History Written by Parker A. Poodle ™ Copyright ©2021 Sarah Becker Poetry and the Pandemic by Parker A. Poodle ™ In this parent fatigued pandemic I, Parker A. Poodle, a reading education assistance dog, have been asked to help you “Spin your imagination a little faster.” To assure children “The shallowest breath will generate/ a haiku, limerick or well-pruned lyric.” Hospice nurses now write lyrics to help them cope with the Covid crisis; write poetry to process their ICU experiences. As of January 14 the total number of U.S. Covid-19 cases was 23,214,472. The number continues to climb. Covid-19 has taken a measurable toll. We have fought its spread for months and all are tired. Of social distancing, virtual distancing; stay at home orders and remote learning. School and library facilities are mostly closed and school test scores have declined. Home confinement is hard, I know! “I stare at the page, waiting for my wattage,/ wondering if it’s time to invest in/subsidized solar scripting,” British poet and pal Elisabeth Rowe penned. “Time rolls over/ like a puppy in the sunshine/ things I am paying attention to/ become weightless,” Rowe wrote In the Garden. Not so now. Most humans—it seems—feel weighed down, pandemic plagued, and overloaded. How can I, a canine assist? I encourage you to express your feelings in writing; to use poetry to explain the day’s exploits. To maybe cure what ails. A narrative poem is one that tells a tale, a story. A historical story perhaps, or—in the case of the pandemic—home life. Elise Paschen, editor of Poetry Speaks to Children, describes poetry as a “journey of discovery…filled with range—historically, poetically, and visually. Poetry is like a diving board, a place from which to plunge into [life’s] depths.” Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) wrote To Flush, My Dog…
Written by ©2020 Sarah Becker Separation of Church and State “A nation’s character, like that of an individual, is elusive,” Congressional candidate John F. Kennedy [D-MA] said on July 4, 1946. “It is produced partly by the things we have done and partly by what has been done to us…It is well for us to consider our American character, for in peace, as in war, we will survive or fail according to its measure.” “The informing spirit of the American character has always been a deep religious sense,” Kennedy continued. “Our government was founded on the essential religious idea of integrity of the individual. It was this religious sense which inspired the authors of the Declaration of Independence.” “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” “Today [America’s] religious ideas are challenged by atheism and materialism,” Kennedy then concluded. “Inspired by a deeply religious sense, this country…has always met and hurled back the challenge of those deathly philosophies of hate and despair.” “Whilst we assign ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which convinced us,” James Madison wrote in his 1785 Memorial and Remonstrance. According to a 2007 Pew Research Study “fully one in four adults under 30 (25%)…describe their religion as atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular.’” The Bill of Rights, Amendment 1, as ratified in 1791: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….” Alexandria’s St. Mary’s Catholic Church was first suggested on…
History By Sarah Becker Copyright ©2020 Sarah Becker Ben Franklin & COVID-19 “We may be done with COVID-19, but COVID-19 is not done with us,” NIH Director Francis Collins noted not long ago. The rapidly transmitting coronavirus has taken hold and the number of cases, of deaths per capita endures. “COVID-19 is extraordinarily widespread,” the Center for Disease Control’s Dr. Deborah Birx said in early August. “Particularly asymptomatic spread in people under 30.” The number of American children infected as of August 13: 338,000. America, by all measures, has yet to successfully slow COVID-19’s spread. California’s caseload now exceeds New York’s. No effective vaccine exists; vaccine hesitancy has yet to be mulled and too many refuse to regularly wear protective face masks. Or maintain 6’ of social distance. How in this COVID-19 era is success defined? Today’s success literature draws heavily on history. “Benjamin Franklin [1706-1790] was a close observer of human conduct, and recognized at an early age that certain attitudes and behaviors are more conducive to success and happiness than others,” author Steven Covey wrote in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. “Much of the success literature of the past 50 years…was filled with social image consciousness and quick fixes—with social band-aids and aspirin that addressed acute problems…but left the underlying chronic problems untouched to fester and resurface again.” “Almost all of the success literature in the first 150 years…focused on what could be called the Character Ethic—things like integrity, humility, fidelity, temperance, courage, justice, patience, industry, simplicity, modesty and the Golden Rule,” Covey explained. “Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography is representative of that literature.” “The Character Ethic taught that there are basic principles of effective living, and that people can only experience true success…as they learn and integrate these principles into their basic character,” Covey continued. “But…