For Labor Day
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Sep 2, 2024
Jun 19, 2024
Today's Today
So here's my proposal:
I'll give up celebrating 4th of July - the day "we" (ie: white people) declared our freedom. And then black folks can give up Juneteenth - the day enslaved people in Galveston finally found out they'd been freed - 89 years after white people were freed, and by-the-fucking-way, 2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.
Wanna know what "woke" actually means? It's pretty much just a fairly simple question:
When can we expect straight white American Christians to get their heads outa their asses and understand they're not the only ones here? And that they've never been the only ones here.
Mar 24, 2024
Today's Today
For all my nutty Christian friends - glad you're around,
and I'm gladder that you don't try to beat me over the head with it.
Mar 17, 2024
Feb 14, 2024
Nov 1, 2023
Yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow
I don't mean to be crass. I think I get it. We should remember the past, and pay homage to our ancestry, and honor the dead (those who deserve it anyway). But religion comes rushing in and all of a sudden it's a revenue opportunity - a profit center - and it becomes a competitive event. Who can embrace and celebrate death better?
Like I said - CREEPY.
So here we are in the middle of the annual three-day Festival Of the Dead.
AKA: Allhallowtide
 |
| All Souls' Day, J Schikaneder 1888 |
Oct 9, 2023
Jul 4, 2023
Traditional Horseshit
Swirling soot from Canadian blazes is likely to compound the usual pyrotechnics pollution on July 4. Health experts urge caution.
As smoke from Canadian wildfires lingers across much of the United States, Americans will soon experience another smoke show: Fourth of July fireworks.
It may come as a surprise, but the federal holiday stands out as the most polluted day of the year in many locations across the nation, according to air quality data. Fireworks — the staple of Independence Day celebrations — light up the sky but also launch harmful pollutants. In some cases, the pollution levels from the pyrotechnics are similar to severe wildfire smoke.
Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.
This year, those smoky celebrations may compound air quality issues in areas already suffering from Canadian wildfire smoke, as well as blazes in Colorado and other states. Forecasts suggest that areas near the border with Canada, near Montana and Minnesota, could see a dose of wildfire smoke, and New England could see a slight smoky haze ahead of the holiday.
“It is particularly important to be aware of potential air quality impacts from fireworks when there may already be high levels of pollution in the air, including pollution from wildfires,” Melissa Sullivan, a spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency said in an email. The agency recommends that people — especially the elderly, children or those with lung or heart disease — try to limit their pollution exposure by watching fireworks from the direction the wind is blowing or as far away as possible.
Americans love fireworks, and consumer purchases of them have grown to more than $2 billion yearly, according to the American Pyrotechnics Association. But these explosives have been implicated with causing water pollution and sparking wildfires, and some environmentalists say that, given the times, some restraint is needed.
Bill Magavern, the policy director for the California nonprofit Coalition for Clean Air, acknowledges that “almost everybody enjoys a good fireworks display,” but the environmental impacts are becoming harder to ignore.
“At a time when climate change is exacerbating air pollution and wildfires, we need to find cleaner substitutes for fireworks, especially in areas with poor air quality,” Magavern said.
Research shows a roughly 42 percent increase in fine particulate pollutants — known as PM 2.5, which are small enough to travel into our lungs and cause respiratory issues — following July 4 firework displays. The pollution slowly dissipates, but in many areas, air quality doesn’t return to normal until around noon the following day.
The trend is evident across the United States but more prominent in major cities. In D.C., firework displays have driven 24-hour averages of particulate pollutants above 150 micrograms per cubic meter — ranging from “unhealthy” to “very unhealthy” concentrations. Ryan Stauffer, an air quality scientist at NASA, said hourly readings can be much higher; In 2020, particulate pollution levels in D.C. were as high as 670 micrograms per cubic meter.
Other major cities, including New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, experience the same spike.
Stauffer said the wildfire smoke on June 7 and June 8 produced pollution levels in cities traditionally only seen near the peak of July 4. Stauffer emphasized that these pollution levels remained heightened for 24 to 36 hours.
