and many celebrations.
    Just as we approach the darkest time of year, Dwili celebrants watch the sliver of the new moon grow larger and larger to symbolize the growth of peace and joy, the victory of good over evil, and light over darkness. It’s a five-day holiday beginning on the new moon of the of the lunar month, Kartik, and is a true festival of lights. This year Dwali began on November 4, here in the US.
    My own Festival of Lights (however you transliterate it into English) Chanukkah or Hanukkah, is also based on the lunar calendar. Also beginning on the new moon, on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, we watch the moon slowly grow more full. We add a candle in our Chanukkiah each night for eight nights to symbolize the triumph of light over darkness, good over evil. 
    Before it became a tobacco-less cigarette brand, the Scandinavian Feast of Juul (also Jul) was a preChristian holiday to honor Thor, god of the sun. Celebrants lit a log, the fire literally and symbolically meant warmth and certainty that the sun would return to its former strength. A Yule log was burned until only ash was left. Sometimes the ashes were scattered over a field, as fertilizer, or kept as tokens to portend a coming year of good fortune. Modern-day Yule logs are a carryover. Yule festivals are still celebrated in Scandinavian countries.
    Muslims also follow a lunar calendar. The holy month of Ramadan occurs in a regular pattern as the moon waxes and wanes. Eid al-Adha, a three-day holiday, celebrates the end of Ramadan and is marked with joyous festivities. Lighting candles or electric lights is not a major component of the holiday since it moves throughout the year as the moon cycles around the earth and the earth spins around the sun. 
    This time of year Christmas lights shine in neighborhoods and public places, some with restraint, and some with reckless abandon. A few streets away from me, a whole block of neighbors have their displays choreographed to radio music. You can tune in as you drive by, heater on, windows closed. Each house is an extravagant display. Stars balance on rooftops, reindeer prance across lawns, and glass icicles drip rhythmically from eaves and dormers. City police post temporary signs warning drivers not to stop. It would block traffic on the small side street.
    The light symbolizes the same triumph of Goodness over Evil. 
    Just as Dwali, Chanukkah, Jul, Eid-al-Adha are, Christmas is a joyous celebration filled with optimism for the future. 
     Also occurring in the darkest days of the year, is Kwanzaa, a cultural, not a religious, holiday. It begins the day after Christmas and ends on January 1. The candles in the Kinara symbolize different principles of a good life including creativity, unity, and faith. One more candle is lit each night to serve as a reminder of those principles. A kinara’s seven candles shine with bright hope for a new year filled with happiness, joy, and peace.
    So, even though we celebrate differently, and at slightly different times, let’s take time to celebrate our similarities. Deep down, under the political divisions, the economic disparities, the common and pervasive Fear of the Unknown (and the known — especially COVID 19, Climate Catastrophe, epidemics of gun-violence and drug addiction) deep down, most of us do what we can to make the world a little better. Most of us really do.
    Our daylight hours will continue to shrink for another week. Then, as we watch our days grow longer, as we peruse garden catalogues and Spring fashion, as we anticipate crocuses and forsythia blooms, we can continue to cuddle up with hot chocolate or a hot Toddy and enjoy the quiet of Winter, for another little while.
                       --stay curious! (and shine your light brightly)

