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

The State of Puerto Rico…not, really!

7/30/2019

1 Comment

 
    …Mom says she wants to unplug on vacation, so I can hang on to [her phone]. I look around and spot the one sign that doens’t have an English translation: !BIENVENIDOS!
    I don’t speak Spanish, but I know that means “welcome.”
                         from: Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish
                         by Pablo Cartaya
                         Viking/Penguin Random House, 2018
    
    The summer before eighth grade, I played clarinet in a community orchestra in our local summer stock venue, Cain Park. Medium-named stars played lead roles in hit shows. That year we put on Gypsy, Bye-Bye Birdie, and West Side Story. I don’t remember who held the leads in the other two, but Tony Dow, Beaver Cleaver’s big brother in Leave it to Beaver, played Tony in West Side Story.
    I had the clarinet solo for Maria’s song, “I Feel Pretty.”
    The play is about a girl and a boy who meet at a dance and fall in love, but Maria is from the “wrong side of the tracks.” Big fights break out and Tony is killed. Prejudice, honor, and the importance of family loyalty are some issues dramatized. Poverty, juvenile delinquency, and the devastating influence of gangs are some others.  
    The Jets were American. The Sharks were Puerto Rican. About all I knew about Puerto Rico in those growing-up days came from that play. That might have been pretty much all anyone knew, unless, of course, you were Puerto Rican.
    The play’s setting is the 1950s, a time of American pride. We had, after all, recently won World War II and lots of former servicemen and women were, rightly, receiving lots of honor.
    Puerto Rico is a small island east-southeast of Haiti/Dominican Republic with a population of a little over 3.5 million.
    In 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States under the Treaty of Paris. Nineteen years later, In 1917, the Jones-Shafroth Act made all Puerto Ricans American citizens. 
    A free election by the people has been held to select their governor since 1948, when the United States government stopped appointing one.    
    Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. That means the island is controlled by the Federal government and Congress. Puerto Ricans are American citizens by birth, but they can’t vote in presidential elections and lack voting representation in Congress. A little local control, some Constitutional rights, non-voting but legal status for citizens. An ambiguous position, to be sure. 
    Puerto Ricans don’t pay Federal Income Tax, but they do pay payroll taxes, social security taxes, business taxes, gift taxes, estate taxes, you get it, to the Federal Government.     
    So what do they get for their tax money? Well, not FEMA money when Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. The island is still reeling from the devastation she wrought.
    The government has been in turmoil since July 13, 2019. Two high ranking members of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s administration were indicted on federal charges last week. They are accused of diverting over fifteen million dollars worth of work contracts to unqualified, politically connected businesses.
    Gov. Ricardo Rosselló recently announced his resignation amid a barrage of published emails and chats. The ensuing outrage, protests, demonstrations. . . along with the outrage, protests, and demonstrations about the corruption ruined Rosselló’s government.
    His resignation will take effect this Friday (August 2, 2019).
    Next in line is Justice Secretary Wanda Vazquez. It would have been Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin, but he resigned as part of the email and chat scandal. But Vazquez, who inspires little public confidence and was investigated last year for ethical violations, said she does not want the top job. 
    Gov. Rosselló is looking for his own replacement. Anyone he appoints will likely stay in office until elections for a new governor in 2020.
    According to a Gallup Poll survey, in 2017, ninety-seven percent of Puerto Ricans favor statehood. https://news.gallup.com/poll/260744/americans-continue-support-puerto-rico-statehood.aspx  
    Now and then, a pro-statehood faction rises up, and about as often one that promotes self-determination. Some Puerto Ricans claim satisfaction with the status quo. The three main political parties each promotes one or the other of these positions. 
    Most U. S. Presidents have supported statehood, if the majority of Puerto Ricans are also in favor. But not the current one.
    Why does all this matter? 
    If Puerto Rico became a state, the people would be eligible for Federal programs like Food Stamps for disaster victims. Statehood would help modernize the economy, and help the mainland, too. Instead of needing to form their own various trade agreements, alliances, and treaties to stimulate their economy, the island could immediately use the ones already in place for the Fifty States. 
    Puerto Ricans would gain full representation in Congress if they could choose two Senators with the same voting rights allowed to the rest of the States. The citizens would be allowed to vote in all elections, including the ones affecting them and their island. 
    But Statehood would change the overall structure of Congress. One hundred and two senators will look different from the 100 now seated. The House of Representatives would need to be reconfigured, realigned to accommodate the five seats allotted to Puerto Rico, based on their population and under the current format, without going over the maximum 435 members. 
    If Puerto Rico joined the Union, they would receive seven electoral votes, which would change the make-up of the Electoral College. 
    Puerto Ricans would not be allowed to compete under their own flag in either the Olympics or the Miss Universe pageant. They do now. 
    Statehood would change the way crime and poverty statistics are reported. Puerto would hold last place in both categories. Is this good or bad?
    The island is in dire financial straights, much still caused by Maria. Statehood would mean the United States would absorb that significant debt.
    But first, Puerto Ricans must take care of themselves. A stable government elected by the people, continued disaster relief that is not diverted by selfish and greedy politicians, and a better understanding of the people and their challenges will make everyone want to sing “I Feel Pretty.”
                                       -—stay curious! (and informed)       
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Waste Not … Want Not

