A Dollop for Peace, A Dollop for Freedom

Indonesia was selected to host the FIFA Under-20 World Cup, but the unthinkable happened. The unforeseen catastrophe. The unmitigated disaster. A sports naqba. For the first time ever, the Israeli team made it to the Big Teen Dance, soccer’s equivalent of March Madness. The world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation went full Israelophobic against young Israeli Jews stepping foot on their ground. The governor of Bali province immediately announced his refusal to permit the Jewish majority state’s team access to his jurisdiction. Muslim groups protested. Jews in Jakarta –---there goes the neighborhood!

The spring tournament is normally an apolitical event. In previous tournaments, no one protested Islamic bombings in Arab/Muslim marketplaces, nor a word against mosque attacks by fellow Muslims, often with scores of dead and wounded littering the ground with body parts blown a football field away. Indonesia never asked for Mauritania’s exclusion in opposition to its status as one of the world’s most active slave states. Syria has suffered over 500,000 dead in an internecine civil war in a country devoid of any democratic liberties—one reason for the war itself.

But Indonesia says it stands tall for Palestinian rights as it strips Israeli teenagers of theirs. Let’s stop kicking the ball down the field. Indonesia has a long history of Jew hatred. It wants no part of Israelis (i.e., Jews) coming to their country to play ball—or for any other reason. In a worst case scenario for the rabidly anti-Semitic country, the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah (“to be a free people in our land, The land of Zion and Jerusalem” –boy, those last two lines would go over real big) blares forth from the stadium like a ram’s horn blown form the mountain top as the Israeli kids bask as champions in a tournament meant to show off Indonesia the way the 1936 games were to showcase Germany.   

FIFA, in a bold move, rebuked Indonesia’s bigotry, politicization--and threats--directed against the Israeli teen team. FIFA accepted a bid from Argentina, home to a sizeable (if not always welcomed) Jewish community, as the host country. Whether sanctions will be imposed on Indonesia’s soccer federation remains to be seen. Nothing, however, detracts from FIFA’s steadfast courage to recognize the Israeli youths’—including the five Muslim players--rights to participate in international sports, despite the opposition by Indonesia. A missive fired: to all countries whose athletes refuse to compete with Jewish or Israeli opponents—or any reason based on prejudice--you and your country will be punished. Primarily, the real difficulties are with the history of Muslim countries’ boycotting and rejecting Israeli athletes. This has been decades old and is rooted in the pan-Arab/Muslim culture’s deep antipathy towards Jews and Judaism. Soccer’s world governing body has stood up for peace and respect through athletics.

For not allowing the Israeli under-20 footballers to be subjected to the harm of such virulent prejudice, promoting sportsmanship, and letting kids play, The Green B Letter awards a bright gold honey dollop each to FIFA and Argentina.

Have a sweet tournament.

Over the Moon on Marriage

Well, think of marriage now. Younger than you                                                    Here in Verona ladies…are made already mothers.

Lady Capulet to 13-year-old Juliet, ca 1597

 In his best imitation of Danny Ocean’s “I know a guy”, Missouri’s Rep Mike Moon said I know a guy (and a girl) married at 12 and—"are still married”. We at TGBL are happy to learn his Romeo and Juliet tweeners still, as 1776’s John Adams deftly put it, “romp in Cupid’s grove together,”

 Pre-pubescent brides have no greater advocate than he. Hope springs eternal for every 5th and 6th grader with a crush on a classmate—or a friend’s older sibling. Unrequited love no longer need wait for mental and physical development, sexual maturity, emotional growth. Just ask mommy if you can marry Johnny after you have your braces removed next week. If the answer’s no, you only have to wait until you are 15, as Moon voted against raising the age of wedded bliss to 16. Or, get pregnant at 12, and then you and the folks can gleefully decide whom to invite to the nuptials.

