“But can you really and truly tell what sort of a dream it’s going to be simply by listening to it?” Sophie asked.
    “I can,” The BFG said, not looking up.
    “But how? Is it by the way it hums and buzzes?”
    “You is less or more right,” the BFG said. “Every dream in the world is making a different sort of buzzy-hum music. And these grand swashboggling ears of mine is able to read that music.”
                                                       from  The BFG
                                                written by Roald Dahl
                                          illustrated by Quentin Blake
                                      Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1982
    In June, 2016, I wrote this:
    They say dreams help us work out problems and troubles. Trouble is, for me at least, I often don’t remember my dreams, so I just have to trust that my dreaming self is taking care of things for me.
    When I wrote that, the movie BFG was about to hit the theaters. I read the book, which I had somehow missed when my kids were growing up. I missed it when I studied and read lots and lots of children’s literature. I missed it until 2016. The BFG is about a giant who is the vehicle our dreams use to find us when we’re asleep.
    Dreams are funny things.
    We all have them, whether we remember them or not. That fact has been documented and studied and discussed. Dreams can be bad or good. Horrifying or inspiring. Expressions of our most dreaded fears or of our wildest wishes.
    August 28 (today) is the 55th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. He delivered it in front of the Lincoln Memorial before 200,000 people at a peaceful civil rights demonstration. (It was 1963. Math’s not my best specialty, so I figured it out for you, too.)
    MLK’s dream was the good kind. The best kind. He envisioned a country where prejudice and hatred disappeared into the dust of history. He spoke about the necessity for changes and America’s potential for hope in that change.
    Kinda like our Founding Fathers when they wrote the Constitution. High hopes were the order of that day, too, despite half the population being ignored and another half being taken for granted. (I counted black and brown and indigenous women twice, but they deserve it!) Jefferson, Madison and the rest were on the right track. We were headed in the right direction for a long time. Now, I think we’re not. (In 2021, we still have lots of obstruction to the common good and America’s goals. It has just become quieter and less visible.)
    Our country’s best dreams will come true with a good plan, good people to carry it out, and our trust in the forces of good that we can’t see. That’s another part of my 2016 post. I still had on my rose-colored glasses.
    Here’s my dream now. (In 2021, it is still my dream.) I dream of a time when my granddaughters and my grandsons will grow into responsible adults who are able to rise to their potentials. Become grown-ups thoughtful enough to move our great country back onto the path where we define our collective goals:
        to trust the news of the day
        to ensure our children are safe at school
        to live in a world where we breathe clean air and drink clean water
        to grow and harvest clean food
        to protect trees and whales and butterflies
        to trust each other
and act on those goals. Volunteer for a congressman. Support an environmental organization. Demonstrate or write letters promoting sensible gun laws.
    Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream. I think it was more of a vision, but he called it a dream. I’m sure he did not need the BFG to deliver it to him. He thought up that great dream all by himself.
    We might need to depend on the BFG to deliver our dreams, and we can’t make them come true all by ourselves.
    We need to all dream together.
                                        Stay curious! (and dream big)