7/23/2019

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    None of the animals trusted the humans, it was true, but many felt that the point of the web was connection. The [animal and human] worlds touched in so many places, relied on each other so heavily. Wise Owl pointed out that there weren’t two worlds at all. Just one, and it was in danger.
                                                  from: The Story Web
                                          by Megan Frazer Blakemore
                                                        Bloomsbury, 2019

    A few years ago, I stood in front of a bakery counter with one of my adult daughters. We drooled (figuratively) over brownies that could feed a family of four; chocolate chip, peanut butter, and sugar cookies that guaranteed instant dental work; and slices of “home-made” pie.
    My daughter turned to me and patted her tummy. “Waist or waste,” she wisely said.
    I got the message and we continued our walk.
    Back toward the beginning of this blog (11/24/15), I wrote about food waste in relation to Thanksgiving. It’s time to revisit. Here, it’s not timed to any particular holiday or event, it’s just one of many subjects (mostly out of my control) that I worry about. 
    I say mostly because, I *do* control what I choose to buy and how much. I can and do “talk” to other people (thanks for listening!). 
    But in three and a half years, I wondered what had changed.
    According to an April, 2019 article published in National Geographic Magazine, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/people-waste-more-food-than-they-think-psychology/ more than a third of our food supply becomes garbage. The reasons are many. Overstocked grocery shelves, over-produced fresh food that won’t survive a cross-country trip even in a refrigerated vehicle, over zealous home cooks who over-buy, even with the best intentions. 
    In the same article, I learned that over “80 percent of food waste has been traced to homes and consumer-facing businesses.” (grocery stores, restaurants, food trucks, caterers…?) I sometimes choose the misshapen tomato or apple. If no one buys those uglies, the store will throw them out, but mostly, those fruits and veggies don’t even get to the store. Here’s how you can find them: .http://www.imperfectproduce.com Imperfect even has recipes on their site and a newsletter you can subscribe to.
    Self-awareness in this arena, just like anywhere else, is hard to attain. Seventy-six percent of us think we throw away less food than the average American. Even for me, that math doesn’t add up. 
    Behind fruits and vegetables, left-overs is the next big category of guilt-producing waste. Left-overs really are easier, emotionally, to throw away after they have spent some weeks in the fridge getting stinky. And when I rid my fridge of those things I meant to serve but can’t identify anymore, or when I ditch the container that I’m afraid to open because of the anticipated smell, or find the jar of fuzzy jelly that has been living on the back shelf behind the ketchup for a little too long, I know I’m part of the problem.
    A good place to start our “eat or toss” decision-making is a site called Eat or Toss. Find it here: https://www.eatortoss.com Besides recipes to help use up items lurking on the edge of edible, the author provides a handy food index that addresses lots of questions from “is aluminum foil- spotted food safe?” to “what is that white stuff on my baby carrots?” with pictures.
    But being mindful in the first place, at the store or restaurant, is important, too. 
    Several years ago I bought a composter. Now research shows that people seem to let themselves off the hook because “I’m putting it in my garden, how can it be garbage or waste?” The missing pieces, of course, are the resources used to grow, harvest, bring to market, and cook what turns into that “good garden soil.” 
    Here’s something else: reducing food waste is a great way to help reduce the dire effects of climate change. According to Project Drawdown https://www.drawdown.org, reducing food waste is the third most impactful action anyone can take.   
    Fifty years and a week later, I’m still reflecting on the moon-walk. When I look at photos of Earth from space, especially the Big Blue Marble, (taken on January 1, 1994, from a NOAA satellite built by NASA, https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/9467448026/in/album-72157650236003648/) Earth’s extreme and intense beauty focuses me on global connections. We’re all in this together. People, animals, stars, oaks and palms, mosquitoes, ants, daffodils, and petunias. We all use each other’s strengths to buoy ourselves in a balance of nature that needs our protection. 
    From the distance of outer space, it is easy to understand that boundaries between countries are drawn by people. It is easy to imagine oceans and jungles teaming with life. Harder, though, to remember that everything is finite.
    To live together, we need to work together.
                                   -—stay curious! (and eat ugly vegetables)       
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Far Out!

