Smoking: still both a public health Menace and a private Inferno

One year later, it still holds true:

In an earlier blog article related to this global pandemic, the #coronavirus, also known as covid-19, I pointed out that allowing accurate news coverage of public health information is vital for public safety. This point is illustrated by season 2, episode 13 of Spanish Public Television series El Ministerio del Tiempo. But what is not mentioned in the episode is the danger posed by smokers to those who are either ill or recovering from a virus, particularly one like the current malady, which attacks the lungs, much like SARS. For anyone who has allergies, asthma, any sort of lung-based or respiratory illness, or even merely a common cold, cigar or cigarette smoke, or even marijuana for those who are also sensitive to it, creates further breathing difficulty, hampering recovery. Thus, a public health problem is aggravated by smoking anywhere within at least a 20 ft. But that does not take into account the other side of smoking: the personal side.

For many individuals, suffering from anything from emphysema to asthma, the hazards of smoking, both first and second-hand, are clear. But there is another side, which is not as often seen. For survivors of long term very early childhood abuse, cigarette or marijuana smoke can often trigger unwanted memories, flight/flight/freeze reactions, or even panic attacks. And to confuse the matter further, the very survivors may not even realize the source or the connection between smoke and their anxiety or panic reactions.

One survivor of very early and long-lasting childhood abuse explained it this way, when asked why the mere smell of cigarette smoke could make anyone panic:

“As long as I can remember, I have always flinched, or had the urge to run and hide (which we now call the fight, flight, or panic response), at the slightest smells of cigarette or marijuana smoke. As I sat in a place where there was strictly prohibited smoking, having been reassuring by a manager on the property that someone would find the source of the cigarette smoke right way, I relaxed for a moment and closed my eyes.

I suddenly found myself a 4-year old back in a place I never want to live again in a dark room sitting on the floor, hoping that the person with the cigarette would keep walking past the door. As the door opens can I come back to a memory of being asked for forgiveness many years later. Reasons for never given, but in my gut, I knew immediately.

What my gut knew, when I was in my late 20s, took me until I was 51 years old to come up to my conscious mind. It happened at 3 in the morning on a day when I finally feel reassured by someone that I would be protected. Not from the cigarette smoke, but from the person carrying the cigarette.”

So, please, for the good of those suffering with the novel Coronavirus, and also for the good of those suffering with buried memories triggered by smoke, please help all of us to be healthy, and stop smoking.

Let’s #EndPoverty , #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail starting by improving these four parts of our

#PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GoodReads button:, Vote (pref. using RankedChoiceVoting), Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!  

Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa.   Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

February, 2021 CE = February 12021 HE

(The previous lesson 67/67 , and the most recent lesson 1/67…)

Stayed on Freedom’s Call
(free: https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…)
includes two ‘imagination-rich’ walking tours, with songs, of Washington, DC. New interviews and research are woven into stories of old struggles shared by both the Jewish and African-American communities in the capital city.

Shared histories are explored from a new perspective of cultural parallels and parallel institution-building which brought the two communities together culturally and historically.

Free copies are available at https://archive.org/details/StayedOnF…

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thoughtful Thursdays, Fruit trees, and libraries for kids

Today is January 28th, but starting last night on the 27th, the Birthday of the trees, aka Tu BiShvat began, on the Hebrew calendar.  This day celebrates all fruit-bearing trees, inclusively, just as our society must become more fully inclusive for all of us.  Especially public libraries: they need to be safer places, where kids can study quietly, sit in safety, and find the help they need, not just for homework, but for life, in peace and acceptance.

Children, especially abused children, need to be included even more intentionally, as so many fruits are included in the celebration of today’s Jewish holiday, for are we not all trees? 

(or, in the words of a certain film: “… we are all fruits.”)

–

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: my review

Upon reading again, I see that she uses the omniscient story-tellers voice more than I thought, in the first book, to excellent effect.

I find it amazing that Rowling managed to include child neglect, child abuse or bullying, ptsd and drugs all in one book, without coming off as preachy, and even giving it a happy ending. Then, managing to get kids to read it!

I only hope that my WIP can accomplish half as much, one day.

–

So, it turns out that the sort of fruit that we bear may well depend on the sort of soil in which we were planted, and the kind of water we received when young, yet each year, we can bear new fruit, even be transplanted into new soil…

Action Items:

1.) Search for two different sources related to library funding and whether social workers are also stationed in public library branches in your area.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how a calendar based on the Holocene Epoch might help, or hinder, inclusive thinking,

4.) Write a book, blog post or tweet that uses an alternate calendar, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. If you write a book, once published, please consider donating to your local public library.

Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GR button:

, Vote (pref. using RankedChoiceVoting), Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

ShiraDest

December, 2020 CE = December 12020 HE

(The previous lesson 52/67 published since this post, and the most recent lesson 53/67…)

Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Moody Mondays, Adulting Ed., and What YOU can do to protect children and help Save the World (in about 30-45 years…)

Here is what part of the Four Freedoms movement this post fills: educating yourself as an Adult to help protect future adults, as part of the responsibility for democracy and safety.

–

KARA ‘s “Call to Action
Look for reports or studies on how much your community spends on early childhood programs. Gain an understanding of the economic arguments for educating and saving children. Watch for budget cuts and let your representatives know that saving money by cutting early childhood programs is a false savings as well as unethical legislative stewardship. Educate the people in your immediate circle of influence about the value of early childhood programs.”

Founder Mike Tikkannen’s book Invisible Children (The American cycle of abuse and its cost)

Please buy or download it (free or make a donation), read it, review it and Share It.

ShiraDest
7 November, 12015 HE

–

 

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Look for reports or studies on how much your community spends on early childhood programs,

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

 

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

ShiraDest

NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Moody Mondays, Children’s Rights as Human Rights in Popular Culture: do studies change things? and Public Transportation vs. Adulting

I think that most people often forget (or never knew) the importance of safe and clean mass transit, especially for kids. Particularly for kids who do not have a safe home or responsible parents, and thus must “Adult” for themselves, despite being kids. So, no car, no driver’s license, and maybe no dinner or breakfast means that safe mass transit is crucial to safety for children (especially abused or severely neglected children).

But what about the research: do we need studies to show this, too?

–

I am considering starting a study of Childrens Right’s as Human Rights in Popular Culture:

1. Astérix en Hispanie (le quatorzième album de la série/14th comic in the series)
et Astérix : Le Domaine des dieux
2. Sihirli Annem (esp. ep. 45 or 46?)
3. Harry Potter

With focus = ways that these shows empower kids to collaborate in preventing the abuse of others, and showing/understanding how this aid affects future adults ?

If such research has not yet been done,
I need to search the background literature (will need journal access via university libraries) and then figure out a methodology -a simple one like case studies.

But what would such a study add to the body of knowledge, and more importantly, to policy decision-making?
ShiraDest

-endQote

I guess I’m no longer considering such research, but I’d still like to know how you all, Dear Readers, think that academic research and policy papers fit into the grand scheme of things.

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of literacy and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different research papers on a topic.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how you like each of the papers, and how you think they might make an impact.

4.) Write a blog post, book, or tweet that uses that research, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Moody Mondays and Adulting education to protect kids

I believe that all adults have a responsibility to look out for the safety of all kids, and thus to continue to educate ourselves on legal and financial laws and outcomes as they are impacted in our greater society by children’s issues, like early childhood education. And behold:

—

–

“Economists have calculated that every dollar invested in high-quality home visitation, day care, and preschool programs results in seven dollars of savings on welfare payments, health-care costs, substance-abuse treatment, and incarceration, plus higher tax revenues due to better-paying jobs.37”
― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

I have asked myself for years how it may be possible to prevent children from being abused, not knowing that there are programs shown to prevent it.

We as a society and as a human race just have to commit to supporting these programs, that support ALL children.

ShiraDest
26 october 12015 HE (the Holocene Calendar)

–

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of  all children, and our future that you can take right now:

1.) Search for two different programs in your state or area that support young kids.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how we can all contribute in some way to these efforts,

4.) Write a blog post or tweet that uses those ideas, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. Once published, donate one or more copies to your local public library, as I intend to do.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

ShiraDest

NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Thoughtful Thursdays and building an Adult Freedoms movement to stop child abuse (trigger warnings)

A friend told me that each person, especially one who has withstood particularly vicious childhood traumas, should share one’s story. She gave similar reasons to why each person should write a book…

–The argument is that one can protect others by telling one’s own Story, thereby breaking the Silence-Shame-Intimidation-Exploitation cycle.

How? I suppose that as one progresses, and learns how to overcome, those lessons learned along the way can help prevent that same harm from befalling other vulnerable people. But, again: how?

