Shari Della Penna

Elephants and Donkeys

6/30/2020

When you get there, take a good look around. And if you happen to spot something big and
gray, tiptoe closer. You’ll want to see if it’s an elephant or not. If it’s not an elephant, then you’ll just have to keep looking.
from How to Find an Elephant
written by Kate Banks
illustrated by Boris Kulikov
Farrar Straus Giroux/Macmillan Publishing Group, 2017

“What a lucky day this is,” thought Sylvester. From now on, I can have anything I want. My father and mother can have anything they want. My relatives, and friends, and anyone at all can have everything anybody wants.”
from Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
written and illustrated by William Steig
Simon & Schuster, 1969
Caldecott Medal winner, 1970
(Two quotations today in the interest of fairness. I don’t think there is one book about both, yet.)

   Even though no one has ever called me a jack ass, at least to my face or within my range of hearing, I have called others that, under my breath, for sure. I know what I meant, but why “jack-ass?” Since 1823, jackass has meant a stupid person. A donkey’s scientific name, Equus Asinus is probably where the ass comes from. Jack is just the male of the species. (females are called jennys)
https://www.etymonline.com/word/jackass
Here are some characteristics about donkeys from https://www.habitatforhorses.org/interesting-donkey-facts/

They can live for over 50 years.
They are stronger than horses of the same size.
They can recognize an area they’ve been in 25 years later. They can recognize other donkeys they’ve been with, too.
It is difficult to force or frighten a donkey into doing something it sees as contrary to its own best interest or safety. In other words, a donkey can size up a situation and make a decision.
Donkeys are herd animals. They groom each other in the same way as monkeys and chimps do.
Donkeys are used as guard animals for cattle, sheep and goats.

Those are all good traits. I don’t know why they got a bad rap.

Here are some characteristics about elephants. https://www.elephant-world.com/facts-about-elephants/

Elephants live 60-70 years.
The African bull (male) elephant is earth’s largest land animal.
An elephant’s tusks never stop growing.
An elephant’s trunk is sensitive enough to pick up a blade of grass and strong enough to rip branches off a tree.
Elephants are very smart. They show empathy to members of their herd.
Elephants were used in wars, for entertainment (think circus acts), and beasts of burden (especially in South Asia)

   Donkeys and elephants are similar in a few ways. They are both mammals. They both have big ears. They both thrive in herds, especially the females and young. They were/are used as work animals. Both elephants and donkeys are really smart. They’re both gray.
   And they each represent an American political party.
   As early as 1828, when he was running his campaign for President, Andrew Jackson’s opponents openly called him a jackass. Jackson, being who he was, decided to embrace the term and made the jackass into his mascot, rebranding it into an animal loyal, determined, and deliberate.
   It wasn’t until Thomas Nast, a cartoonist working for Harper’s Magazine, published a political cartoon on January 15, 1870 that the donkey became inextricably fastened to the Democratic Party. In his cartoon, Nast used a donkey, representing a press group opposed to the Civil War, to illustrate his idea that they dishonored the legacy of President Lincoln. By choosing the donkey (a jackass meant just what is does today) to represent those opposed to Lincoln's Republicans, Nast ridiculed and belittled the Democratic Party. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/political-animals-republican-elephants-and-democratic-donkeys-89241754/#:~:text=The%201870%20Harpers%20cartoon%20credited%20with%20associating%20the,would%20forever%20link%20the%20donkey%20to%20the%20Democrat
   In 1874, during U. S. Grant’s campaign for a third term, Nast again drew a donkey to represent the Democrats. This time, it was a donkey dressed in a lion’s suit pursuing an elephant, maybe to represent the strength of the Republicans. But the elephant ran scared right to the edge of a large pit. Nast continued using elephants throughout the 1870s and by the 1880s, other cartoonists were using them, too. https://www.history.com/news/how-did-the-republican-and-democratic-parties-get-their-animal-symbols
   Even though the Democratic party has never officially adopted the donkey as its symbol, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/third-term-controversy-gave-republican-party-its-symbol-180967079/, and the Republican symbol has been tradition for over 125 years, marketing (or if you prefer branding) has made it easy to line up on one side or the other.
   But it’s not that easy to say what you stand for. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of course, but what about the details? How do we ensure all people in our country are safe? How to we make sure the most vulnerable among us are nurtured? How do we encourage our kids to become their best selves?
   I really don’t have any answers. Sorry. I only know that by staying involved in our own communities and being aware of what is important in our own neighborhoods, we can watch out for each other.
One way to bring money into our communities is to respond to the 10-year census. Money for infrastructure in our towns, local school funding, social programs and so much more is provided according to the number of people living in a particular area. Census data is also used to make decisions regarding our Congressional seats. Let’s give each other what we can. Some things are still in our control.
-—stay curious! (and if you haven’t yet, visit 2020census.gov)

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Where's the Vaccine?

