An effort to keep some old photos here

 

Cat knows a good thing...

A good hobby, but don't grow up and do what that lady in the last photo did!

One of my favorite prarie family photos...cow on the roof, good team of horses, a table with watermellon cracked open, a dog by its master, and oldest family members get to sit down.

I kind of think this was a religious emblem, because most pioneer women would have chosen something more practical to carry. Just saying...

THis photo of an artist is somewhat a shock, after seeing her impressionist paintings of mothers and babes...so well pale and pink and just sending out light. She looks so drab and sad herself.

Drama just because he forgot his lunch!

Not sure who these ladies are...

Why do Americans like to jam together and make a lot of noise? 

Early work on the Golden Gate Bridge 

I loved that these new women doctors were willing to don their cultural robes for this photo. I bet they all would have prefered a white coat with a stethascope in the pocket.

It's amazing to think that 300 years ago, all clothing was seamed together by hand stitches!

He's really tired from wearing those boots. But the Missus is thinking he hasn't felt anything yet.

Let's see how it's done kids! The lady in the first photo will churn some butter while reading a book to you!

Not sure where, but jolly old England for sure.

The early Harley Davidson motorcycle factory

A complete intact culture, which Americans would destroy in a generation or two.

Mom's eye is on Dad, who has that far-away look in his eyes. 

Maybe having such strange taste in headgear herself, she was a strong independent woman who could actually change her own flat tire! And are those numbers painted on the radiator? Is that a race car perhaps?

I'm pretty sure this was a baseball game

I know this is a lot for one post.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday! And I did have at least one photo of motorcycles this week!

And quote for today

The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterward. 

-Arthur Koestler, novelist and journalist  (1905-1983)

An upbeat post today

 I do have some things that are positive which I read/watch here on this screen and sometimes share with you.

How about baby bald eagles? THIS video is all of 4 minutes from NOVA on NPR, and definitely gives me the sense that life continues.  

Today's quote:

 "It is as unseeing to ask what is the use of poetry as it would be to ask what is the use of religion." Edith Sitwell

Gun Deaths reach highest level ever in 2021

There are mentions of gun restrictive laws by some candidates for office. Find out who would support children's lives over campaign contributions from the NRA. Vote for them. 

 "U.S. gun deaths reached an all time high for a second consecutive year in 2021, according to a study from Johns Hopkins University. The study found firearms violence to be the leading cause of death for children and young adults, especially among Black children and teens."

Actually some people yesterday on TV refuted President Biden when he said guns are the leading cause of death for children now. Here're excerpts from the study released June 6, 2023! 

"The annual study, which relies on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported a total of 48,830 Americans lost their lives to gun violence in 2021. The latest data works out to one gun death every 11 minutes, according U.S. Gun Violence in 2021: An Accounting of a Public Health Crisis.

The report found 26,328 suicides involving a firearm took place in 2021 and 20,958 homicides. The gun suicide rate represented an 8.3% increase from 2020 — the largest one-year increase in more than four decades. The gun homicide rate was up 7.6%.

Further, the gun homicide rate rose 45% from 2019 to 2021, while the rate for homicides not involving a gun rose just 7% in the same period. Likewise, while the rate of suicides by firearm increased 10% over the same period, it was down 8% when looking at suicides by other means.

" ...The report outlines alarming increases of gun homicides among racial and ethnic minorities. From 2019 to 2021, the gun homicide rate increased by 49% for African Americans and 44% for Hispanics/Latinos. That figure rose by 55% among American Indians/Alaska Natives.

In 2021, the deadliest year in U.S. history due to the pandemic, guns also outpaced COVID-19, car crashes and cancers as the leading cause of death among children and teens — most notably among Black children and teens. While there were more suicides than homicides for the general population, nearly two-thirds of gun deaths for children and teens were homicides.

The study points out that the rise in gun deaths coincides with record gun sales.

It also notes that "states with the lowest gun death rates in 2021 have some of the strongest gun violence prevention laws in the country," with someone in Mississippi — with the highest rate of gun violence, according to the study — 10 times more likely to die of gun violence than in Massachusetts, which ranked lowest.

Source: NPR Gun Deaths in US hit the highest level ever in 2021.

Weather vs climate

 Every year, when it’s a particularly chilly day, some people can be heard mumbling “Whatever happened to global warming?”

Weather is not the same as climate. One is short-term fluctuations, the other long-term trends. Denialists fail to acknowledge the long term.

And it’s more than just higher temperatures. It’s more severe tornadoes, forest fires, flooding, droughts, and heat waves. What scientists are concerned about is climate change.

Climate change denialists miss the big picture. They look at the trees, but fail to see the forest.

We here in North Carolina are having smoke from Canada and New Jersey fires give us moderate particulates in our air, so I can't walk outside without a mask (at least if I wanted to exercise.) 

We are indeed suffering from Climate Change. Our weather patterns fluctuate at extremes...and it's nice that there are scientists interested in telling us about them. But we need the people making and enforcing laws to do something with the industrially caused pollutions. 

So I'll keep using what I have to make people aware of Climate Change. My voice. My vote. My purse.

Check out my post: Big Oil vs Vanessa from Uganda, Greta from Sweden, Helena from Ecuador, Luisa from Germany

That post gave a good overview of how these meetings go...well organized so people with a specific cause can be heard.

But as always...this effort needs to go towards those who can really change things who are industrialists and government bodies. Getting them aware is a step that has proved very difficult. Deniers are everywhere, and staying perfectly comfortable.

Who voted for a candidate in the last election that even mentioned what he/she was going to do for our environment?

There's that.