The 16th Century mindset of Moon rests his argument on good ol’ American family values. The parents and the children have the right to decide what’s best for them. Keep government out of the equation. This rule, Moon’s Law so named by TGBL, only applies to family marriage talk, especially for girls still holding their Barbie dolls and boys gripping their GI Joes. But if you are a trans kid, no family heart-to-heart talk of what’s best for the child’s health will determine your medical options. Family-doctor talk out, government in! Moon voted against transgender health care, mom and dad be damned. When it comes to children, American values will go just so far before the state tells you what you can’t do to protect your youngsters.

We won’t even grace his comments with an explanation of all things wrong with Moon’s perspective. If you can’t think of at least five on your own, you need to think.

Moon later clarified his statement saying he does not support adults marrying children (how deep the mouth, how long the foot goeth in). MSNBC quotes Moon: “That’s preposterous to even think that I do”.     Almost as preposterous as supporting parenthood and matrimony for kids just out of the single digit age bracket.

For believing the unbelievable and defending the indefensible, we award two stingers, representing not only lunatic Moon’s double-sided hypocrisy, but his favorite age for marriage--11.

The Quality of Mercy

Carson Briere, 23, son of former NHLplayer and current GM of the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, launched a student’s wheelchair down a bar stairwell. The wheelchair was left at the top landing because the double amputee owner had to be carried down the stairs to the restroom. The Mercyhurst University junior and varsity hockey player apologized for the incident. A little prevention, common sense, and maturity ought to supplant apologies as a better path to walk. Especially when the target of your sadistic prank can’t.

At his age, Carson should serve as a role model to teammates, who most likely are much younger. Hopefully, he will learn from this mean and contemptuous act, for which TGBL sends Carson Briere to the sin bin for unhuman-like conduct, a two stinger penalty.

Toronto Uber Alles?

For Canadian Jews, especially those in Toronto, O Canada’s “The True North strong and free” is less a line from the national anthem than a close cousin to Arbeit Macht Frei, the Nazi slogan on the entrance gates to the concentration camps. The Queen City has rapidly eclipsed other worthy candidates for the most antisemitic metropolis on the continent.

Ubiquitous signs saying “No Jews or dogs allowed” commonly appeared at beaches, parks, resorts and other recreation facilities”. (Levit, Toronto Star) regularly appeared dating back decades.
No group has been hurt more by Toronto’s pervasive Jewhatred than students and teachers. Temerty Faculty of Medicine U of T’s medical school is rife with anti-Semitism, apparently an old tradition emanating from its entrance quota for Jews. The university’s Student Union tried to block kosher food from being sold on campus because customers might be Israel supporters. Jewish, in other words. The Toronto District School Board has experienced a rash of ominous incidents in their buildings. Students disturbing class by offering a Nazi salute to a Jewish teacher. The list of bigoted acts can go on and on. In educational facilities or city streets, or any venue such vitriol can find ground to attack. In a city with a large Jewish population, Toronto’s antiSemitism seems more popular than Hockey Night in Canada.  

The municipal government has initiated A “Toronto for All” program to fight prejudice, including Jewhatred, despite the dispersion of focus such a title connotes when Jews have been the main target. There has been a somewhat milquetoast Working Group on Antisemitism at the University of Toronto for several years. TDSB claims it will enrich Holocaust learning to promote understanding and respect for Jewish classmates, teachers and others in the community.

Time will tell if these measures prove effective. If the culture doesn’t believe, refuses to change, attacks Jews for religious or political aims, all the enlightenment will not let willfully blind eyes see.

 Normally, TGBL awards stingers for bad behavior. We’ll use an alternative opprobrium for this one—and future issues. We’ll be watching Ontario’s capital for progress in the safety of Jewish and pro-democratic Israel individuals in the K-college level, as well as Toronto holding guilty parties accountable. For now, judgment at Toronto hass been passed::

Heute geben wir Toronto zwei Hakenkreuze. (Today we give Toronto two swastikas.)

