On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed H.R.3706 - A bill to amend title 5, United States Code, to make the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., a legal public holiday. The act declared the third Monday of January a federal holiday to be celebrated in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday was January 15. It was the first national federal holiday to have been instituted since Memorial Day and Columbus Day had been enacted in 1968. I often wonder wha

It's March 21, and that means World Down Syndrome (Ds) Day ! Why March 21? The date, 3/21, is representative of the trisomy of the 21st chromosome, the presence of a partial or full copy of chromosome 21, which results in Ds. Learn more about Ds here at NDSS. Each year, WDSD celebrates a particular theme, and this year, aptly, the theme is "Improve our support systems." That seems especially important at a time, in a climate, when supports as well as sentiments of and effor

Happy Labor Day! Today is a day to celebrate workers, but often, that gets lost in the hubbub of picnics, parades, barbecues, yard work,...

Yesterday was World Refugee Day, an event first declared by the UNHCR (United Nations Human Rights Commission) in 2000. As I explained in...

to see what we could see! >> Jump ahead to picture books about mountains if you don't want to read the narrative! So, we love mountains,...

>> Jump to books about pollinators. That is NOT the question! Pollination is essential to the survival of flowering plants, which makes...

Each year, nearly 1 in 700 children are born with Down Syndrome (DS), a condition that affects as many as six million people worldwide....

The word labor has stayed pretty consistent throughout its etymology. In Latin, its distant origins, labor meant "toil, hardship and...

This is Juno, intragalactic voyager and space explorer. Since launching in 2011, Juno has traveled millions of miles to reach the largest...

"The ship came down from space. It came from the stars and the black velocities, and the shining movements, and the silent gulfs of...

We've had a rough week coming on top of a rough year. Some have suffered or overcome more than others. Some we've lost. To be sure, there...

It seems I write something about this each year, or at least post something about it. I'm not alone. Challenging the premise of Columbus...

The short answer should be "probably." Once upon a childhood, I grew up within walls, like most of us do, and admittedly, my home today...

I’ve seen the false narratives about Irish “enslavement” in the Americas going around again. You demean the true and complicated...

This post builds on the previous post. I know there’s a lot going on. COVID-19, systemic and systematic racism, poverty, so much more,...

On December 4, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 20 to be World Refugee Day, a day intended to draw attention to...

I’ve posted about this before, but the best way to educate your kids about diversity and inclusion as well as systemic racism is to...

I don’t need to build wonderful lists of books because there are already some great lists out there, so I’m sharing them here. from...

(Originally posted April 5, 2020, but I think much of it is still relevant today.) Some things to keep in mind right now, in no...

A few resources for Earth Day (originally posted April 1, 2020) ... Looking for some ways to celebrate Earth Day (which you can do any...