6/23/2020

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…If bacteria are making you sick, the doctor usually prescribes some drug. The drug will either kill the bacteria or stop them from growing.
   Doctors do not yet have drugs to cure diseases caused by [all] viruses. But they can give you shots to prevent some of these diseases.
from Germs Make Me Sick
written by Melvin Berger
illustrated by Marilyn Hafner
Harper, 2015 (revised edition)
EPUB edition, 2020

Here’s a definition to start us off this morning. “A vaccine is a substance that helps protect against certain diseases. Vaccines contain a dead or weakened version of a microbe. It helps your immune system recognize and destroy the living microbe during a future infection.” https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/qa/what-is-the-definition-of-vaccine
   Polio, short for poliomyelitis, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. When I was growing up, polio was still a common and dreaded disease. It did not kill most of its victims, but many were forced to live with crippling aftereffects. There was no cure.
   Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921. It left both his legs paralyzed. Shortly into his second term as president, he helped create what would become the March of Dimes Foundation, originally formed to to find a cure for polio.
   The March of Dimes was Jonas Salk’s primary funding source as he researched his vaccine to prevent polio. Salk developed a “killed-virus” vaccine. He grew samples of the virus, then killed them with formaldehyde so they could not reproduce. The inactive strains of the virus tricked the immune system into producing protective antibodies to prevent an infection.
   Most scientists, including Albert Sabin, believed only a live, but weakened microbe would be effective. They called Salk’s “killed-virus” vaccine dangerous. But it takes a long time to develop a live-virus vaccine. Funding went to Salk.
   Between April 26, 1954 and the end of June that same year, 1.8 million people became “polio pioneers,” volunteering to participate in a double-blind experiment to prove the Salk vaccine’s efficacy. It was declared declared “safe, effective and potent,” on April 12, 1955.
   Sabin’s oral vaccine did not become available until 1962. It was given on a sugar cube and quickly replaced Salk’s injection. The Sabin vaccine was less expensive and easier to administer. But according to the World Health Organization (WHO), although polio vaccination prevents countless infections, in 2019, Sabin’s live-virus vaccine was responsible for nine new polio cases. WHO calls it the final obstacle to eliminating polio and urges the use only of Salk’s killed-virus vaccine.
   I was around ten years old when, after dinner one evening, Mom and Dad rounded us up and hiked with Gram the quarter mile to our elementary school. We were off to get our vaccination for polio.
   It seemed like the whole neighborhood turned up. We chatted as we stood in line, waiting our turn. The proper amount of drops of the Sabin oral vaccine was dosed on a sugar cube and given to men, women, children, grandparents, and babies. It was easy.
   According the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the United States has been polio-free since 1979.
   The first step to developing a vaccine these days, is to discover the genetic code of the virus. This structure is used as a guide to learn which antibodies will create immunity in humans. Scientists then determine whether any of several vaccine candidates fight the virus effectively.
   An antibody is the only component of our immune response that recognizes a virus before it has infected a cell. So right now, the only people who can produce antibodies against the protein in the COVID-19 virus are people who have recovered from an infection.
   Two processes need to work together. It's the combination of antibodies to prevent further infection with the antibodies’ effect on a person’s own T-cells to clear out the existing infection, that will prove most effective.
   Once an antibody is isolated, it must be tried out in people to see if it is effective (that’s the T-cell component) and what, if any, side-effects it might cause. This is necessarily a slow process. The collection of antibodies, the trials in real, infected people, and analysis of the data all take time. No one wants a drug that is ineffective. For sure no one wants one that is harmful.
   Once a vaccine has gone through the clinical trials and determined to be safe and effective, scientists determine the proper dose. Making proper dosage adjustments could take a year or more. And we're not quite there, yet.
   Scientists all over the world are looking for an effective and safe vaccine for COVID-19, delivered at the proper dose. When it is discovered, people all over the world will be very grateful., indeed.
-—stay curious! (and patient)

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My Country ’Tis of Thee

6/16/2020

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“I’m not saying to chase them out of town,” Baxter’s voice again. But there’s gotta be laws about this. I know coloreds, can’t go to school with our kids. Indians can’t either. Isn’t it the same for Chinamen?”
from Prairie Lotus
by Linda Sue Park
Clarion Books/HoughtonMifflinHarcourt, 2020

