Tag Archive for national

Enabling Summer (in a Few Years)

March 21, 2014 Comments Off on Enabling Summer (in a Few Years)

If you enjoy visiting landmarks but, like me, have a disability or family member with one, here’s good news: our national landmarks are upgrading their access.  A good example is the Golden Gate National Recreational Center in San Francisco, which thousands of people with disabilities visit (or try to) each year.  Soon there will be signs in Braille, audio directions, trails and beaches with wheelchair access, and guided tours specifically geared toward disabled visitors.  We’ll be able to enjoy touring Alcatraz Island, Muir Woods, Lands End, Marin Headlands, Ocean Beach—most of the 75,000 acres of shore and woods that are part of Golden Gate.  We’ll be able to bask in a sunny, salty breeze on the beach, glory in a gorgeous sunset, cringe at where prisoners lived, maybe even hug a tree, if we’re so inclined (I admit that I am so inclined and have frequently engaged in that activity).

If it can happen at America’s largest national urban park, it can happen to all of them, including one near you or on your vacation itinerary.  At least, thanks to the settlement of a long, drawn-out lawsuit regarding access, that’s what should happen.  Of course, the Park Service has until Sept. 2019 to comply, but some improvements should start showing up soon—in time for this summer, I hope.

Enjoy!

 

 

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Feed Your Rescued Guinea Pig Frozen Broccoli but not Coffee

March 3, 2014 Comments Off on Feed Your Rescued Guinea Pig Frozen Broccoli but not Coffee

There’s a month for almost everything.  To prove it, I looked around and found the following intriguing March celebrations.  I’ve given you links to find out more about many of them.

Adopt a Recued Guinea Pig Month (http://www.examiner.com/article/adopt-a-rescued-guinea-pig-month)

Bell Peppers and Broccoli Month (http://www.examiner.com/article/did-you-know-it-s-broccoli-and-bell-pepper-month)

National Caffeine Awareness Month http://mcg.metrocreativeconnection.com/publish/sections/calendar-details.php?National-Caffeine-Awareness-Month-110)

National Craft Month (http://tiffanylanehandmade.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/march-national-craft-month-2014)

National Frozen Food Month (http://www.nfraweb.org/promotions/promotion.aspx?PromotionId=58)

National Week of The Ocean Festival Sea-son (http://www.national-week-of-the-ocean.org)

March is also Humorists Are Artists Month, International Expect Success Month, International Ideas Month, International Listening Awareness Month, International Mirth Month, National Cheerleading Safety Month, National Clean Up Your IRS Act Month, National On-Hold Month, National Peanut Month, Optimism Month, Play The Recorder Month, Sing With Your Child Month,  and—of course!– Irish-American Heritage Month.

Now, don’t try to tell me that you’re bored because there’s nothing to do this month!

 

 

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Chimps Escape into Retirement

June 28, 2013 Comments Off on Chimps Escape into Retirement

Chimps are getting retired, not rewired (or slathered with toxic creams or injected with poisons).  That’s good news from the National Institute of Health.  For years, researchers have known that 1) results of tests done on animals frequently don’t give a clue about how humans will react to the same test-substance, and 2) there are fake skins that mimic human skin and respond to substances like cosmetics as reliably as or more reliably than the skin of lab-animals.

Finally, some animals are being retired from the lab.  The Institute plans to send 90% of their chimps to a sanctuary. Now, if others will only follow their example….

View some elderly retired chimps at Chimp Haven, their new home.  Go to

https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=new_life_for_chimps&s_src=em_ha062713&JServSessionIdr004=ny7i953t97.app306b.

 

 

 

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Do You Remember Our National Bird?

May 8, 2013 Comments Off on Do You Remember Our National Bird?

Will our grand-kids recognize what these birds are and what they represent?

Say No to Weakened Protections for Eagles

     Maybe not, if there aren’t any around to see.    That’s a possibility if energy lobbyists get their way.  Right now, corporations can get a permit allowing them to kill a certain number of eagles, if they offset the damage. Every five years the public can examine a corporation’s operations before another permit is granted.  What the energy lobbyists want to do is make that permit-period THIRTY years.  A lot can happen to the birds in all that time without oversight of corporate actions.

These aren’t just any bird, or any eagle, for that matter.  They’re the majestic symbol of our nation and, as such, deserve protection.

If you feel strongly about this issue, email Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior about your concerns.  Also, go to Care2’s petition site and sign the petition.

 

 

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Take God Out of the Inauguration!

January 22, 2013 Comments Off on Take God Out of the Inauguration!

Atheists are Americans, too.  Therefore, religion doesn’t belong in a Presidential  Inauguration.  That’s what I’m hearing from my atheist friends.  They don’t like the Oath of Office taken on a Bible and ending with “so help me God.”  And they certainly don’t like today’s National Day of Prayer at (gasp!) the National Cathedral.

My reply to them is this: When our country was formed, even atheists who helped frame the Constitution agreed to the inclusion of the Deity, as long as the rights of non-believers were secure.  The National Day of Prayer goes back to those same times, when George Washington participated.  Today we continue what has become a national tradition, one that harks back even farther, when Pilgrims sailed here so they could exercise their right to worship.  (I like to think that a few of them were, in reality, atheists and agnostics, coming along because they felt that they could help form a new nation in which they, too, were not persecuted.)

Is something right or good simply because it’s tradition?  Of course not.  But if it’s based on fighting injustice, and if it’s nurtured into something that allows justice for all…that makes it good and right.

Besides, if atheists are right, all we are doing is promoting good (although they call it “brainwashing”).  On the other hand, if believers are right…well, we and our country can use all help can get .

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