July 3 – Stay Out of the Sun Day

Posted on July 3, 2018

When I was a kid, nothing was more healthy than being outdoors as much as possible, on nice sunny days.

Or so they said!

And it was super healthy to camp out and sit around a campfire...

...and to drink water straight from babbling mountain streams...

All of that stuff was seen as nature, and natural - and therefore healthy.

But just because something is natural, that doesn't mean it's healthy. Mosquitoes carrying malaria are natural, and definitely not healthy. Even if water in streams looks pure, it can be contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, or other pollutants and should be filtered or boiled or treated. Campfire smoke (or any wood smoke from cooking) can cause lung damage and cancer.

And that brings us to the sun. You probably do NOT live under a rock, and so you probably know that skin cancer is a very real threat, especially to light-skinned people but even to dark-skinned people. About 9,500 people in the U.S. alone are diagnosed with skin cancer....EVERY DAY! Luckily, most of these are not deadly melanomas, but about 9,000 people in the U.S. die from skin cancer each year. So...yeah, it's important to:

(1) Stay out of the sun.

(2) UV radiation gets to us even on cloudy days, so use protection even then!

(3) Use sun lotion, hats, sunglasses, long sleeves, and other cover ups to reduce exposure.

(4) Use trees, parasols, tents, canopies, tarps, patio roofs, and beach or patio umbrellas to reduce exposure.
Stay Out of the Sun Day is not just about fear and what NOT to do - it can be so nice and relaxing and cool to have out-of-doors time in the shade:






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July 2 – Happy Birthday, Thurgood Marshall

Posted on July 2, 2018

Today we honor the first black U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

The judicial branch is crucial to having a democracy. So many people seem to feel that other people's rights should be a matter of voting. For example, I've heard nice, smart people say things like, "Well, majority rules, so gay people can't marry!" 

That's like saying, "Well, there are more white people in the U.S. than there are black people, and we had a vote, and it turns out most of us don't think black people should be able to vote! Majority rules!"

It definitely shouldn't work that way. We have a Constitution and some very good amendments that say, "It doesn't work that way." And we have a judicial branch to say - "Yeah, this law, that statement, and this other action don't follow the Constitution."


That's because "majority rules" is only a good way of doing SOME sorts of things. When it comes to dealing with many issues, it's better to consider philosophical and ethical ideas such as the Golden Rule and the Bill of Rights. We cannot vote on human rights - people of every gender and racial / ethnic background have (and should have) human rights just because they are human. 

Thurgood Marshall knew that and argued well for civil rights as a lawyer, including his most famous case of Brown v. Board of Education (about school segregation). He knew how important it is to stand up for human rights for EVERYbody as a federal judge, and he worked for human rights as a Supreme Court justice, as well.


Presidents would do well to nominate people as ethical and fair as Marshall, and Senators would do well to approve only nominations of judges who have demonstrated such understanding.



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July 1 - Keti Koti in Suriname

Posted on July 1, 2018

Keti Koti means "the chain is broken" in Sranantongo.

Can you guess what huge event this holiday celebrates?

If you need another hint, other names for the day include Freedom Day or Emancipation Day.


You've probably guessed by now that this is the anniversary of slavery being abolished in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles, in 1863.

Let the celebration ring out in the streets!




Suriname is located in the northern part of South America. It was ruled by the Netherlands from the late-17th til the mid-20th Centuries, and it has only been a fully independent country since 1975. It still has close ties to Dutch language and culture...

...And yet...



I was surprised to learn that Sranantongo is a Surinamese creole language that is based on English!

Apparently, the official language of the nation is (as we would totally expect) Dutch. But there are five other recognized languages, including English, languages from India and Indonesia, and two creoles.

A creole is a natural language that has developed when people who speak two or more different languages live near one another and need to communicate. In such a multi-lingual situation, people tend to simplify their grammar and use fewer distinct words, often using some words from each of the languages. In this way, a kind of pidgin language is formed. However, as children learn the pidgin language from infancy on, the pidgin becomes transformed to a more fully-formed creole language with its own full-on grammar.



Sranantongo is a creole that is used as a lingua franca. That means that most speakers have a first language other than the creole, but in order to speak to people outside of that language group (which would be most people), the speaker has also learned Sranantongo. 

About half of the people who live in Suriname speak Sranantongo, and they tend to also speak languages such as Dutch, Javanese, Hindustani, or Chinese. Some speak one of the nine regional native tongues such as Arawak-Lokono or Carib-Kari'nja.

The other creole that is widespread in Suriname is based on English, Portuguese, and West African languages.

Apparently, as huge as Dutch influence is on this nation - English is pretty influential as well?

Check out the gorgeous melting pot that is Suriname:










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