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

G7, Gee Whiz

12/31/2019

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6 Fish
Follow the leader
to the lagoon.
Puff like a blowfish,
round as the moon.
                            from: Swallow the Leader: A Counting Book
                                                    written by Danna Smith
                                                illustrated by Kevin Sherry
                         Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016
   
    The other day I read that the revolving leadership of the G7 (Group of Seven) lands in the US this year, providing Donald Trump with a one-year turn at being the leader. I knew the G7 had something (well, probably everything) to do with the world economy, but I wanted to know more. 
Here’s what I found out.
    The organization began in the 1970s when George Schultz, then United States Treasury Secretary, suggested it would be a good idea for the wealthiest nations to work together. As an informal gathering of the finance ministers from the United States, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, the leaders discussed topics such as international security, world-wide implications of stable currencies, and environmental issues, including oil cartels. 

    This all took place during the critical days of the energy crisis and everything that involved, economically and politically. Soon after that first meeting, Japan, Italy, and Canada were brought into the group, making 7 the number of participating countries.
    In 1998, Russia was invited to join, although mostly in a political sense since the country continued to lag behind the other participants economically.
    Today, the G7 are acknowledged as the seven wealthiest and most advanced nations in the world. The seven are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. 
    China is not included because even though it holds the second largest net worth in the world, it has a low net net worth per individual and an economy that is not fully modernized.
    Russia was tossed from the mix for invading Crimea in 2014, and optimism among the remaining members grew. They hoped a more like-minded group would be better able to accomplish their far-reaching and common goals.
    Those hopes were dashed last year, at the 2018 summit, when President Trump called for Russia to be reinstated to the group. That did not happen. He’s undermined the cohesiveness of the group since then with his policies on trade that targeted members of the group. You might remember his comments to Angela Merkel when he criticized Germany’s trade surplus and he threatened to block US imports of German cars.
    He did not endorse the alliance’s mutual-defense provisions because, he claimed, the members did not pay their fair share to NATO.
    He rankled them further with his stance on Climate Change, or is non-stance a better way to express that?
    In 2017, he hinted at withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. Here’s an excerpt from his June 1 speech on the White House lawn.
        “Thus, as of today, the United States will cease all implementation
        of the non-
binding Paris Accord and the draconian financial and
        economic burdens the agreement 
imposes on our country. This
        includes ending the implementation of the nationally 
determined
​        contribution and, very importantly, the Green Climate Fund which  
        is costing 
the United States a vast fortune.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-trump-paris-climate-accord/ By the way, in my own humble opinion, the speech sounds more like a campaign rally than a statement of US policy.
    According to Climate Change News, there are 197 signatories to the Paris Agreement, but on November 4, 2019, the US joined the 10 nations which have yet to ratify the agreement: Angola, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, South Sudan, Turkey, and Yemen. https://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/07/12/countries-yet-ratify-paris-agreement/ 
    And from https://www.state.gov/on-the-u-s-withdrawal-from-the-paris-agreement/ 
            “Today [November 4, 2019] the United States began the
        process to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Per the terms
        of the Agreement, the United States submitted formal  
        notification of its withdrawal to the United Nations. The
        withdrawal will take effect one year from delivery of the
        notification.”     

    (For a deeper discussion of member reactions to Trump’s general comments you can click here: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/g7-and-future-multilateralism, an article by the Council on Foreign Relations. From their website, “Founded in 1921, CFR takes no institutional positions on matters of policy. Our goal is to start a conversation in this country about the need for Americans to better understand the world.”)
    The original scope of the G7 has expanded to cover a large number of international issues, including security, gender equality, climate change, trade, and poverty.
    While still informal, the group announces its meetings and provides a general agenda. The summit rotates country by country annually. It is a controversial organization, at best, but real work happens. Foreign policy experts and cabinet-level officials conduct genuine negotiations and make significant decisions. 
    Since 2000, though, demonstrations and crowd control tactics have sometimes become more newsworthy than the content being discussed by these powerful leaders.    
    After suggesting one of his most opulent locations for the event, and receiving a swift, bi-partisan rejection, Trump has decided Camp David will be the venue for the summit. The 46th G7 summit will be held June 10 through June 12, 2020.
    Lots can happen between now and then. Stay tuned!
                                               -—stay curious! (and involved)   

