Ding-Dong, DOMA's Dead!

Yes, this is yesterday's news, but this is the first I've had a chance to sit down and write down a coherent response to SCOTUS's ruling.  Yesterday's response on my part was confined to whooping, hollering, and maybe a few tears. 

Obviously, this is great news for all same sex couples in the 12 (soon 13, after SCOTUS instructed the lower court to dismiss the Prop 8 case out of California) jurisdictions that allow marriage equality.  For people in states like Ohio, where there are constitutional bans on same sex unions, the ruling is less clear right now.  Part of the confusion lies in the distinction of how federal organizations define marriage- by place of celebration, or place of residency.  If the place of celebration is used, then federal benefits should be a very real possibility.  Hopefully, there will be some consistency brought to the definition soon, and to my (admittedly limited- so please feel free to correct me) knowledge that could be done without an act of Congress in most cases.  As if Congress was active in the first place right now. 

If the place of residence is used, then it's a harder fight, and the couple would likely have to reside in a marriage equality state. 

What really throws a wrench in the works (or has the potential to be a huge break through), is the Full Faith and Credit Clause.  Article IV, Section 1 of the US Constitution states:

"Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof."

This is the fun little clause that allows you or I to have a destination wedding, or to move after we're married and have that marriage recognized.  This clause and the due process and equal protection portions of the Fourteenth amendment were the grounds that the court used to decide Loving v. Virginia.  It's important to note, however, that yesterday's decision was based on the due process clause of the Fifth amendment instead.  Also of note, to me anyway, is that while Loving and Windsor were decided on different bases, the framing and terminology were similar.  From Loving:

The Equal Protection Clause requires the consideration of whether the classifications drawn by any statute constitute an arbitrary and invidious discrimination.

and From Windsor:

DOMA’s principal effect is to identify and make unequal a subset of state-sanctioned marriages. It contrives to deprive some couples married under the laws of their State, but not others, of both rights and responsibilities, creating two contradictory marriage regimes within the same State.

While SCOTUS yesterday refused to affirm that marriage is a constitutional right by refusing to rule on Prop 8, Warren did make that claim in the Loving case that stopped miscegenation laws.  I think that's an important reality to remember.

And just for the sake of CMA, this is a thought experiment on my part, I am not a lawyer, and really, don't take legal (or any) advice from a blog.  Especially one written by me.  :)

For other, related interpretations of the possible effects of Full Faith and Credit on marriage equality, there's some good (if dated) discussions here:

National Review

Doug Linder, Law Professor, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School

Ivan Hoffman, JD

JP Feldmeier, 1995. Publius 25(4):107-126.

My Body, My Self

This evening our little family went out for an early weekend dinner and decided to try Fresco, a new local place in Kent notable for their salsa bar.  The food was fantastic, the had good beer, my day's classes had gone well, I had new replica jaws to play with, Kenny and I picked lots of strawberries, and I'd been up to a round of "Secret Santa" around town.  I'm sure I could have been in a better mood, but I'm not sure how I would have gotten there.  We were sitting waiting at our table for our food when it happened.  There were hands at my side and a face on my shoulder, and it was not my friend the newly minted Dr. Sohom- one of the few people that I allow to creeper-hug me without a fight. 

Dear Fellow Fresco Patron-

What made you think that you could come that close up behind a stranger in a restaurant with her family?  Why did you think that it was OK to rearrange my clothing to cover a tattoo on my back?  What part of my appearance gave you any indication that I wanted to hide my tattoos or was embarrassed by them?  Why on Earth were you surprised at my reaction, which was merely an expletive directed at you and not a fist heading towards you?  Would you ever even consider doing this if I had been a man?  Do you have any idea of the moment of sheer terror I feel at a stranger's (and some not-strangers') touch?  Have you thought about how your feeling of entitlement to my body fits into the larger social picture.  Have you ever considered that not all people enjoy physical contact, and in fact some people are positively averse to it?  Have you ever thought that maybe their aversion to touch has something to do with a feeling of lack of autonomy, often thanks to people like you?  What makes you think that it's appropriate to slut-shame random women in front of their children?  Do you really have this little respect for your fellow humans? 

