Kissed MLK, didn’t trust turquoise, etc.

On her Facebook page, 4 years ago, I “liked” my niece Margot’s self-revelations, so she assigned me to write 12 of my own. I  got mixed up and thought she said 20.

• 

  Jessica Reynolds Renshaw Twelve things about me you may not know. Okay, here goes: I was born in the Year of the Monkey. I’m the daughter of an Earl(e). I grew up in Ohio. I grew up in Hiroshima. I grew up on a boat. In high school I was chosen to greet Martin Luther King with a lei and a kiss on the cheek. My P.E. classes were archery and hula. My favorite food is left-over spaghetti. I once had to recite A.A. Milne’s Now I am Six in public and I was mortified–because I was seven. My first crush was on a Japanese samurai (chambara) movie star. I have almost no visual memory. I never graduated from high school but I have three college degrees, almost four. My favorite book is still Winnie the Pooh. I was living in Hawaii when it became a state. For years I didn’t trust the color turquoise. I have DID (check the DSM-IV). My first book was published when I was 14. I had nothing to do with that. When I was 12, a calf I watched being born in South Africa was named after me. I still remember the Japanese word for “anthropologist.” I became a teenager on the Amazon River. I’ve held a hedgehog and a boa constrictor and been in the cage with a lion. I like all furry animals except tarantulas. And I can’t count.

  .

  Our friend John Thiel responded: I agree, Jessica. Turquoise has always been a bit suspicious.

  .

  To which I replied: Turns out I didn’t trust someone in my life whose favorite color was turquoise. . . Just hadn’t realized the connection. I remember a Chinese friend I had in college, male, who was afraid of 4-holed buttons! The Lord brought back to his mind an experience when he was four, the oldest of three children. (The other two were girls.) His father had been taken forcibly from his wife and children by the communists. One morning there was a knock on the door and his mother sent him, as the man of the house now, to open it. He found himself facing armed soldiers–facing their shirt fronts because he was so small–and his sense of terror and helplessness was somehow transferred to their buttons!

This carries my understanding of astronomy to its outer limits

   This is today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) at https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

For some, our truck pulled in too late this morning. For others, we may be just in time.

 

This truck is filled with 328,348 baby socks, the number of unborn babies 

Planned Parenthood will destroy this year if not stopped.

http://studentsforlife.org/

From Kristan Hawkins, Students for Life of America:

The looks on women’s faces when they see these socks are heart breaking. For some of them, our truck pulled in too late this morning. For others, we may have pulled in just in time.

This week, we drove our #SockIt2PP truck over 1,400 miles from Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh, Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Charleston – but we’ve only just started.

We visited state capitals and the state offices of U.S. Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA), Bob Casey (D-PA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) ... to urge them to support the healthcare reform bill that defunds Planned Parenthood that could come up for a vote in the coming days.

Today is our last stop on Phase I of our #SockIt2PP National Tour (before we take these socks to 90+ college campuses), maybe our most important yet. We’ll be outside of the mega-Planned Parenthood in Washington, D.C. – one of the largest abortion facilities in the nation...

Donate to defund Planned Parenthood at  http://studentsforlife.org/

Please petition President to support U.N. ban on nuclear weapons

 

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-nuclear-weapons-ban-treaty?source=direct_link&

---

This is the full text of the petition that appears below:

SUPPORT THE NUCLEAR WEAPONS BAN TREATY
I am committed to a world without nuclear weapons. I endorse the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons adopted by 122 countries on July 7, 2017.
As a citizen or resident of the United States, I call upon the President to sign and the Senate to give its consent to ratify this Treaty.
In addition, I call upon the President to safely and speedily remove all United States nuclear weapons from every foreign and domestic site.
Further, I call upon the President, with the support of the Senate, to lead the way to negotiate the total elimination of nuclear weapons. 
Sign here:  https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-nuclear-weapons-ban-treaty?source=direct_link&

---

The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by 122 countries on July 7, 2017. These nations came together and signed this legally binding treaty to ban nuclear weapons.  
In 1972 biological weapons were banned.  In 1993 chemical weapons were banned and four years later in 1997 land mines were banned.  Then, in 2008 cluster munitions were banned.  Now is the time to ban nuclear weapons!  
The use of nuclear weapons, either intentional or accidental, will cause untold suffering to millions of people and is a threat to the existence of humankind.  The Treaty prohibits, among other things, the possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons by eliminating nuclear weapons altogether.
When we "End the Whole Nuclear Era," money and resources will be freed to address societal, environmental and other essential needs. 

FULL TEXT OF U.N. TREATY http://undocs.org/A/CONF.229/2017/8 

We, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, are asking the citizens and residents of the United States to make our voices be heard by your signing of this petition.  Sign here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-nuclear-weapons-ban-treaty?source=direct_link&

---

Trump Declares Today a Day Of Prayer: ‘God Is Our Refuge And Strength’

President Trump declares a Day of Prayer for Houston (video)

In the tradition of our greatest presidents, President Trump declared today a Day of Prayer for Houston. As the God of grace and mercy is uniting and healing the people of Houston, may He also unite and heal our nation.