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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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