    “I know you don’t like me,” I say. “But you don’t have to. This is business.” I try to sound like one of the residents.
    “Too busy,” he repeats. But I hear the tiniest break between the two words. He is listening to me.
    “Never mind,” I say. I take one step back from the table.
    “Hold on,” he says. “I happen to want something from the outside. I’ll take it as payment if you can get it.”
                 from All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook
                                            written by Leslie Connor
                         Kathrine Tegen Books/HarperCollins, 2016
    Maybe the first person in the new United States to compromise his values was Thomas Jefferson. If taken at face value, his five small words in the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal,” would have abolished the slave trade in the Thirteen Colonies. That he allowed an exclusionary interpretation forever changed the course of the new republic. 
    In 1820, the Missouri Compromise set the stage for the Civil War, a war some people are still fighting. And sadly, racism is still prevalent and spreading. 
    According to some, citizenship privileges should not have been granted to people brought here against their will. 
    And now, they say, citizenship should not be granted to those coming to this great land fleeing persecution in their own homelands, wherever that may be.
    In his poem “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost tells us:
        Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, 
        That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
        And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
    He is saying that each spring, at mending time, we’ll discover Nature destroys our attempts to confine “apple orchards and pine groves.”
                       . . .The gaps I mean,
        No one has seen them made or heard them made,
        But at spring mending-time we find them there.
        I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
        And on a day we meet to walk the line
        And set the wall between us once again.
        We keep the wall between us as we go.
        To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

    Congress still has not passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Act or the For the People Act, but for now, our members of the House of Representatives finally compromised on something else.   
    Last Friday (11/5/21) in a 228-206 vote (thirteen Republicans supported it, six Democrats voted against it) the members of the House passed the infrastructure bill which will provide $550 billion in new funding for transportation, broadband, and utilities. A more comprehensive version of the bill had passed the Senate last August. 
    And President Biden is ready to sign.
    That’s progress, but still not enough. Lots of work still needs to be done. Lots of needs still must be met. Another, just as urgent, bill is still on the table. It addresses less tangible facets of our economy including child care, advanced manufacturing, climate change, and home health care. 
    Our economy has changed. Our Congressional leaders, no matter whether their political stripes are red, blue, or purple, have sworn to work for the people they represent. That’s us. All of us.
    After all, “[t]he legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves in their separate, and individual capacities.” Abraham Lincoln
    Just as Congress must work hard to meet our needs, it’s also up to us to communicate those needs. Make a phone call, write a letter, talk to your friends and neighbors about what is important. 
    Infrastructure in all its many forms, yes. But let's not forget about voting rights. Every eligible voter must be allowed and encouraged to cast a ballot. 
            -—stay curious! (and move forward, one step at a time)

    They drove through Everglades National Park to a place actually called Flamingo. . .
    But that day the flamingos weren’t there, not even one. My mother took lots of cool pictures of blue herons, white pelicans, cormorants, and even a pair of roseate spoonbills.
                                                         From: Squirm
                                                       by Carl Hiaasen
                                                Alfred A. Knopf, 2018
    Marjory Stoneman Douglas, before the horrible, tragic, senseless Valentine’s Day Massacre that took place at a school named for her, was mostly known for almost single-handedly saving the Everglades from wanton destruction by developers, agriculturists, new settlers, and tourists. But besides her environmental activism, she was a social reformer and a suffragist. She reached many people through her column in the Miami Herald called “The Galley.” She worked there from 1920 to 1923. Here’s what she had to say about women getting the vote.

If—For the Women Voters
If you can keep your vote when all about you
    Are throwing theirs away on this and that;
If you can think with politics about you,
    Of major issues that are plain and flat;
If you can see your way through horrid speeches
    And never lose your head on flowery ways--
Then you can vote as well as who wear breeches.
    And you can vote so that the voting pays.
If you can walk through clouds that shout in passion,
    And never leave your reasoning behind;
If you can think, when feeling is the fashion,
    And never trust to luck or go it blind;
If you can keep the welfare of the nation
    Above the gain or glory of a few--
You’ll make the ballot yet a decoration
    Worthy a voter, and a woman, too.

    That was her column on August 20, 1920. No introduction, no explanation, no fuss. Her advise to women who would be voting for the first time in less than three months: pay attention to the issues of the day, stay focused on reason, and “keep the welfare of the nation above the gain or glory of a few.” 
    That’s it.
    The nineteenth amendment giving women the right to vote passed two days earlier, on August 18, 1920, in time for the Presidential Election in November. Warren G. Harding defeated James M. Cox in a landslide.
    Go vote!
                                     -—stay curious (and informed!)    

