Day 138 - another work week over

 Today is the 6th day of the 20th week, the 19th day of the 5th month, the 138th day of 2023, and:

• Accounting Day
• Boy's Club Day
• Celebrate Your Elected Officials Day - I have fond memories of reps like Congressman Long and Barbara Mikulski [who filled different toles], and I am sure there are other dedicated public servants out there, but they sure seem to be in short supply these days!
• Emergency Quota Act  [AKA the Emergency Immigration Act of 1921, the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, the Per Centum Law, and the Johnson Quota Act  - in 1921 the US Congress passed the very first immigration quota bill which established how many immigrants the country would accept from various places.  It was the first time that a numerical limit was placed on immigration to the US.  Apparently the US was spooked by the number of refugees [ or "aliens" as they were referred to ] fleeing the devastation of WWI   Adding to the mix is the way they established the quotas by using the national origins by birth or ancestry of all WHITE Americans as recorded in the 1910 census.  So much for the promises of a new way of looking at a fresh start immortalized back in 1886.
• Endangered Species Day
• Ho Chi Minh's Birthday
• International Virtual Assistants Day
• Jerusalem Day - observed the 28th of Iyar in the Hebrew calendar.  Since it is celebrating the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and forced reunification of the city, the celebrations understandably tend to be very politically charged.  
• Malcolm X Day - he was born on this day in 1925 and was assassinated in 1965
• Morel Mushroom Day - apparently they are considered much of a gourmet treat as truffles - and are just as expensive.
• NASCAR Day
• National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• National Bike to Work Day
• National Defense Transportation Day
• National Devil's Food Cake Day
• National Hepatitis Testing Day
• National May Ray Day
• National Peace Officer Memorial Day
• National Pizza Party Day
• National Scooter Day
• Voyager 1 is 22h 03m 25s of light travel time from Earth 
• World Family Doctor Day
• World IBD Day - IBD stands for inflammatory bowel diseases such as Chron's disease and ulcerative colitis
• the new moon at 11:55 AM EDT

Quote of the day:

"If you keep your mind sufficiently open, people will throw a lot of rubbish into it."

~ William A Orton, philosopher and economist [and not to be confused with William Orton the American business man who was the 3rd Commissioner of the IRS]

I had idly wondered now and then when my country had changed its open arms policy, never having been a particular student of US history, but had never followed up on checking it out.  I stumbled across the information while checking out what had happened on this day in history.  102 years and counting of blatantly self-righteous moral hypocrisy where the US in its bigotry actually foreshadowed the later despicable eugenics criteria for what was desirable.  

The country already had problems assimilating the freed blacks, the Italians the Irish, and the Chinese, not to mention the Native Americans, but it is rather embarrassing to look at a caricature like this one and realize just how smug and racist it is.  Sadly?  with very few changes, illustrations just like this one still reflect today's attitudes.  Them's the facts, like it or not, and I don't like them, they make me sad and ashamed.  I hope we do better in the future!

So we circle around to education, because hiding facts like this because they make me uncomfortable do not make them go away.  And no, I didn't get groomed or exposed to CRT or any kind of diversity training, which leads me to a far right-wing talking point:  Do I think it is appropriate to expose kids information that may invoke to those feelings of shame?  While I don't want my granddaughters to be ashamed of their heritage, I also would like them to understand that being "white" doesn't make you superior to others in any way shape or form.  I am pleased the children's books I used to read to them stressed that people, like flowers, come in all shapes and sizes and colors and varieties and that it would be a boring world indeed if all flowers or peoples were exactly the same.  Finding out how far we fell from that goal of inclusion can be taught incrementally through the grades without whitewashing the history and social studies curriculum even if it makes them uncomfortable and causes them to question their assumptions.  

Questioning assumptions, after all, is the basis for critical thinking, and that is a skill that I really want to encourage in everybody.  When you come right down to it, isn't that the purpose of sending our kids to school?  Isn't that the purpose of continuing to read, to keep up with the news, to have things beyond the confines of our own narrow experience to ponder?  Being made uncomfortable by what we learn is part and parcel of the process.  

And while we are living our second lives in social media or through books or by watching TV, don't we want to evaluate the quality of the the stuff we are being fed?    I just have this visceral, kneejerk reaction to the though of anyone just accepting what they see and hear and read without processing and evaluating it first, including considering the source

One thing I never question, however is the value of a Friday afternoon and evening.  Granted, I wasn't as thrilled to see this particular time of the week when I was working retail, or on the teller line, and had to work over the weekend, but since joining the office work hour brigade, I have totally bought into that point of view.