Givers and Takers

Not everyone hates war. The Genghis Khans, the Hitlers, the Arafats, live for its cruelty, its glory, its unfettered power. Maybe it’s just the rush of mass murder wrapped in a superficial political cloak to give some faux legitimacy to a burning need to conquer, to kill because you can.

Normal people despise it. Those who simply want to go to work, take care of their families, see a show, eat out, sit in the sunshine, go to school, indulge their passions, respect life, cherish it. These are the enemies of war. And sometimes—often—its greatest heroes.

In Poland, Hungary, and other places bordering Ukraine, the valiant everyday citizens are saving lives and helping keep firm the glue holding fragile refugees and families together—mostly women and children. The men stayed home to fight. The dazed and shocked victims of Putin’s senseless war arrive to food, clothing, needed supplies. Baby carriages left for moms who need them. Locals cooking meals. Books in Ukrainian or Russian available for readers, that most civilized, tranquil of acts. Volunteers reassure children, trying to calm shattered young nerves in shattered young lives. They even quench the thirst and sate the appetite of pets, as scared and confused as their families.

Scores of children will not return to school nor fulfill their dreams. The gone-mad Putin murdered close to 100 children, and the number climbs. The final toll of needless death has not been counted, and the loss of the inchoate young will be ever more wrenching.

But the haters of war, the everyday people of these towns, have become heroes. Saving lives, selflessly giving of themselves not to make life normal, but bearable; even to restore some lost faith in what humanity is supposed to be. The kindness is beyond random acts—in every bottle of water given, every bowl of homemade soup handed out, every pillow and blanket is an act of defiance by the haters of war, and a signal to its Russian perpetrator.  

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

                                                            Portia, The Merchant of Venice

Four dollops for the givers and takers, and heaven protect them all. 

The Delta Force: Why Bad Covid Numbers Work for Republicans

ProTrump, pro-virus forces have gone even further to achieve their political ambitions than anyone would have imagined. Half of Florida’s districts —representing 1,000,000 students—are fighting the 2024 presidentially ambitious Gov deSantis to keep kids healthy and alive. South Carolina Gov McMaster believes wearing masks is a parental decision, like what to cook for Tuesday night dinner. In South Carolina two dozen schools and two entire districts have retreated to remote learning, closing their doors in the face of the enemy’s onslaught.

Nationally, 250,000 children contracted Covid-19 in the last week of August, a 10% increase, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics as reported in the Guardian. 750,000 kids tested positive for the period between August 5 - Sept 2, they reported. Infection rates are soaring, children’s’ hospitals are rapidly approaching crisis points, the new school year in jeopardy of free falling in numerous areas. While districts in high vaccinated cities are not entirely free of its effects, Covid19 has struck the greatest blows in low-vaccine areas.

Abbott, deSantis, McMaster, Noem in South Dakota, play a political game, at the expense of protecting their citizens livelihoods and lives—and the youth and children of their states. It is not that they don’t believe in the efficacy of the weapons we have against Covid, but the complete opposite. Biden’s good grades and high popularity in dealing with the virus sent another virus into Trumpists across the country—the panic virus. They feared conquering Covid19 by Biden would hurt the renegade party’s chances in 2022 and 2024. Republicans refusing mask and vaccine mandates would block or sabotage Biden by pro-actively working against the efforts to defeat the virus and its variants. GOP candidates could point to the administration’s and Democrats’ failure to curb the disease, without mentioning their own respective roles as 5th column, pro-Covid forces. We know masks work, vaccines work. Science has reams of data backing it up. There is no other explanation why the best weapons in this biological war have been kept in the silos by callous governors and cruel party members.

Teacher unions also deserve some blame for not backing fully the staff mandates for vaccines. Although they tend to wax progressive, unions are very diverse politically. Maybe the leaders are trying to satisfy them all. But after criticizing safety standards in the spring and not backing vaccine mandates for SY21/22, they hurt themselves, their credibility, and the kids, especially, the under-12 cohort, immeasurably.