7/16/2019

2 Comments

 
Looking at 
Earth
While Earth 
Looks at you. . .
a blip out in space.
               from: A Trip into Space
               written by Lori Haskins Houran 
               illustrated by Francisca Marquez
               Albert Whitman & Co., 2014

    On my first day of Kindergarten, my mom had arranged with a neighbor to walk me to school. The boy in charge of me was quite a bit older, and not that willing. He did what his mom told him to do, but not that time. He left before I got to his house. I was on my own.
    Mom had to stay home with my baby brother. My sister went to a different school. So. I think I cried all the way there. But maybe only most of the way. I’m not sure how I found my way to school and I don’t remember what happened on Day 2. Really, the building was very close to our house with only one turn to negotiate. I’m sure a traffic guard was in the picture, too. I know my parents would never knowingly let anything bad happen to me. 
    My sense of direction is still lacking. My dad used to kid around (probably) and tell me I’d get lost backing down the driveway. When we lived in the same town, I’d call him up and take him to lunch in exchange for a ride-along with directions. 
    But, when I moved to a new city and couldn’t depend on Dad as my direction-giving co-pilot, I paid more attention to landmarks and street signs. Now I depend (too much) on my GPS. 
    I was just a little older than my oldest grandson is now when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin found their way to the moon, took those giant moonsteps, and returned to Earth 50 years ago this week (July 20). And just like everyone else who was alive then, I remember where I was. 
    I remember thinking that my little nephew (who turned 50 last month) would never know a time when people were not on the moon. I wondered if people would still find the moon mysterious. I wondered if I would.
    Yesterday, July 15, Jim Bridenstine, the new head of NASA, (he took over in April 2018 after leaving the House of Representatives) said in an interview that his generation does not have a memory like that. And he wants one. 
    So NASA is planning a Mars walk. Not soon. The estimate is 2034 or so. But we have to go back to the moon first. The way Mr. Bridenstine explained it, the moon will serve as a training ground for the Mars astronauts. But, the last time the US went to the moon was 1972, and the equipment is outdated. New equipment is being invented right now.
    Other countries have traveled to the moon. Some had people on board, but so far, only Americans have actually walked there.
    We have an International Space Station. And on January 3, 2019, China’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft made the first landing on the far side of the Moon. Countries seem to be working together better now, both to share knowledge and to avoid another space race. Because, really, what’s the point of learning something if you can’t (or won’t) share? That’s a refreshing concept.
    But, so far, no other country has plans to put people on Mars. The Curiosity has been exploring the surface since it landed in 2012. Now NASA plans to continue exploring Mars with the launch of a new craft that will dig deep into the planet. 
    The new Mars lander has a 5 foot 9 inch long arm with shoulder and elbow joints. The grapple at the end of the arm can grasp items with its 5 mechanical fingers. Here’s a labelled picture of the landing craft. https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/spacecraft/instruments/summary/ It will be used to explore the interior of Mars, collect rocks, and send pictures back to Earth.
    The launch is planned for July, 2020, when Earth and Mars will be aligned favorably to save time and fuel. Because the planets are constantly on the move, and neither orbit is exactly circular, precise directions are crucial.
    And kids in grades K-12 can enter NASA’s naming contest for the new lander. If you are a teacher, or know one, here’s the information: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7436 
​    In the meantime, when I’m finished exploring the NASA website, I’ll spend some time exploring my own neighborhood. Blueberries are in season. I have the directions to a nearby blueberry farm programed into my GPS.

