So how’s ‘community’ experienced at Aptos churches & coffee houses?

The most important things in life, as you know,  cannot be bought and one of those is a sense of  ‘community’.   People experience   ‘community’ variously – one way is by participating in  a church.

Another way  is by   going to a coffee house with  or without  friends. So how is ‘community’ experienced variously in Aptos ?  How’s   it working or not working where you live and work?

Churches — which typically meet once a week — are one way people experience  ‘community’. Below are 3 examples of how ‘community’ is  currently celebrated variously by  three Aptos, CA churches. Some ways work better than others at creating   ‘community’.

1)    In some churches, people attending   services  look  like masked bandits,  everyone  stays  carefully 6′ apart and most   leave   the premises  as soon  as services are over. No singing and no touching or hugging others is encouraged.

2)  Church attendees connect only  via the Internet  with  Zoom type meetings offered.  All in-person church related meetings which existed prior to the pandemic have been cancelled.

3) Some thing  different from the above two.      Some  people wear masks   and most  do  not.  Plenty of chit chat and  ‘how are you?’ conversation afterwards  with flexible  social distancing.  Things sort of start on time with considerable attention to the needs of children.   People recognize and welcome each other by name.    Lots of families  are present  with lots of children interacting  informally.  Consideration is given about   issues related to  the pandemic with few hard and fixed rules.

Resurrection Catholic  fits into category #1.    In-person services continue at  Resurrection Catholic in Aptos, CA.  Resurrection Catholic now   goes out of doors to celebrate community,    It  celebrates services outdoors   during the week (Tues. -Fri at 10 am) and also   out of doors on weekends (Sat at 5  pm and Sun. 10:15 am).  You can also attend services from home via Zoom or YouTube.   Important:  For in-person services,  be sure to bring and use your mask at Resurrection;  you may have difficulty knowing who is standing 6 feet away from you. People leave services without much chit chat. You need to make a reservations ahead of time to attend Sat. 5 pm and Sun. 10:15 services.  Click the link in the paragraph above for reservations.

St. John’s Episcopal  fits into category #2.   There’s still no in-person services held  by the  Episcopalians in Aptos, CA.    Located across Highway #1 off State Beach Drive (next to the new skateboard park in Aptos) , the Episcopalians offer   Zoom services only   to create ‘community’.  For their most recent Zoom service, click HERE.    There’s no mention in  St. John’s most recent e-news   when in-person community services  will occur.  No in-person meetings of any kind are happening currently.  Mother Tracy puts out a weekly email concerning worship services for the coming week.

Trinity Covenant Church (TCC)   fits into category #3.     Trinity Covenant  offers several  ways to connect on Sundays either  in-person  or  via Zoom on the internet.  Trinity Covenant,  located just off highway #1 and Seascape Blvd,  holds  weekly  service on Sundays at 10 AM.

Services ‘sort of’ start on time. Cars and people float  into the church  parking lot and building with the service largely starting  close to  10 AM.     Well behaved children get up during the service to get paper, pencils and crayons.    People  sit  (some wear masks, many do not)  either  inside the   building,  outside at patio tables, in their cars in the parking lot or hear the service from home via Zoom.  There’s live music  with singing and  Troy Martin, the pastor,  preaches from a raised area  in the auditorium.   Families sit together (lots of children)  with substantial social distancing in between families.    People ‘say hi’ and chat informally   after services.  Newcomers are recognized and welcomed readily.   A number of  church families  recently  returned from time together at Big Sur, CA.

And what about  how ‘community’ as experience in  coffee houses in Aptos?  Pacific Coffee Roasting Co comes first to mind with Norma Jean’s Coffee a close second.  Yes there are plenty of other coffee houses.

The Pacific Coffee Roasting House keeps all things flexible.  There are a few tables inside.  You used to be able to bring your own mug and now you cannot.  You have to wear a mask inside but not outside on the patio.   Located near the Aptos library, next door to Frank’s Pharmacy  and within walking distance of a Best Western motel, you will hear various languages spoken on the patio outside Pacific Coffee Roasting Co.   Most people do not wear masks as they share conversation, food and company. With a Zamian’s restaurant a stone’s throw away the patio area attracts people throughout the day.  It’s a popular place in Aptos, CA  to experience ‘a sense of community’ without masks.

written by Cameron Jackson    DrCameronJackson@gmail.com

 

 

 

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open those schools? If they don’t … parents get choice where to send kids

 

 

 

Parents get  total choice where to send their children  — e.g.,  home school, charter school, religious schools, on-line –  if local  public schools do not re-open.  The  federal  money to assist schools  will follow the children with the parents making the decision.    So says Trump  on TV July 23.

