Shari Della Penna
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"Small acts of kindness can change and humanise our world."
   Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks 1948-2020
   ​Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, 1991-2020
                         Author, Advocate, Advisor

Tick-Tock Doomsday Clock

1/28/2020

2 Comments

 
Hickory dickory dix,
The clock on the barn said six
A hen joined the group
When they charged through the coop
And frightened her new little chicks.
                      from The Clock Struck One: A Time-telling Tale
                                                 written by Trudy Harris
                                           illustrated by Carrie Hartman
                                                   Millbrook Press, 2009
    I know time only moves in one direction…forward, but it’s hard for me to understand how the same event can happen simultaneously at different times in different places. But no matter.
    The Doomsday Clock just moved ahead. It’s a clock that can move in more than one direction. Backward is much, much better.
    But, last Thursday, January 23, 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock forward. It is now set at 100 seconds before midnight. 
    The Doomsday Clock was devised in 1947 by scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project, the people who developed the science and technology to create an atomic bomb. The Board of Sponsors, which includes 13 Nobel laureates from all over the world, consults with each other and announces each January whether to move the clock, or keep it in place. They chose a minute hand as their graphic description to show how much danger the world is in, how close we are to annihilation, self-inflicted or otherwise. And now they’re marking the second-hand, too.
    But the clock is a metaphor, not a predictor. 
    When it began in 1947, the clock was set at 7 minutes to midnight, taking nuclear technology into account along with the end of WWII and the gradual warming of the Cold War.
     After a relatively long spate of stability, nuclear disarmament, and an unawareness of the general warming leading to the current Climate Crisis, 1991 saw the clock set at 19 minutes to midnight, the safest we’ve been. The clock has been ticking forward ever since.        

    In 2007, when the climate was factored in by the Bulletin’s Board of  Sponsors, they moved the Clock to 5 minutes before midnight. They considered global failures to solve the problems posed by nuclear weapons and the climate crisis in that January 17th announcement.
    Now we are counting in seconds, not minutes. The amount of instability in the world, the numbers of countries capable of creating nuclear arms, and the deteriorating status of our climate have given cause to the clock-markers to move the time ahead 20 seconds to its current position, less than a minute and a half before midnight. 
    “In so doing, board members are explicitly warning leaders and citizens around the world that the international security situation is now more dangerous than it has ever been, even at the height of the Cold War.” https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/ 
    According to a USA Today article, it is the twin existential dangers, nuclear war and climate change, combined with “a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond.” (January 24, 2020. Pg 14A)
    The prevention of a nuclear war is far beyond my control. I don’t even understand enough about cyber-enabled information warfare to comment. So all I have left is whatever positive impact I can make on the climate. 
    We are not living in a world where “stress-free” is an option. But to minimize the harmful effects on my little life here on my speck in the universe, I’ll live as cleanly and simply as I can. Minimize my use of consumables, reuse, refuse plastic whenever possible, you know the routine. 
    Plant a tree, or a dozen.
    Every little bit helps, even if it only helps my own sanity so I am able to help others.
                                              -—stay curious! (and positive)          
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All For One and One For All

1/21/2020

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One world, one home
One world home for everyone.
One dream, one song
One song heard by everyone.
                                                 from: One Light, One Sun
                                                           written by Raffi
                                         illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
                                 Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1988

    Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the third Monday in January, a day set aside to honor a great visionary, activist, and unifier. The United States has been celebrating this national holiday since 1986. A campaign to create it, though, began just four days after Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. 
    Not everyone held Martin Luther King, Jr., in high esteem. Actually, he was quite controversial in his own time. In a note written by J. Edgar Hoover in 1965, Hoover suggested Dr. King perform suicide to avoid the embarrassment of being exposed as a Communist. 
    Can you imagine!?
    Of course, the accusation was false. It was a common tactic in those days of the 1950s and 1960s to accuse people of being Communists to keep them from speaking truth to power.
    Coretta Scott King believed in her husband’s message of peace, though. She and Stevie Wonder worked together tirelessly to convince Congress that we, as a nation, needed to honor the memory of our “icon of democracy.” 
    Thirteen years into the struggle to make the national holiday dream come true, Stevie Wonder released a rendition of “Happy Birthday” to a posthumous King. Here’s the link to the YouTube recording. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inS9gAgSENE Two years later, in 1983, a congressional bill passed the House 338 to 90. When the bill reached the Senate, a spate of racism took over.        
    But, with President Reagan’s defense of Dr. King, the bill passed out of the Senate (78 to 22) and finally, three years after that, in 1986, Reagan signed it into law. In the president’s own words, “[Martin Luther King] challenged us to make real the promise of America as a land of freedom, equality, opportunity, and brotherhood.”
    Some of us are still working toward those goals. Some others of us are not. 
    As I write this, the sun is shining, the air is warm, and the sidewalks are full of spectators. I had the grand plan to find a spot toward the beginning of the parade and salute each flag as it marched past, applaud each high school band, and wave to lucky kids who got to ride in the cars of city councilors and police officers. 
    I am on vacation in a city I’ve visited many times, but I don’t really feel like I “belong” here. I was comfortable in my side-lined spot when, imagine this! not one, but two friends from home called to me and my husband and encouraged us to march with them.
     And, even though I was a comfortable spectator, we decided to join the people making a difference. We stepped up to march proudly with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Naples. 
    At first, marching in the MLK parade in Naples, Florida, seemed like the epitome of irony. Naples boasts one of the wealthiest economies in the United States and is consistently ranked as one of the best places to retire. The crowd is anything but diverse. People consider shopping a hobby. Maseratis, Jaguars, and Bentleys slide past each other in lanes of traffic next to Rolls Royces, Ferraris, and lots of sporty cars I can’t even name. Designer clothes and shoes and bags are as common here as McDonald’s and Wal-Mart are at home. 
    Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man of the people. He believed the words of the Constitution that proclaim all [people] are equal. He worked for liberty and justice for all. He continually preached a message of encouragement to downtrodden, overwhelmed, poor people who had given up on the American Dream.
    In words from his collection of sermons published in 1963, Strength to Love, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. The true neighbor will risk his position, his prestige and even his life for the welfare of others.”
    “All for one and one for all” rings as true today as it did in when Alexander Dumas had his three musketeers speak it in 1844. It is only when all the members of a group support each of the individual members, and the individual members pledge to support the group, that mighty progress will happen. When we work together toward common goals, encouraging compassion and building a productive society, democracy will flourish.
    In the end, whether you drive a Bentley, a Ford pick-up or a Prius, whether you love to shop or love to support social action (or both), whether you are charitable or need to receive charity, know that we are more alike than different.
    And the similarities are much more important. Really.

                                          -—stay curious! (and be a unifier)   
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Copy That…or Don’t!

1/14/2020

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    “It won’t be the exact same,” Amelia argues. “We’re not going to plagiarize her. Filmmakers create stories based on true events all the time. It’s a common thing.”
                                             from I Can Make this Promise
                                                             by Christine Day
                                                           HarperCollins, 2019
        When I found out I needed one more Humanities Class to fulfill my graduation requirements, I thought World Literature was a good choice. It was a Freshmen level course. I was a senior English Major in my last quarter, in those days before the Semester Conversion, and older than all the students. But not older than the professor.
    Toward the end of the quarter, my professor asked to see me after class. That’s not usually a good thing, and this wasn’t an exception. I had turned in a reflection piece on a reading assignment and she asked why I hadn’t cited my sources. Well, I explained that I didn’t have sources, since the ideas I expressed were my own. 
    My professor actually apologized and said she’s so used to reading work from incoming Freshmen that my paper stood out. All ended well.
    When we use other people’s work, we need to acknowledge it. After all, it’s only fair, and it’s the law. And it’s complicated. Countries have their own laws. Some international agreements have been made. Copyright and the internet is a topic for a scholar greater than me, and I won’t even mention YouTube, even though I just did!
    Currently an artistic creation is protected for the creator’s life plus 70 years, the length of its copyright. The length of time a work can be copyrighted has been extended many times since the introduction of copyright in 1790. 
    Bill Clinton signed the last copyright extension into law in 1998. Called the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, it extended the previous law by 20 years. From 1978 to 1998, a work’s copyright was valid for the life of the author, artist, or composer plus 50 years. Beginning in 1998, a copyright became valid for life plus 70 years. Because of the 20 year extension, no new works entered the public domain between 1998 and 2018. Here’s an explanation from the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/10/25/15-years-ago-congress-kept-mickey-mouse-out-of-the-public-domain-will-they-do-it-again/ that discusses what happened to works published before 1978, which is where the base year 1923 came from.
    When copyrights expire, they become part of the public domain, and are up for grabs to anyone who wants to use the material. They enter the public domain 70 years after the author, composer, or artist has passed away.
    According to https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/welcome/ “The public owns [this body of work], not an individual author or artist. Anyone can use a public domain work without obtaining permission, but no one can ever own it.”  Copyright rules were applied when Arthur Laurents published West Side Story, a modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim wrote the unforgettable music and lyrics. 
    Shakespeare’s work is in the public domain. West Side Story (text, music, and lyrics) is protected by copyright and will be until 70 years after the last collaborator’s death. Since Stephen Sondheim is still very much alive at age 89, well, let’s just wish him good health for many, many more years.
    Welcome 2020! On January 1, for the second year in a row, previously published works entered the public domain, all published in 1924. Some favorites are in this new class.
    Music
        Al Jolson’s “California, Here I Come”
        George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue
    Literature
        E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India
        A. A. Milne’s When We Were Very Young
        Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Box-Car Children (first book
                        in the series)