Do us all a favor and can the moralizing and misogyny, alright. 

Gah.  Invasion of personal space and body shaming are not things that I enjoy or take lightly, and nor should any sane person.  How is this crap even considered OK today?!

Belated Happy Fathers' Day!

Yeah, I meant to write this yesterday.  Yeah, I'm a day late.  Yep, I also sent out cards/gifts late, too (or will, when I get them out).  Yes, I am aware of how much I suck.  And yah, I'm OK with these facts.

I'm not going to lie- Fathers' Day is hard for me.  Like many people, my Dad's not here anymore.  I'm grateful for my spouse, who's a great dad to our Bug, but he's not always such a great partner to me.  Also not uncommonly, what family we do have is split across the state and farther; our older family members have less than great health and we have less than a little bit of spare time.  H3ll, Dwight even had to work on fathers' day, so there went any dinner plans. 

I'm extremely grateful for the time I had with my father.  He was an amazing person who helped shaped me into who I am to this day, and if it weren't for him I'd be even more broken than I already am.  He gave me confidence, inquisitiveness, logic and reasoning, and great hair.  Then he died and I've been trying to pick up the pieces ever since. 

I'm not the only one with this burden to bear; my sister and mother and so many more people miss him, too, but we all have our individual journey to travel in our pain.  Some of us handle pain more or less effectively, and a lot of that depends on the support we grew up with and the skills we learned as a child.  I'm immensely thankful that I received love, support, and skills from my father, but less face it, loosing a parent hurts whenever and however it happens.  I can be appreciative and sorrowful at the same time, as can any other human.  We're complex critters, humans, and extremely diverse.  Far more so than some quips in the card aisle or cliched neckties and cookouts would imply. 

No matter how you recognized the day, and no matter how you nurture the next generation, thank you for all you do, dads everywhere.  You make differences left and right, so make the best of those differences.

First Grade Reflection

School wrapped up for Kenny this past week.  He's been on summer break for two days now, and starts camp up on Monday, which is good because I take on another teaching assignment on Monday. 

I have to say, the kiddo had a good year.  Ended up with all "E"s (for excellent, not the alternative to an "F") and is reading above grade level.  He happily repeats that last point to try and get out of reading if he thinks he has better things to do.  He's seen an exceptional amount of growth academically and developmentally this year, with a lot of thanks going to the amount of support he has had from his amazing teachers and others who have worked with him.  I can teach biology, and Dwight can do history, but there's no way that the two of us could handle teaching reading and the social skills that Kenny has mastered this year.  It's just not our forte.  It's this ability to supplement my own failings, and my recognition of those failings, that make me so grateful for our school and neighborhood. 

I know it's cliche, but it takes a village to raise a child.  It takes a village to do a lot of things well.  No person can be everything that is needed or has all the necessary skills for complex tasks, and raising and educating a child is most definitely a complex task.  Also a complex task- juggling two adults with jobs and studies with a school schedule straight out of the nineteenth century.  So for the summer, I'm just as thankful for the Kent Parks and Recreation for their dedication to providing programming over the summer (and surround care during the school year) that make the summer break so much more enjoyable for our family.

I know, I know, we wouldn't have to rely on others if one of us would stay home.  But that's not what works for us, and really, who can afford to do that today?  Not us, that's for sure.  Kudos to those of you who can, you're stronger than I am.  We could use family, except we don't have extended family near us, and our families have their own lives to live.  Dwight and I have moved on from our home towns, as have our parents and siblings; "leaving the nest" wasn't really necessary for us since the nest left, too.  At this point, like many people today, we rely on our community more than our family, because we have dispersed families and a close knit community. 