                                             -—stay curious! (and plan ahead)
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The Grand Connection of All the Universe

7/9/2019

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    Mr. Patterson spoke up. “Every ten years the United States government collects data to find out who is living in the US. The census takers ask questions about age, sex, and race, to see how the country is changing.”
    “It’s friggin’ annoying. If you don’t send in your form fast enough, they start callin’ your house,” Sookie said. “No thanks. I’d rather stay off the grid.”
    Dad smiled.
    Vern ignored Sookie. “There is no census for white sharks. We have no idea how many young sharks, middle-aged sharks, and old sharks there are. A balance would tell us there is a healthy . . .”
    Vern was searching for the word.
    “Ecosystem?” Dad offered.
                                                       from: The Line Tender
                                                                   by Kate Allen
                                                Dutton Children’s Books, 2019

    The Fourth of July parade, picnic, and roller-coaster emotions (anger, fear, sadness, and pride) and my wonderful, chaotic house full of kids and grandkids and cats (and a bunny rabbit) has had me distracted and a little disoriented. We have one grandchild left, and he’s going home tomorrow (Wednesday). 
    Yesterday, I woke in the comfortable and awesome clutches of the Grand Connection of All the Universe. Let me explain.
    Most mornings, I read for a couple of hours while a cup of coffee gradually cools at my side. Last week my quote popped out of the book I was reading. My book did not having anything to do with flags or Betsy Ross. It was about balancing family problems with asking for help when you need it. But Betsy appeared in the pages of a book about a girl who loves history.
    As of yesterday morning, I didn't have an idea for today's post. I had lots of mini-ideas, but no one thing stood out. I discovered today’s quote in the book I was reading. The same as last week.. The book only mentioned the Census in passing, in relation to a shark census. The main character’s mother was preparing to conduct scientific research into the relationship between a local seal population and an unusual migration of white sharks.
    But the US Census is news. And the president is still trying to insert his question, even after the Supreme Court said no. It feels like when my kids were small and they asked for another helping of ice-cream for dessert. The conversation went kinda like this:
    “I said ‘no.’” 
    “But I really want it.”
    “No.”
    “Let’s call it a carrot.”
    “No.”
    “I’m going to ask Daddy.”
   
    
Everyone got a little huffy, but order was restored, without ice-cream. Substitute the word “question” for “ice-cream” and you have my take on the US Census situation. More details will follow soon. 
    Where do ideas really come from, though? I wrote of this once before when I mentioned poet and song-writer Roseanne Cash’s suggestion that ideas are entities in the universe waiting patiently, or not, for someone to catch them. Elizabeth Gilbert says something similar in her book Big Magic. If an author does not follow through on an idea that has come to her, that idea will find someone else to bring it to the world. 
    We took my grandson to see the new movie, Yesterday. A young, struggling musician, at the brink of giving up his dream, discovered that almost no one in the whole world had ever heard of the Beatles or their music. The young musician sang the Beatles’ songs and became more famous than he could have imagined. 
    All the rest of the plot and characters aside, maybe it’s the music that actually needs to be in the world and found its own way to be heard. Maybe the music itself is the main character.
    What if each one of us is the main character in our own story? What if each one of us does all the good work we can? Imagine all the people living life in peace!
                                             -—stay curious! (and connected)

    Weebly, the host for my blog, has changed the way it provides statistics to me. Up until this week, I could see how many people looked at my post and how many pages were seen, no matter how you found me. Now they only count the “looks” that come from ShariDellaPenna.com. 
    Instead of over 500 each week, Weebly is recording only the few that come directly from their platform. I’ll keep posting, but I now don’t have any idea how far my reach is. Hit the like button on Facebook, if you want, and if that’s where you find me. Or connect through Twitter. Or find me through my website. It will help me know you’re out there!
    Thanks,
    Shari
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You’re a Grand Old Flag