    Except for Papa, everything [Zavion] had known his whole life was gone. The big oak tree and its shade and the brick walkway leading up to his house. Gone. The house. Gone. Everything inside the house. Gone. And the one last thing that had reminded him of Mama. Gone.
    All of them swept away in the hurricane.
                                     from Another Kind of Hurricane
                                         written by Tamara Ellis Smith
                                       Schwartz & Wade Books, 2015
    I’m glad to tell you that I don’t have a lot of weather-related experience. An unforgettable snow storm closed school for two weeks when I was in third or fourth grade. We built forts with the neighbor kids, forged paths through the backyards, and drank as much hot cocoa as our mothers allowed.
    The last memorable tornado spun through Northeastern Ohio in 1985. It was a doozy. According to one source, the wind was clocked at 260 miles per hour. Eighty-nine people died and many, many more were injured. Its path traveled about 10 miles north of us. 
    My older daughter was in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1996, the year of Tropical Storm Josephine. Before Josephine made landfall on October 8, winds measured over 70 miles per hour. (A category I hurricane clocks in at 75mph.) Still a Tropical Storm, Josephine blew through the campus of Florida State University with sustained winds of 28.8 mph and gusts of 39.1. The storm dropped 7.79 inches of rain from October 2-8. https://emergency.fsu.edu/resources/hazards/tropical-storms-hurricanes/tropical-storms-hurricanes-history-fsu My daughter spent her 21st birthday hunkered in place instead of celebrating with her friends.
    Does it seem like the weather is wilder than ever? Well, it is. Besides the devastating fires in the West (over 7,000 square miles burned so far, an area the size of New Jersey), we are experiencing another active hurricane season. 
    Storms are named each year according to where in the world’s six basins the storm originates. Each basin has an organization that comes up with names for storms. The Atlantic and Eastern North Pacific share a six-year list. The lists are alphabetical, but skip the difficult letters Q, U, X, Y, and Z. Naming began in 1953 and men’s names were finally added in 1979. Each year, gender-specific names are alternated. If a male name goes first one year, the next year a female name is chosen first. At the end of six years, the lists start over. If a hurricane is particularly severe, its name is retired. The World Meteorological Organization has retired 88 names through 2018. Because of COVID-19, they will not address the 2019 season until they meet in Spring, 2021. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames_history.shtml 
     (2021 update: According to the World Meteorological Organization, Laura, Eta, Iota, and Dorian will all be retired from the 2020 and 2019 Atlantic hurricane seasons.) ​
    In 2018, Florence and Michael were retired and replaced by Francine and Milton, who will first appear (if necessary) in 2024. If more than twenty-one letters are needed to name storms, the Greek alphabet is used, adding 24 more. 
    The first year the Greek alphabet was used was the record-breaking year 2005. There were 27 named storms that year. Although Zeta reached peak strength January 2, it originated from a trough of low pressure on December 29th.  
    Hurricane Season is June 1- November 30 each year, but hurricanes can occur outside of that time frame. We are on track for another record-breaker. In 2005, the Beta storm made landfall in the Caribbean in late October. Yesterday (9/21/2020), our own Tropical Storm Beta was already causing storm-surge damage in Texas and Louisiana as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico with sustained winds of over 50 mph, a month earlier than the Beta storm of 2005. Beta made landfall at 10:00 last night.
    As Mother Nature dictates, when a storm makes landfall, the winds decrease. No more water can be added to the cloud formation. Even though most of the damage is caused by flooding and storm surge, rain, winds knocking down trees, ripping off siding and roofs, and blowing debris are serious cause for concern.
    Tropical Cyclone is a generic name. Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones are all names for the same weather system, a large-scale, atmospheric wind-and-pressure system characterized by low pressure at its center and a circular wind motion. Storms forming in the North Atlantic, central North Pacific, and eastern North Pacific are known as hurricanes. A storm in the Northwest Pacific is a typhoon. Storms originating in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean are called cyclones. A tropical cyclone in Australia is called a willy willy. https://www.dictionary.com/e/typhoons-hurricanes-cyclones/ Hurricanes rotate counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
    Cyclones form in the tropics because they need warm water (at least 80 degrees F) and wind. As air blows across the warm ocean, water evaporates and rises. The water vapor cools as it moves higher and higher and condenses back into large water droplets. Storm clouds form. As more water evaporates and cools, the clouds get bigger and bigger. They start to spin with the earth’s rotation. If enough water gathers into storm clouds, they organize into the familiar pattern we see on weather maps.
    Scientists are still studying whether warmer water will produce more frequent storms. They agree, though, that warmer oceans do produce more severe storms. As the ocean temperature rises with our warming climate, more evaporation will occur to create larger storm clouds and more severe storms. 