As time passes, people grow and change.  The little boy that entered first grade last August is not the same child that's sitting and reading on the couch right now.  The society we are now is not the same as it was when public school first became an option.  We have to adjust to those changes culturally the same as I have to adjust to new parenting demands for my child, hopefully by improving and doing our best to fulfill new needs.

Memorial Day 2013

Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of summer in the temperate zone of the Northern hemisphere, and for Dwight and I who, like many of our peers, grew up with World War II veterans as grandparents, Memorial Day has always been a schizoid holiday.  The somber decorating of graves and remembering of the dead doesn't mix easily with barbecues and parades.  Dwight has more reason to feel ambivalent about the day, as his grandfather died of a cold that developed into pneumonia after visiting graves one cold wet Memorial Day.  We were lucky to grow up knowing only an all-volunteer military force in the US, which was not the case for our parents or grandparents.  We also grew up in a time of relative peace, with the only active conflict that either of us knew of being Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, and those really didn't impact us to a great degree.  From a historical standpoint, we were very lucky.

And then came September 11, 2001.  What followed has been over a decade of the War on Terror since the Authorization of Military Force.  My son has grown up his entire life in a state of war, exactly the opposite of Dwight and my experience.  Strangely, I don’t know that those differences have made much of an impact on his life to this point.  While I’m glad that he still has a sense of security and Dwight and I have tried to foster that, I’m not sure what it says about our nation that we can accept a state of perpetually heightened security as a normal thing with no consequences.   There is no real news coverage, and it’s been quite some time since much discussion about this state of affairs has occurred.  Even the protests within our country of the use of military force are barely a blip on the news radar lately. 

What happened to the world where we honored the fallen in part by not jumping into protracted  wars?  Or maybe I’m being nostalgic and it never existed, I don’t know.  Either way, it seems to me that a better way to those who have died in service to our country would be to do our best to prevent similar deaths in the future.  I realize this is a crazy idea, but it was one that I was glad to hear somewhat spoken to by the president on Thursday.  His words weren't perfect, but they were far better than what I've come to expect from him over his first term.  Of course, this is from the woman who takes pride in her family history of pacifism.  All I know is that freedom isn't free, and I say thanks every day to those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom, I just wish our politicians should show some appreciation and stop creating more war-dead. 

Catching Up (Or Trying To)

 So, yeah, I ran just a little behind last week, and didn't get a chance to do my SciFund Challenge homework, and as penance, I'm posting it publicly here.  This might be more punishment for you than for me, and for that I apologize.  But here goes...

Title:  Choose Not the Path of Apathy

Intended Audience: General public, especially those with an interest in the outdoors for recreation of other activities.

I’m sure you’re asking why on Earth one would study the interactions of amphibians and plants, and I don’t blame you one bit.  To most reasonable people, the connection is tenuous at best.  The two groups don’t compete with one another for most resources, neither preys on the other all that often, and they don’t have any parasitic interactions, either.  There’s no intelligent purpose behind looking into the connections of the two groups, any more than there’s any cause to looking at how cell phones impact refrigerators. Unless of course, you're interested in this little frog.

Amphibians - Golden Frogs in a Plant

Until you scratch the surface, that is.  And then you start to see the ways this odd couple of the wetland world belongs together perfectly.  Like plants forming the physical structures of the habitat through which amphibians must navigate.  Or amphibians’ appetite for insects that otherwise consume far more plant tissue and spread pathogens among plants.  And there’s the nitrogenous wastes from amphibians that fertilize plants.  Finally the protection that plants give to amphibians from mammalian, avian, and reptilian predators.  The connection totally makes sense now, right? 

