Author: Bruce Halen

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.  

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source:  Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

On September 23, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Executive Order N-79-20. This ambitious effort calls for there to be no internal combustion engine cars sold in California by the year 2035. Since my wife and I strive to be on the front end of incorporating environmentally friendly practices into our lifestyle, we began thinking about the possibility of owning a fully electric, plug in vehicle.

We went solar about three years ago and it wasn’t much of a stretch to start considering the purchase of a plug-in electric car to utilize some of that electricity that our rooftop photovoltaic cells were dutifully producing. We had already owned two Toyota Priuses and were ready to go the next step to a fully electric plug-in vehicle. We still own a Toyota Rav4 Hybrid to hedge our bets and carry grandkids.

So, which car will it be? Once we had decided that we wanted go electric, we had to decide which electric car should we get. All we knew at the time is that our first electric car was not going to be built by Elon Musk.

Since Newsom’s Executive Order in September 2020, new makes and models of electric cars and trucks are being unveiled in California seemingly every day, but our choices were still relatively limited when we bought ours at the end of the 2020 model year. Would it be a Bolt, a Volt, a Leaf, a Kona. We opted for the Kona.

We’ve been anxious to do this trip for months. A chance to put our new Hyundai Kona through its paces on an extended road trip. As often happens when you try something new, you are bound to experience trials-and-errors. We have already had some trials and we’ve already made some errors and we haven’t even started the trip yet. Notice that those are both plurals.

One of our earliest trials was how do you actually put electricity into this vehicle? It seems pretty easy. All you do is pop the fuel hatch just like you do for preparing to pump that old staple fuel, gasoline, and plug the the electric charger male end into the car. We got some practice at Charge Point headquarters which just happen to be a short distance away in Campbell. It was our first experience with electric car trail-and-error.

My wife and I fumbled around with the charging station user interface and the phone app that absolutely must accompany any real life actionable task that one must undertake these days. We’d likely have been there for a month had a friendly Charge Point employee not treated us to a free charge and gave us a lesson on how to use the charge card that tells the charger that you are ready to swaps goods for services.

It’s great to have early adopter friends. The Tippers, were among the earliest adaptors of the electric car. Their home in Southern California gathers solar energy, converts it to electricity and stores it. Well, their home doesn’t do that by itself, the Tippers do, but it’s more entertaining writing to give their home a human persona.

Next, we needed to figure out how to use that solar generated electricity that we were. producing. Since we don’t have a way to store the electricity yet, we figured that we might as well use it while it’s being produced. Enter the world of the home electric car charger. Since our first experience with charging our new electric car was with Charge Point, that Charge Point is a local company and that our first positive experience with electric car charging was with a helpful friendly employee on a bike, we decided on a home charger built by none other than Charge Point.

It offers the convenience of fueling up at home during non peak hours and as long as electricity is available, it’s a fine way to fuel up a car and enjoy the independence of using your own vehicle and still feel like you are being environmentally competent.

But the home charging station also presented its own set of trials. The first being where to put the darn thing. It needed to be close to the Fuse Box and we wanted it inside. So, we put it in the garage. For several months it worked fine until one day a couple of weeks ago, we were unable to charge our car at home. We tried plugging and unplugging. Nothing. No green light or interior display to indicate that electricity was going into the big battery.

We took the car to our local Hyundai dealer. They did a software update on it and pronounced it good. We got home and it still wouldn’t charge. It turns out that it was operator error (fancy that !). We had failed to properly set up the Charge Point App on our phones. Once we figured out how to get the proper settings app, it works like a charm…so far.

Now, back to the trip.

Now that we had worked out our self imposed charging problems, it was time to start planning the trip. Planning this particular trip was centered on planning around where to charge the car. One of the issues of being towards the front end of innovation is that some of the practical logistics have not yet been fully worked out yet.