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The Internet of Things

12/24/2019

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    “But you leave it turned off in your locker, right?” Frank pointed to his own computer. “I turn mine off when I store it.”
    Dorso shook his head. “But with light and solar power they never really turn off. So, it’s just the display and working circuitry that shut down. The internal workings, all the memory chips stay on all the time, so it can retain its programs."

    Frank whistled. “That’s it—it makes sense..." 
                                                   from: The Time Hackers
                                                             by Gary Paulsen
                               Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2005

     I first heard of The Internet of Things, IoT, a few years ago. Back then, I learned of a refrigerator that keeps track of how much milk you drink and sends a message to your smart phone or other devise when it is time to buy more. Or a devise on your dog's collar that dings on your phone to say it’s time for a walk. Or a timer or radio that lets you turn your lights on and off when you’re on vacation in another city.
    But IoT has become more complex.. Nowadays, you can tell a Voice Controller your grocery list. The devise (Alexa or Google-dot) will connect through your phone to order your list at the Piggly Wiggly down the street. When the order is received, it’s filled at the store and delivered to you at the time you requested.
    The end of last school year found me at my older daughter’s house, getting the kids off to school while she and my son-in-law attended a conference. There was still a little nip in the air, so I suggested to my granddaughters we check the outside temperature. I was on my way to the door to poke my head out when I heard my younger granddaughter say, “Alexa, what is the temperature?” 
    Alexa said something like “53 degrees and sunny.” The girls put on their jackets and we were on our way. 
    Well, that was different.
    I started thinking about Alexa. She really knows a lot of stuff. You can ask her questions like how far away Pluto is from Mars, or what time will the Cleveland Browns play and where, or who won the Best Picture Oscar in 1977? She will play your music requests by different artists. And of course, things like telling time and temperature are simple tasks.
    Is she always on? Does she hear stuff even when you don’t preface your comments with her name? 
    An IoT devise is a smart devise that connects to the Internet and to other devises. It communicates with them to grant remote access to the end user. That’s you. (Not me!)
    I just looked at a longish list of IoT devises. https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/iot-devices/ I’m sure it’s just me, but why would anyone need these? With the built-in increase risk of privacy issues, I don’t get it. But maybe I just can’t think of enough cool things for them to do.
    Artificial Intelligence is getting more sophisticated, too. I remember the old days when a movie was made in, say France or Italy. American voices were dubbed in to make it look like the actors were speaking English. What about Forrest Gump? Remember the scenes where he was interviewed and photographed with President Kennedy and President Johnson? They did that with a blue screen, reference markers, and historic footage; auditory and visual. It looked pretty real, but, well, lots of things are possible in Hollywood.
    Now we have “alternative facts.” When Sean Spicer, Trump’s old press secretary, was questioned about his claim that the inauguration attracted record numbers of spectators, instead of calling Spicer’s comment a lie, or even, heck, a mistake, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s spokesperson, called it “alternative facts.”
    Really, who cares how many people were there? But “alternative facts” caught on.
    Move forward, a few years. With the help of Artificial Intelligence, (AI) we are becoming less and less able to discriminate between true facts and “alternative facts.”
    A recent RadioLab discussion called “Breaking News” addressed this very issue. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/breaking-news Technologists have invented ways to record a person’s voice and add it to person’s face after a computer has learned how to replicate his or her particular facial expressions. They call it facial reenactment. It’s not animation. It looks real.
    The ability of technology to manipulate and alter reality through video and audio editing is growing at a breakneck speed. And the ability to disseminate that information is phenomenal. 
    Technology engineers can discover whether or not a photo or video has been distorted. But that’s not easy. And it will always be easier to create a fake than detect a fake.
    I’m not sure there is a benign use for this technology. In the movie industry, actors may be put out of work by their own images. 
    And the geo-political implications are truly frightening.
    For now, I’ll trust written journalism, listen carefully to established radio and TV personalities, and keep thinking for myself.
    If something seems too good, or crazy, to be true, it probably is (too good or crazy to be true).
                                                -—stay curious! (and wary)  
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My Favorite Neighborhood