When I was a high school Sophomore or maybe Junior, I had an extra Study Hall. My American History teacher wanted a volunteer. It sounded like a match to me, so I went for it. My assignment each day was to scan his several year’s worth of Congressional Records for any interesting bit of business and mark the article with a red pen.
   Apparently, he hadn’t been keeping up and thought I’d be able to help him streamline his backlog.
   The Record is published online (and on iTunes) now, but all those years ago, it was published each day on newsprint, bound with staples down the center, and mailed to anyone who paid for a subscription. The Daily Digest at the back of each issue recorded the day’s business. Most of the time I determined not much happened and my red BIC stayed unclicked. This would have been 1969 or 1970, and I was a 16-year-old girl with my own drama.
   I don’t know if he ever got to my stacks of marked up issues lined up on his window sills.
   Some kids said Mr. Perme was a member of the John Birch Society. He wore an American flag in his lapel. To me, that meant he loved his country, however he chose to express it.
   But I took my concern home and asked my mom what the kids meant. She had a vague answer that I’m not sure either of us understood. The gist was, if he wore a flag and the school let him teach, it was probably okay, even if he was a bigot. My dad wanted me to go back to Study Hall.
   That time, I listened to my mom.
   It must be the current current events that tossed me back to high school. In our studies of the Civil War, Mr. Perme taught us the War was not about slavery. It was about States’ Rights. Slavery was just incidental. He made a case for that, but still.
   The mid-nineteenth century was a time much like our own, fraught with disharmony, disunity, unfocused anger, and fear. Owners of enslaved people (mostly) needed to assure themselves they were protecting their homes and their families. They decided the best way to do that was to break away from the United States and start a new country with new laws allowing slavery, with all its insidious beliefs and inhumanity intact.
   Even before the war was over, Abraham Lincoln signed an Executive Order, the Emancipation Proclamation. It stated that on January 1, 1863, “all persons held as slaves. . . shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free[.]” It goes on to say that the military “will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.” Sounds pretty clear to me.
   The South lost the war.
   So why are over 700 monuments to Confederate leaders and over 700 pieces of insignia including the Confederate flag displayed on Courthouse grounds and city squares and public parks throughout more than 31 states and Washington D.C.? “All were there to teach values to people,” according to Mark Elliot, a history professor at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. They stood for a “glorification of the cause of the Civil War.” They stood for the glorification of slavery. And they did not even begin to appear until many years after the end of the Civil War, during the heights of civil unrest, in the first quarter of and during middle of the twentieth century.
   Eleven states formed the Confederacy. Thirty-one chose to display its insignia.
   The South lost the Civil War. Their battle flag should not fly over any part of the United States of America.
   Their leaders lost the War. They should not be looking over public property belonging to the people of the United States. The Confederacy should be treated as a foreign power that lost its war. Military installations should not be named for leaders of that same foreign power. The men they are named for are traitors who waged war against the United States, and lost.
   This Friday is Juneteenth. On June 19, 1865, federal troops marched into Galveston, TX, “to take control of the state and to ensure enslaved people be freed.” https://www.history.com/news/what-is-juneteenth The news in Galveston was two and a half years overdue, but Juneteenth has been celebrated ever since.
   Current military leaders are beginning to speak out. Just today, General Robert Abrams, commander of the troops in South Korea, banned the display of the Confederate flag from all Army installations there. (Heather Cox Richardson from her “Letters from an American” newsletter, 6/15/2020) Regular people are beginning to talk about it. Heck, NASCAR banned the Confederate flag!
   White supremacy cannot be allowed to outlive the current news cycle.
   I hope the history we’re making and witnessing is the beginning of a move toward “liberty and justice for all.”
-—stay curious! (and love your neighbor)

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Here Comes the Sun

6/9/2020

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I am your sun. My light gives life to your green earth…
and to your deep and restless seas.
from My Light
written and illustrated by Molly Bang
Blue Sky Press, 2004

During the Fall of 2017, my husband and I visited several National Parks. It was a trip to remember in so many ways, but an image that has stuck in my mind all this time was one I saw during my turn behind the wheel. My husband was stretched out in the passenger seat, probably dreaming of the cottonwood trees that seemed lit from within. Or maybe the magical-looking waterfall in Zion National Park. He could have been dreaming about the delicious dinner at Jay’s Pizza in Moab, though.
   Out the lower left corner of the windshield grew something massive, blackish, lake-like. Long minutes passed. It kept getting bigger. I didn’t remember a large lake from my elementary-school geography class. I didn’t know what I was looking at until I got closer. It wasn’t a lake. It wasn’t even water. I didn’t know what it was until it metamorphed into a solar farm. I thought it covered a square mile.
   I have seen solar panels on houses. I have even seen smallish solar farms. A large portion of the parking lot at the old GM facility in Lordstown, Ohio, just a short drive from my house, is a solar farm now. The largest solar farms cover thousands of acres and sport over a million solar panels. They’re located all over the world, China, Japan, India and right here in the United States.
   Power companies and regular people are becoming more interested in renewable energy for lots of reasons. And it’s becoming more affordable. According to an item I heard on “Here and Now” last week (5/29/2020), Americans are consuming more renewable energy than coal for the first time since 1885, when most people burned wood. https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/05/29/renewable-energy-increase In fact, in 2018, “China built a massive floating solar farm on top of an abandoned coal mine.” You can see a picture of it here: https://www.businessinsider.com/china-floating-solar-farm-coal-mine-renewable-energy-2018-1
   Coal is bad for the earth, digging it out and burning it. It’s bad for our health, for those who dig for it, and those who use it for heat. It’s bad for the environment. Our trees can’t inhale enough carbon dioxide. Our earth is out of balance. It just doesn’t make sense to invest in coal production.
   Here’s a factoid from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a division of the Department of Energy. More energy from the sun falls on the earth in one hour than is used by everyone in the world in one year. https://www.nrel.gov/research/re-solar.html And solar energy systems do not produce air pollution or carbon dioxide.
   So my husband and I decided to go solar. Our array should be up and running by the end of July. Twenty-two solar panels will be affixed to the south-facing slope of our garage roof in two rows of eleven panels each. They will generate almost all the electricity we need for lights, washing clothes, cooking dinner, baking cookies, refrigeration, reading in bed, and charging our phones, and charging our car. We’ll have room for another row of eleven panels if we want to add them later.
   Of course, I wanted to know a little about how it all works. Solar cells, sometimes called solar photovoltaic (PV) devices, convert the sun’s energy into electricity. The cells are arranged in panels and several panels make an array. The term photovoltaic actually describes the process of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage). That’s called the photovoltaic effect.
   Most solar cells are made of silicon, the second most abundant element (next to oxygen) on earth. PVs are used on everything from little plastic pigs and turkeys that flap their wings when the sun hits the little black patch on their backs, to calculators and satellites.
   When light strikes a PV cell, some of it is absorbed into the silicon. The energy of the absorbed light knocks loose some electrons in the silicon and allows them to flow freely. Electric fields in the cell force the electrons to flow in only one direction, creating current. Metal contacts on the top and bottom the PV cell draw off that current to power a calculator or a satellite or a little plastic pig with wings. You can find a much more thorough and very readable explanation at https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/solar-cell1.htm
   Our new solar array will be tied into our existing electric wires and metered by our local electric company. The dial on the usage monitor will spin in two directions. If we use more electricity than we produce, it travels one way and we pay. If we generate more electricity than we use, the extra power goes into the grid and the power company pays us. Of course, they are looking at their bottom line, not ours. They will pay us a fraction of what they charge for their own production, but that’s the way economics works in the USA.
   And for me, doing the right thing usually amounts to much more than adding and subtracting a bunch of numbers!
-—stay curious! (and take small steps)