The UN wants to drastically reduce plastics by 2040

...here's how (they say.) I liked hearing her speak, but didn't quite get a grasp of the "how." But there's nothing new in that! 

Full moon

The Strawberry Moon, June 4, 2023

Today's quote:

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.

 -Edith Sitwell, poet (1887-1964)

The original Lords Prayer...translated from Aramaic directly into English.

 The original Lords Prayer...translated from Aramaic directly into English.

Instead of… from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English.

O cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration,

soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us where your Presence can abide.

Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission.

Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire.

Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish.

Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us, as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes.

Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose,

but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment.

For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the birth, power, and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again.

And So It Is!

My rescued old photos

  At least I hope that if I ever wish to see them again, they will be safely here on Blogger. However I just lost a whole posting on Blogger, and control z wouldn't bring it back.

Though with our world the way it is today, I can only cross my fingers. Sorry the captions were lost with my saving them from my crazy laptop's sending all downloads to an already full Dropbox.

Probably Central Park before it was built. 

The Dahli Lama as he arrived in India escaping the Chinese who invaded Tibet.

In San Franscisco

Living in one room with a dog and stove, looks happy.

Young John Wayne

American Bandstand

Gorge near Taos NM

Massachusetts home of an ancestor

Europeans arriving in Indigenous People's village

Hut of bones, anthropological re-creation.

Some treaty

In early 1900s

Some proud indigenous people

 

My guess is this is pandemic losses. at least the plan. We know it's not a photo by looking at the shadow cast by the Washington Monument not going away from the sunset.

Sharing with Sepia Saturday this week. 

National Gun Violence Awareness Day

“Wear Orange”  

on Friday, June 2 in recognition of National Gun Violence Awareness Day and to kick off “Wear Orange” Weekend, the nationwide effort to bring public attention to the issue of gun violence and to advocate for policy changes to address it.

I haven't posted about gun violence for over a week. But do you know how many times it has been reported on the news since then? And there are many occasions not being reported. I am not counting. That is pointless actually.

Even though my local news (as well as the national ones on ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX) are all owned by certain conservative corporations, I do listen to NPR, and have BBC reports to know what is going on all over the world, somewhat. I'm sort of fed up with CNN after they gave Trump an hour to broadcast his silliness stupidity lies the day after he was found guilty of sexual abuse. And I admit to fast forwarding through many redundant reports "...and more about the recent shooting in..." So glad to have a recorded edition of the news to watch and edit at my pleasure.

I'm very glad my family in Ohio is supporting the "Moms Demand Action" group which is against gun violence and has made recent efforts to stop some bills becoming Ohio laws which enable more gun ownership that is more lenient. It's an uphill battle for them.

But the alternative is...

MORE PEOPLE DYING EVERY DAMN DAY!

You know just sitting around bemoaning this problem is not going to solve it. I recently read three ways to confront problems with climate change, and I think they work just as well for the gun violence in the US.

From Caroline Lewis, an educator and environmental activist in Miami FL, "You have the superpowers of your voice, your vote, and your purse." (quoted in "Love Your Mother" by Mallory McDuff.)

As I recently quoted Buckminister Fuller on FaceBook: 

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

My additional comment was:

This is how we're going to be able to deal with climate change. The old guys just don't know their way around this new crisis. And they keep making things worse. No, We don't need to revamp the existing reality...as Bucky said, we need to build a new model! An inclusive, life affirming, non-violent, racially diverse, gender equality, compassionate model where we work together to get things done.

But back to gun violence... The reason I see a connection between these two issues, one killing us more invisibly with storms, fires, floods etc. and the other killing us in small groups day by day...is my own sense of powerlessness they bring to me. And my own anger. This should NOT BE HAPPENING.

Fortunately there are people of sanity and wisdom to talk with, to share these feelings, and to find a common ground where there is something we can do about it. For gun violence...yes groups making themselves heard, and hopefully voting for new representatives, and many petitions will eventually make the laws better. For the climate change, again, looking to legal measures, as well as the responsibilities that have been given by its citizens to the government to take care of us. That's part of their job, isn't it? 

Infrastructure is important! Safe roads, schools, places of business and shopping. Keeping the police, fire fighters and medical personel at their peak performances and funding them adequately!!

Have you seen any bridge repairs lately?

How many roads are left with potholes?

After a power station in North Carolina was crippled by gunfire, what measures have been taken to protect our electrical supply?

Multiply that to global levels...what kind of rescues will the 10th disaster receive, or the 100th? There are just so many people to care for all the rest...when storms, fires, floods take people's homes, livelihoods, families, and even their communities.

We need to now look for a bigger, better answer than what has barely worked before, and can't be simply multiplied by more manpower (think National Guard called to the southern US border). The better answer is to build that new model now.

How? Stay tuned.

Today's quote (other than above)

Stop Being So Damn Hopeless! Physical pain lets us know when our bodies have been damaged. Similarly, despair tells us when our spirits have incurred injury. Both are uncomfortable but necessary prompts to protect us from further damage and they demand a response. These days demand one too.

and... Whether your greatest present burden is a political reality, a relational fracture, a financial challenge, a medical diagnosis, or a personal demon—you still have great agency in the decisions you make, the attitude you approach each day with, the way you use your time and your resources to reflect whatever it is you value.

You’re here and able—and you’re also not alone. 

The first step and the greatest victory today is simply in seeing that yes, good people still inhabit this place and that you are one of them—and that is where the hope is.   Take a look in the mirror, friend. See the grief on your face. Feel the full depth of your sadness and be encouraged by it today. Hear your heartbeat and know that while that is happening, so much is still possible. 

-John Pavlovitz