Trump says:  American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that schools re-open.  Social isolation hurts children in multiple ways.    National Education Association says in-person learning is very important.  Due to school closures it’s estimated that children will be way behind in  both math and reading.  Children are largely not at risk from the virus i.e., they are less that 1 percent of those who get the corona  virus.

Strategy to re-open schools?  Shelter those at highest risk and those lowest to get back to school.  Says Trump.

on 7/23 Trump says that there’s $105 BILLION additional   dollars available for schools  for smaller school  classes, to re-purpose school  spaces, and so children  wear  masks and maintain social distancing.

Trump says:   If schools do not open, the $105 BILLION  new funding goes to parents  to send children to  schools of their choice.  The money will follow the students.  we cannot and must not  stop 50 million children from going to school says Trump.

Aptos Psychologist:   Charter schools in CA have been hard hit by recent legislation which  puts more control in the hands of local school board.  That the ‘money follows the children’ and parents make the decisions is great news. Local public schools have a monopoly and the best way to improve education is to create competition which puts kids first — not teachers and unions first.

written by cameronjackson@gmail.com

 

 

 

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new family values [LGBT sex-ed curriculum in Austin]

New  family values imposed in Austin, Texas:   Parents Outraged at Austin’s New Sex-Ed Curriculum That Trains Children to Become LGBT Activists

The Austin Independent School District (ISD) school board approved a radical new sex-education curriculum for grades 3-8 that encourages all kinds of sex at young ages, urges kids to join LGBT “pride” parades, and aims to redefine biological sex and erase the words “mom” and “dad” from children’s vocabulary.

More than 100 people testified against the new curriculum on Monday night, and testimony lasted until after midnight. Yet the school board unanimously approved the new curriculum.

“This vote by the Austin ISD Board sends a clear message: people of faith and traditional moral values are not welcome in Austin ISD,” David Walls, vice president of Texas Values and a parent in Austin ISD, said in a statement. “By passing this curriculum, Austin ISD has broken the sacred trust that parents put in their children’s schools. Austin ISD parents have no reason to entrust their children to a school district that weaponizes education to indoctrinate children into the LGBT political movement.”

In a document revealing the radical nature of the curriculum, Texas Values drew attention to materials for the Grades 3-5 curriculum that encourage children to abandon the terms “mother” and “father” or “mom” and “dad.”

“Use Gender Inclusive Language,” the curriculum advises teachers. “It is important to avoid terms which refer only to ‘male’ and ‘female’ identities when speaking with young children as this can limit their understanding of gender into binaries and can exclude children who may not identify within these identities. For example, when discussing family members or adults they may have in their life, try not to only use terms like ‘mom’ or ‘dad’. Try integrating words like, ‘parents’ or, ‘guardians’ to include children whose parents might not fit into ‘traditional’ concepts of family structures.”

_________________

Firenze Sage    how fast can you say Charter School?

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Project Pajamas — needs your help Sat., Oct 19, 2019 sorting & folding PJ’s for Santa Cruz kids

Can you help?  Project Pajamas,  started 10+ years  by Judge Ari Symons, needs your help.  Over the years,  over 10,000 PJs have been distributed throughout  Santa Cruz County.
Through Project Pajamas,  all kids needing sheltering in Santa Cruz County  receive a NEW pair of PJs the first night they are in emergency sheltering.   All sizes for girls and boys — infant to teenage  — are needed.