12/17/2019

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Love the bees.
Love the trees.
Love your ears.
Love your tears.
Love your hair.
Love your flair.
Love being kind.
Love using your mind.
Love making art.
Love sharing your heart.
Love yourself.
Love the world!
                                                      from Love the World
                                      written and illustrated by Todd Parr
                 Megan Tingley Books/Little, Brown and Company, 2017
   
    When my girls were young, I watched Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood pretty much every day. Don’t get me wrong, the girls liked it too, but I put it on for me. As I re-learned everything I had forgotten about my childhood, I wondered how many other moms were doing the same thing.    

    I learned a new perspective, too. For example, when my beautiful baby girl squished the peas I cooked for her and smooshed them around on her highchair tray, I only saw the mess she was making…that I needed to clean up. Her father told me she was learning about the tactile sensations of her world. @#&! 
    Of course she was, but it took Mr. Rogers to drive it home to me.
    Last week, my husband and I and a few friends saw Tom Hanks bring Mr. Rogers to life. For a couple of hours it felt like he was speaking directly to me, helping me re-connect with my child self again. 
    On February 7, 2017, (see my blog from that date, if you want) I finally succumbed to the overwhelming state of our world since the inauguration, and listed everything troubling me the most, in alphabetical order.
    But, after spending those hours in a dark movie theater with Tom Hanks/Fred Rogers, I knew I needed different list. 
    Even in the chaos, fear, and sadness I find myself in these days, Mr. Rogers reminded me about the very good people doing very good things, still. Here’s what I like most about Mr. Rogers and why he will, on my very best days, always be part of my world, in alphabetical order.
Appreciative
Attentive
Balanced
Calm
Curious
Deliberate
Even-tempered
Friendly
Generous
Gentle
Heroic
Honest
Imaginative
Just
Kind
Loving
Mature
Nurturing
Optimistic
Patient
Perceptive
Playful
Quiet
Relevant
Responsible
Sincere
Talented
Thoughtful
Tolerant, mostly
Truthful
Unique
Unselfish
Valiant
Visionary
Wise
Xenodochial (friendly to strangers) https://adjectivesstarting.com/with-x/ and scroll down a little.
Young-at-heart
Zen
    The movie came from an article published in Esquire Magazine in 1998, “Can You Say Hero?” Tom Junod, the real journalist who worked for Esquire penned the article about Fred Rogers. Along the way, he learned a lot about himself, but discovered no difference between the man Fred Rogers and his television personality.
    Tom Junod works for The Atlantic, now, and recently tweeted the link to an article he wrote last month (November, 2019) about his friendship with Mr. Rogers that developed over more than two decades. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/what-would-mister-rogers-do/600772/
    I always welcome comments. Any additions to my list? Alphabetical or otherwise!
                                                     -—stay curious! (and kind)
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True Blue

12/10/2019

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Blue needs sun
    without it,
        blue
            hides.

    Then,
        suddenly,
      sparkling spring sky!

                                        from: Red Sings from Treetops
                                                 written by Joyce Sidman
                                        illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski
                                             Houghton Mifflin BFC, 2009

    In case you missed it, Pantone Color Institute announced the 2020 color of the year, Classic Blue 19-4052, (pantone.com) and said this: “Instilling calm, confidence, and connection, this enduring blue hue highlights our desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era.”
    Pantone Color Institute is an influential marketing and publicity firm that boasts thousands of clients the world over. So I wondered, is color psychology really a “thing?” 
    The preference of one color over another is highly individualized, and may even change over time, but some colors do have universal meaning. Pantone’s choice for 2020 “is a boundless blue, evocative of the vast and infinite sky at dusk. Classic Blue is a solid and dependable blue hue we can always rely on in these times that require trust and faith.”