                                    -—stay curious! (and be prepared)

And all that the Lorax left here in this mess
was a small pile of rocks with the one word…
“UNLESS”
Whatever that meant, well, I just couldn’t guess.
…
“But now,” said the Once-ler,
“Now that you’re here,
the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like you
cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better.
It’s not…”
                                                   from The Lorax
                                                        by Dr. Seuss
                                                 Random House, 1971
                              accessed on YouTube April 19, 2021

    I like to believe that no one is as mean and as greedy as the Once-ler who only wanted to make more and more Thneeds, a clothing item that nobody really needed. He used up a resource until it was gone, then packed himself up and let his factory go to rack and ruin while the nearby forest, pond, and the very air suffered mightily.
    I like to believe that, but I know it’s not true. There’s plenty of greed fed by over-consumption, thoughtless disregard for natural resources, and careless disposal of trash. Who knew that cigarette butts are the largest source of plastic pollution? According to EARTHDAY.ORG, as of August 28, 2020, 4.5 trillion butts are littering the world. It takes 10 years for the plastic in the filters to completely degrade. The toxic chemicals stay in the ground much longer.
    I’ll stop myself before a rant begins about the deplorable state of the world and the humans who inhabit it. Look around. Lots of good is going on.
    In two days it will be April 22, the day the whole world celebrates Earth Day.
    Gaylord Nelson, a senator from Wisconsin who served from 1962 to 1980, decided to pivot the energy college students displayed in their anti-Viet Nam War protests, civil rights protests, and women’s rights protests to the growing environmental movement. 
    He was concerned about the spewing smokestacks, overflowing garbage dumps, and oil spills. In January, 1969, he witnessed a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California and the destruction that followed. Nelson and a fellow Congressman recruited Denis Hayes, an activist, to lead teach-ins on college campuses. April 22, a date half-way between Spring Break and finals seemed a likely time to reach lots of students. 
    The name Earth Day caught the ear of national media who shared the story far and wide. On April 22, 1970, over 20,000 people attended the first Earth Day celebrations across the US, over 10% of our entire population. Earth Day grew and continues to grow.
    Earth Day went global in 1990. Recycling efforts worldwide got a huge boost and countries began to mobilize for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
    President Bill Clinton awarded Senator Nelson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995, for his role as Earth Day founder.
    Thirty years after the first Earth Day, the millennium year saw citizens around the world sending a clear message to their leaders to take “quick and decisive action on global warming and clean energy.”
    Today EARTHDAY.ORG provides volunteer opportunities and outlets for civil engagement to over one billion people in 193 countries. Earth Day is widely recognized as the largest secular observance in the world.
    According to their website, “The social and cultural environments we saw in 1970 are rising up again today — a fresh and frustrated generation of young people are refusing to settle for platitudes, instead taking to the streets by the millions to demand a new way forward.”
    Digital and social media are bringing people together as never before, “catalyzing generations to join together to take on the greatest challenge that humankind has faced.” 
    This year’s world-wide celebration begins at noon eastern time on April 22, 2021, and can be accessed here: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2021/ 
    Scroll down to find the Global Youth Summit beginning today (April 20, 2021) at 2:30 ET. Continue your scroll to find the rest of the three-day-long activities.
    Further down the page you’ll come to the Five Pillars of Restore Our EarthTM where you’ll find hundreds of ways to be informed and involved. 
    Since 2010, the Canopy Project has planted millions of trees all over the world in communities most at-risk from Climate Change and in communities cleaning up after natural and human-caused disasters.
    During The Great Global Cleanup you can register your group or yourself to clean up a lot or a little and get a pin on the world map. Their slogan is “Sign Up, Show Up, Clean Up.”
    The Global Earth Challenge is a citizen science initiative to explore current issues like plastic pollution, changes in insect populations, and how air quality differs in different locations.
    And EARTHDAY.ORG is not the only organization working hard. Here’s a list (in alphabetical order) of organizations whose missions make our Earth their priority. 
    The Arbor Day Foundation https://www.arborday.org 
    Audubon Society https://www.audubon.org 
    Environmental Defense Fund https://www.edf.org  
    Greenpeace https://www.greenpeace.org/international/ 
    NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) https://www.nrdc.org 
    Sierra Club https://www.sierraclub.org 
    The Wilderness Society https://www.wilderness.org 
    World Wildlife Fund https://www.worldwildlife.org 

    A very handy source to find information about nonprofits and charities is The Charity Navigator. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3671 Type in the organization’s name and discover their mission, their history, their staff, how much of their donations go to programming, salaries, and how much it costs them to earn each dollar.
    Celebrate our Earth on Thursday (and every day.)
                          -—stay curious (and hug a tree, or two!)

