Don't Drink The Water In Ingleside

What is it with Coastal Bend cities not taking care of their water supply? It really is not acceptable.  For the past couple of days, residents of parts of Ingleside have been told not to drink the water (not a boil water advisory because apparently boiling won't help with this one). 

The Eye of The Needle

So apparently some church in Corpus has raised more than a million dollars in donations to build a cross that's bigger than anyone else's cross.  God help us.

Discrimination Against The Homeless in Corpus Christi

A couple of weeks ago, the City of Corpus Christi passed an ordinance banning panhandling in certain parts of the city.  They have all kinds of excuses as those who think they know best for others always do.  Really, though we know what it was for...to make businesses happy, to coddle the comfortable so they don't have to feel uncomfortable by being spoken to by the poor...whatever.

The first amendment is for everyone.  This is not okay.

Register To Vote!

Tomorrow, Monday, February 1st, at 5pm is the deadline for registering to vote if you want to vote in the primary election (either primary election - Republican or Democrat) on March 1st.  If you are not registered, get on it!

Vota!  Vota!  Vota!

Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club: The Case for Loving

Today's edition of Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club features The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage by Selina Alko (and illustrated by Selina Alko and her spouse, Sean Qualls). This beautiful children's book tells the story of Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter, who married in Washington, D.C. because their home state of Virginia did not allow interracial marriage.  Virginia still refused to recognize their marriage, though, and charged them with unlawful cohabitation, forcing the couple to move away.  Unhappy away from home, the Loving family took their case to the Supreme Court...and won.  The case for Loving won.

A timely tale.

Of Back To School and Desserts

The Lone Star Baby and Lone Star Pa have been back to their respective schools for awhile now.  Classes at the Lone Star Girl's college started today, as did they at mine.  We took her back to school on Saturday and had a nice RGV day of, basically, dessert tourism (there's a Ben and Jerry's shop in the RGV - I'd never been to one - and a cupcake shop that won on Cupcake Wars).

Already I really miss having her in the house.  I like everything much better when she is sleeping in this house at night.

MLK Day of Service

Today we celebrated this day of honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.'s work as we usually do, by taking the Girl Scout troop to the local MLK Day March.  It was great.  Sometimes only a few of our girls are able to attend this event due to parents' work schedules, etc., but seven of our nine girls came today and the weather was beautiful and it was just wonderful to see them march.  Our troop had spent the last couple of weeks collecting hygiene items for the homeless and had sent out a call to other local troops to bring any donations they collected to the March, which some did. After the March, the girls sorted all the donations into hygiene bags for people who are homeless and we dropped them off at the Mother Teresa Shelter after we left, so we definitely got in our Day of Service in honor of Dr. King.

Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club: This Side of Home

Today's edition of the Subversive Children's book club addresses an issue that our so-mobile society seems to want to avoid:  the importance and necessity of people being rooted parts of communities that have history and traditions and the kinds of identities that only grow and develop with time, but which are so, so important to a healthy humanity.

This Side of Home by Renee Watson is about a high school senior growing up with her twin sister and parents in a community which, until very recently, has been primarily African American. Gentrification is taking hold in Maya's neighborhood and she is not that happy with all the new faces and new businesses that come into her community and essentially try to erase its identity, without always even knowing they are doing so.  Her sister feels differently, trying to enjoy the benefits of the new.  The book provokes serious thought about both racism and community and avoids over-simplifying the issues while still maintaining a level of sweetness that makes it appropriate for readers somewhat younger than its target audience.

Enjoy.

#VanillaIsis Still Needs Snacks

I cannot believe that these domestic terrorists have not yet been removed.

I am so disappointed that our culture continues to raise white men who are so blind to their privilege and whiny and entitled and dangerous.

Please do better, Mamas. Make them see.

Dealing With Sexist Dress Codes

My eleven-year-old is still in the Garden, as far as school as concerned.  She desperately wants to leave her sheltered little Montessori school environment and take on the challenges of the big neighborhood middle school, which I will probably let her do next school year (that the bus won't bring her home to our neighborhood was kind of the sticking point this year).  Last night, my college daughter was ranting about how school dress codes tend to be sexist, racist and/or homophobic (our school district's at least does not seem homophobic as many do but the other indictments do apply) and offering up various scenarios of rebellion to her younger sister.

While I am largely sympathetic, I also have to be able to hold down a job which means I need to not be getting regular calls to come deal with issues from my kid's principal, so I cried mercy on most of her ideas.  I am a fan, though, of one simple response to a school's telling a girl that her skirt is an inch too short or her shoulders are showing and other such ridiculousness:

"I'd like to speak to the district's Title IX Officer, please." (Repeat until the problem is solved.)