    [Waterhouse] wanted to create such perfect models that anyone - a crowd of curious children, England’s leading scientists, even the Queen herself! - could gaze at his dinosaurs and see into the past.
                         from The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse
Hawkins: An Illuminating History of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins,
Artist and Lecturer
                         written by Barbara Kerley
                         with drawings by Brian Selznick 
(many of which are based on the original sketches
of Mr. Hawkins)
                         Scholastic Press, 2001
                         Caldecott Honor
    I don’t remember being mesmerized by any one thing when I was growing up. My girls either.
    But in my work as a children’s librarian, I discovered fascinations with everything from sharks and spiders to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (remember those?). 
    And of course, dinosaurs. I hoped my own grandchildren or at least one or two would get hooked on dinosaurs, but no luck.
    One of the boys loved Thomas The Tank Engine. One was so into mushrooms that he had his own field guide at age three. One knew the names and workings of every construction vehicles, common and obscure.
    Fairies and princesses captured the imagination of both girls like nothing else.
    But no dinosaurs.
    I indulged my own fascination by providing dinosaur storytimes. We made paper-plate stegosauruses, and tyrannous masks and claws. We read lots of books and learned about lots of dinosaurs. I usually ended by (hopefully?) inspiring the kids, telling them that I might be looking at the person who solves the mystery of how and why the dinosaurs all became extinct. Now we have consensus, but then there was still controversy.
    Since time began, scientists have recorded five major mass extinctions. Lots of questions remain, but much has been learned. Actually in all that time, five is a pretty low number. According to https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-timeline-of-the-mass-extinction-events-on-earth.html the big five are:
Ordovician–Silurian Extinction
    About 439 million years ago, the combination of glaciation and the formation of the Appalachian Mountains resulted in falling sea levels.Since the majority of the animal life lived in the ocean, trilobites, brachiopods, and graptolites died off in large numbers    . Plant life was left high and dry.

Devonian Extinction, Late
    About 100 million years later, giant land plants are thought to have caused the next extinction. Their deep roots released nutrients changing the composition of the oceans themselves. This resulted in mass amounts of algal blooms and depleted the seas of oxygen and therefore, animal life. Many scientists consider this mass extinction to have taken place over over hundreds of thousands of years. 

Permian–Triassic Extinction
    This extinction event is called “The Great Dying.” About 96% of life perished in a huge volcanic eruption 251 million years ago. It filled the air with carbon dioxide which fed different kinds of bacteria. Large amounts of methane emissions warmed the Earth and the oceans became acidic. Ancient coral species were totally lost.

Triassic–Jurassic Extinction
    Like the other mass extinctions, it is believed that this one was also a gradual phenomenon. The blame has been placed on an asteroid impact, the resulting basalt eruptions, and climate change. Mammals were the dominant species and then they weren’t. Dinosaurs had room and time to flourish. That was about 200 million years ago. Dinosaurs evolved and thrived for 135 million years.
    