    Multiple award-winner and partner of the Cleveland Clinic, VeryWellMind https://www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-2795824 assures us that color can indeed influence people. Warm colors: yellows; reds; and oranges evoke emotions ranging from warmth and comfort to anger and hostility. Cool colors: blues; purples; and greens, on the other side of the color spectrum, often are described as calm, but can also elicit feelings of sadness or indifference. 
    When I think of colors, I think of that big box of Crayola crayons with the built-in sharpener on the back. 
    The standard sized box of Crayolas holds 24, but the box of 120 will deliver all the colors Crayola currently manufactures. In 2017, after being produced for 27 years, Dandelion was replaced with a new shade of blue in the box of 24. The vibrant hue was discovered by scientists at Oregon State University as they searched for new materials that could be used in the electronics field. YInMn, a name made from the combination of its elements: yttrium; indium; manganese; and oxygen is much less controversial than the fan-selected winning name Crayola announced: Bluetiful. By the way, this is NOT the same blue as Classic Blue 19-4052 chosen by Pantone. 
    Bluetiful, the name, created controversy right away. Did Crayola give legitimacy to a non-word or did they help children learn to sound out nonsense syllables on their way to becoming proficient readers?
Plenty of people have weighed in on both sides. Personally, I learned how to read big words like Periwinkle, Magenta, and Raw Sienna by dipping into the box.
    Is there a reason that Crayola makes 23 shades of red, 19 different blues (including Bluetiful), but only 8 yellows? Probably not, but color-coding is a handy way to organize any type of complicated project.
    Our politics is color coded, but it wasn’t always that way. Individual networks and print sources decided how to identify the parties. And they weren’t consistent. Yellow was excluded, I imagine, because it doesn’t show up very well. 
    At one time, red (the color) reminded people of the Communist Threat. Neither party wanted to be associated with that color so blue and red sometimes identified opposite parties on different networks during the same election coverage. And the next time they might change.
    In 1976, a gigantic map was built to show in vivid lights, which states supported the Republican incumbant, Gerald Ford, and which ones identified the backers of the Democratic challenger, Jimmy Carter. The map was sturdily built on a wooden frame. Thousands and thousands of red, white, and blue light bulbs were in place. They created so much heat, though, when lit, that the plastic faces of the states began to melt. Interior air conditioning was ramped up and fans were brought in. 
    That did the trick. “Tuesday night, Nov. 2, Studio 8-H at 30 Rockefeller Center lit up. Light bulbs on each state changed from undecided white to Republican blue and Democratic red. NBC declared Carter the winner at 3:30 a.m. EST, when Mississippi turned red.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-republicans-were-blue-and-democrats-were-red-104176297/#737GsZmo2RWkglSl.99 
    Yep, Republican Blue and Democratic Red. It wasn’t until 2000, that blue and red became stuck to a particular political party. That year, we experienced an election complete with hanging chads, undecided representatives and senators, and a controversial Supreme Court ruling. And we came up with a political shorthand.
    In 2000, most newspapers were black and white, but both the USAToday and the New York Times printed maps in color, county by county, and used the same color scheme as NBC News: now, Republican Red and Democratic Blue.
    Why this scheme? Just ask Archie Tse, senior graphics editor for the Times. “I just decided red begins with ‘r,’ Republican begins with ‘r.’ It was a more natural association. There wasn’t much discussion about it.” (This quote and the following one are from the same Smithsonian magazine article as above.)
    Paul Overberg, USAToday’s map designer said he was following the trend. “The reason I did it was because everybody was already doing it that way at that point.”
    So it appears that the communist threat is over. Not to say Russia is a good neighbor to the rest of the world, but the color red somehow just doesn’t feel as dangerous as it used to. 
    Could the universe be trying to tell us something when in 2017 Crayola replaced a bright, hot yellow with a calm, cool blue and a couple of years later Pantone enlisted Classic Blue as the color of the year to represent calm strength in unsettling times? 
                                               -—stay curious! (and colorful)    
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Who’s Right … What’s Right?

