Blue Green and Between 5/12/25: The New Deal Hero We Need Today, How People Thrive, Ikea Flash Mob, and More!
Every week I share feature articles, news, tools, and actions to help everyone protect and enjoy our wonderful planet, from the sea to the sky and everything in between. In this week's issue:
Something Important: Frances Perkins, The New Deal Hero We Need Today
Something Important: Bad Guys Attacking Medical Journals
Something New: How People Thrive
Something to Enjoy: Ikea Flash Mob Dance
Something Quick
#bluegreenbetween #theoceanisforeveryone #conservation #parksandrec
100% Human-Written, Always!
Something Important: Frances Perkins, The New Deal Hero We Need Today
Consider this list of rights that we take for granted now: Social Security, minimum wage, unemployment insurance, workman's comp, 40-hour work weeks, the right to form labor unions, and bans on child labor. They are all largely as a result of the ideas and work of the extraordinary Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member and Secretary of Labor under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This week, sixty years after she died (Wednesday, May 14 is the 60th anniversary of her death), her accomplishments are under attack.
Frances embodied the best of what public service is, which is serving and taking care of each other, and our communities, country, and planet. She created programs to take care of everyday people. Many of the programs and tools offered by the Federal government come because of the knowledge and creativity of Federal employees. Civil servants, as I wrote about a year ago, are key to competent, institutional governance, developed over centuries of realizing the need to have capable, effective, non-partisan experts; rigorous executive, legislative, and judicial infrastructure and processes; and a fair and impartial legal system as the backbone of functional governments."
But the Bad Guys see threats in a competent, nonpartisan civil service because it stands in the way of their Project 2025 and other agendas. They're getting rid of as many public servants and destroying things as quickly as they can get their slimy hands on them, including as much of our social safety net as they can manage, before they are brought to an inevitable, probably ignominious halt.
Francis said: “The people are what matter to government, and a government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best possible life.” The first and foremost job of the Federal government should be taking care of the American people. The Bad Guys are taking care of themselves and the cabal of billionaire tech bros surrounding them, all at the expense of the American people. They hate everything that Frances Perkins stood for and accomplished--and one of my dearest wishes these days is for them to have to watch as a whole host of new Frances Perkins's stand up and rebuild what they've tried to destroy.
Because we will.
Something Important: Bad Guys Attacking Medical Journals
Attorneys within the Bad Guy administration are sending letters to medical and science journals, accusing them of being illegally biased and wanting to know how they intend to address the need to allow for "competing viewpoints" to be included.
What is the competing viewpoint to science? BS like well-proven and effective vaccines don't work and aren't needed or cause autism? That climate change--agreed to by nearly every expert in the world--isn't real? That inhaling bleach or drinking colloidal silver cure Covid? Seriously, WTF?
This is what happens when the Tin Hat Brigade gets a little power. It is ludicrous and would be laughable, but attacking independent science journals has real, potentially tragic implications for our individual and community help, and for the future of science in the USA.
Something New: How People Thrive
What does it take for people to thrive? According to a new survey of 200,000 people around the world indicates: being married or partnered, be retired or self-employed, frequently participate in religious services, and have positive childhoods (being in good health, good familial relationships, and financial stability, for example). There were some country/cultural differences, but several near-universal trends were noted. For one, being in a relationship contributed positively to flourishing, as did being retired or employed over those seeking new jobs. Participation in some form of religious service was also a most common positive contributor, as was being a citizen or legal resident. A good and informative read!
Something to Enjoy: Ikea Flash Mob Dance
I'm reaching back into the Happy! file for this from 2020 (which seems like an impossibly long time ago now...sigh...): Ikea + ABBA + flash mob dance = pure joy! Enjoy!
Something Quick:
My Design Shop, Oddly Enchanted
My Website
That's it for this week - see you next week!