Cretaceous–Paleogene Extinction
    Sixty-five or six million years ago, so the theory goes, a huge asteroid (about six miles in diameter) traveling at 10 to 20 miles per second, smashed into Earth and left a crater 110 miles across, about as wide as the whole state of Delaware is long! The crash was bad. Very bad. The dust it threw off was full of sulfur, which is particularly adept at blocking out sunlight and resulted in an “impact winter.” The dust snuffed out the sun. That’s when we lost the dinosaurs. It was dark for so long plants could not photosynthesize. Then ferns grew almost rampant.
    It took millions of years for life to recover its former level of diversity.
    We may well ask, “What’s next?” 
    Nearly 150 authors from 50 nations worked for three years to compile a report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. The panel is composed of 132 member nations including the United States.. Find them here: https://ipbes.net/members-observers
    Representatives of each member nation signed off on the findings. You can find the report, released on May 6, 2019, here: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/ 
    Overwhelming evidence paints a dire future for our planet. Species loss is speeding up. More than half a million land animals are at great risk of extinction in the coming decades. The oceans are no better off.
    This time, no 6-mile-wide asteroid crashed into earth. No giant plants upset the chemical balance of the soil or water. No new mountain ranges have formed.
    This time, humanity is both perpetrator and victim of our current condition. Maybe it’s human nature to choose convenience over longterm sustainability. Maybe it’s human nature to live in the moment without giving much thought to the future. Maybe it’s human nature to “make do” in a dangerous situation rather than try to change it for the better.
    It is easy to become overwhelmed, scared stiff. But it only takes one idea, one thought, communicated widely, lived loudly, believed strongly, to head confidently into the future. A bright one. For our kids. And grandkids. And theirs, too.

(2021) One of President Biden’s first acts as president was rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement. The biggest climate meeting since Paris begins this Sunday (10/31/21) and will continue for almost two weeks. As President Biden heads to Glasgow, Scotland, his and our country’s credibility is on the line. No one doubts Biden’s sincerity. Whether Congress will pass his appropriations remains the question. It’s a good time to write to your Senator.
                              -—stay curious! (and say no to plastic!!)

In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.
                                   From:The Diary of a Young Girl
                                             Written by Anne Frank
                                    Doubleday/Bantam Books, 1967
                                               first published in 1947
                                                first US edition, 1952
    One of the most famous Holocaust poems of all time, "First They Came for the Jews," was written by a Lutheran pastor and theologian, Martin Niemöller (1892–1984).
    After recanting his support for Hitler and Nazism, Niemöller was arrested and confined to the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945. He narrowly avoided execution and was liberated by the Allies. He stayed in Germany and worked as a clergyman, pacifist, and anti-war activist. In his 1946 book, Niemöller talked publicly of Germany’s guilt for what had happened to the Jews. He was one of the first Germans to do so.
Here's his poem:

                     First They Came For The Jews
                              by Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.
   
    I found the text of the poem and information about Niemöller on this page at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum site.
    Accessed on October 29, 2018. (verified October 19, 2021)

    Here is a modern adaptation:
When they came for the Jews and the blacks, I turned away
When they came for the writers and the thinkers and the radicals and the protestors, I turned away
When they came for the gays, and the minorities, and the utopians, and the dancers, I turned away
And when they came for me, I turned around and around, and there was nobody left...
(published in Hue and Cry, 1991)

You can find more adaptations here:
http://webweaversworld.blogspot.com/2006/10/first-they-came-for-jews-variations-on.html

    Or write your own. 
    Please share!
    Shooting and killing praying people in a synagogue . . . because they were Jewish. I never thought that could *really* happen. But it did. In 2018. In the city next door to mine. 
    I’m (still) struggling with how to turn my anger, fear, pessimism, and grief into action. I signed up to make phone calls for Everytown for Gun Safety. https://everytown.org  You can, too.

(10/19/21)    On October 8, 2021, the director of curriculum and instruction for the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, told a fourth grade teacher to “make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing … perspective.” Find the article here.
                                           -—stay curious! (and caring)

GUYS
JUST CHECKING IN TO MAKE SURE
EVERYONE HAS THE LATEST INFO
INCOMING FRESHMAN TED YOUNGBLOOD IS IN THE 
HOSPITAL FROM THAT HIT HE TOOK AT CAMP TODAY.
IT’S PRETTY BAD, NOT SURE HOW BAD YET
BUT I HEARD HE’S STILL UNCONSCIOUS.
                                                 from Game Changer
                                       written by Tommy Greenwald
                                                 Abrams/Amulet, 2018