How  you can help:  

Drop off new  PJs from Oct 1-18, 2019 at:
  •   Santa Cruz County Bank locations (e.g., across  from Safeway in Aptos, CA ) or
  • at Twin Lakes Church (barrels are located  at entrance to  the church sanctuary). Robin is the admin contact person at TLC.
  Come SAT., OCT 19, 2019 9 am-11 am   to the Lobby of   Twin Lakes Church  in Aptos, CA.    Help other volunteers sort, fold and ready for distribution   of  PJ’s which have been  collected Fall 2019.  You can sign up to help  Project Pajamas at www.tlc.org/aok

Rotary Club Sunrise  and Twin Lakes Church (Robin is the admin  contact person)  have  been gathering PJs and publicizing. Many hands make light work.

Enjoy meeting other volunteers Sat. Oct. 19  and help bring comfort to kids needing sheltering in Santa Cruz County. 

Started by Judge Ari Symons, over 10,000 PJ’s have been distributed since the program started.  Wow!

Please help Project Pajamas to  continue its mission:   distributing brand new PJs to every child needing sheltering in Santa Cruz County.  These kids, infant to age 18,  need our love and support.

written by Cameron Jackson   JAJ48@aol.com

 

 

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wake up welfare mamas ? black, white, brown, whatever …. families need dads and jobs

All families need  dads  and a parent with a real job.  Get off the dole?

Welfare ‘mamas’ — black, white, brown, whatever  ‘color’ … the government welfare system rips families apart so they never start?  Since the 1960’s ….

Wake up black ‘mamas’.  Cherish your black babies.  Stop aborting them.  Take guns away from your black  boys and stop them from killing other blacks.  Celebrate ways to make families hang in there and keep  men present in the home. Say ‘no’ to dependency and government welfare.

And wake up ‘white pot head mamas!   The same  goes for all  white mamas ‘on the dole’.   In CA there’s 3-5 generations of white women who,   since the 1960’s,  made their  pin money via growing pot.    They live  on welfare and use  money from pot to pay for their life style.   Now the money has stopped because pot is legal in CA. Like the ‘black mamas’ these white welfare mamas continue to live on government welfare based on no fathers in the homes. The clock is ticking.

This also applies to  Hispanic ‘senoras’ and  ‘senoritas’.  In California — which is 40% Hispanic –   in certain cities such as Salinas, CA and Watsonville, CA  there’s low level,  continual gang warfare with  Hispanic gangs killing  other Hispanic gangs. It’s gotta be the woman who say No more …..

Let’s stop the killing of babies.  Black, white, brown, whatever color.

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documented in its Abortion Surveillance report for 2015 – released on Nov. 23, 2018 – there were 124,893 white abortions and 121,829 black abortions that year, a difference of 3,064 babies killed. (See Table 12.)

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The best and the brightest – not? [how not to hire a teacher & how to hire]

 

 

Can you add? Do basic division? Pass these questions?

So – who becomes a teacher?  And what better way to hire teachers?

The current method:  Can you add?  Know  some  basic division? Then maybe you can become a teacher … Questions for wanna-be teachers ask for a bit of  basic addition and division.

Here’s some examples of typical questions.

Here’s a question from a recent test given to college students in Michigan planning to become teachers: “Which of the following is largest? a. 1/4, b. 3/5, c. 1/2, d. 9/20.” Another question: “A town planning committee must decide how to use a 115-acre piece of land. The committee sets aside 20 acres of the land for watershed protection and an additional 37.4 acres for recreation. How much of the land is set aside for watershed protection and recreation? a. 43.15 acres, b. 54.6 acres, c. 57.4 acres, d. 60.4 acres”.

The Arizona teacher certification test asks: “Janet can type 250 words in 5 minutes, what is her typing rate per minute? a. 50wpm, b. 66wpm, c. 55wpm, d. 45wpm.” The California Basic Educational Skills Test asks the test taker to find the verb in the following sentence: “The interior temperatures of even the coolest stars are measured in millions of degrees. a. Coolest, b. Of even, c. Are measured, d. In millions”. A CBEST math question is: “You purchase a car making a down payment of $3,000 and 6 monthly payments of $225. How much have you paid so far for the car? a. $3225, b. $4350, c. $5375, d. $6550, e. $6398.”

OK — So what’s a  better to hire teachers?  Hire teachers  based on the discipline — what they are competent in — what  they learned in college.  A degree in biology  required to teach biology.  The ‘how to be a teacher’  stuff be learned on the side.

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Firenze Sage:   This is the best evidence for charter and voucher schools.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=four+more+obama+years

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sleep with your cell phone?