Downtown Washington on June 8, shrouded in haze and smoke caused by Canadian wildfires. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Reuters)
The recent and widespread wildfire smoke concerns some health practitioners. Stephanie Christenson, an associate professor and pulmonologist at the University of California at San Francisco, said she worries about how climate change will worsen air quality by increasing the severity of wildfires in the years to come.
“We could be seeing days to weeks of Fourth of July-like air quality issues,” she said.
Breathing in any kind of smoke can cause damage to one’s lungs, heart and brain, but fireworks contain many harmful particles that are different from other sources of air pollution. In addition to the fine particulate pollution, they contain a mix of metals, which produce the colors in the “rockets red glare” but can also be toxic to people — like lead, the EPA said. Fireworks also contain chemicals found in gasoline called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (commonly referred to as PAHs), which can cause cancer in high concentrations.
PAHs, as well as fine particulate pollution, are also concentrated in wildfire smoke.
Local weather patterns, such as wind pushing smoke from fireworks on a boat, can affect how much people are exposed to toxic air, environmental health expert Kari Nadeau said. However, she said, the dilution of pollutants in the air does not eliminate their risk.
“You might not smell it, you might not see it, but it can still affect you,” said Nadeau, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Much of the pollution from fireworks comes from those ignited in people’s backyards or on streets, not necessarily from grand public displays, said Jun Wu, an environmental health scientist at the University of California at Irvine. In a 2021 study, Wu and her colleagues found that California communities with policies restricting street-level fireworks saw noticeably less pollution compared with those that didn’t.
Research by Wu and her team also suggests that the differing policies mean fireworks pollution doesn’t affect communities equally. In a study published this year focused on three counties in Southern California, they found that communities with higher proportions of Hispanic residents were exposed to greater particulate pollution than other communities.
“I think people need to be aware that there’s a cost associated with firework burning, not just money, but also the health-related costs and the cost to the environment,” Wu said.
Nadeau said she hopes communities affected by the Canadian wildfire smoke will consider calling off the pyrotechnics to avoid adding more pollution to the air. If residents choose to attend fireworks displays, she said, they can protect themselves by staying away from the point of launch and watching from upwind of the smoke.
“We can think about other ways to celebrate,” she said. “That would be ideal.”
Downtown Washington on June 8, shrouded in haze and smoke caused by Canadian wildfires. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/Reuters)
The recent and widespread wildfire smoke concerns some health practitioners. Stephanie Christenson, an associate professor and pulmonologist at the University of California at San Francisco, said she worries about how climate change will worsen air quality by increasing the severity of wildfires in the years to come.
“We could be seeing days to weeks of Fourth of July-like air quality issues,” she said.
Breathing in any kind of smoke can cause damage to one’s lungs, heart and brain, but fireworks contain many harmful particles that are different from other sources of air pollution. In addition to the fine particulate pollution, they contain a mix of metals, which produce the colors in the “rockets red glare” but can also be toxic to people — like lead, the EPA said. Fireworks also contain chemicals found in gasoline called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (commonly referred to as PAHs), which can cause cancer in high concentrations.
PAHs, as well as fine particulate pollution, are also concentrated in wildfire smoke.
Local weather patterns, such as wind pushing smoke from fireworks on a boat, can affect how much people are exposed to toxic air, environmental health expert Kari Nadeau said. However, she said, the dilution of pollutants in the air does not eliminate their risk.
“You might not smell it, you might not see it, but it can still affect you,” said Nadeau, chair of the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Much of the pollution from fireworks comes from those ignited in people’s backyards or on streets, not necessarily from grand public displays, said Jun Wu, an environmental health scientist at the University of California at Irvine. In a 2021 study, Wu and her colleagues found that California communities with policies restricting street-level fireworks saw noticeably less pollution compared with those that didn’t.
Research by Wu and her team also suggests that the differing policies mean fireworks pollution doesn’t affect communities equally. In a study published this year focused on three counties in Southern California, they found that communities with higher proportions of Hispanic residents were exposed to greater particulate pollution than other communities.