Where do you stop for electricity? We know where the gas stations are, but where are the electricity stations? with the help our early adaptor friends, the Tippers, we started learning the language of California roadside charging stations for our not so remote control vehicle. Plug Share, Tesla Destination Chargers, Charge Point, EV Go, Electrify America, DC fast charger, Level 2, Level 3 and trickle charger have become a vital part of our electric car education. I know that I left a few terms off of that list.

Where you stop depends on how far you can travel on a full charge of solar (all energy is ultimately produced by the Sun) energy. That also determines where you are going to eat, sleep and find entertainment on your electric car adventure. Two hotel cancellations and the paradigm shifting notion that we didn’t have to stay where we charged the car finally got through to us as we worked to figure out the trip logistics.

As I write today, we have a plan. Will the plan work? Will the charging stations be available when we need them? Will the non-electrical parts of the car cooperate? Do we have a Plan B? By the end of next week, we (and you) will know how it all turned out.

Stay tuned for Part 2: The Trip.

The Boston Globe has published a six part series to serve as a guidebook for preventing any future Donald Trump Wannabees from ever again getting into the White House. Click on “The Boston Globe” link below the box.

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something

The Boston Globe

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.  

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source:  Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something

Source:  The Debunking Handbook 2020, News Literacy Project

My church choir, The Alegria Singers of the First Unitarian Church of San Jose spent two months learning the words and music to this work which was written by Jean Rohe as part of an effort to explore words and music for a different national anthem than the traditional one whose words came from a poem written by Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814 as he witnessed a British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland. It was put to music and became our National anthem in 1931.

Many people, including myself, think that it is time to consider a National anthem that is more representative of the entirety of our national experience in a clear, concise and musically accessible package.

This comes from someone who loves the challenge of singing the current National Anthem.

I really enjoy singing this song. You can probably hear that in my voice. But, the movement for an anthem that better reflects the nation is more important in my mind. Let’s take a closer look at the words of the Jean Rohe take on a new national anthem.

Chorus:  

"Arise, arise, I see the future in your eyes.  To a more perfect union we aspire and lift our voices from the fire."

So reads the text that follows each of the four verses of this new anthem for the United States of America. To me it says that our nation has flaws, but it is well worth preserving if we listen to each other and rise to a higher level of collective beliefs and knowledge.

"Atlantic and Pacific Flow, the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The land between sustains us all, to cherish it our tireless call."

Drop the stereotypes and begin, once again, to see Americans as Americans, people as people. Fifty states, one nation. Show respect for each other and cherish each other. None of this Red and Blue crap.

"Arise, arise, I see the future in your eyes.  To a more perfect union we aspire and lift our voices from the fire."

"We reached these shores from many lands.  We came with hungry hearts and hands. Some came by force and some by will.  At the auction block or the darkened mill."

Our ancestors came here in different ways, some by exercising their free will and others forcibly against their will. All stories need to be told.

"Arise, arise, I see the future in your eyes.  To a more perfect union we aspire and lift our voices from the fire."

"We died in your fields and your factories. Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.  With an old coat hanger in a room somewhere.  A Trail of Tears, an electric chair."

"Arise, arise I see the future in your eyes. To a more perfect union we aspire and lift our voices from the fire."

"And our great responsibility, to be guardians of our liberty. 'Till tyrants bow to the peoples dreams and justice flows like a mighty stream."

It is up to us, you and me, to have the country that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution have spelled out and intend for all of us. That is the Constitution, the one and only Constitution.

The one written, signed and amended through processes expressly called out in the 18th Century by those whose contemporaries fought and died for it. And legally amended through proper legislative processes since then to reflect the will of the majority of American citizens.

And, let’s be clear on something else. This is not the imaginary Constitution used to justify the invasion of the Capital on January 6, 2021, made up for political purposes by forces that no longer believe that Democracy works for them. Wave your flag proudly in defense of the Constitution of the United States of America.