That’s the thing about science, the sense is all there, sometimes you simply need someone to explain it to you, or you need to have a few experiments under your belt before you see it first.  In the US we tend to talk about people who “get” science and math, and people who don’t, as if understanding science is some inherent trait in only select people.  Thankfully, that’s not the case, anyone can understand science, and in fact, all children start out as scientists.  Exploring the world and testing to see cause and effect- that’s science.  Observing what goes on in front of you intently, trying to hear patterns in the sounds others make- that’s science.  Trying one step, having it not work out, trying a different step, and repeating this process until you finally get your feet to work and support your weight- that’s science.  It’s all very rudimentary, but it’s science nonetheless. 

Let’s go back to those amphibians and plants that I study, and think about why on Earth they might be important to you.  Whether you engage in science on a daily basis or not, you matter in the scientific process, because some of dollars help to fund research through taxes, through company Research and Development budgets, and through donations to charitable organizations like the American Cancer Society.  You also matter because much of today’s science- the “applied” portion of it- has as its purpose improving your life in some way, shape, or form, and you matter because the people you elect as your representatives help (or hinder) shape science funding and education policy decisions, for better or worse. 

We’ve established why amphibians and plants matter to each other, but why would these things matter to you?  For one thing, both can be used as ways to measure the quality of a habitat, through the Amphibian Index of Biotic Integrity and Floristic Quality Assessment Index, respectively.  Whether or not you live in a wetland like where these organisms are found (and I truly hope you don’t, for many reasons), those habitats benefit you, through water filtration and flood buffering, as habitat for organisms you might enjoy slightly more than amphibians like migratory birds and waterfowl, as recreational places to visit and enjoy the outdoors, and through increased property values because of access to those high quality recreational areas. 

I could go on and on about why to care about the environment, but I’m running short on time this week so I, cutting out at this point.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Is the environment important to you?  Why or why not? 

Teachers Be Learning, Yo!

May is my "off month" from teaching, so I'm taking the time to expand my own education with the SciFund Challenge class and a KSU Learning Institute "A Mirror to the Mind: Metacognitive Practices to Help Students Learn How They Learn."    All sorts of fun stuff on science outreach, thinking about thinking, and communication.  Yes, the idea of reaching out to people I don't know, communicating effectively, and collaboration- some very touchy feely type crap- is very much outside my comfort zone, but I'm enjoying what I've learned so far, and pushing myself beyond my limits.

Last week's lesson in SciFund Challenge was about the message box, a way of organizing and delivering a targeted message about your research.  The message box has five components, and always leaves a path to work your way back to the main points of your topic.  There's a full discussion of this concept in Chapter 8 of "Escape From The Ivory Tower" by Nancy Baron, and some discussion on Compass Online, and the book site. 

The center of the message box, or The Issue, focuses your whole talk, and is where you define the issue.  Around that focal point are the four major points of the message box- So What?  The Problem?  The Benefit?  and Solutions?- which all relate back to the issue at hand.  "So What?" describes why your audience should car about the issue.  "The Problem?" looks at the specific part of the broader that you are addressing, your piece of the puzzle, if you will.  "Solutions?" talks about possible solutions to the problem.  "Benefits?" addresses how the solutions you propose might benefit society. 

For my research, my message box might look something like this:

The Issue-  Amphibian populations are showing declines globally, and the causes remain elusive.
So What?-  Frogs and salamanders are voracious predators of insects that cause problems for humans, like mosquitoes, and they are a large source of food for other species that we enjoy, like birds, fish, and small mammals.
The Problem?-  Invasive plants are changing habitats, and homogenizing ecosystems, both of which could lead to a loss of diversity and may play a part in amphibian declines.
Solutions?-  Possible solutions include better prioritizing of conservation resources, control and elimination of invasive species, and monitoring of amphibian populations.
Benefits?-  When we conserve amphibians, we gain great little insect-eating machines, which lessens our need for pesticides and slows the spread of some diseases, and maintains the integrity of various habitats by ensuring continued diversity. 

It needs some work, I'll admit, but making myself think about how to say things, and how to express the importance of research is good practice, right?