Edward, face it. Your neck is impressive.
It allows you to do amazing things.
                                               from Giraffe Problems
                                                  written by Jory John
                                              illustrated by Lane Smith
                                                   Random House, 2018


    The first time I saw a giraffe was on a field trip to the Cleveland Zoo. All us second-graders were amazed at its height. Its legs alone, are taller than most people I know. A giraffe is almost as tall as a two-story house. Male giraffes are 16 - 18 feet tall, and the females are only a little smaller. 
    What really fascinated me, though, was how it wrapped its long, black tongue around the leaves at the top of a thorny acacia tree and worked around the prickles. A giraffe’s long tongue (up to 20 inches long, but most are a mere 12-18 inches) is prehensile.
    And its tongue is long enough to clean its own ears!
    Giraffes eat about 100 pounds of leaves per day. That takes a lot of time. The pigment that make their tongues black also keeps them from burning in the hot African sun. 
    Most of the water they need comes from their food. Good thing, too. Their long legs make reaching lakes and rivers difficult.             
    Giraffes only sleep about 2 hours per day, but take lots of short naps. I know some people who do that, too!
    Late in 2016, the most current year statistics are available, about 97,000 giraffes lived in the wild, down about 30 per cent from 30 years ago.* The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (https://www.iucn.org) consists of more than 8,000 scientists in 162 countries. That year, they moved the giraffe from a species of Least Concern to its list of Vulnerable Species. If humans don’t intervene, giraffes face extinction in the medium-term future. (As of today, 8/10/21, their numbers continue to fall even though they’ve been protected from trade in the US since 2019. International Fund for Animal Welfare, ifaw.org)
    Lost habitat is one reason giraffes are vulnerable. Civil unrest and poaching also contribute to the giraffe’s decline. These are problems created by people.
    Here’s a bit of sort of good news. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this past Thursday (April 25, 2019) that it is considering protecting the giraffe under the Endangered Species Act. This could lead to import restrictions on hunting trophies and body parts including hides and bones. Considering, we’ll wait and see. A letter to your congressman and representative could help sway their consideration to a “yes.” Finally. 
    As early as 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt called attention to the dwindling population of many species of birds by declaring the first National Refuge site on Pelican Island in Florida. https://www.fws.gov/refuge/pelican_island/ 
    Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, but it took ten years for the U. S. Government to ban DDT. 
    The following year The Endangered Species Act of 1973 provided a framework to conserve and protect endangered and threatened species and their habitats. https://www.fws.gov/international/laws-treaties-agreements/us-conservation-laws/endangered-species-act.html 
    Nearly 1,700 species (plants and animals) are currently listed under the act.* The ESA has prevented the extinction of about 291 of those, according to a study published last week (April 22, 2019) in the journal PeerJ. That’s more than 99% of the species under its protection. https://peerj.com/articles/6803.pdf
    The easiest way to see a giraffe is at a zoo. In recent years, zoos have become much more humane places for animals. Their habitats try to mimic a natural environment. 
    Some zoos are interactive. Food is available for purchase (giraffes like Romaine lettuce) and feeding the animals is encouraged. 
    Recently, a tiger attacked a zoo worker. (April, 2019). And a horrible incident occurred at the Cincinnati Zoo in June, 2016.
    Here’s what I said in 2016 (6/14/16):
         I will continue to visit zoos. My connection with animals
         is fostered by being able to see exotic, endangered,
         even dangerous animals. And imagine interacting with
         them, respecting them, encouraging their ability to
         continue their earthly existence. 
    The animals who live in zoos do not do so by their own choice. They are wild animals, no matter how cute or tame or social they look. When we visit, we need to remember we are visiting in their home. Be aware, be courteous, be inquisitive.

