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Are You Aware? Wildfires
This is part IV in our “Concerning Climate” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. Wildfires have been a part of the American landscape for centuries. Fire is a part of nature. Grasslands have historically burned every 15 to 30 years, and many forests have burned every 60 to 150 years. Burning is known to maintain forage and open woodlands, creating important wildlife habitats. Plants, such as the ponderosa pine tree with its thick bark, can survive low-intensity fires, and the seeds germinate in the fertile, recently burned soil. Thousands of acres have burned every year, often with few consequences but occasionally with tragic outcomes. During the hot dry…
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Are You Aware? Love for Africa
This is part III in our “Concerning Climate” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. Africa accounts for only two to three percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy and industrial sources. According to the World Resources Institute, Africa’s per capita emissions of carbon dioxide in the year 2000 were 0.8 metric tons per person, compared with a global figure of 3.9 tons per person. The U.S. per capita emissions are 16.2 tons per person. In the fight against climate change, Africa’s contribution is negligible. Of course, Africa is not a monolith. African countries have varying levels of development and utilization of energy sources. The…
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Are You Aware? Water Is Critical
This is part II in our “Concerning Climate” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. Water is critical to the sustenance of life. Creating and maintaining life is impossible without this vital resource. Throughout the history of the world, people and civilizations have followed the water. Any threat to our water sources is a threat to life itself. While the western U.S. has always had periods of drought, many are now experiencing historic drought levels. Drought typically starts with less than normal rainfall. But temperatures also impact this. Since the industrial era began, our earth has warmed by about 1.2 degrees Celsius (about 2 degrees Fahrenheit). While…
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Are You Aware? Taking Our Temperature
This is part I in our “Concerning Climate” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. The night of Tuesday, November 8, 2016, I couldn’t sleep. I tried distracting myself to calm my nerves but to no avail. The few moments I did sleep were fitful and short lived. Anxiety for the future had replaced disbelief and was my companion all night. My number one concern was climate change, and I knew the president-elect didn’t share my concerns and, in fact, held policy positions in opposition to my concerns. You may not have experienced this same apprehension or felt it to the same extent. If that’s the case,…
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Are You Aware? A Work in Translation
This is part IV in our “The Latin Experience in the States” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. Earlier this month, I was in line at a food truck. In front of me was a young woman, about 15 years old, with her parents. As they stepped forward to order, I heard the young woman translate the menu for her parents from English to Spanish. In Spanish, she explained the menu choices and then proceeded to order for them. Watching as she helped her parents order food flooded me with memories of my own childhood. From an early age of 11 or 12, I did much…
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Are You Aware? Latinx Diversity and Contributions
This is part II in our “The Latin Experience in the States” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. NOTE: Throughout this article, the terms Latino, Latina, Latinx, and Hispanic are being used interchangeably to refer to the same group of people. I never thought that immigrating to the U.S. was going to be part of my life’s journey. I grew up hearing about the “American Dream” and the idea of what that meant through TV shows and movies. I remember hearing the “dislike” in people’s comments when they heard the word “America” was used interchangeably with the United States of America. It was accompanied by the…
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Are You Aware? Founding Faith
This is part I in our “Freedom of Religion” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. It is a common misconception that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation” and that the founders intended it as such. It is true that the American colonies were largely established by Christians and that Christianity had a profound effect on the architects of the nation. But history does not support the claim that our government ever was, or was intended to be, Christian by those who conceived of and orchestrated its emergence. It was, in part, the oppression felt from both the British monarchy, with their supposed “divine…
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Are You Aware? A Convergence of Crises — The Opioid Epidemic
This is part V in our “Rural America” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 841,000 people in the U.S. have died of drug overdose since 1999. Drugs are the leading cause of death from injury in the U.S., by a significant margin. In 2019, 29% of injury-related deaths were caused by drug poisoning. The next closest causes of death by injury were falls, firearms, and motor vehicle-related deaths, at around 15-16% each. That same year, about 70% of all drug overdose deaths were caused by opioids. Opioids, opiates, and opiums — what are they? An opiate is a derivative of the…
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Are You Aware? Made in Detroit
This is part IV in our Awareness Wednesday series for Black History Month 2021. Read the other posts in the series here. In the 1920s, Detroit was the fourth-largest city in the United States, and there was considerable tension in the city. The city — which in 1910 had a population of 456,000, with fewer than 6,000 Black people — had a population of 990,000 in 1920 with nearly 41,000 Black people. The tension created by this phenomenon gave rise to a relatively large Ku Klux Klan presence by the mid-1910s. This was fueled by southern whites and European immigrants competing with Blacks for housing and jobs. The automotive industry, although in…
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Are You Aware? Face Value
This is part IV in our Awareness Wednesday series on the Asian American Experience. Read the other posts in the series here. As we anxiously awaited the birth of our daughter, I found myself, as countless parents before me, wondering about my baby and her future. What would she look like? What would her personality be like? What traits would she gain from us and our families? However, I also spent time thinking about how my baby girl would see and be seen in the world — how would she self-identify in terms of race, and how would others define and perceive her because of her appearance. In 1941, another first-time mother was…
