Week 5! I made it into February without failing to find some good news each week. Yay!
On a personal level, I updated my site. All by myself. What do you think? Thank you WordPress for making writing so easy.
On the local level: Mandatory CPR for high school students pays off
A junior at Prairie Grove High School helping her brother on a Boy Scout errand, was forced into lifesaving action.
Calista Pollack took the CPR class required of all sophomores. Little did she know that she would spring into action a year later.
“I thought they needed help moving a couch.”
Northwest Herald
Dispatchers helped Calista through the process until paramedics arrived.
Thanks to Calista’s actions, Prairie Grove’s proactive approach, and a brother’s confidence in his big sister, a life goes on.
On (another) local level: In a world where you can be anything, be kind.
“Abandoned” scarves showed up all along Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Little notes let people know that the scarves were left there on purpose for anyone who needed one.
Students from Central Middle School in Evergreen Park got busy with not-so-random acts of kindness. Students and teachers collected scarves and donations.
Teachers Patricia Croci and Julie Kelly lead 4SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions.) The students chose what action they wanted to take to show kindness. Croci bought every scarf in a local Old Navy with the donation money.
4SADD meets after school twice a week and talks about ways to encourage kindness and inclusion inside and outside of the school. The scarf initiative grew out of those meetings.
Chicago Tribune
Note: Heidi Stevens is the columnist for The Chicago Tribune’s “Balancing Act.” She also has a Facebook page where she “gets people talking every day with her fresh takes on gender, race, parenting, relationships and pop culture. Meet her here to keep the conversation going.”
On the national level: USA leads the world in pandemic preparedness
Sunday morning is incomplete without viewing Fareed Zakaria’s Global Public Square (GPS.) This is one of the places I go for global news. Fareed has some cool interviews, book recommendations and he clearly labels his opinions with “my take.”
This week Fareed pointed out that the USA leads the world in pandemic awareness. That is good news, especially since the current Administration cast aside the entire pandemic response group’s chain of command last year.
The country began to address preparedness with H1N1 flu virus and continued with SARS and Zika. So we’re ready if the new coronavirus threatens us. For my last week’s assessment of the menace, go here.
Note: Wearing a face mask may give you a sense of false security. Masks let air get in around the edges. Plus, wearing a mask often causes you to touch your face more, which increases your chance on infection.
On the international level: The Oxford Dictionary added 29 Nigerian Words or Phrases.
This bit of news really tickles me. Maybe because I think of the Oxford Dictionary as stuffy. Maybe it’s because I really like some of the words and phrases:
- Ember months: Used to describe the months of September through December
- Next tomorrow: the day after tomorrow
- Rub minds: Work together
- Guber: of or relating to a governor or governorship
- Severally: Opposite of jointly
I plan to start using the first three in my every day vocabulary. Don’t you just love words? Guber might be a bit confusing (and fun.)