As we head into Summer, I believe that is vitally important that we each do a personal assessment of how we feel about liberty, Democracy and what it means to be an American. Please do the hard work that is needed to save Democracy and take the action that you deem necessary to preserve Democracy. Thanks, Bruce.

when fear subsides and the hatred that divides is gone away. I pray the division will end and our actions will send a clear message of good intention to feed the invention of real unity based not on impunity or insincerity, but instead on real caring.

Where’s the sharing? Come on now, let’s listen, let our true souls glisten with the energy of hope and freedom that’s

not based on the lie that skin color matters. Skin is thin and our fears are deep. Break through the veneer and get to the inner

thoughts that drive the division. Make an incision, remove the division of racial indecision. Make it a time to heal.

But first, feel the pain of each other. Stop letting your indifference smother the reality within.

Expose and remove the disease and give time to heal the wounds. Allow yourself to feel the other

thoughts and fears, cares and hopes for the future.

Depose the myths and expose the gifts that we have for each other my sister and mother, father and brother.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html

I’ve never been more excited to attend a live baseball game as I was to attend a Class A Minor League game between the San Jose Giants and the Fresno Grizzlies this past Sunday evening.

We were invited by friends to the opening series of the season for San Jose. This was extra special since it was Mother’s Day and our friends’ son works for the Giants. Our seats were at field level in the “Party” Section and Ben treated us to food vouchers as well. We were totally pampered! It was an added treat to have Ben’s wife and two year old daughter join the four of us for the game.

It was the first live baseball game of any kind that I had seen in at least 18 months. The sights and sounds of the ballpark brought back decades worth of memories going back to my Little League days when my Mom used to take me to my own games in Visalia, CA. The smell of BBQ, the slap of the ball into a mitt, the singing of the National Anthem (on the big screen because of COVID protocols), singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” the announcer excitedly telling the crowd who the next batter was and what position they played.

The sound of the ball off of the bat, the roar of the crowd when the hometown Giants hit a home run (they hit two!), the howls of approval when the Grizzlies designated “Beer Batter” struck out which meant half price beers for anyone who walked down to the Concession area to get it. The Giants picked the right batter for this promotion. He (unfortunately for him, but to the great delight of the crowd), struck out three times giving the crowd three opportunities to get that half priced beer.

Not even COVID can slow down the fun activities at a minor league ballpark. The staff keep the fans excited even when the pace of the game slows a bit. The “horse race” held out beyond the center field wall between three competitors has been around for a long while. I remember them back in Visalia when the Visalia Oaks used the same fun to keep fans entertained.

This was the first time ever that I got to sit at field level. It made the return to baseball just a little more special. We sat along the first base line and got treated to a couple of great plays by the Giants First Baseman (#35) to turn double plays and preserve the Giants lead.

The chance to go to a game seems like a reward for 15+ months of personal sacrifice in suppressing the Coronavirus to the point where we could (with precautions) begin returning to some semblance of normalcy. I wish this feeling for everyone. We all deserve to be pampered in some way as a societal thank you for caring enough for our friends, neighbors and relatives to stay at home, wash our hands, keep social distance and to get vaccinated when the vaccine became available.

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be going to see a Major League game in San Francisco between the Giants and my Dodgers. We’ll be sitting in the Vaccinated section which means that, with proof of vaccination, I get to sit in the seat next to my friend instead of six feet and a couple of seats away.

Thanks to everyone that made this game possible, our friends, Ben, the ballplayers and all of my fellow Americans that made significant personal sacrifices to make this day possible.

Play Ball!

My wife helps keep me literate and at least somewhat balanced in my thinking. She points me in the direction of newpaper articles, Blog posts and books that I should read to help me better understand the behavior of humanity. They help.

Sometimes she flips the TV remote over to the evening Fox commentators. She’s right that I need to keep adding ingredients to the recipe that makes up the stew that is my opinion. The stew would get pretty boring if the only ingredient was MSNBC. My wife’s wise advice is very helpful to all of you, especially since I now have the time and the medium to share my recipe with you.