    The closest I’ve ever been to a football was my job at the Wilson football factory in Ada, Ohio. I laced rubber footballs and sewed leather ones back in the mid 1970s. I finished my days there working on soccer balls. I also don’t follow soccer, which is football everywhere else in the world.
    My mom played clarinet in her high school marching band during football games. So did my girls. That must be a trait that skips a generation.
    Both of my sons-in-law like football, and the girls know quite a lot more than I ever did. I never got interested in the game. Boys (or 300-pound grown men) running at each other trying to throw, catch, or prevent someone else from throwing and/or catching a crazy-shaped “ball” is just dangerous. Does a ball even have to be round to be called a ball? I guess not!
    And the complicated rules!
    Football, American football, is dangerous. When a person’s brain slams into the inside of the skull, the result is a concussion. The harder the hit, the more severe the concussion. But brain injury occurs over time, too. There is a cumulative effect on the brain when it is concussed over and over again. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is the term used to describe this serious brain condition.
    Have you seen the movie Concussion (starring Will Smith, 2015)? It’s the true story of a Nigerian doctor who discovered the alarming connection between head injuries sustained in playing football and brain damage (CTE) in older, retired players.
    Even though leather helmets have been available since 1893, according to NFL.com, football helmets were not even required until 1943. Energy absorbing helmets were introduced in the 1970s. Full face masks were, too. In 2011, an impact indicator on the helmet’s chin strap was devised. It’s used to identify head injuries. But, really, isn’t it too late if the injury has already occurred?
    Football, American football, is a violent sport. It attracts and condones violence on the football field, and elevates winning to a crowning achievement. It is whether you win or lose, not how you play the game. Not all refs stop aggression. There’s the problem of proving intent. Did a player really ram into another one on purpose. Well, yes. To get the ball, to complete the play, to score.
    Part of the attraction for the players is probably money. Professional football players are paid millions of dollars each season. In 2018, the minimum NFL salary for a rookie was $480,000, not quite half a million. Fame is an incentive for some, no doubt. And the ability to sway public sentiment to a cause worked (in a way) for Colin Kaepernick. He was noticed. He still is being talked about. He is not playing football. He recently did an ad for Nike, whose CEO reinforced standing up (or taking a knee) for what you believe in. So Colin is working.
    But the young kids. Why should a dangerous sport still be allowed, even encouraged? Since Concussion came out in 2015, more and more parents are thinking twice about letting their kids play. 
    In fall/winter of 2015/16, 1,083,308 boys played high school football. For the 2018/19 school year, 1,006,013 boys are signed up. Girls play, too: 1,565 in 2014/15 and 2,404 in 2018/19. A much smaller number than the boys, but why are more girls choosing to play? 
    Aggression must be learned. It is a goal in developing young football players according to YouthFootballOnline. Although they are encouraged to keep safety as a first priority, the first bullet-point in a list for coaches states:
“Each act should be with aggression as soon as child hits the practice field. If he puts his helmet on, have him do it aggressively. When he drinks a cup of water, have him do it with aggression. No meek actions.” (emphasis included on webpage.)
    Their premise is that aggressive actions on the field will lead to a confident attitude off the field. “It’s the attitude of if you want something bad enough, you have to go out and get it.”
    In other words, take what you want from whoever has it. No asking nicely, no compromising, no patiently waiting. No wonder so many people love the game!    
    Not all team names are angry and aggressive sounding, but a lot are. I don’t think cheese factory workers in Green Bay are dangerous, but their team is the Packers. Besides the birds, lots of teams chose animal names. I’ll save Native American tribal names for another post.
    Among the non-violent names, the Dolphins come to mind.
    Bluejays are an aggressive bird, but they play baseball. We have Cardinals, Falcons and Eagles, and Seahawks in the bird category. And Ravens.
    Of course the other side of the argument is the character-building, teammate-building, responsibility-building aspect of any group sport.
    I still choose to quote Edgar Allen Poe’s Raven (from Baltimore, just like him).
    “Nevermore.”
                                                -—stay curious! (and safe)    

