Category: Seeking Common Ground

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

Whiteness has its privileges. My whiteness has its privileges. One of those privileges is that I have remained relatively safe and sheltered from the three headed tyrannical Medusa-like monster of Covid, (Skin) Color and Climate Change over the past two years. A three headed monster fed by the wealthy, white elites to try and bring our country to its knees and open it up to the dark forces of tyranny.

While over 637,000 Americans have died from Covid, our family has experienced two cases of Covid in our extended family and both of those resulted in minor illness. My wife and I have each had a negative Covid test and that’s about it.

Many, many, many families have not been as fortunate as ours. So please explain to me, someone, why are the states of Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Arkansas and Mississippi all nearly out of Intensive Care Unit beds statewide? Why is this happening when it has been clearly established that the COVID vaccine reduces the impact of Covid infections? Is it that the Republican governors of these states are actively discouraging vaccination? According to the Center for Disease Control, African Americans are twice as likely to die from a Covid infection and Hispanics are 2.3 times as likely to die from a Covid infection.

Add in the state of Florida whose governor, Ron DeSantis, refuses to allow local school districts in his state to mandate the wearing of masks to provide a safe environment for the students enrolled in Florida public schools. Again I ask you why on Earth would the governor of a state, any state, prohibit locally controlled school districts from making their own decisions on protecting children?

Does race or immigration policy play a role in these illogical, immoral, inhumane and otherwise unexplainable efforts by red state legislators to allow the Coronavirus to spread and cause unnecessary suffering on minority groups and on the health care workers affected by these policies? There is one thing that causes me to question my thesis statement. Why would red state governors be a part of killing their own Republican voters. That one is a head scratcher.

Allow me to digress a bit into the world of disinformation about the Covid vaccine and the promotion of alternate “treatments” like drinking bleach, taking anti-Malarial drugs (Hydroxychloroquin) or anti tick medications for animals (Ivermectin). What snake oil distraction will the tyrants unveil next? You won’t have to wait long. Fox, Facebook, Newsmax and OAN are ready to cause further Covid illness and suffering to keep the virus alive and well in the American public. To what end will the tyrant makers go to maintain white power in this country? Are the white folks that die nothing more than collateral damage in a Nazi-style attempt at racial cleansing?

Then there’s the second “C,” color. By virtue of my skin color, I am instantly spared the indignities, threats and dangers associated with not having white skin in the U.S.A. These racially motivated atrocities are a disgrace to the United States of America. The United States of America that I have longed for my entire adult life. The United States of America that I was taught to expect.

These atrocities are too numerous to name. Suffice it to say that wealthy, white elites are attempting to drive a wedge between us on the grounds of race. Why? It’s yet another way to disrupt progress towards a just, anti-Racist, economically stable America. They are trying to do this through a shameful disinformation campaign to stoke white fear and undermine improvements in how white people address the topic of racial inequality. Evidence for this claim is the way the the words “critical race theory” have been used by the white right. Those three words are a threat to the right’s attempts to hide America’s dark racial history. The right’s use of the words critical race theory are a not so thinly veiled effort to destabilize the United States and it’s institutions.

The third (and fourth) C’s are Climate Change. When then President Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accords, the goals of the wealthy, white, right elites was far more then a short term move to allow the fossil fuel industry a final chance to squeeze out it’s last profits before the rug gets pulled out from under them. It has been intended to join forces with COVID and Color as the third diabolical head to the right’s three headed monster to subvert American Democracy.

The effects of this campaign to mislead and disinform millions of Americans are now in plain sight. There is no hiding from the impact of climate change now. Another massive hurricane, this one called Ida, has devastated Louisiana and numerous states in the South and Northeastern U.S with wind and flooding.

Wildfires run wild through the western states. Two of them burning in California, Dixie and Caldor are number two and fifteen on the the list of the states largest wildfires in terms of acreage burned.

Is it a stretch to make the claim that these three things are linked in a diabolical super plot to destroy America? Sure it is.

But, that’s the way I see it and I’m paying for the Blog host. Take care, be well and stay informed.

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

This writing is from a study of how my religious denomination is responding to the need for racial equity.  The effort of Unitarian Universalism to address bias in their own hiring practices has exposed a systemic problem within our faith tradition on how we look at race and what we can do to try and fix it. What we are facing within our religious community is the same as the we are facing as a country.