“I think people need to be aware that there’s a cost associated with firework burning, not just money, but also the health-related costs and the cost to the environment,” Wu said.
Nadeau said she hopes communities affected by the Canadian wildfire smoke will consider calling off the pyrotechnics to avoid adding more pollution to the air. If residents choose to attend fireworks displays, she said, they can protect themselves by staying away from the point of launch and watching from upwind of the smoke.
“We can think about other ways to celebrate,” she said. “That would be ideal.”
Jul 3, 2023
Here It Comes
Today is the last day
some of us will have
two functioning eyes,
and a full set
of fingers and toes.
And kids -
don't mess with fireworks.
Best if you leave it the adults
who've been drinking heavily
since about noon.
Mar 14, 2023
Jul 6, 2022
Today's Tweet
Nothing says "Let's celebrate American independence with family, and have some fun with explosives" ...
... followed closely by a trip to the local ER and a car insurance claim.
Ummmm. pic.twitter.com/XOESbiyjV9
— Cody (@new_orleansjazz) July 6, 2022
Jun 19, 2022
Today's Today
Happy to share Father's Day with Juneteenth this year.
Juneteenth is growing. Some Texans worry it’s losing meaning
The traditional holiday celebrates the day enslaved people in Galveston learned they were free, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation
As a kid, Ernest Owens always viewed Juneteenth as one of the few days a year it was okay to be unapologetically Black.
His family started the day in Galveston, Tex., watching the Jubilee parade, named after the first Juneteenth celebrations more than 100 years ago. Surrounded by Black families like his own, Owens says, he loved watching the procession of cars and live music. When they returned home to eat, he would fill his plate with Southern favorites doused in hot sauce.
It has always been “a very Black holiday,” Owens says, that acknowledged the history that school textbooks often skipped, about the longer wait enslaved Texans had for their freedom.
Although many of those traditions have continued, Owens says he has watched the history begin to wear thin as the holiday stretched from its Texas roots across the country. Now a national holiday, Juneteenth is being lauded by people who didn’t know of its existence a few years ago.
“There was something uniquely different about Southern Black people’s experiences, specifically Texans,” he said. “In the last two years, that intimacy has been lost."
Juneteenth recognizes the day — June 19, 1865 — people enslaved in Galveston learned they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. The next year marked the first Juneteenth celebration statewide, and it has been a cultural mainstay since then, with parades, cookouts, art shows, and games. Texas was the first state to make Juneteenth an official holiday, in 1979.
“As an adult who is navigating the weird feeling of being a proud Texan, which is ingrained into anyone born here, it’s interesting,” Jasmine Langley, who lives in Dallas, says of traditional Juneteenth celebrations that blanket the state. “It always stirs those juxtaposing feelings of ‘I hate this racist, backwards state’ and ‘I can’t imagine living anywhere other than Texas.’”
Awareness of the traditional Texas holiday began to grow amid the social unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020. President Biden signed a law last year making it a federal holiday.
In 2021, the number of states that gave public-sector employees the Friday before Juneteenth off doubled compared with the previous year, according to CNN. Schools such as Michigan State University and Boston University held their first Juneteenth celebrations, while campuses such as Ohio State University closed for the holiday. This year, the U.S. Post Office joined the list of government agencies closing on Monday in observance of Juneteenth.
Some celebrations have fallen into political territory. In St. George, Utah, the Washington County Republican Party is hosting its first Juneteenth celebration this year at the Dixie Convention Center. “We’ve had the opportunity to educate a lot of people and say, ‘Hey, we’re trying to reach across here. This isn’t about a woke holiday,’ ” said Lesa Sandberg, the group’s chair. “We’re not anti-Black people. We love Black people, we have shared common values with them, and we want to remind the world that we do.”
The group picked Amala Ekpunobi, who hosts a show for the conservative nonprofit PragerU, to be the keynote speaker. Last year, in a YouTube video titled “Exposing the TRICK of Juneteenth,” Ekpunobi said the holiday was used by liberals to further the idea that Black people were oppressed. “Juneteenth is being pushed because it perpetuates the very same narrative of things like critical race theory," she said. Ekpunobi did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Those who have celebrated Juneteenth for years worry the holiday is being co-opted.
