Resistance

2017 is a year I've started referring to as the Empire Strikes Back. Because it feels to me that there is a decreasing in size group of people who seem to think the only way to be is the way that they are and that way to be is narrow-minded, classist, racist, sexist, and bigoted. And what's worse is they do it all in God's name. 

I have always been one for politics. I have been writing letters and contacting my representatives since I was a young child as my mother never really kept her opinion to herself. It was a strange thing to experience in hindsight as I look back at our home life. But that is a story for another time. My mother was in touch with our representatives so frequently they invited her to parties and fundraisers even though we had no money. Simply because they knew that she cared. I wish I had all my letters from way back when. I don't but I do have some from a couple of decades ago still. She was even on the news for things that she would stand up for a couple of times. I mean seriously, she was involved. Unfortunately, as her mental health declined so did her activism. But she never forgot to remind me to vote. I have voted since I turned 18 in as many elections as I could be available to vote in. I was less aware of them (such as smaller, local races) 20 years ago as I am now, but at one of my more recent caucuses I was the youngest person in our group who had been to the most caucuses and primaries. Things matter to me. 

This passed year was no exception. Like many people I was horrified and shocked by the outcome of the presidential election and with each passing day having someone in power who doesn't seem to care about anyone but themselves is unsettling to say the least. Even this morning there are threats of nuclear war. This is the 21st century and this is what we wake up to these days. What's even more disconcerting is that their are others who think this is a good idea. People who support this person. To think that you could support the annihilation of another country or group of people is downright evil to me. I don't like using the word evil because I find it dramatic, cartoonish, and used to dismiss things that are more complicated than one emotion, but in this case I'd say it fits. If you think people deserve to die simply because they are different from you-you really need to spend sometime reflecting on what kind of human you are and if you do it in the name of God-well, I can't even begin to imagine the cognitive dissonance. 

Because of this passed presidential election, my activist gene has kicked back into high gear. I went to protests, wrote letters, made calls, gathered people to participate, donated, and have done my best to support businesses that are inclusive(which often seems impossible, but I do try). I spend time researching anything I see people talking about and I quit Twitter because wow do I think that is HUGE part of the problem. 

The one year anniversary of the astonishingly well attended Women's March Protest is approaching and I am seeing more and more about the Mid-term elections which are so crucial this time I can't even imagine what might happen if things don't change. For a while I saw no hope. I was quite frankly traumatized by the outcome of the election. The idea that so many people supported someone who thinks it's funny to harass and assault women, who is racist and makes fun of differently abled people, who sees anyone with a different skin color and looks at them as an enemy, who thinks our planet is a trash can-I was not in a good place. 

However, I see more and more reasons to be hopeful and if anything came out of this garbage election it is that people are becoming more and more aware that the world is bigger and more diverse than they ever could've imagined. That on the whole, your average person wants the same things they do: to be healthy, employed, and not contributing negatively to the world-no matter what they look like and that has helped. Just like going to these events helped. Seeing so many people ready to fight for what they believe-it pulls you out of the dark place. Plus, there is something immensely empowering about genuinely exercising your rights. In America, people constantly holler about gun rights forgetting we have a whole bunch of other ones that are in my opinion a whole helluva lot more important. Without the others, there's no point in having a gun. Because what the hell are you defending then? The right to own a weapon? That is not what America is about and it's not even what the second amendment is about-and using your rights reminds you of that-using your voice and your vote reminds you of that, you're not fighting for your right to own gun, you are fighting for your rights to exist, thrive, and to belong to something much bigger than any one person. 

And even though we seemed determined as a country to do every dumb ass thing every other country has already done and suffered the poor results of which easily could've been avoided, I do believe there is truth that America is the only country that was founded on a good idea.

Wunderkammer: Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy Gallery in Paris

On a particularly rainy day on my trip to Paris I set out to visit somewhere unusual. Paris is most romanticized for it's lovely spring days and blossoming pink trees but if you ask me the city's beauty is really in the rain. The grey buildings with their slate blue tops and old world architecture set against the drama of the clouds give the city the ethereal feel of walking in a dream. The diffused light brings the flowers and greenery startlingly to life. You are wandering in a painting. The expectation of a mysterious stranger set to lead you on an adventure is not so unrealistic on these days. 