I am republishing this piece because I shared it this past Sunday at a Worship service designed to inform our congregation on what our denomination is doing to right it's wrongs. 

Thanksgiving is still three months away, but I can’t wait to say thanks to all of you that are caregivers.

Thank you…

…if you drive for five hours to care for your cantankerous aunt that you don’t really like.

…if you take care of an elderly person in their home allowing them to be in their comfortable place and doing things for them that they can no longer do.

…if are caring for a spouse

…if you are a firefighter comforting a family that has just lost a home to a wildfire.

…for thanking that firefighter who has been away from their family for weeks and probably many more.

…convalescent home workers who have gotten vaccinated for COVID 19 so they can safely care for people recovering from surgery.

…to all law enforcement officials who risk personal safety so that democracy can work in a safe and secure manner.

…to all member of the military for their unending and under-appreciated contributions to maintaining democracy.

…doctors, nurses, lab technicians and all of the people that work to deliver the highest and best possible health care.

…journalists for helping us cut through the disinformation to form opinions based on facts.

…service workers for cooking and serving us food in restaurants as we slowly begin to get out and around again.

…grocery store employees who put themselves out there to provide us with the food and supplies that we need to keep us safe and healthy

…for emailing things that make us laugh

…to the kids who take care of their parents

…for making music from your individual homes and sharing the songs with us.

…for taking the time to write down your thoughts and share them. It helps.

…for adding to this list of caregivers and what they do.

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

This writing is from a study of how my religious denomination is responding to the need for racial equity.  The effort of Unitarian Universalism to address bias in their own hiring practices has exposed a systemic problem within our faith tradition on how we look at race and what we can do to try and fix it. What we are facing within our religious community is the same as the we are facing as a country.

I am republishing this piece because I shared it this past Sunday at a Worship service designed to inform our congregation on what our denomination is doing to right it's wrongs. 

Widening the Circle Reflection

It was the last day of the COVID-shortened 2019-20 School year.  I was seeing my Sixth Grade students for the last time that year.  We had been conducting classes remotely since late March 2020 and we were ready to put the past 2 ½ months behind us and get on with the Summer

I was learning how to teach using digital tools and was beginning to feel comfortable with distance teaching.  I was meeting with three of my classes on this particular day and I had prepared a fun quiz game for the last day of school.

During the last class of the day, a parent came onto the screen and shared with me and the class that her daughter, one of my students, a wonderful 11 year-old was offended by a cartoon that I had opened the quiz with.  I know now that I had committed what is known as a micro-aggression.  I felt embarrassed and a little hurt.  The student was African American.

The impact of that moment on me has driven me to get educated about race in America and more importantly about race in Bruce Halen.  What did I know, what did I not know?  How could I have hurt one of my students and not fully understood why they were hurt?

That event has motivated me to learn more about racial differences in this country.  I have read and listened to several books on the topic of race in America.  More specifically race as it relates to being African American in America.

I knew about slavery.  I was raised to believe that skin color really didn’t matter.  I had learned from observing and interacting with middle schoolers over a long teaching career that skin color didn’t matter.  I was taught that racism was bad.

What I had not been taught, or perhaps just hadn’t learned was the depth to which people of color were systematically being treated as second class citizens or far worse by the people who have made the laws, set the policies and enforced those laws and policies.  I started paying attention to issues affecting people of color in disproportionate ways.  Things like incarceration, arrest rates, racial profiling and violence targeting people of color simply because their skin was a different tone.  I have taken a deeper dive into slavery and how it affects race relations to this present day.

What I have learned has changed me profoundly.  How do I say this gently yet powerfully. The culture, the society, the country that I have learned about since my childhood, does not really exist…Yet.

The lesson that I learned from the mother of my precious Sixth Grade student was that I would, from then on, become an anti-racist person. 

My participation in the Widening the Circle Study/Action group is my latest effort to learn how to be an anti-racist.  Never stop learning, never stop growing.  I am a 65 year old student yearning for learning on how to be part of the solution to bringing our American ideals to life.

What can you do?

*Widening the Circle is a movement within Unitarian Universalism to welcome a broader range of groups into the denomination.

The link below is a collaboration between the American Reparatory Theater at Harvard University and the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It offers a way forward as we transition from Pandemic full shutdown to re-opening of public places.

https://americanrepertorytheater.org/roadmap-for-recovery-and-resilience-for-theater

Side note: I’m singing the National Anthem at the San Jose Giants minor league baseball game on Friday night. You can tune in to hear it live. Follow this link if you’d like to hear it.