Feliz Dia de Los Reyes Magos!

Happy Epiphany!  May the gifts that you need most blossom in your hearts this year, and may you travel far (metaphorically) to share them with others.

Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club: Epiphany

This edition of Wednesdays with The Subversive Children's Book Club features a couple of books with El Dia de Los Reyes Magos, or Epiphany, themes.  Enjoy them with your Rosco de Reyes! I hope you get the baby!

• Hurray for Three Kings' Day! by Lori Marie Carlson
• Three Wise Women by Mary Hoffman

I also always feel like L'Engle's Dance in The Desert is an Epiphany book, but for no good reason, really.

Why Are We Deporting Refugee Children?

ICE has spent the holidays raiding and deporting Latin American families who have sought asylum in the United States.  Little babies are being taken into custody at gunpoint and sent back to regimes that will kill them.

What is a refugee?

According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the 1951 Refugee Conventions defines a refugee as someone who:

"owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."

These children are refugees.  Their parents are refugees.  This is well-accepted international law and we owe them asylum under the law, not deportation.  If we follow Christ, we also owe them the love that Christ bade us to give to our neighbors, not deportation.

Tell the President to stop deporting desperate refugee mothers and children to their deaths.

Urgency

The President's executive action to enforce common sense gun reforms is way, way, way overdue.  The ridiculous NRA and the Republican candidates who try to make it sound like having an adequate system of background checks is against the Second Amendment are nothing more than profiteers who value their gun money over the lives of Americans - they are not patriots.  Americans support background checks.

Open Carry: Places Where You Can Take Your Kids Without Exposing Them To Guns

One of the things that really bothers me about the new Open Carry law in Texas is the fact that it takes away parents' choice to not have their children exposed to implements of violence by forcing children to see weapons everywhere they go.

Research by child development experts like Maria Montessori has established that children under the age of seven have "absorbent minds", with no filters, which pretty much take in everything to which they are exposed.  Anything your child sees or experiences before the age of seven or so becomes a part of their personality, of who they are - they cannot pick or choose.  Kids that age cannot help absorbing what is around them.

It therefore behooves those of us who wish to raise non-violent children to shield them from violence and images of violence before they are old enough to filter and choose what they wish to make part of their personality.  Some of us worked very hard to shield our young children from violent media, something that is not terribly easy to do in our culture, because of our deep wish to raise non-violent people.

So much for that.

Now, in Texas, our children will be exposed to seeing weapons in all government places, like... our parks, where they play.  Private businesses are allowed to opt out because private property rights are more important to our culture than our children's rights to grow up to be healthy and kind are.  Please be sure to contact your legislators about repealing this law, Mamas, and allowing our children a better upbringing in Texas.

That said, at least we know that some businesses will not be allowing open carry on their premises, so there are some places that we can take our kids without exposing them to weapons.  These places include, to name a few:

• H-E-B
• Target
• Starbucks
• Chipotle
• Whatburger
• Jack-In-The-Box
• Sonic.

I am especially relieved about H-E-B. The ammosexuals will not take over every place if we speak up about how it makes us feel to have our children exposed to guns.

SDG Mondays: Water and Sanitation

Good morning!  Today we focus on the sixth of the United Nations' new Sustainable Development Goals:
  
"Ensure access to water and sanitation for all."

This goal has eight associated targets:

• "By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all

• By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations

• By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally

• By 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity

• By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate

• By 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes

• By 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water- and sanitation-related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies

• Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management."

What do you think of this goal and its associated targets?

What can you do to help reach this goal?

It is embarrassing, but my own modern, American, "developed" city somewhat regularly has days when it fails to provide its citizens with clean drinking water and we have boil water alerts.  One thing I want to do is keep putting pressure on our local government to prioritize our infrastructure rather than new development so that this stops happening.

I also think it is important to keep an eye on corporate entities that wish to privatize water, such as the evil Nestle, and make sure they do not get to do that.

Open Carry: Be Careful Out There

Just a reminder, Mamas, that, ever so unfortunately, Open Carry starts today in Texas.  It is fairly certain that the ammosexuals will be out in force this month to show off, so be very careful out there.  Keep your littlest kids especially close so they don't accidentally touch anything dangerous that might be hanging right there at their eye level in a line at the store or other such craziness. Some businesses will be acting responsibly and banning Open Carry on their premises so we will be wanting to show our appreciation by shopping in those stores and avoiding the ones that choose to expose our children to visions of violence.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, Mamas!  May 2016 be full of Peace and Joy to All.  Much Love to everyone!