In this time of large scale, paradigm shifting events, there is no shortage of stew recipes out there to choose from. Some of them you’re going to like, some you’re not going to like and others you can take or leave them depending on your mood at the moment. You may or may not like mine. The fact that you are reading my Blog doesn’t mean that you necessarily agree or disagree with me and my taste in stew. But, it does tell me that you, like me, are willing to spice up your recipe and try something new.

The stew analogy comes from the fact that we are trying out one of those packaged meal services. This one is called “Green Chef.” We decided to try it when friends recommended it to us. It is unlikely that we will keep receiving the meal boxes beyond the discounted promotional period, but it is likely that we will include some of the recipe ideas in our own cooking as we add spice to our diets and our lives.

Stay open to new ideas. If you are politically to the right of me, which is very likely considering where I am on the political spectrum, it would give your palate more choices to try out some new ingredients in your stew, say MSNBC or Public Television. For those of you over there with me, it is also good to enhance the flavors of your stew recipe as well. Take some time to read a conservative commentator or take a look at Fox, Newsmax or OAN to get a taste of their stews.

When it is all said and done, all of our individual stew recipes go into the pot with the rest of the stew recipes out there. The spice that you put in may be small, but it is important and it is important that we continue to sample the stew every day and share our ingredients with each other.

Bon appetit!

Do your part put to the Coronavirus Pandemic to an end.  It is not over yet.  It may be getting better for some of us, but it is not better for all of us.  Stay informed, get vaccinated, share your experiences and be well.  Best wishes, Bruce.

It’s been hidden for so long.

Far away, but burning brightly as a distant star

Waiting to be seen.

Waiting for my eyes to open and my mind to find what has always been there.

I am African. Science tells me so and I believe the Science. My soul includes the soul of my most ancient of ancestors, my inner African .

All of my ancestors likely had the same skin color when they started our out of Africa on the nearly two million year journey to where we are today. My gene contributors went to the north. One line to the Middle East and the other line to what is now known as Scandinavia.

Others stayed in Africa and their skin, like that of my ancestors, probably started pale and changed to a darker color later on to better adapt to the intensity of sunlight nearer to the Equator.

Skin color is a function of biological adaptation to one’s latitudinal location. Nothing more and nothing less.

Why worry about skin color? I, being from the privileged class of people called Caucasian or White have no standing to speak on the subject. End of subject.

I would still be living in blissful ignorance to the issues related to skin color if not for the magnification of that distant star, my African soul. A decade ago, even 18 months ago, I didn’t really get Black Lives Matter. I didn’t have a clue. By virtue of my pale skin I’ve been granted some sort of undeserved privilege. It doesn’t feel good.

People and conversations, school and church started bringing that distant star ever closer. Ta’Nehisi Coats in “Between the World and Me” brought that star a little closer. Robin DiAngelo in “White Fragility” magnified that star a little more. Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow” brought the star closer still. Colson Whitehead’s novel “Underground Railroad” added more magnification. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi in “How To Be An Anti Racist” brought further magnification to what I had unwittingly been and how to change. Add Isabel Wilkerson and her book “Caste” which I am still listening to and the star gets just a little brighter still. Unitarian Universalist Minister Nancy Palmer Jones and UU lay leader Karen Lin focus me in even more with their book “Mistakes and Miracles” and the challenges of bringing multiculturalism into UU congregations. My own church community trying to “Widen the Circle” of our own church family.

I can almost see it now, my African soul, my shining star. It is still in the distance, but it is much closer now. I can faintly see it. Its light shines brightly through the ages. Current events magnify it even more and make me proud that deep down within me are my African roots.

My African soul delights in the growth I have made and my yearning to continue that growth.

Let me close with some music to clarify what I’m trying to say.