 

cell phone best not in your bed or your children’s beds.

Where to bed your cell phone?  Not next to you — or near your bed — so we hear.

The California Department of Public Health has warned the public long-term exposure to cell phones could cause health concerns, advising citizens to take steps such as keeping devices away from their beds at night.

 

In a statement, state public health officer Dr. Karen Smith declared, “We know that simple steps, such as not keeping your phone in your pocket and moving it away from your bed at night, can help reduce exposure for both children and adults.”

“Children’s brains develop through the teenage years and may be more affected by cellphone use,” Dr. Smith continued, adding, “Parents should consider reducing the time their children use cellphones and encourage them to turn the devices off at night.”

According to a report earlier this year, 45 percent of US children between the ages of ten and twelve own a smartphone with a service plan, while another report revealed that “42% of US children 8 and younger now have their own tablet devices.”

Movies:  For those who want to watch movies on their I-Phone, try the Criterion Channel which is part of FilmStruck so says the New York Times.

_______________________

Aptos Psychologist:

Sleep hygiene issues?   A regular bed time and no noise and little  light the hour before are standard assists for sleep.  Yes – turn off that cell phone.

Monerey Bay Forum

127 Jewell Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
United States (US)
Phone: 831 688 6002
Fax: 831 688 7717
Email: jaj48@aol.com
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does he/ she rub your back OK? What say FBI agents Page & Strzok & Mueller investigation of Trump

 

Does he/ she rub your back OK? Is that what Mueller’s FBI agents say?

Does he rub your back OK?     What over diner do  Mueller’s FBI agents Page and Strzok –involved in the Trump investigation –  say to spouses?  ‘Pass the peas?’

What do  FBI agents  Strzok and Page — both married to different people  –   say to their spouses  over dinner tonight (Dec. 13, 2017)   now that it  comes out what they have  been doing [having a sexual affair] and sending text  communications back and forth about their dislike of Trump. And how to save the country from a possible President Trump.

Do Page and Strzok  say, ‘Pass the peas?’  On Wed. FBI agent Page and her husband Barrow left  their home to do what they do, i.e, get children where they have to go.

Clearly,  Special Investigator Mueller did not check out the political  bias of those he put on his crack team.  Clearly Mueller did not do his homework.  Now it’s unraveling …  Why did Mueller put the lead FBI agent Stzok involved with the Clinton emails  [he sat in on the interviews and recommended changing the language so more supportive of Clinton] also on the team investigating Trump?  That was Mueller’s bad decision.

How does  the Page/ Strzok  sexual  affair and their communications back and forth impact the image of the FBI and  USA federal government. Both Strzok and Page were and are pro-Clinton and anti-Trump and have been  so for a long time.

And – very importantly also — how does the publicity about all this  impact their children and their families?

Yes – this info  may impact the Mueller investigation of Trump.

Right now it is such good drool humor about the inner workings of the prior Obama administration …. please keep more of it coming. Please don’t kill this investigation. Somewhere it will surface that Obama had a hand in all this.

written by Cameron Jackson

Monerey Bay Forum

127 Jewell Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
United States (US)
Phone: 831 688 6002
Fax: 831 688 7717
Email: jaj48@aol.com

 

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How help starving Venezuela children?

How help starving Venezuela children?   How get milk and food to starving children? See various links below you can contact.

The grim reality facing mothers in Venezuela:  “They say their children cry all day and they can only give them water.  They are dying.”  So says Maritza Landaeta coordinator of Caracas based non-profit Bengoa which works to aid Venezuelans in food and nutritional needs since 2000.

In some parts of the country 50% of  the children have left school because of hunger. The website Estimulo reports that the average person in Caracas Venezuela  has lost 30 pounds since the beginning of 2016.

The Catholic aid organization Caritas Venezuela estimates that 14.5% of children under age five suffer from moderate or severe malnutrition.

Food is controlled and votes are bought.  To receive food rations Venezuelans must carry a government issued license available only to those approved by the regime.

The above is based on an article 11/20/2017 in the Wall Street Journal  by Mary O’Grady Venezuela Is Starting Its People.

Cameron Jackson   drcameronjackson@gmail.com

 

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