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All You Need Is Love

6/2/2020

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He went back in his apartment and slammed his door, and I wondered what could make someone so completely rotten that they spent their days being mean to everyone. … It had to be lonely, being mean all the time. Suddenly Mr. Lipinsky didn’t seem so scary after all.
from: Counting Thyme
by Melanie Conklin
G.P. Putnam's Sons/Penguin Group, 2016
e-edition read on Libby at www.libraryvisit.org

No doubt about it. Ours is a violent society. We allow pretty much anyone who wants one to have a gun. Police have guns. Hunters have guns. People who are fearful have guns. Can we have a less violent society with less guns? Yes, I think so.
   But guns are not the only way to kill someone.
   A man is dead, strangled by a police officer, again. Three others stood near. At least one person filmed the horror on a cell-phone camera. Many people were close enough to hear the futile plea for air.
   I think the most horrible piece of the entire tragedy is that no one helped. No one. Not the person with the camera. Not the police officer with his knee pushed into a dying man’s neck. Not the other police officers. Not one person from the crowd. Why not? Did anyone even call for help? Those are questions I can’t find an answers to. Is police violence so common that decent people, us, have thrown up our hands, helpless?
   Once, someone explained to me that the opposite of love is not hate. It is apathy. I believe apathy must be the opposite of hate, too.
   According to the Human Systems Dynamics Institute, there are three main reasons why people hate each other.
   1. “We seek a specific and identifiable outlet for our generalized feelings of anger.” Unfocused anger is very uncomfortable. We need a focus to ease the discomfort. The easiest way to do that is to find a scapegoat, someone (or some group) we can blame.
   2. “Hate is a simplified method for the difficult task of managing difference.” Everyone is a little different and a little the same. When our differences are called shameful, when they collide with trauma, violence, and/or humiliation, both the shamer and the one being shamed nurture their hate, and feed it with fear.
   Those who feel threatened define different as either good or bad. Hate is a manifestation of the fear of someone’s differences, turning a person or a group into other.
   3. “Because hatred is energizing.” When we feel helpless, frustrated, or disempowered, hating another becomes a way to climb out of those difficult feelings and do something, even if it is destructive, maybe especially if it is destructive.
https://www.hsdinstitute.org/resources/Why_we_hate_others.html
   Police officers are authority figures. Most take their jobs very seriously. It is in the nature of the job to exert control, make sure laws are followed. Not all police officers are racists. That’s a convenient label. (See #1, above.)
   I’m sure, probably, the reasons police officers kill unarmed civilians are many and complex, maybe. But, I *am* sure there has to be a way to keep us all safe and law-abiding without shooting us or snuffing out our lives, willy-nilly, purposefully, or accidentally. Most of us want to believe that a uniform is not an excuse for murder. Most of the time it is not. But not always.
   Officers must be held accountable for their decisions, just like the rest of us. Accidents happen. Misjudgments happen. Purposeful and wrongful death happens. It is up to the justice system to see that police officers accused of a crime be held to the same justice as the rest of us. Too often that does not happen. Between 2013 and 2019, 99% of killings by police have not resulted in officers being charged with a crime. https://mappingpoliceviolence.org
   I don’t expect this little piece will solve the problem of racism, inequity, or the culture of the Manifest Destiny that has been nurtured in our great land since we got here as Pilgrims. I have a small voice.
   I want to find similarities and common purpose. Only then will we be able to hear each other. Then, maybe some of us will be brave enough to listen. Maybe we will even work together. We can only move forward if we are courageous enough to take the first step, and patient enough to take that step over and over again.
   We have traveled many paths to arrive in this wonderful land full of possibilities. Some came for opportunity or our ancestors fled for their lives. Some of us were kidnapped and brought here against our will. We are descended from sturdy people who (mostly) did not speak English. Each one of us wears a particular color skin, and we each sport our own belief system: wonder, curiosity, acceptance, focus, fear, generosity, courage, righteousness, animosity, compassion, anger.
   Martin Luther King’s days were full of violence exploding all around him, yet he preached non-violence, understanding, courage, and righteous indignation.
   May our protests be non-violent and productive.
   May our understanding grow with our willingness to listen to each other.
   May we have the courage to celebrate each other’s differences.
   May we have the courage to love ourselves.
-—stay curious! (and love fearlessly)