So, to all of our saboteurs, selfish politicians, rank and file enablers, to all the soldiers in the pro-Covid19 Delta Force, a rare but well-deserved four stingers.

Islamic Republic of Mauritania: A Gold Medal in Bigotry

The Olympics’ values—friendship, respect, excellence—set the standard of conduct for all athletes and serve as a model for competition at every level of play, whether the Olympic games or the local Little League. A truce was called in ancient Greece to allow safe passage to and from the games by athletes and spectators alike. The modern truce of the IOC promotes sportsmanship and strives to abet world peace.

Not every country, nor every athlete, live up to those ideals. Some have their hatred so ingrained in their hearts and normalized in their culture that it is passed on to the very young. As they acculturate into society, the brainwashing continues, guaranteeing another generation of antipathy and conflict.

A 14-year-old Mauritanian chess player refused to play his Junior World Cup match against an Israeli. Abdel Muhammed said, “Israel is a fake country so how can I play a representative  from a fictional country that in reality  doesn’t exist?” Apparently no facts were offered for this supposition, nor were incidents cited as  wrongs committed by Israel against Mauritania--not to mention any by his opponent. As the Mauritania National League put it, he honored his country “by declaring a boycott against the grim Zionist face.” As best our blog could tell, no questions followed, no challenges made by a free press; no reporters jockeying to be heard. To allow bigotry’s festering poison recalls the AIDS anthem, haunting us for decades with its admonition: SILENCE=DEATH.

If Abdel’s third-party honor hangs on protesting another country’s policy towards the second party, then this holds out all kinds of honorable possibilities for outsiders. Let’s take Abdel’s Islamic Republic of Mauritania. A  Human Rights Watch report (a partisan NGO hostile to the only Jewish-majority state) says the IRM outlawed slavery in 2007, but HRW says 2.4%of Mauritanians, or 90,000 of its people, live in modern slavery—with an additional 62% vulnerable to servitude. 

Any player or team facing The Islamic Republic of Mauritania can boycott it because of its persistent slavery, a heinous human condition. IRM also shows great hostility to democratic universal rights. A young competitor raised valuing freedom and civil liberties may boycott the grim face of Mauritania because of its totalitarian grip and widespread slavery. Also, if Abdel is protesting what he sees as “occupation”, I’m sure he and the Mauritanian National League would refuse to play a Turkish boy, since Turkey has occupied Northern Cyprus since the early 1970s and has a population of over 500,000 Turks on Cypriot soil. I’m sure the Islamic Republic of Mauritania would honor one of their young players for refusing a match with Islamic  Morocco, who swept into Western Sahara in 1975 and now has over half a million Moroccans as well as a large military occupation there. This would be especially honorable because Mauritania has been opposed to the occupation and is part of an organized front to take on Morocco’s ambitions.

I’m not sure why playing an Israeli boy would also not be honorable, bridging cultures and countries, forging a baseline of peace. What an inspiring story that did not happen. Abdel Muhammed and Mauritania have shown the world a highly successful educational system in one regard: putting into practice the hate and bigotry on which generations are raised. Other competitors have defied their countries at great personal risk to compete against and show great sportsmanship with Israeli athletes, moving the needle slowly towards mutual acceptance.

 Mauritania has huge, macro problems within its schools, high poverty, dubious teacher qualifications, and curriculum among them. They do their students and young people no favors when lessons in hatred are their finest accomplishment. As a product of his country’s schools, Abdel exemplifies the antithesis of the Olympics and international code of conduct—friendship, respect, excellence.

 When an Algerian judo-ka refused to face an Israeli opponent at the Japanese Olympics this year, Algeria and Olympian Fehti Nourine lost accreditation. Iran’s was pulled for four years for the same stunt. Punishment for using international sport as a propaganda tool to further outright bigotry is appropriate. For the anti values of prejudice, hypocrisy, hate, and its nurturing of  such destructive, unsportsmanlike conduct in its young, The Green B Letter awards Abdel and Mauritania, two razor sharp stingers.