The song “Be A Light,” arranged by Tim Hayden with words and music by Joshua Miller, Matt Dragstrem, Josh Thompson and Thomas Rhett Akins and performed by the Alegria Singers from the First Unitarian Church of San Jose, CA in the Virtual Choir format under the direction and sound engineering of John M. Ector, is a powerful message for these times

Listen real closely to the words at the end of the song.

There is one other song that wants to be included here as well. It was written by UU songwriter Amanda Udis Kessler. It is called “Just Such A Time As Now” performed by a quartet from the Alegria Singers of the First Unitarian Church of San Jose.

Do good and be well,

Bruce

Bruce

You might ask what the hell is he talking about. Yes, the analogy is a bit of a stretch, but hear me out.

It’s actually only about one at bat in one game of the 1988 World Series. Los Angeles Dodger star outfielder Kirk Gibson facing Oakland Athletics star pitcher Dennis Eckersley. Gibson was not at full strength, not even half strength. In Game 5 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, Gibson had strained his left hamstring sliding into Second Base in Game 5. In Game 7 of that same series, he injured his right knee.

Gibson was not in the starting line-up (duh) for the first game of the series against the A’s. He could barely walk. Heck, he could barely stand up. There was no way that he was going to play in this game. In fact, this at bat against Eckersley would be his only appearance of the World Series that year.

So, baseball fans, especially Dodger fans, know that Kirk Gibson hit a home run that won the game. Dodger Hall of Fame Announcer Vin Scully let the crowd savor the moment before sharing the memorable sequence of words: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened.” The Dodgers weren’t supposed to be in this game and neither was Gibson.

Enter 2021 Vernal Falls. Yosemite National Park in California is a natural wonder. Iconic glacier carved rock formations named Half Dome and El Capitan, forests of Lodgepole Pines and Red Fir trees, water falls where streams used to run downhill on a normal path to the Pacific Ocean before giant walls of ice gouged the granite out from under them.

One of those water falls is named Vernal Falls. As far as the water falls of Yosemite go, it is nice, not spectacular, and a hike of what I would call “Moderate” (most trail guides would say Difficult) will take you to the top of the falls where your efforts are rewarded with beautiful views back to the west down the glacier carved valley and a nice slab of the omnipresent granite rock to rest, re-fuel and enjoy the view before making your way back down to the Yosemite Valley floor.

During the Summer, the return trip down would be a routine, crowded, moderately difficult descent with physical challenges that us outdoor lovers graciously accept as part of nature’s toll for sharing her beauty with us.

But, late March is not Summer. I was hiking with a group of, shall I say, well seasoned hikers and outdoors people. We accepted the 2.4 linear miles and 1000 feet of vertical up the stair stepped Mist Trail as part of our fee for the opportunity to enjoy this difficult but accessible natural scene.

We were not looking forward to going back down the Mist Trail. Aching knees, slick rocks and a well traveled narrow trail were not boding well for returning to our campsite the same way we had come up.

This analogy came to me on the car trip back home to San Jose. But, it only became necessary because of a consensus decision of the group to go back down the hill using the so called “Winter Route.” This route was a segment of the John Muir Trail called The Horse Trail. Some of us had experienced this alternate route down and it seemed like a good bet that this path would be preferable to the knee destroying staircase down the Mist Trail back to the Upper Pines Campground.

So, we were mentally preparing ourselves for the longer but more gradual descent to camp. Early in the climb down, we faced some climbing. Those of you who have hiked in mountains know that when your mind is thinking downhill and suddenly there is an uphill stretch, your mind does not respond in a favorable way. Your attitude starts to go south.

As we continued up and eventually down the trail in earnest, we met three groups that had come up the Horse Trail and gave us the news that it would be extremely difficult to navigate through at least four patches of trail covered with snow and ice. By this time, we had come far enough down the trail that it would have been highly improbable for us to turn around and go back up to where we had started and then go back down the known hell on knees route that we were all too familiar with already.