    After Joey leaves, Mary Ann and I go back to pushing coins into my piggy bank. When we’re done, I pick it up and shake it. It’s so  full, it barely makes a noise. It’s heavy too.
    I hand it to Mary Anne so she can feel it. “I can’t believe how much you have,” she says.
                                      from: In Business with Mallory
                                         written by Laurie Friedman
                                        illustrated by Barbara Pollak
                                            Carolrhoda Books, 2006
    In high school I worked as a sales clerk for The May Company, a national department store chain with a local outlet. The store was close to home and I usually walked there and back. I had my driver’s license, but I didn’t have a car. Not too many of my friends (and none of the girls) had one, and that was okay. 
    I earned $1.60/hour. When I started working, most people paid with cash. Some used a Charge-a-Plate to buy on credit. I think their bank issued it. I approached my mom with the idea for my own credit card, but she didn’t think much of it. I’m not sure how I convinced her I would buy something only when I already had enough money in the bank to pay for it. That seemed counter-intuitive to me, but I played by Mom’s rules. I opened up a checking account so I could pay off my new Charge-a-Plate as soon as I received my bill.
    The card was a small silver-colored rectangle, embossed with my name and a number. It was about half the size of the Visa Card and the Discover Card I have in my wallet today. I wish I could remember what my first purchase was.
    People spoke about a cashless society and I wondered what that would look like. Well, it looks like now. I know people who buy their morning coffee on credit, and charge restaurant meals and groceries, too. 
    Here’s the thing about buying groceries on credit. Before they’re paid for, I’d have cooked, eaten, and eliminated (or more likely, stored as fat!!) most of what I bought. That feels strange to me.
    I understand the necessity for credit. Not everyone can save up for a car, or a home remodel, or even a washer or dryer or new fridge. I expect to pay interest to the bank for the convenience of having what I want (or need) immediately. Sometimes, it’s an emergency.    
    When I asked them, my parents explained the National Debt in familiar terms. People pay taxes to the government, then the government pays the senators, congressmen, and judges. The government pays to run the national parks and federal agents to solve crimes and the CIA to keep us safe. And the government funds Social Security and Medicare. Aid goes to people who don’t make enough money or who don’t make any money for whatever reasons, some good, some bad. And the government buys electricity to keep their buildings open.
    When the government spends more money than it has and needs to borrow, it is called deficit spending. It’s what my mom cautioned me not to do. 
    If the government’s bills are not paid in full each month, the bank or other lending institution applies interest that is added to the total. The National Debt increases, but without the benefit of getting more goods.  
    Besides receiving money from the tax-paying population, the government can issue bonds. Private citizens and corporations can buy them. The government can borrow money from other programs (or really our kids) by tapping into Social Security and Medicare. And they can borrow on the world market. Our government borrows from other countries, too.
    About 66% of the National Debt is money the government owes the public, businesses, and foreign governments that bought investments is the US. The rest is what the Federal government owes itself for loans it took from Social Security and Medicare and other trusts. 
    The US debt is over 22 trillion dollars. That’s a 22 with 12 zeros (22,000,000,000,000). (2021: over 28 trillion) Only four trillion one-dollar bills laid end to end will reach all the way from Earth to the moon.
    As of May, 2019, the United States government owes China $1.11 trillion (one trillion, eleven billion). That’s 27% of the debt held by foreign countries. 

2021 update: According to a paper called Foreign Holdings of Federal Debt (Updated July 9, 2021) and published by the Congressional Research Service:
    Based on their estimates, Japan holds approximately 17.7% of all foreign investment in U.S. publicly held federal debt, China holds approximately 15.2%, and the United Kingdom holds approximately 6.2%. The other (approximately 60% is domestically held, what the government owes itself and its citizens.) https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RS22331.pdf 
    And, since the government can only use reconciliation a limited number of times, if they raise the debt ceiling before December, 2021, they will not be able to use it to pass any or all of the Infrastructure Bill. 
    Meanwhile the Freedom to Vote Act languishes, at the peril of our free and fair elections.