Lost in Space: The Centner Strain

The privately owned Centner Academy, a $15K-30K per year K-8 school in a tony Miami district, has banned COVID-19 vaccinated teachers from direct contact with students. For  those staff members who plan to get the life-saving shots over the summer may not have their jobs next year. In a startling letter to staff, CEO Leila Centner exposed in shocking ideas how much of a loose cannon these schools can be.  

  According to news reports, the school’s owner—yes, owner—said women’s menstrual cycles have been impacted by proximity to vaccinated people. Apparently, vaccinated people emit harmful effects that could be acquired by the unvaccinated-pure to their health’s detriment. Also, more research needs to be done before the vaxxed lepers can come into contact with the Centner community. Who knows, they may discover that vaccines stop a deadly disease!! Wow, can’t let these Coronavirus-free teachers go near the students. Better not let any more faculty get the protective jab – who knows how many fewer kids and teachers would get the disease if staff were immunized--and students.

  Children and teen deaths in the US from COVID-19 range between 500-1000. Some have suffered a very serious inflammatory condition, MIS-C, endangering their future health--if they live. The non-educator educators want more research before they allow people who most likely will not get the disease because they are vaccinated to be proximate to those who are at risk of getting COVID19 because they weren’t. MAKE COVID-19 GREAT AGAIN. Only in Ron DeSantis’ Florida.

 The school says it draws on “research from fields of mindfulness and emotional intelligence.” Obviously they don’t draw on the research that says the US suffered 33,000,000 cases of Coronavirus, 600,000 deaths, in the US, and all the pediatric and scientific research relating to children, COVID19, and the larger community. Why spoil the “1st happiness school” with such unhappiness?

 Telling your adult staff not to get a vaccine that could save their lives and harm  those they come into contact with does not fire up happiness. The numbers are plummeting among vaccinated people and in those areas where vaccination rates are high. Maybe the Centners should pay more attention to medical research, which has been growing, and stop playing in back of the room.

 Also, nothing says the pregnant, the soon to be, or the want to be are harmed by the vaccine. Because pregnancy is a different animal, there is continued monitoring about any correlation between the vaccines and abnormalities in pregnancy. Some conditions arise in a pregnancy, but the normal statistical occurrence has held among the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Consult your doctor is the prevailing advice. Centner’s concerns do not appear scientifically or medically based (I have to check the mindfulness field, though). And the weird sci-fi osmosis contamination has a Star Trek episode written all over it. Or, as a Florida state senator summed it all up: “this is quackery.”

  For its ignoring the science and medicine, endangering the health of its staff, dividing its community, putting students at risk,TGBL proudly awards 3 Stingers for “quackery.” Scotty, beam us up—and fast.     

Phoning Hotel Arno

  If Deans and APs of security know one thing, it is how to deal with lost or stolen cell phones. NYC repealed its ban and allowing them in schools several years ago. This compounded solving MIA devices exponentially. So, welcome to our world, Hotel Arno. It seems for all your swankiness and cache, you could use a training session from New York City’s  school safety task force on de-escalation .

 A woman couldn’t find her cell and went ballistic on a kid whom she thought had stolen hers. It could’ve been a racial bias, or it could have been an out of control where’s-my-phone hysteria; it could have been both.

 The woman’s exasperation, to anyone who felt panic mode over their missing phone, evokes empathy from those once or often afflicted. What followed was a flustercuck of poor behavior and bad interventions. The most innocent of all was the accused, a 14-yr-old boy occupied with his phone who got sucked into the vortex of the woman’s inexcusable outburst.

 Stealing phones is the national sport of middle school teenagers. It is not limited to race, gender, nor socio-economic class. It does seem to attract the anti-social and the poorly behaved, the academic transients and the riffraff of a school population. For an adolescent to have stolen a cell is not an unusual circumstance. To immediately label the accusation racial by an eager press and publicity seeking personalities does an injustice to all victims of theft. 