The influence of the Victorian Era is evident everywhere in Paris. As one of the greatest times in modern history for the pursuit of research and art with Paris as one of the culture centers of the world it makes a good deal of sense. Many people associate the Victorian Era with strange death practices and stuffy clothing but in reality there have been few times in history that the advancement of science has ever been greater. Of course this was not without a price as the damage done to the environment by the Victorians was one that can never be undone. But if only they had known then what we know now- I suspect a good deal more care would've been taken to assure the legacy of the world. The planet and nature was something that was to be conquered and tamed. Not left the way it was to grow and evolve. It wrought a lot of destruction to land, oceans, humans and animals alike.  But in their own way, they treasured the planet and all it had to offer. And a number one priority to many of them was to try to educate the population of the cities from which they hailed. 

Many of them chose to do this by bringing back specimens from trips and voyages from the far reaches of the lands. They would keep them in different collections in their homes or smaller museums. Then in 1898 a group of people got together and built one of the most comprehensive collections of paleontology in the world as well as fossils and thus The Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy was born. One of 14 different museums and libraries put together by this society it stands out for it's absolutely unreal exhibits and collections.  I visited a handful of these institutes as well but this particular one was just beyond comprehension. And truthfully besides knowing the things I could see here, I also wanted to visit the site where one of my favorite movies was filmed The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec

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The main path in the gardens that leads to a dozen different museums. The large building you see is the Grand Gallery of Evolution. For another post.  Here we turn left...and see this upon entering..

Clara Barton, Founder of the Red Cross, Women's History Month

Clarissa "Clara" Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was a nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a field nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and patent clerk.

She worked for several years as a teacher, even starting her own school in Bordentown, New Jersey in 1853. In 1854 she moved south to Washington, D.C. From 1854 to 1857 she was employed as a clerk (the first woman to work there)in the Patent Office until her anti-slavery opinions made her too controversial. 

She joined up with the Union Army and would organize able bodied men to take food and supplies to help care for other soldiers and Confederate prisoners. When supplies where low she would solicit help by messengers and newspaper ads. 

She tended to wounded overseas as well during the Franco-Prussian War and out of the first Geneva Conventions the International Red Cross was born. She began using the Red Cross to help when natural disasters occurred such as the Johnstown Floods and forest fires that would devastate farms and homes. At the age of 76 she traveled to Cuba during the Spanish-American war to tend to the wounded.

A month before he was murdered President Lincoln appointed her as General Correspondent for the Friends of Paroled Prisoners, meaning she would find missing soldiers information and pass it on to their families. By the time she died, she and her team had uncovered the information and matched it to the families of over 22,000 soldiers and others lost during the war. She was proposed to three times in her life and never married. Read more about her work here: http://www.historynet.com/clara-barton

**My mother who was a nurse named my sister Clara and she is now a pharmacist, med-student and intern on a synthetic blood project

Additional sources:

Red Cross

bio.com

civil war.org

"Houston, we have a problem."

The news has been filled with amazing space things lately. From Scott Kelly returning from a year on the ISS to Space X landing a rocket successfully, it’s a renewed and exciting time to keep your eyes turned upwards. 

I love visiting NASA facilities, any space related exhibits, museums, etc..I love to learn about the great adventurers of our time. I have to say I do often feel a sense of sad wistfulness that I will never go to space. My most recent visit at the end of January was to Johnson Space Center in Houston. It was glorious. This was somewhere I had wanted to go as a kid and many of my friends went. We never had money for vacations and as such rarely went out of town. Traveling is a pretty big deal to me no matter where it may be. When it happens to be somewhere that is the site of monumental human achievement: all the better! 

To add to this I recently watched American Spacemen and followed it up with the movie The Right Stuff. I don’t often use fictional retellings as a point of reference but according to those involved in this movie the story is pretty close to reality. It shows the parallels of the American Space program and Chuck Yaegar breaking the sound barrier. 

American Spacemen also tells the story of a Minneapolis company that helped break altitude records and was pioneered strongly by a woman(I feel a vested interest in this, being a female and all). There is a great article about it here: High Altitude Balloon Innovation 

 

My visit to the Space Center was epic. It included a tour of not only mission control, you know: “Houston, we have a problem” but also the Vehicle Mock-up Building where all the astronauts come to learn how to use space equipment and the warehouse that stores the last Saturn V rocket that never got to launch because Nixon cut the budget. There is also a stray photo of the deer that live on the grounds. There were more animals as NASA does all that it can to preserve it’s surrounding environment. In fact, in Florida, all the grounds that belong to NASA are an animal sanctuary and protected space. 

As Neil Degrasse Tyson would say: Never stop looking up. (I also listened to his Great Course Lecture Series…wonderful. You can find it here: My Favorite Universe.)