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To the Space Station

5/26/2020

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Well, if I’m going to be stranded here, I might as well take a look around.
from Snoopy: A Beagle of Mars
Schulz, Charles M.
KaBoom!, 2020 [electronic resource]

I grew up when space exploration was an exciting frontier. We watched TV shows like “My Favorite Martian,” “The Jetsons,” and “Lost in Space.” “Telstar” shot to the #1 spot on the pop music charts.
   At school, we gathered in the gym to watch spaceship launches. A local TV channel projected the news in real time. We were in awe. Lots of my classmates wanted to be scientists, astronauts, and explorers. I did not.
   I liked the safety of my own front door. I liked feeling cool grass between my toes on a hot, summer day. I liked reading books about kids like me, kinda boring, but grounded.
   Tomorrow afternoon at 4:33 EDT, SpaceX will launch its Crew Dragon spaceship. (Wednesday, 5/27/2020) It’s not the first time the shuttle will see space, but it’s the first time it will carry people when two experienced astronauts climb aboard and fly to the International Space Station.
   The 27 foot tall craft, about the height of a three-story building, will transport Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station. To watch live coverage, go to NASA.gov then type ISS in the search box on the top right. This will take you to a live stream of the blast off.
   The International Space Station is a space laboratory. NASA is using the what they learn there to help us understand how spending time in space and in a confined area affects people. The goal is to make it possible for humans to travel farther into space than ever before.
   Finding the ISS while traveling 17,000 miles per hour in orbit around the earth is a tricky business, especially since the space station is also moving. Traveling about 17,500 miles per hour, the ISS is in its own orbit about 200 miles above the earth. It makes one full orbit every hour and a half. The scientists have it all worked out though. It is more a matter of getting close and doing a series of U-turn maneuvers, kinda waiting until the space station finds its way to the craft. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition19/earth_day.html
   The Crew Dragon is expected to dock on the space station late Thursday morning. So about 17 hours to travel 200 miles at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour.
   On the face of it, it seems like, (if not for being in space) you could walk there faster! But, I’m not an astrophysicist.
   It’s the first time in eleven years that a shuttle will launch from Kennedy Space Center. An American crew will take off from American soil in an American built craft. For the last nine years, the United States has been depending on Russia to transport our astronauts to the International Space Station and bring them home. NASA had been working on the development of a shuttle, but cost overruns and delays put plans on hold.
   Now in private/public ventures, four different companies are working on designing re-usable space craft. Elon Musk’s SpaceX, of course. But Boeing, Airbus, and Lockheed Martin, too.The plan is for the space capsule to be used and reused for 10 flights before it will need significant refurbishing.
   In the 1990s, the ISS was renamed and redesigned to reduce costs and expand international involvement. In 1993, the United States and Russia decided to merge their separate facilities into one, and shortly after invited Japan to join them. Canada, Brazil and eleven members of the European Space Agency joined forces, too.
   The ISS has been continuously occupied by humans since November, 2003. Astronauts and cosmonauts come and go, staying for various amounts of time, and performing different experiments. “Moving astronauts and cosmonauts, science experiments, food, water, air, spare parts, and other supplies to and from the ISS is a highly choreographed international operation that must be executed with near perfection, every time."
https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2018/04/30/what-does-it-take-to-keep-the-station-stocked-with-supplies/
   Nationalism is raising its ugly head in all different countries and parts of societies. But we may be witnessing a whole new era. Scientists tend to live in a world where cooperation is necessary and expected. Space exploration and space travel are cooperative ventures where learning and teaching each other is commonplace. In the area of space science, at least, many people have learned to work together toward common goals.
   The goal is Mars, and by 2034, to invite regular people along for the ride. (see “Far Out!” 7/16/19) I’m not sure I’d sign up if I got the opportunity, but I bet lots of people would.
--stay curious! (and fly high)

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Happy Birthday Margaret Wise Brown

5/19/2020

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Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Good night noises everywhere
from Goodnight Moon
by Margaret Wise Brown
pictures by Clement Hurd
Harper, 2016 [electronic resource]