-Well,

1.  If the first childhood memory is one of sad anger, of loss, the green Caddy driving to NYC may impede, for a lifetime, that love of large cars and of the Big Apple that so many Americans seem to boast. If that memory is tied to a borough where the kids rejected you, and your next memory was of being locked in a room, at 4 years of age, hearing your mothers screams as furniture fell and things broke in the living room, as her boyfriend beat her, how do you use this to protect others?

By coming up with a plan for teaching children to protect themselves from silence, from shame, intimidation and from exploitation, via:

                                 A New Adult Rite of Passage.

2.  If one survived CSA at 6, and was told by one’s mother not to tell, how do we protect children from parents who can protect neither their children nor themselves? -Teach kids that Silence = Death, because silence can lead to suicide, after a few years.  Do this via a set of

         Prerequisites to Adulthood.

3. If one took refuge from bullies by running and retreating, how to undo that shame? -Teach kids that we ALL have aright to our personal boundaries, to equal bodily respect, and to equal human dignity. And, teach all kids various types of self-defense, starting with an appropriate martial art.

4. If one was refused self-defense because “young ladies don’t fight” but came home in bruises that were ignored, how does one learn to stand up to intimidation? -Teach kids that it is ok to stand up and defend oneself (did I mention age and size appropriate martial arts?).

5. If one was again abused as a teenager, how to learn not to exploit nor be exploited? -teach the words “I Refuse” and (did I mention martial arts?), for the bleak necessity, that it is better to be bruised or broken on the outside, than broken on the inside.

–

So, it seems that one’s story can be more productive than just talk therapy.   Perhaps one story can help many people. 

Action Items in support of protection and hope that you can take right now:

1.) Think of two things you can do to help build more empathy into our culture.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

3.) Share your thoughts on how those two actions or ideas would eventually help build a safer and kinder world for all people

4.) Write a blog post about it, and share that link for us to re-share, please.

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve safety for All Human Beings? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

ShiraDest

NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

November, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Turkish Tuesday, orphans, and magical stories, like the 1001 Nights: which were NOT Turkish…

Orphans like Çilek still deserve protection, especially if they cannot do magic to protect themselves the way Harry Potter does!  But sometimes, a good story can save your life, if you live in a land where stories are currency, and can buy many things.  Turkey, by the way, is not one of the lands where these stories originated.  Persia, and Arabia and parts of India, apparently, were the lands of these stories, before a few stories were added by the French…

But, telling the stories of survivors can often save lives, as in this free book Invisible Children, by KARA.org.

   “In your Child Protection System is there a volunteer program from a local law school that assigns a volunteer attorney to an abused child?  If not, are there adequate public legal representation for abandoned children?”

Kids who grow up ‘invisible,’ especially those without stable and functional families who protect and give them middle class cultural capital, like dinner table discussion of financial laws and mutual funds, are especially vulnerable to predatory lenders and debt collectors.

Until there are enough pro bono lawyers giving free legal and financial clinics, the rest of us can help in these ways:

1.)  ask local community colleges to offer free legal and financial clinics on your state’s statutes of limitations, contract and debt related laws, and consumer protection laws.

2.)  ask your law-makers to prohibit law suits on expired (aka Time Barred) debts.

3.)   ask your law-makers to lower the Statutes of Limitations on verbal and written contracts, which are often how kids unknowingly get into debt and end up in collections.

4.)  Write your own story (or novel) showing a world where kids get the protection they need, in multiple ways…

Please share your ideas for increasing Legal and Financial Literacy and opportunity for ALL of us!

This post is dedicated to my Great Great grandparents Wayne Anthony, murdered for succeeding, and his wife Maude Eleanor West Manzilla, who never gave up her legal suit to clear his name of the suicide charge by the life insurance company, and worked valiantly to keep her family together. Their descendants continue their work.

Quotes for a related post came from a recent ProPublica article co-published with The New Yorker.

Let’s #EndPoverty , #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail starting by improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure 4:
1. #libraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19
ShiraDest

post  originally scheduled September, 12020 HE

Turkish Tuesday, orphans, and magic

Orphans like Çilek deserve protection, especially if they cannot do magic to protect themselves the way Harry Potter does!

(from free book Invisible Children, KARA:)

“In your Child Protection System is there a volunteer program from a local law school that assigns a volunteer attorney to an abused child?  If not, are there adequate public legal representation for abandoned children?”

Kids who grow up ‘invisible,’ especially those without stable and functional families who protect and give them middle class cultural capital, like dinner table discussion of financial laws and mutual funds, are especially vulnerable to predatory lenders and debt collectors.