    Why does all this even matter? If the US keeps borrowing and increasing the amount of the debt, world markets could lose confidence in our government. Obligating ourselves to other countries is a risky business.
    Raising taxes and reducing spending is one way to borrow less. That’s pretty uncomfortable, too. 
    I don’t know the answer to this very complicated problem, but I’ll keep reading and listening. Stay tuned.

2021:The Deficit Myth by Stephanie Kelton (PublicAffairs, 2020) is an interesting book (well the introduction is, anyway). In it she discusses Modern Monetary Theory and claims governments should not be run like households. That is, tax revenues do not fund the government since the Treasury is controlled by the government and can provide printed money in an endless supply. Now if someone could just explain that to Mitch McConnell and the rest of his Republicans…
    Maybe I’ll look for a class in Chinese.
                 -—stay curious! (and take a deep breath, or two) 

     The music started.  
     [Boomer] tumbled. He tangled. He toppled. He flew . . .
right through the ceremonial flame.
     He got the lowest score in [Summer] Olympic history.
     Mr. Hamstring croaked, "Any final words for our viewers at home?"
     “Well, Hammy, maybe I didn’t win a gold medal today,” said Boomer, “but I realized something very important. I realized. . .today has been terrific practice for the Winter Olympics!”
                   Olympig! The Triumphant Story of an Underdog
                       written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson
                                Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012
       
       I’ve never been much about sports. (see a few previous posts: Football Memories 2/8/16, Heart of a Champion 8/2/16, and Cleveland, Ohio 7/19/16) The High School Band was always more important to me than the game. Of course, my girls were in the band and I didn’t have any children on the football team, or any other team, for that matter. My younger daughter had a brief time on a soccer team, but that’s a different story.
       This week is a sports trifecta, though.
       Last Monday, a Major League Baseball statement announced that Chief Wahoo, mascot of the Cleveland Indians, will be retired after the 2018 season. The team has been moving away from the Chief by replacing his image with a block-style “C” on road caps (2011) and batting helmets (2013). Cleveland is stepping up to the plate and doing the right and sensitive thing. 
       The Super Bowl will start just hours from now. Football always seemed to me a violent sport. So much smashing and falling and piling on each other. I have a good book, (The Wonderling, by Mira Birtok, Candlewick Press, 2017). It’s about discovering one’s destiny and finding one’s place in the world. I’ll read while my husband watches the game. 
       I *do* have a football connection. I worked at the Wilson football factory in Ada, Ohio while my ex-husband finished his degree at Ohio Northern University. My brother sent me a link to a great story about the factory. (see also the reference above to Football Memories)
       More than 100 million people will be tuned in this year. I’ll probably look up for the commercials, although I haven’t heard any hype about them this year. Thirty-second ads will cost companies $5 million dollars, ten times the price of a 30-second ad during Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. That’s a lot of Pepsi! or Coke! or V8! or beer?
    (2021 addition) Meanwhile, The Washington Football Team will continue to play under its temporary name through the 2021 season and, according to Washington Football Team President Jason Wright, will announce its new name and new logo early in 2022. 
      All eyes will turn to PyeongChang, South Korea on Friday as the Winter Olympics Games begin. The big news for me is that North and South Korea will have a joint Women’s Field Hockey team. I’m not sure how that will impact world peace or nuclear de-escalation.
       But five is symbolic. The five continents are united by athletic competitions. The five interlocking rings are made of colors found in flags of all participating nations. Races, nations, religions, genders, and cultures are connected in their passion for sports.
       So with the emphasis this week on sports of all kinds, I’ll go about my days taking care of important responsibilities: volunteering at a local diaper bank, making an eye-doctor appointment, and staying in touch with friends and family. 
                          --stay curious! (and take some time to play)