I love picture books. I mean I really love them. I love the honest emotions they explore, the wisdom they illuminate, their humor, raucous and quiet, and the way a whole story unfolds between 32 pages. I love the way the pictures expand the text, and how the text plays with the pictures.
   Well, in my twenty-five years as a children’s librarian, and since, I have read my share of picture books that made me stop and say, “How did *this* get published?” “Where was the editor?” “What could the author have been thinking?”
   But, if I’m being honest, (of course I am!) most of what I read and shared with children was and still is excellent literature. Just like the short story or a novel or poetry, there is an art to a picture book, aside of course, from the illustration. But there is a craft, too. For the last several years, I have been studying that craft. I’ve learned about character development, story arcs, and the importance of point-of-view. I’ve studied and tried techniques for using dialogue, crafting plot points, and incorporating language play.
   I’ve explored the importance of tapping into my (potential) readers’ emotions, widening their world view, and creating tension for the beautiful release it offers when done correctly, like breathing in and breathing out.
   One of my favorite authors has always been, or at least since I found Goodnight Moon at the library when my girls were small, Margaret Wise Brown. She wrote beautifully simple, true stories that are a pleasure to read over and over.
   In The Runaway Bunny, the book I gave each of my girls as they left for college, a little bunny has decided to run away from his mommy and his home. He poses different scenarios to his mother. She promises to help him make his dreams come true. My favorite pages go like this:
   “If you become a sailboat and sail away from me,” said his mother,
   “I will become the wind and blow you wherever you want to go.”
When I was still working, I was advised not to use The Runaway Bunny with groups of children. Every other spread in the book is black and white, and their attention would wander. “My” children loved the story, though. The colorful pictures show the mommy bunny’s dreams for her child. They contrast with the black and white illustrations depicting reality. The distinction was not lost on the storytime crowd, young as they were.
   Almost every mother realizes she won’t be able to take care of her children for their whole lives. Reality holds many possibilities that make this statement true. But almost every mother wants her children to be happy. She wants to encourage them to dream impossible dreams and help them make those dreams come true.
   Even though she freely admitted that she didn’t really like children, (https://www.npr.org/2017/01/22/510642518/goodnight-moon-author-margaret-wise-brown-was-no-old-lady-whispering-hush) Margaret really knew how to write for them, and their grown-ups, too. She published over 100 books in her short life. One day she was at her doctor’s office literally kicking up her heels to celebrate how well she was feeling, when she dislodged a blood clot and died almost instantly. She was only 42 years old.
   Well past an average lifespan now, (Margaret would be 110 years old this coming Saturday, May 23, 2020), much of the world of children’s literature still mourns her untimely passing and celebrates her remarkable career.
   Two biographies have been published pretty recently. In the Great Green Room by Amy Gary (Flatiron Books, 2017) tells a somewhat narrative tale of Margaret’s colorful life. Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon by Leonard S. Marcus (Beacon Press, 1992) is a more straightforward telling.
   In 2019, HarperCollins published a picture book biography by Mac Barnett and Sarah Jacoby, The Important Thing About Margaret Wise Brown. The title refers to her Important Book and begins with a quote: “It did not seem important that any one wrote these stories. They were true. And it still doesn’t seem important! All this emphasis today on who writes what seems silly to me as far as children are concerned.”
   But who writes the stories is indeed important. Children can grow up to be authors. And artists. And actors. And explorers, nurses, physicists, cosmologists, and cosmetologists. They need role models and teachers. And books where they can see themselves and find themselves.
   As Mac Barnett reminds us in his 42 page book, there were many important things about Margaret Wise Brown, but the most important thing is, she wrote books for children.
   And the important thing about that is, books help children dream.
   Happy birthday, Margaret Wise Brown.
RIP
-—stay curious! (and dream big)

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Could this be the Era of the ERA?

5/12/2020

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Nowadays, girls didn’t need special treatment as if they were weaker—in fact, nowadays they’d be knights, too.
from Here in the Real World
by Sara Pennypacker
HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2020

   Is it true that of all modern nations in the world, only the United States does NOT have guaranteed rights for all its citizens? Well, I’m afraid so. The white men who wrote the Constitution at the Pennsylvania State House (now called Independence Hall) in Philadelphia in 1787 were men of their day. It was signed on September 17 of that year. On June 21, 1788, when New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify, the Constitution was officially adopted.
   Amendments seek an improvement, a correction, or a revision to the Constitution. Two thirds of both Houses must agree that an amendment is necessary in order to introduce it, and three fourths of the States need to ratify it before it's adopted. That puts the magic number at thirty-eight (3/4 of 50).
   Thousands of amendments have been discussed and not proposed. To date, 27 amendments have been approved, including the first 10 (the Bill of Rights) and only six have been introduced and not adopted.
   Of those, four have no expiration date, so technically still can be considered. They include a way to expand representation in the House of Representatives, prohibition of the acceptance of Titles of Nobility or other honors from a foreign power, a pro-slavery amendment sent to Congress on the eve of the Civil War, and one regulating child labor.
   Two proposed amendments have expiration dates and have expired. An amendment granting the citizens of the District of Columbia full congressional representation and the ability to vote in national elections expired in 1985 with only 6 states having ratified it.
   But when the original deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment came and went in 1979, Congress extended the cutoff date to June 1982. Thirty-five of the necessary thirty-eight states had ratified it by then.
   Nevada ratified the amendment in 2017, and Illinois in 2018. On January 15, 2020, the Virginia legislature passed a resolution to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, the thirty-eighth state. One month later, February 13, 2020, the US House of Representatives passed a joint resolution to remove the original time limit. Ah! So why hasn’t it been adopted yet?
   Well, lucky for me it doesn’t have anything to do with fractions.
   Without getting too deep in the weeds or too far down a rabbit hole, it has to do with deadlines and how they are worded. In 1921, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress could put time limits into a proposed amendment, but is not required to.
   For example, James Madison proposed the 27th Amendment in 1789. It was not ratified until 1992. Yep, 203 years later, 1992. That Amendment says any pay adjustment (raising or lowering) Congress may pass for itself can’t go into effect until after the next Federal Election. That Amendment did not have a deadline.
   The drafters of the ERA chose to include a time limit. But they included it in the text of the amendment itself, not in the resolution language that *proposed* the Amendment. What’s the difference, you ask? Good question. Garrett Epps, Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Baltimore asked it this way: If the congressional-pay amendment could come back from the dead after two centuries, why not the ERA after a mere decade and a half? Since the ERA limit has already been changed once by Congress, why can’t another Congress change it again, retroactively? https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/will-congress-ever-ratify-equal-rights-amendment/580849/
   The answer is, it depends. Of course it does. It depends actually on two decisions. The first is congressional approval of a new time frame. Can it be changed again? So far, the House thinks so. Also, four states that had voted to ratify have since changed their mind and passed resolutions of “rescission.” A state’s vote to rescind has never been accepted as valid, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be argued.
   The 14th Amendment granting citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States was ratified in 1868. Even though the 14th Amendment granted them citizenship, women didn’t get the right to vote for fifty-two more years. The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920.
   Section 1 of the Equal Rights Amendment says simply: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” Seems to me that a statement like that should be understood within the Constitution itself. But it’s not.
   All members of the Constitutional Convention were white men. They were products of their day. As a society, we have become more and more inclusive even as we have become more and more polarized.
   But discrimination, (making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit https://www.dictionary.com/browse/discrimination?s=t) has no place in a society that values kindness, courtesy, and compassion.
-—stay curious! (and tolerant)