Some companies have already been forced to retreat from their Juneteenth-related marketing.
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis apologized after having to remove a menu item for its upcoming Juneteenth Jamboree: watermelon salad, which reinforced a racist stereotype that all Black Americans like watermelon. The museum is “currently reviewing how we may best convey these stories and traditions during this year’s Juneteenth celebration,” according to a statement.
Walmart debuted a red velvet- and cheesecake-flavored Juneteenth ice cream this year. Its carton was adorned in red, yellow and green — Pan-African colors. But the traditional Juneteenth flag, designed by National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation Founder Ben Haith in 1997, is red, white and blue to replicate the flags for the United States and the Lone Star State. The big-box store also released Juneteenth napkins with “It’s the Freedom for Me" written on them and sold a tank top with the words “Because my ancestors weren’t free in 1976″ modeled by a White woman.
Walmart apologized and said it was "reviewing our assortment and will remove items as appropriate.”
In trying to profit from Juneteenth, Walmart failed to realize that Black people aren’t a monolith, said Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University. “It felt like an attempt to capture as much Blackness as possible, even if it was not rooted in cultural specificity,” he said.
Ahmad Islam and Sherman Wright, chief executive and chief operating officer respectively of advertising agency Ten35, said brands should already have strong relationships with their Black audiences before even considering Juneteenth messaging.
After George Floyd’s murder, many brands either felt obligated to respond or were "opportunistically looking for ways to start the dialogue and say something meaningful,” Islam said.
But “if you’re only showing up ... in June because of Black Music Month, and then Juneteenth, and in February because of Black History Month, then you’re off to a rough start,” Wright said. “In this day and age, brands will be called out for it.”
Morgan Malachi, who works at the Tubman House Center for Reparative Justice in Philadelphia, said she’s been disappointed that some organizations are missing important details about the holiday. She objected to the Philadelphia Juneteenth Parade & Festival using the Pan-African red, green and black colors to advertise the event rather the traditional Juneteenth flag colors.
“I have looked a lot into emancipation days for about two years now, and I’ve seen historical pictures,” she said. “Our people, we celebrate it using the American flag.”
Malachi said she will still attend the parade but will be handing out her own fliers that encourage Black Americans to remember Juneteenth’s purpose.
“We set the tone in how our holidays and how our culture is celebrated,” Malachi said. “Independence Hall is respected. That’s why it’s still there. The Liberty Bell is respected. ... I want Juneteenth and every Emancipation Day in this country to be respected in the same way,” she said.
Juneteenth traditionalists may have to make room for the holiday to take on new meaning.
April Columbus, 44, knew little about Juneteenth growing up in St. Bernard, La., but became more invested after her daughter’s dance team was invited to a Juneteenth parade in Atlanta five years ago. Columbus called the event “the most positive African American experience,” with all-Black vendors selling handmade goods, spots for authentic Caribbean food and soul food, and performances from Black singers, dancers and poets.
Learning about Juneteenth inspired her desire to start looking into her own local history. For the Juneteenth ceremony she has organized for St. Bernard Parish this year, she also plans to incorporate Louisiana history by placing a wreath on a local marker for unknown enslaved people. The parish is known in Louisiana for its brutal history of slavery, Columbus said, so confronting its traumatic history toward Black people has helped her community heal.
“You respect what came before, and you move on,” she said.
A lot of Black history and culture were lost at the hands of slavery, Columbus said, but that means Black people can create new traditions. Local Juneteenth commemorations are her way of doing that.
“They always say if you learn about your past, you won’t make the same mistakes,” she said. “We want to leave a positive legacy.”
White people learn about Juneteenth, celebrated by millions of black Americans every year
WaPo: (pay wall)
Juneteenth is growing. Some Texans worry it’s losing meaning
The traditional holiday celebrates the day enslaved people in Galveston learned they were free, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation
As a kid, Ernest Owens always viewed Juneteenth as one of the few days a year it was okay to be unapologetically Black.