So, on we went. The first patch was mildly challenging, but we all made it through without incident. Then there was the second patch. I need to call it something other than just the innocuous second patch. Hielo Diablo (HD/ask a Spanish speaking friend) would better describe it.

A couple of our party took a daring route down the side of the hill to bypass the HD. I negotiated the treacherous curving, downhill ice field by sliding down on my backside. I was wearing slick, nylon rain pants which were not helpful in controlling my rate of descent. I had to shed my backpack with about 30 pounds of photographic gear in it to control my descent down a one butt cheek (OBC) wide section of trail.

My wife took a chance that the line of rocks along the lower section of the trail would stop her, so she just slid down at some speed in the hopes that the rocks would stop her. They did. Her timing was good because she arrived at my location just as I was reaching the one butt cheek section. She was able to muscle up and take the backpack from me before it slid down the hill with over $2500 of camera, lenses and related photographic gear. Once I got past the OBC, she was able to get the pack to a spot where I could reach it and drag it down the rest of the HD to meet up with our friends that had taken the shortcut.

Others in our party resorted to crawling along this stretch on their hands and knees. We all made it through HD, but there were still two more snow and ice patches to navigate before we were out of this stretch of fear inducing frozen water. I will confess that I was legitimately scared coming through HD.

It turns out that the other two patches didn’t require any of us to leave our feet and we slowly, but surely made our way back to the campground.

So, now the analogy. Remember Vin Scully’s words: “In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened” (See the video above to get this in context). In the 1988 World Series, it was unlikely that Kirk Gibson could function in a professional capacity, one that is difficult even on two good legs. His left hamstring made it improbable and his right knee made it even more improbable that he would successfully be able to succeed in his mission of hitting a baseball far enough to win the game. Kirk Gibson finding success in 1988 seemed an impossibility.

So too it was at Vernal Falls 2021. One trail was already an improbable, the other trail would prove to be even more improbable. The final results were the same. A happy ending for the home team. For Kirk Gibson and the Dodgers in 1988 it was a walk off home run. For Kathy, Jen, Meredy, Mark and Bruce it was getting back to our campsites alive, sore and safely.

If the COVID-19 Pandemic hadn’t hit us in early 2020 and I hadn’t made the decision to retire a year ahead of my planned age 65 birthday and the last day of school in June 2021, I’d be joining my colleagues at Cabrillo Middle School in welcoming students back to our incredible campus tomorrow.

My colleagues and I work hard for our students, our kids, our parents, each other. Those that are still actively preparing and delivering lessons are doing heroic work. They are returning back to work now because they are receiving (finally) the vaccine that many were waiting for before they would feel comfortable going back into the classroom face-to-face with our kids.

Even with only being able to see one third of their students in their classrooms at a time due to COVID safety protocols, tomorrow is a day that they had to fight for tooth and nail. Thank goodness the powers that be in this state held their ground and listened, for the most part, to the science before beginning the process of reopening our school and others like it in the Santa Clara Unified School District.

We, my colleagues and I, are often viewed by the public as having easy jobs with short hours, long vacations and pensions paid for the public. Our labor unions are attacked as being the cause of many of the problems that face educating the children that walk through our doors.

Yet, on the personal level, most of us have at least one teacher that we can look at as a person and thank for being a role model, a guiding light, a person to talk to when you needed help and guidance. Today, as I remember and pay homage to my colleagues at Cabrillo Middle School, I urge you to think of that teacher. Forget all your preconceived notions about teachers and send positive thoughts their way.

I know first hand how hard they work, the hours they put in, the vacation time spent preparing for the next school year and the next group of wide eyed students. Think positive thoughts about teachers today and join me in welcoming back the staff and some of the students of Cabrillo Middle School as they see each other in person tomorrow for the first time in over a year.

Cabrillo, when you get time to read this, welcome back and God speed to each and every one of you.