    Artwork
        Edward Hopper’s “New York Pavements”
        Diego Rivera’s fresco Day of the Dead 
    A few years ago I wanted to set a manuscript I wrote to a song I knew. A writer friend asked me if the tune was in the public domain. I didn’t know so I put my Librarian’s skills to work and checked folksongindex.com and https://www.pdinfo.com/pd-song-list/search-pd-songs.php. I discovered the song was written in the 1830s.
    Although the title didn’t appear on the Public Domain Information Project’s page, the Olive A. Wadsworth version of the song I wanted to use dates from 1870. It’s referred to as a “traditional” folksong, so I was safe, again.
    The internet is a wonderful resource. We share information with people all over the world. Much of what people post falls under “fair use,” and laws regulate fair use. While gray areas of interpretation abound, it’s often simple and always right to seek permission from the poster, before re-posting.
    Here’s your blanket permission to re-post anything from this post you like. I’d appreciate acknowledgement, though! 
                                          -—stay curious! (and courteous)
2 Comments

Clarity, 2020 Style

1/7/2020

2 Comments

 
    They say hindsight is 20/20. I know what that means now. When you look back at things, you can see their meaning more clearly, like you have perfect 20/20 vision.
                                       from The Season of Styx Malone
                                                           by Kekla Magoon
                               Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2019

    I don’t have 20/20 vision. My eye exam between high school graduation and leaving for college was routine, but included a surprise ending. I got my first pair of glasses that summer, and my up-close vision took a remarkable turn for the better. 
    My mom had worn glasses since she was young. My sister wore glasses, too, but outgrew them. She began wearing them again as an adult, but just for reading. My brother wears glasses. My dad got glasses when he was 40-ish. If I remember correctly, it was a pretty big deal for him.
    Both of my girls wear glasses and two grandchildren do, too. Thanks to competent optometrists, opticians, and ophthalmologists, our vision has been and continues to be corrected.
    So my reference to 20/20 has not gone by unnoticed, so to speak. But even though the literal act of seeing in this perfect vision year of 2020 was tempting to investigate, my mind skewed away from the physical mechanics of our eyes. 
    Last year I chose “focus” for my word of the year. I freely admit, “focus” was not as successful as I wished it had been. I probably should have done a repeat on that one. Part of my loss of focus stemmed from allowing myself to give in to the many distractions competing for my attention. 
    To gain clarity, I learned, is to pay close attention to what is happening in the moment. Moment by moment. Like they say, “it’s a practice.” 
    And to achieve clarity we need to acknowledge that hindsight is 20/20 only if we apply what we learn from looking back. Hindsight and foresight may not be opposites, but learning from the past is what gives hindsight its clarity. And foresight is not really fortune-telling. It is applying those lessons we learn from the past to decisions we make now and project into the future.
    The words clairvoyant and clairvoyance come from the 13th century French, clair (clear) and voyant the present participle of voir, (seeing). https://www.etymonline.com/word/clairvoyant It wasn’t until 1834 that the words were used in their psychic sense, commonly associated today with telling the future. 
    People we call visionaries may just be goal-setters, list-makers, and those who learn from the past. Not fortune-tellers, just people who are in tuneful harmony with the world around them.
    A few years ago, my husband and I found ourselves in St. Louis. We took a one-minute tram ride in a cramped little pod to arrive at the top of the Gateway Arch, 630 feet high. We entered the observation deck, which is much larger than it looked from the ground, and attended by a Park Ranger. The day was sunny and the air was clear. My jaw dropped at the incredible view. 
    I asked the Ranger how far he thought I could see.
    He answered, “About 35 miles on a day like this.” 
    That’s halfway from Youngstown to Cleveland!
    Height and distance allow for that kind of clarity on a beautiful, summer day. Kinda of the opposite of not being able to see the forest for the trees. Or being lost in the weeds. Or being fooled by the optics of the news story of the moment.
    My world is full of distractions. Lots of trees in the forest and fields full of weeds can get in my way of clear-thinking, clear-decision-making, and clarity in general.
    I do try not 
to be fooled by optics, though.
    Getting above it all to filter out what is important, relevant, and useful from the general clutter is what I will concentrate on this year. Setting priorities, making lists, and yes, continuing to work on “focus” will be important.
    While I believe no one can really predict the future, I expect those of us who are good at “seeing the big picture” will have fewer surprises.

                                       -—stay curious! (and in the moment)
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         I'm a children's writer and poet intent on observing the world and nurturing those I find in my small space .

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