His family started the day in Galveston, Tex., watching the Jubilee parade, named after the first Juneteenth celebrations more than 100 years ago. Surrounded by Black families like his own, Owens says, he loved watching the procession of cars and live music. When they returned home to eat, he would fill his plate with Southern favorites doused in hot sauce.
It has always been “a very Black holiday,” Owens says, that acknowledged the history that school textbooks often skipped, about the longer wait enslaved Texans had for their freedom.
Although many of those traditions have continued, Owens says he has watched the history begin to wear thin as the holiday stretched from its Texas roots across the country. Now a national holiday, Juneteenth is being lauded by people who didn’t know of its existence a few years ago.
“There was something uniquely different about Southern Black people’s experiences, specifically Texans,” he said. “In the last two years, that intimacy has been lost."
Juneteenth recognizes the day — June 19, 1865 — people enslaved in Galveston learned they were free, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. The next year marked the first Juneteenth celebration statewide, and it has been a cultural mainstay since then, with parades, cookouts, art shows, and games. Texas was the first state to make Juneteenth an official holiday, in 1979.
“As an adult who is navigating the weird feeling of being a proud Texan, which is ingrained into anyone born here, it’s interesting,” Jasmine Langley, who lives in Dallas, says of traditional Juneteenth celebrations that blanket the state. “It always stirs those juxtaposing feelings of ‘I hate this racist, backwards state’ and ‘I can’t imagine living anywhere other than Texas.’”
Awareness of the traditional Texas holiday began to grow amid the social unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd in 2020. President Biden signed a law last year making it a federal holiday.
In 2021, the number of states that gave public-sector employees the Friday before Juneteenth off doubled compared with the previous year, according to CNN. Schools such as Michigan State University and Boston University held their first Juneteenth celebrations, while campuses such as Ohio State University closed for the holiday. This year, the U.S. Post Office joined the list of government agencies closing on Monday in observance of Juneteenth.
Some celebrations have fallen into political territory. In St. George, Utah, the Washington County Republican Party is hosting its first Juneteenth celebration this year at the Dixie Convention Center. “We’ve had the opportunity to educate a lot of people and say, ‘Hey, we’re trying to reach across here. This isn’t about a woke holiday,’ ” said Lesa Sandberg, the group’s chair. “We’re not anti-Black people. We love Black people, we have shared common values with them, and we want to remind the world that we do.”
The group picked Amala Ekpunobi, who hosts a show for the conservative nonprofit PragerU, to be the keynote speaker. Last year, in a YouTube video titled “Exposing the TRICK of Juneteenth,” Ekpunobi said the holiday was used by liberals to further the idea that Black people were oppressed. “Juneteenth is being pushed because it perpetuates the very same narrative of things like critical race theory," she said. Ekpunobi did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Those who have celebrated Juneteenth for years worry the holiday is being co-opted.
Some companies have already been forced to retreat from their Juneteenth-related marketing.
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis apologized after having to remove a menu item for its upcoming Juneteenth Jamboree: watermelon salad, which reinforced a racist stereotype that all Black Americans like watermelon. The museum is “currently reviewing how we may best convey these stories and traditions during this year’s Juneteenth celebration,” according to a statement.
Walmart debuted a red velvet- and cheesecake-flavored Juneteenth ice cream this year. Its carton was adorned in red, yellow and green — Pan-African colors. But the traditional Juneteenth flag, designed by National Juneteenth Celebration Foundation Founder Ben Haith in 1997, is red, white and blue to replicate the flags for the United States and the Lone Star State. The big-box store also released Juneteenth napkins with “It’s the Freedom for Me" written on them and sold a tank top with the words “Because my ancestors weren’t free in 1976″ modeled by a White woman.
Walmart apologized and said it was "reviewing our assortment and will remove items as appropriate.”
In trying to profit from Juneteenth, Walmart failed to realize that Black people aren’t a monolith, said Mark Anthony Neal, the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies at Duke University. “It felt like an attempt to capture as much Blackness as possible, even if it was not rooted in cultural specificity,” he said.