• In July of 2021, according to International Fund for Animal Welfare (ifaw.org) the number has shrunk to 68,000.

• According to epa.gov over 1,300 endangered or threatened species in the United States today. (8/10/21) 

                                             Stay curious! (and careful)

A line is thin. A line is narrow --
curved like a worm, straight as an arrow.
        .   .   .
Yes, a line is fine, but when a line swerves,
when a line bends, watch what can happen . . .
a shape begins!
from: When a Line Bends . . . A Shape Begins
                                             By Rhonda Gowler Greene
                                          Illustrated by James Kaczman
                                       Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997

    I like to think my vote counts. After all, that’s what a representative democracy is supposed to provide for its citizens, a meaningful election. While I understand that a majority is necessary, I vote for a representatives who, in turn, will vote in my interest. But what happens when our representatives don’t voice the majority’s opinions? How can that happen anyway?
    In 1812, Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area. He drew a line around neighborhoods that were not defined geographically, but included more of “his” people. Because its shape was compared to a mythological salamander, we get Gerry-mander . . . gerrymander. Here's a map of MA including a map of his gerrymandered area around Boston. 
    This re-districting technique caught on quickly. Districts in any particular state can be drawn to include or exclude areas and create politically advantageous voting blocs. The only conditions: the district must be contiguous and the district must not cross state lines. 
    In 1911, Congress ruled that the number of representatives be capped at 435.*
    Because the cap remains at 435 but the population continues to grow, the average Congressional representative now represents well over 700,000 people. Raising the cap comes with its own set of problems. Most involve providing enough room for office spaces and meeting rooms.
    The U.S. Constitution requires a census every 10 years for the express purpose of redistributing Congressional districts. States may gain or lose any number of representatives, based on their current population. But populations do not grow evenly. In the mid-1960s, the Supreme Court decided that a similar number of people should reside in each district.Sometimes an area needs to be re-drawn so a more consistent number of people can be represented. 
    The Census is a population count. Citizenship is not a requirement for inclusion. As a matter of fact, inmates, although most do not have the privilege of a vote, are generally counted in the district where they are housed, not where they lived before. 
    Each state decides who draws the lines.                
    If the district lines are seen to be gerrymandered, that is giving advantage to one group over another, especially if the targeted group is in the minority, the Courts can be called in. That is what is happening now in Ohio and several other states.
    As late as last month, Federal judges in Ohio have declared that Ohio’s map, drawn by Republicans, gives the GOP an unfair advantage. The Supreme Court is reviewing claims of gerrymandering in Maryland and North Carolina. 
    According to Politico.com https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/03/ohio-redistricting-gerrymandering-1301141 “The high court’s conservative majority signaled during oral arguments that it might be uncomfortable with judicial efforts to rein in partisan gerrymandering.” Michigan, Ohio and several other states with pending legislation concerning gerrymandering will most likely not make any decisions until the Maryland and North Carolina decisions have been handed down.
    Even if the Supreme Court is okay with gerrymandering, I am not. I understand that a direct democracy in a country of 328,868,954 people, (https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/us-population/) is impracticably cumbersome. But when I cast a vote for the candidate who I expect will represent the majority of people in my district, I also expect that he or she has a fair shot in receiving a majority of the votes cast. 
    I hope I have not presented an over-simplified summary in my search for understanding this complicated issue. I’m glad gerrymandering is finally getting some of the attention it deserves. We cannot be a true democracy if our elections suppress minority opinions. If we are not heard at the ballot boxes of this country, we need use other means to make our voices heard. Here’s a handy way to find your Representative. https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative 
    Even though my vote might not count the way I think it should, it still matters. 

*The total membership of the House of Representatives stands at 441. Non-voting members include representatives from the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. A non-voting Resident Commissioner, serving a four-year term, represents the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

                                           -—stay curious! (and be heard)