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May 4 . . . a Fifty Year Reflection and Some Other Related Stuff

5/5/2020

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Shiela Rae was brave. She was fearless. … When her sister Louise said there was a monster in the closet, Shiela Rae attacked it.
from Shiela Rae, the Brave
written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Greenwillow Books, 1987

The year is 1971. I graduated from high school in June and my plans for college were all set. I thought I’d like to stay a little close to home, and Kent State University sounded like a good choice to me. My mom and dad were concerned, though, since four students were killed by the National Guard and nine were injured just a little more than a year before. Besides, they said, I’d be better off at a smaller school.
   For reasons beyond the scope of this page, and for some reasons I still don’t understand, I registered for classes at Ohio Northern University, a small school in northwestern Ohio, about three hours away from home. Many very good and some not-so-good decisions were made there, by me, by my classmates and roommates, and by those in charge of one thing and another.
   Even though I did not know any of the students who were killed or hurt at KSU, the incident stayed on my mind. It was the senseless and random violence of that tragedy that stuck with me.
   Several years later I met one of the National Guardsmen who was there. He was an acquaintance of my ex-husband’s. It was probably around 1979, and he said he was not allowed to talk about it. At all. And he didn’t. He looked uncomfortable and I believed him.
   I’ve always been uneasy around guns. Even though my brother played with toy guns and I sometimes played with him, it was pretend. I’m not sure that made it okay, but that’s how it was.
I don’t know if my father kept a gun in the house. I suspect not. Even thinking as hard as I can, I have to admit that I really don’t know.
   My brother never kept a gun in his house. I never asked him, it’s just something I know in my soul. I think my nephew or nieces did not play with toy guns, either.
   I don’t know if any of my brothers-in-law had a gun. It was a discussion we never had.
   My ex-husband felt the same as me. He did not have a gun.
   My husband had a gun for a time. I think he kept it in the back of the closet. He sold it many years ago and I’m glad it’s gone.
   Guns are always in the news. Guns are in the paper, on TV, in movies. Whether we want to admit it or not, our society is a violent one. Maybe it has something to do with the Wild West. Maybe it has something to do with our desire to be seen as strong and fearless. But powerful people don’t always make good decisions. Gun-toters aren’t always brave.
   And I know not everyone who carries (or owns) a gun is homicidal or suicidal or mentally ill or unstable.
   Gun shops were declared an essential business in our age of COVID-19 and gun purchases have surged along with the virus. I’m not sure why. Protection, I guess. From burglary? Do people really think someone will come steal their toilet paper or hand sanitizer?
While homicides have indeed decreased, domestic violence has increased. After all, if kids are not in school, bars are closed, movie theaters shuttered, mass shootings, of course, will decrease. But tragically, hate and anger will find their own outlet. So the irony is, we have been told to stay home, to stay safe. But, some homes are not safe.
   And while the Dickey Amendment prohibits the Federal Government from allocating funds to advocate or promote gun control, in March, 2018, Congress reached a compromise of sorts. Language stating the Secretary of Health and Human Services has the authority to conduct research on the causes of gun violence. But, even though research is allowed to be conducted, that research has yet to be funded. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993413/ The NRA, while experiencing funding issues of its own, is still a powerful political force.
   But gun’s are not just for civilians. Police and soldiers carry guns, tools of their trades. They are used for self-defense or to protect the values of the United States and our citizens. But not always. That is not the case when police kill civilians. The Washington Post has been keeping track of that since 2015. Here’s the link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database/
   A big part of the problem is the weapon of choice. While most victims of hand gun violence can recover from their injuries, victims of assault type weapons will not.
   When soldiers use rifles kill students on a college campus in the outskirts of a small town in Ohio, the reverberations are heard and felt 50 years later.
   The United States is not the only country to experience senseless civilian shootings on a mass scale. About two weeks ago, a gunman killed 22 people in Nova Scotia. One week later, Prime Minister (of Canada) Justin Trudeau announced an immediate ban on assault type weapons. Current gun owners can sell back their newly-illegal weapons. Detail of the ban are still being worked out.
   Strength and courage sometimes means solving a problem, even when the solution is complicated. Thanks, Mr. Trudeau, for being like Sheila Rae, brave and fearless.
-—stay curious! (and stand strong)