Ahmad Islam and Sherman Wright, chief executive and chief operating officer respectively of advertising agency Ten35, said brands should already have strong relationships with their Black audiences before even considering Juneteenth messaging.
After George Floyd’s murder, many brands either felt obligated to respond or were "opportunistically looking for ways to start the dialogue and say something meaningful,” Islam said.
But “if you’re only showing up ... in June because of Black Music Month, and then Juneteenth, and in February because of Black History Month, then you’re off to a rough start,” Wright said. “In this day and age, brands will be called out for it.”
Morgan Malachi, who works at the Tubman House Center for Reparative Justice in Philadelphia, said she’s been disappointed that some organizations are missing important details about the holiday. She objected to the Philadelphia Juneteenth Parade & Festival using the Pan-African red, green and black colors to advertise the event rather the traditional Juneteenth flag colors.
“I have looked a lot into emancipation days for about two years now, and I’ve seen historical pictures,” she said. “Our people, we celebrate it using the American flag.”
Malachi said she will still attend the parade but will be handing out her own fliers that encourage Black Americans to remember Juneteenth’s purpose.
“We set the tone in how our holidays and how our culture is celebrated,” Malachi said. “Independence Hall is respected. That’s why it’s still there. The Liberty Bell is respected. ... I want Juneteenth and every Emancipation Day in this country to be respected in the same way,” she said.
Juneteenth traditionalists may have to make room for the holiday to take on new meaning.
April Columbus, 44, knew little about Juneteenth growing up in St. Bernard, La., but became more invested after her daughter’s dance team was invited to a Juneteenth parade in Atlanta five years ago. Columbus called the event “the most positive African American experience,” with all-Black vendors selling handmade goods, spots for authentic Caribbean food and soul food, and performances from Black singers, dancers and poets.
Learning about Juneteenth inspired her desire to start looking into her own local history. For the Juneteenth ceremony she has organized for St. Bernard Parish this year, she also plans to incorporate Louisiana history by placing a wreath on a local marker for unknown enslaved people. The parish is known in Louisiana for its brutal history of slavery, Columbus said, so confronting its traumatic history toward Black people has helped her community heal.
“You respect what came before, and you move on,” she said.
A lot of Black history and culture were lost at the hands of slavery, Columbus said, but that means Black people can create new traditions. Local Juneteenth commemorations are her way of doing that.
“They always say if you learn about your past, you won’t make the same mistakes,” she said. “We want to leave a positive legacy.”
Apr 15, 2022
Today's Today
Happy Good Friday, Christians. So glad to hear the Romans killed your guy - that's what makes it "Good" Friday for you, right?
Dec 25, 2021
Today's Today
Happy Takanakuy, everybody!
Takanakuy (Quechua for "to hit each other") is an annual established practice of fighting fellow community members held on 25 December, by the inhabitants of Chumbivilcas Province, near Cuzco in Peru. The practice started in Santo Tomás, the capital of Chumbivilcas, and has now spread to other villages and cities, the prominent ones being Cuzco and Lima. The festival consists of dancing and of individuals fighting each other to settle old conflicts.
Locals claim to obtain several social benefits from the tradition. The public brawling offers an alternative method to resolve conflict and create a peaceful society.
Takanakuy (Quechua for "to hit each other") is an annual established practice of fighting fellow community members held on 25 December, by the inhabitants of Chumbivilcas Province, near Cuzco in Peru. The practice started in Santo Tomás, the capital of Chumbivilcas, and has now spread to other villages and cities, the prominent ones being Cuzco and Lima. The festival consists of dancing and of individuals fighting each other to settle old conflicts.
Locals claim to obtain several social benefits from the tradition. The public brawling offers an alternative method to resolve conflict and create a peaceful society.
knock yourselves out
Dec 3, 2021
Tonight's Tonight
Tonight, we observe Bummernacht - the end of the last day Frank Zappa refused to die.
Tomorrow begins Zappadan, culminating in the Feast Of Frank on December 21st.
Happy Zappadan, everybody!
Expect miracles
Nov 25, 2021
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)