 The woman should have asked the hotel for help, get security, and let the hotel investigate. Start by collecting evidence, piece the info together, until a picture emerges. The easiest thing to do—and the hardest—is just ask the kid to show proof the phone belongs to him.  Ask to see the contact list and photos that the woman would have no idea who they are. Or ask the accuser to describe the phone contents. The phone is still the only piece of evidence in a he said-she said scenario. There wasn’t enough time to change content. This could have been done civilly with cooperation of the boy and his dad. You are not trying to convict, merely looking for a baseline. The evidence would exculpate the boy and lead the search for the phone down other avenues. There is circumstantial evidence to warrant talking to him. Boy Harrold believed the Hotel official was "basically siding with her" over him.  Such statements, no matter how sincerely expressed, are red meat for the press, activists, politicians. TGBL, after many years of being in the middle of such scenarios, can say with full confidence that questioning a young teen in an investigation very often meets with such reactions.  They are kids, after all.

 But the accuser, Miya Ponsetto, screaming and assaulting the boy, took the whole episode out of the hotel’s hands and into the NYPD’s-- and political world’s. That her phone was returned a few minutes after the incident attests to how bad outcomes could be avoided. Fate’s timing too could have been better. You not only need good security you need people to proceed within a structure. These days, respect for authority seems lower than a valley at 1000 feet below sea level: everyone takes the law into their own hands.

 Ponsetto’s lawyer according to WINS 1010, said her client seems “unwell.” Usually, someone with mental or emotional issues draws sympathy when the law comes down on criminal actions. No such slack was given to her, whatever mental problems led her lawyer to call her “unwell”.  Apparently there’s a check list for sympathy—and Ponsetto did not qualify. Her terrible behavior may reflect disturbances cited by her lawyer’s opinion of her mental state, but her behavior cannot be dismissed, nor unaddressed. Neither can any underlying mental or emotional condition .

 That’s how you end up in jail and your business dragged through the mud of New York media and racial politics. Two big stingers for an ugly situation – except one innocent 14 yr old caught up in the maelstrom. We’ll award the boy an honorary honey dollop.

Biden and Brayden

Joe Biden has often been ridiculed for his diction, his elocution while public speaking. Talking before groups, whether you are a celebrity figure, maybe a teacher or a local club president,  takes a bit of courage, assurance, and self-confidence. When you have a speech impediment, self-consciousness can feel like a tidal wave of anxiety and stage fright. No matter how tolerant the audience, your onstage presence battles the demons that tell you run, ask what are you doing here, as you try to calmly go through your presentation, each syllable a bullet to dodge. Your attention divided between masking your stutter and delivering the material may lead to mistakes in your words, syntax—the dreaded flubs.

Septuagenarian Biden, after five decades of Senate and campaign speeches, still fights the  stutter of the little boy Joe. He also takes up the cause for others. He has fifteen stutterers with whom he stays in contact., There is now a sixteenth. Back in February, Biden met Brayden Harrington on a campaign stop in New Hampshire. Biden took him backstage to offer him tips about conquering the affliction. He showed him his marked-up speech, signaling his pacing to control the impulse to stutter. While meeting together, Biden offered Brayden additional advice to suppress the shared speech impediment.

The most important outcome was the respect and personal time the 77-year-old Biden gave to the 14-year-old Harrington. He told him they were members of the same club, the presidential candidate and the teen from New Hampshire. Brayden exalted: “I’m just a regular kid. In a short time he made me feel more confident about something that bothered me my whole life.” Teachers could spend careers in the classroom and never hear that from a student.

A newly confident Brayden went on national television during a political convention and spoke, with one stuttering episode. He came through with flying colors. Adolescent Harrington and White House hopeful Biden both became role models not only for people and children with a stutter, but all those with any speech impediment or other disability. It was an extraordinary moment, made possible by a man who might be the next president of the United States, who gave all of us in education a lesson in teaching, respecting youth, and humanity. Joe Biden, you earn two dollops for your extraordinary compassion, leadership and example. A role model for all of us.