12/3/2019

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    Folks began to wax nostalgic about those good old days. Why, Reverend Pelham’s sermons would make tears come to the ladies’ eyes and the sweat break out on the foreheads of grown men…They figured a good dose of the old reverend would turn the town on its ear, if not lead it to righteousness.
                                                       from Preacher’s Boy
                                                       by Katherine Paterson
                                                           Clarion Books, 1999
    When I was in Kindergarten, I learned to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. My teacher, Miss Kimmack, showed us all how to put our little hands over our hearts, because we meant every word. That was just a few years after Congress voted to include the phrase “under Gd” after the words “one nation,” and President Eisenhower enacted it into law. A controversy simmered, but we Kindergartners didn’t know about that. 
    On Flag Day, 1954, (June 14) Americans recited the new form of the Pledge, presumably to underline our differences with the godless Russians during the Cold War. And to instill patriotism.
    The Supreme Court has been weighing in periodically ever since, trying to create a useful definition of the separation of Church and State.
    Last month, (November, 2019) the Ohio House of Representatives passed House Bill 164, called the “Ohio Student Religious Liberties Act of 2019.” According to the sponsors, the bill will better protect students’ religious liberties at school. 
    The bill states that students can’t be marked down or penalized for providing information on a test or essay that aligns with their religious beliefs. Students will be permitted to express their religious beliefs during the school day, too, instead of restricting those views to lunchtime and other free time, as it is now.
    That raised the hackles of the bill’s critics, including the Ohio chapter of the ACLU. Up for discussion are questions like, 
    “How old is the earth?” 
    “Describe the current climate change.” 
    “Write an essay about an historic figure.” 
Bibliographic citations can include religious texts. 
    Is this part of a trend?
    At the UN Summit in New York last September 23, Trump opined, “the ‘immortal truth’ that human rights come from God is proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence and enshrined in the First Amendment to our Constitution’s Bill of Rights,” https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/23/un-trump-pence-religious-freedom-global-agenda/2389704001/ 
    Really, the Declaration of Independence says “governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” That is, the government’s powers come from the consent of the people, not anyone’s or any one group’s particular definition of Gd, or even the assumption of Gd’s very existence. 
    The Bill of Rights, ratified in 1791, provides specific freedoms to citizens and limits the power of the government. https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Bill%20of%20Rights 
    The First Amendment’s  establishment clause, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” protects our right to religious beliefs and practices, and prevents the government from creating or favoring any one religion over another, or no religion at all.
    So the tricky part comes when we try to balance our beliefs with the beliefs of others. Minority beliefs are protected by the First Amendment, but it seems like the majority, or those in the majority with the loudest voices and most power, say they feel threatened by the very Constitution they swore to uphold. 
    Back to school and the Student Religious Liberty Act of 2019. The children in our society are some of our most vulnerable citizens. Allowing religious dogma to stand equal with science is dangerous, for the students and for our society. The Act has passed in the House of Representatives. It will work its way next to the Senate, and presumably, then to the governor who will also weigh in.  
    In this day and age of “who knows what is *really* true?” our public attention is being hurled from one crisis to another. From heretical alliances with enemy countries to feelings of powerlessness in a Climate Catastrophe to attacks on our personal freedoms, it is hard to know what or even how to pay attention.
    For me, I choose to volunteer in a first grade classroom, listening to children as they learn to read. I bake cookies for my grandchildren. I eat right and exercise. 
    I express my concerns, but more and more, I think my words add to the cacophony and contribute to the din, rather than provide meaningful insight and achievable steps in the direction toward wisdom and common sense. 
    I’ll use this week to re-focus.
                                             -—stay curious! (and involved)        
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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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