7/2/2019

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    “The first American flag was raised in 1777,” I say. “During the siege of Fort Stanwix on the Mohawk River Valley, in New York.”
    “Ah,” says Grandpa Tad. “Fort Stanwix.”
    “The soldiers cut up their white shirts to make the stripes, and the red petticoats of their wives. They got the blue from a captain’s coat.”
    “Whoa, now. I thought the first flag was made by Miss Betsy Ross.”
    “There’s no historical evidence for that,” I say. “That is a made-up story. Like George Washington and his cherry tree. Also not true.”
    “You don’t say. How’d you get to know all this?”
    “I read a lot. And Mrs. Dooley at the library, she helps me figure things out.”
                            from: The True History of Lyndie B. Hawkins
                                                              by Gail Shepherd
                       Kathy Dawson Books/Penguin Random House, 2019

     When I was little, my gram made a nightgown pattern from newspaper for me. I laid on the floor and she traced around me on the sheets she had taped together. My nightgown had  little flowers all over it and a ruffle at the wrists and around the bottom. It was soft. I loved that nightgown. 
    In 9th grade all us girls studied Home Economics, cooking and sewing. I really enjoyed sewing, even though I wasn’t too good at it. My dad took me to buy fabric at JoAnn’s, but his favorite color was brown. We compromised. We bought brown fabric with little flowers all over it. I only got a B on my apron. The A-line skirt had to be black or navy blue.
    I saved up my babysitting money and bought a sewing machine from Sears. I bought some McCall’s patterns, printed on newsprint, and sewed some of my own clothes. I made an orange caftan (combination of gingham and terrycloth, can you imagine?!) when those were popular in the 1970s. I sewed some clothes for my girls when they were young. They wouldn’t wear anything I made after about age 3 or 4, though.
    My favorite projects were the quilts I sewed for my grandkids on that same sewing machine. All the quilts were ready (but the last one) for each child’s arrival. I used patterns, but adapted them, and only needed math help on the one I sorta designed myself. I learned to hand appliqué, a technique I’m glad I did, but don’t have a strong desire to do lots more of. I appliquéd lots of little sheep on that last quilt. Each sheep had two tiny ears and four even tinier legs, and a wee, tiny tail.
    If Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag, which she did or did not, depending who you read, she hand appliquéd all 13 stars on a field of blue. Some claim she told George Washington it would take less material if the stars were 5-pointed instead of 6. For proof, she folded up a piece of paper and one snip later, she unfolded a little star. You can try it. I did and it works: http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagstar.html    
    Reeves Weatherill, the descendant of one of Betsy Ross’s friends, Samuel Weatherill, presented the little paper star at a luncheon of the Philadelphia Flag Day Association in 1963. It was signed by Clarissa Claypoole Wilson, Betsy Ross’s daughter. Clarissa, so the story goes, had given the little paper pattern to Reeves’s own ancestor, Samuel Weatherill. Now after all those years, this important scrap is part of our history.
    The earliest American flags had no particular guidelines about the arrangement of the stars and stripes. Each state in the new Union was represented by a five-pointed star and each stripe represented one of the original thirteen colonies.
    On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act: “Resolved: That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” https://www.si.edu/spotlight/flag-day/flag-facts We still celebrate Flag Day each year on June 14.
    An Executive Order of June 24, 1912, established the rows of stars on the background of blue. When Alaska was admitted to the Union on January 3, 1959, a 49-star flag went into production the following July 4. President Eisenhower proclaimed the stars to be in seven rows of seven. Dozens of 49-star flags are still available, even though they were only made for one year.
    In preparation for the admittance of Hawaii, a high school teacher in Lancaster, Ohio, gave his students an assignment: design an American flag to accommodate 50 states. It was a math problem for Bob Heft. He successfully arranged the 50 stars in nine horizontal rows alternating six and five stars in each row. He kept the 13 stripes. Bob earned a B- due to “lack of originality.” He wrote to his congressman who convinced the government to adopt his design from over 1,000 that were submitted. His teacher changed his grade to A.
    Hawaii achieved statehood on August, 21, 1959, and the 50-star flag went into production on July 4, 1960.
    At the time of his death in 2009, Bob is thought to have designed a 51-star flag, too. Let’s hear it for Puerto Rico! and Guam!
                             --stay curious! (and stand up for your ideals!)
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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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