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Trees . . . For Goodness Sake!

4/28/2020

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“I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues.”
from The Lorax
written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss
Random House, 1971

We can’t hug our friends, neighbors, or even family members, but Nature is singing to me this spring. Especially this spring. It’s time to get out there and hug a tree!
   I wonder about tree-related words. “Forest” and “woods” are common enough, and woods are smaller than forests, but how about the difference between an orchard and a grove. Turns out they are both groups of trees, nut or fruit trees or a combination of both. I checked Grant Barrett’s website https://www.waywordradio.org/orchard-vs-grove/ and found out that an orchard is specifically planted to raise fruits and or nuts and a grove is not necessarily planted, but is full of nut trees and / or fruit trees, anyway. Why is a group of orange trees called a grove and an apple farm called an orchard? Well, according to Grant, it just sounds better that way. So there you go!
   What is an arbor, then, and why do we call the holiday Arbor Day? According to www.dictionary.com an arbor is “a leafy, shady recess formed by tree branches, shrubs, etc.”
   Started as a formal holiday in 1872 by J. Sterling Morton shortly after he moved to Nebraska Territory, Morton recognized the importance of trees for holding the soil in place and for windbreaks, fuel, building materials, and shade from the hot prairie sun. Morton was a journalist and became editor of the first newspaper in Nebraska. He used his paper to write about his love of trees and encouraged many of his neighbors to plant the trees they sorely missed after moving West themselves.
   Other states passed legislation to institute Arbor Days of their own, and by 1920, forty-five states and territories celebrated Arbor Day. For many years, it was celebrated on April 22, J. Sterling Morton’s birthday.
   Many states observe Arbor Day on different dates throughout the year, though. They base their observance on the best tree-planting times in their area. The dates range from the third Friday in January in Florida and Louisiana to the first Friday in November in Texas and Hawaii. California celebrates for a whole week in March, but most states join the National celebration now held on the last Friday in April. Here’s a map. Just scroll over your state to find when your celebration is held. www.arborday.org/celebrate/dates.cfm
Not wanting to let anyone down, since this is also still National Poetry Month, and the last Tuesday, at that, here’s my poem for the week.
Two Trees Trapped in Concrete
Twiny twigs tremble,
resemble fingers wind-dancing

while branches touch, catch, stretch skyward,
a lacy embrace.

Canopied leaves glow green and green.

But rumbly roots dig deep,
search for earth,
downward, downward, sideward,
an ugly
unseen struggle
against
cement.
And finally, here is an important good-news article from the Arbor Day Foundation’s blog.
   On Oct. 25, 2019, social media influencers partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to launch an initiative called #TeamTrees. Their goal was to raise $20 million for tree planting by Jan. 1, 2020. During the next two months, more than 800,000 unique donors from 200 countries and territories around the globe visited TeamTrees.org to make a donation. On Dec. 19, that goal was surpassed and the promise of more than 20 million trees became a reality.
   Now the Arbor Day Foundation’s planting efforts are in full swing, as our goal is to plant all the trees funded through #TeamTrees by December of 2022. Nearly 30 projects have been selected for planting in 2020, and many more are being planned for the coming years. Following is an inside look at three of the projects benefitting from #TeamTrees this year. https://www.arborday.org/programs/replanting/teamtrees/
   Lots of cities across the United States are part of the Arbor Day’s Tree City USA program. Mine is. Find out if your city has that designation here https://www.arborday.org/programs/treecityusa/directory.cfm and how to become included if it is not.
   The symbols of each state include a tree. Find yours here https://statesymbolsusa.org/categories/state-tree
   Thirty-three countries all over the world, including the United States, celebrate Arbor Days of their own.
   The whole world celebrates trees!

-—stay curious! (and smile back at Mother Nature)

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"Live life as the work of art you are."
Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)
Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist

Elephants and Donkeys

Where's the Vaccine?

My Country ’Tis of Thee

Here Comes the Sun

All You Need Is Love

To the Space Station

Happy Birthday Margaret Wise Brown

Could this be the Era of the ERA?

May 4 . . . a Fifty Year Reflection and Some Other Related Stuff

Trees . . . For Goodness Sake!

I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

Archives

"Live life as the work of art you are."Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist​

I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

Archives

"Live life as the work of art you are."
Abraham Joshua Heschl (1907-1972)
Rabbi, Humanitarian, Peace Activist