Bruce

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

March 13, 2020 is a date that I will always remember as will all Californians. It was the date when the Sars CoV-2 virus effectively shut down the state. My school district, Santa Clara Unified, told us through our site administrators that we would be off for “two-three weeks” because of the virus.

I don’t think that many of us at this point knew exactly what we were experiencing. I initially thought of it as a two week vacation. We could go somewhere. It clearly hadn’t sunk in yet that this was serious business.

Within the week, we received guidelines for remote/distance learning that would take place using computers. This would continue for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year. I had plans to make the 2020-21 school year my final year of active duty teaching. I would turn 65 in April of 2021 and would have been a middle school teacher for 30 years.

The Summer of 2020 brought the reality that my plan was not going to happen, at least not in the way that I had pictured it. Instruction would be through a computer screen and my students, my kids would be images inside a small rectangle and so would I. There would be no sports (I coached basketball), no school play, no morning announcements which is how I started out my day and the day of my colleagues.

No Valentines Day, Staff meetings, greeting kids and staff members with a smile, riding my bicycle to school as I had done nearly every school day for 29 years. No end of year party with my Sixth Graders or my staff colleagues at Cabrillo Middle School.

By the middle of July 2020 I had made the decision to retire a year earlier than planned. On August 1, 2020, I was no longer employed by the Santa Clara Unified School District. It was a difficult decision to make. As it turned out, it was the right decision, but it would be 15 months later before I brought closure to my time as a public school educator.

Compared to most people, my Pandemic experience was mellow and mild. I lived in a nice, recently remodeled suburban house shared with my wonderful wife, had a pay check coming in from my teacher’s pension plan and had access to the comforts of life. I knew a couple of folks that had tested positive for the virus, but knew of no one in my circle that had actually been sick, hospitalized or died from the virus.

I was able to sporadically follow events at Cabrillo over the course of the 15 months via a staff Facebook page. I attended a couple of Ukelele Club classes being held online by a friend and colleague. That was about the extent of my contact with people that I had considered an essential and vital part of my community for the past 20 years.

Grieving during a pandemic is an experience that I did share.

Tracy Pope, much loved and respected former journalist, yearbook advisor, social studies and language arts teacher passed away unexpectedly on October 11, 2020. Grieving remotely is no way to grieve.

Guadalupe Roman, Principal, friend and Sixth Grade colleague since he recruited me to teach at Carl F. Smith Middle School in Terra Bella, CA in 1990, was killed in a Thanksgiving eve head on collision heading home to Terra Bella after a meeting in Bakersfield. I decided not to attend a celebration of his life in Porterville because of the ongoing pandemic. Grieving remotely is no way to grieve.

During the pandemic “lockdown” I was able to continue bicycle riding, started writing this blog, help my wife as she helped her parents and her aunt navigate life while in their 90s, become more active in my church and engage in the Presidential Election of 2020. Singing in virtual choirs is not my favorite thing, but it played a big role in helping me cope with the challenges of the past 16 months.

Before you knew it, the toilet paper shortages and Zoom jokes were fading from memory as was the impact that the Pandemic had imposed on the country and the world in terms of lives impacted and lost since January 2020. How quickly we forget.

But, ready of not, life appears to be returning to some level of a new normalcy here in California. Quite possibly and probably because a great many Californians made the personal sacrifices necessary to stop the spread of the virus.

So, here we are, or at least here I am. After 16 months of Zoom, I am seeing people in person again. Shaking hands with people again, hugging people again, able to walk around outside without wearing a mask again, eating outdoors at restaurants again.

The virus is still out there and I am still wearing my mask indoors (and likely will for the foreseeable future) and maintaining social distance when appropriate to slow the potential spread of the virus, but I am feeling more comfortable being out and around again.

It feels really good, but it also feels somewhat surreal. Is this really happening? Is it really ok to be this “normal” again?

In the past two weeks, I have sung live with two choirs. For me that is a huge deal. I have eaten out in two restaurants, less of a huge deal, but a return to normalcy. I have visited with friends that I hadn’t seen during the entire Pandemic represents normalcy in yet another way.

Normal is ok. Let’s get back to normal and stay there. It feels good to be here. Come on America. let’s do this! We all deserve it. Yes, all of us!

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!