Until there are enough pro bono lawyers giving free legal and financial clinics, the rest of us can help in these ways:

1.)  ask local community colleges to offer free legal and financial clinics on your state’s statutes of limitations, contract and debt related laws, and consumer protection laws.

2.)  ask your law-makers to prohibit law suits on expired (aka Time Barred) debts.

3.)   ask your law-makers to lower the Statutes of Limitations on verbal and written contracts, which are often how kids unknowingly get into debt and end up in collections.

4.)  Write your own story (or novel) showing a world where kids get the protection they need, in multiple ways…

Please share your ideas for increasing Legal and Financial Literacy and opportunity for ALL of us!

This post is dedicated to my Great Great grandparents Wayne Anthony, murdered for succeeding, and his wife Maude Eleanor West Manzilla, who never gave up her legal suit to clear his name of the suicide charge by the life insurance company, and worked valiantly to keep her family together. Their descendants continue their work.

Quotes for a related post came from a recent ProPublica article co-published with The New Yorker.

Let’s #EndPoverty , #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail starting by improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure 4:
1. #libraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19
ShiraDest

 September, 12020 HE

Less Wonderful, but more important Wednesday Utterances

Maybe the most important, especially for girls and women:

–“I Refuse”

 = the 2 most powerful words in the English language

We are taught to avoid strangers, which is important. Vigilance is important, but we have been taught to trust those in authority and to trust those who are close to our families, which may not be the best for our health. Girls, especially, are often penalized for saying No, or for refusing what can turn out to be Grooming on the part of family or friends of family/babysitters/authority figures, and pressured to keep the secrets of those known the the victim. I believe that the “I Refuse” principle taught by Gandhi could help prevent some of these sexual abuse cases, if children are taught to respect their own judgement and to refuse to remain silent when touched.
Peace,
ShiraDestinie “Community Cooperation”

Yassas,   γεια σας!    Salût !  Nos vemos!  Görüşürüz!     ! שָׁלוֹם

Action Items in support of a sense of safety for all, that you can take right now:

1.) Imagine 3 ways to keep kids safe.

2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.

 

Dear Readers, any additional ideas toward learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning as part of on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness,  #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind? 

Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure  & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write

, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!, Teach and Learn (Lesson Plans)!

 

ShiraDest

Preptober for NaNoWriMo 2020 CE

October, 2020 CE = 12020 HE

(The previous lesson plan since this post, and the most recent lesson plan…)

Mean Monday? Invisible Children vulnerable to invisible debts: Action Items to help

Orphans like Çilek deserve protection, especially if they cannot do magic to protect themselves!

(from free book Invisible Children, KARA:)

“In your Child Protection System is there a volunteer program from a local law school that assigns a volunteer attorney to an abused child? I’ve met some well- meaning and bright attorneys who genuinely care for their clients this way. If not, are there adequate public legal representation for abandoned children?”

Kids who grow up ‘invisible,’ especially those without stable and functional families who protect and give them middle class cultural capital, like dinner table discussion of financial laws and mutual funds, are especially vulnerable to predatory lenders and debt collectors.

Until there are enough pro bono lawyers giving free legal and financial clinics, the rest of us can help in these ways:

1.)  ask local community colleges to offer free legal and financial clinics on your state’s statutes of limitations, contract and debt related laws, and consumer protection laws.

2.)  ask your law-makers to prohibit law suits on expired (aka Time Barred) debts.

3.)   ask your law-makers to lower the Statutes of Limitations on verbal and written contracts, which are often how kids unknowingly get into debt and end up in collections.

4.)  Write your own story (or novel) showing a world where kids get the protection they need, in multiple ways…

Please share your ideas for increasing Legal and Financial Literacy and opportunity for ALL of us!

This post is dedicated to my Great Great grandparents Wayne Anthony, murdered for succeeding, and his wife Maude Eleanor West Manzilla, who never gave up her legal suit to clear his name of the suicide charge by the life insurance company, and worked valiantly to keep her family together. Their descendants continue their work.

Quotes for a related post came from a recent ProPublica article co-published with The New Yorker.

Let’s #EndPoverty , #EndHomelessness, & #EndMoneyBail starting by improving these four parts of our good #PublicDomainInfrastructure 4:
1. #libraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write, Ranked Choice Voting and Housing for ALL!!!!, Walk !

#PublicDomainInfrastructure #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19
ShiraDest

September, 12020 HE