Repulsive, Repugnant, Republicans

The Covid-19 pandemic continues its onslaught, claiming 2.5 million American casualties and counting,  2.5 million cases, 130,000 dead. We now know many survivors, including young people and children, may face permanent organ damage. Compounding the problem is an archaic, for-profit employer-based health insurance system operating in a devastated economy, unseen since the great Depression. It has thrown millions out of work and out of coverage.

 Students’ remote learning is a travesty when worries over food and rent or mortgage money destabilize the family and only add to the fragile state of kids now worried about survival. It is difficult for most kids to not veer off course from work to play to cyber forbidden zones while in school, let alone hour upon hour at home in the Groundhog Day world we all live in.

 In the midst of this national health crisis and economic emergency, our government should be all-out to contain the virus. Saving lives, helping victims cope, assisting families deal with the hardships wrought by this one-two punch, returning to a safe normalcy, to protect and defend its people is the first order of government. Instead, a coalition of Red states’ attorneys general filed with the Supreme Court to end Obamacare, which would result in the loss of insurance for upwards of 20 million people, according to some estimates. They submitted the file late Friday night, hoping to slide unnoticed like cat burglars at midnight.

As the Coronavirus rages on, our own government aims to inflict more cruelty on an already suffering population –much of it due to their own ineptitude. Survivors, including children, will carry the tag of pre-existing condition, which would make obtaining insurance more difficult if the Affordable Care Act is nullified. No viable plan has been offered in its place, only a promise one will be revealed. Ten years and waiting.

By seeking the end of the ACA, the Republicans have shown a callous disregard for the survival of Americans in crisis. TGBL sadly but rightly buries three stingers in the GOP’s SOBs.

O Brave New World...

,,,that has such people in it.”  If Miranda, Prospero’s daughter in “The Tempest”, were here today she might repeat her famous exclamation for one Nathan Sturtzel. He is the principal of St Patrick Catholic School in Louisville, KY, whose student Mary Jo Hadley is an epileptic, prone to seizures. Her service dog, Ariel, the name translates to Lion of God, watches over her. She warns teachers Hadley is having an episode, and sacrifices herself as a body cushion during one of Hadley’s seizures.

Principal Sturtzel included Ariel’s photo in the school’s yearbook. Here’s the principal’s own words, as quoted in CNN/Fox News:

“It’s important to foster relations with our families and support our students. We love Ariel. She is part of Hadley Jo’s family, so she’s part of our family too. Finding a place for her in our yearbook was an easy decision and it was fun.”

Hadley’s mother, active in Hope for Hadley, a foundation teamed with Kentuckiana Epilepsy, helps bring service dogs to families who cannot afford them. She credits the Labradoodle with saving her daughter’s life, and why she works so hard for others. She was overwhelmed emotionally by his decision.

Sturtzel’s statement of inclusion resonates for the vulnerable, and the canines who are their lifelines. His steely message to all about love and acceptance demonstrates how student, family, community, school can work together, bettering the lives of all. TGBL awards two honey dollops to a special educator, and can only say

Oh, brave new world, to have such leaders in it. 

Capri Sun Lights It Up for Anti-Bullying

A young middle school student carries his lunch tray, looking for a place to sit.  He walks tentatively to a group of boys, eyeing an empty seat at their table. One slams his hand down, blocking him from joining them; the others laugh. The rejected boy sadly settles in as the lone occupant of an empty table. A girl tells her friend to hold her Capri juice, and inspires the entire cafeteria to arrange tables in a rectangle for a celebratory communal lunch.

The proactive girl demonstrates a textbook response to an act of bullying. The commercial connects product not to an idea per se, but to a proven tactic against hurtful behavior: an active assertion of inclusion through peaceful intervention. TGBL proudly awards one dollop to Capri Sun Juice.