May Women Wear Hats Indoors?

Well, this post was prompted by my boss informing me that teachers in my school district are not allowed to wear hats indoors. I had received many compliments on my hats from my colleagues, students, and their parents, as they were classy, elegant, and well-coordinated with the rest of my professional attire.

When an adult is elegantly or classily dressed, this has traditionally included a hat. We are no longer in the hippy or grunge generation, both of which temporarily eclipsed the wearing of hats with a much more casual, uncovered head look, along with helping to create a concomitant increase in skin cancer. Hats are, however, making a comeback. They are increasingly being seen on the heads of many fashionable, professional people.

If one looks at milliner's websites or reads etiquette books, unlike hat etiquette for men, ladies most certainly do wear their hats indoors. Traditionally-styled women's hats (as opposed to gender-neutral baseball caps and cowboy hats) are considered a fashionable part of a woman's complete daytime outfit, and as such, remain on the head both indoors and outdoors.

"Hat head" results when ladies remove their hats, is often unattractive and may also look unprofessional. Personally, I'm embarrassed by hat head and would prefer to look both nice and professional. Unlike my employer, hat etiquette spares ladies like myself this embarrassment by allowing us to keep our hats on indoors, since many of us do wear them outdoors to prevent skin cancer (which, in my case, runs in my family).

Wearing hats outdoors is healthy, and they do help prevent skin cancer. Please don't say, "Well, you can always wear sunscreen." Up to approximately 56% of liquids that you put on your skin, including lotions like sunscreen, are absorbed into one's bloodstream and go directly to the major organs. I prefer to cover my head with a hat, rather than expose my body to nasty chemicals. Hats are passive solar protection that keep you warm in winter, cool in summer and help prevent skin cancer. Some hats even carry an SPF 50+ label, the highest possible SPF rating for a hat.

The American Cancer Society has stated that 1 in 5 people will develop some form of the fastest growing type of cancer in America: skin cancer. Most people receive most of their sun exposure before age 18, and skin cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer in young women ages 25-29. Therefore, schools should encourage all of their students to wear hats, as a form of preventive medicine.

I believe that teachers model, not only learning behaviors, but proper personal hygiene and dress, as well as interpersonal behavior. Hats can be used to teach history, manners, and etiquette. As teachers are models of behavior for their students, shouldn't we be modeling the idea that wearing hats is cool and fashionable, as well as a useful protection against skin cancer?

My classroom behavior program also includes teaching traditional signs of respect, such as the custom that boys and gentlemen wait to allow girls and ladies the chance to enter a room ahead of them. All children stop to allow an adult to pass in front of them, as a sign of respect. The entire behavioral emphasis in my classroom is one of respect, consideration and encouragement of others. I have taught my students ladies' hat etiquette, as well. I have done all of this, without the distraction, but the assistance of a hat worn atop my head, both outdoors and indoors.

What are your thoughts about all of this? Should employers continue to go against traditional rules of etiquette and forbid female employees to wear hats indoors, as part of the dress code? Should employers change their dress code to allow, or even encourage, their employees to wear hats as a form of preventive medicine? At the same time, should they also follow the traditional custom of hat etiquette and allow their female employees to wear their hats indoors so as to spare them the embarrassment of hat head?

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Here's part of an online ad for fashion-trendy hats for women:
"...Proudly carries Betmar's CCMAC 50+ SPF tag, in association with The Colette Coyne Melanoma Awareness Campaign. Hats are in, Save your skin, Be sunsmart!" (http://www.delmonicohatter.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=HATWOM)

Here's the Colette Coyne Melanoma Awareness Website:
http://www.ccmac.org/our_story.html

The North Pacific Gyre - the Texas-Sized Plastic Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean

Please watch this 7 minute, 20 second talk from TED (which is my favorite website to visit to learn new and interesting things):



Reduce - Reuse - Recycle. BYOB - Bring Your Own Bag...to the store, any store, when shopping. Buy a reusable bottle and carry your liquids in it, instead of using innumerable plastic bottles. Do anything you can to avoid using plastic. This includes the much-beloved balloons people, especially children, love and which frequently fly away to parts unknown...ending in the guts of both land and ocean animals who thought they were food, to their demise. When you avoid plastics, you'll help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to boot.

In the same vein, avoid polyester fabrics, buy cotton and linen clothing and linens, buy vintage or antique items. Go to your neighborhood thrift store, contribute to a charity, reuse things and help save our environment at the same time! My favorite thrift store is Savers! I also love e-Bay, as this is a great marketplace for vintage and antique items. What's cool, is that the things you buy have a history, instead of just buying something new, using it, and then throwing it away. Bonus...products produced from natural sources tend to be much healthier for our bodies and our environment. The same thing goes for what you ingest and put on your skin. Chemicals found in shampoos, lotions and underarm deodorants like aluminum, parabens and sodium laurel/laureth sulfates are not good for people. Up to and around 56% of what you put on your body is absorbed directly into your blood stream and is ferried straight into your body's major organs. Genetically modified organisms are not good for us and most people have never even heard of them, never mind know just how many of the products that they eat contain them. The gyre is simply the tip of the iceburg.

Also watch the great, fast-paced 20-minute animated video on the stuff we buy, sell and use in our daily lives. Look for it further down the sidebar of this blog. It's from http://www.storyofstuff.com/.

Violence in Mexico

The United States hasn't been serious about the violence in Mexico because it would hurt our own government and corporate economic interests. Decades of putting our heads in the sand and a refusal to use a combination of diplomacy and economic sanctions to pressure the Mexican government to fight corruption and reign in their drug cartels, have all contributed to the anarchy and violence that is spilling over the border into our own country. Instead, we pushed fair trade and our corporations built manufacturing plants. "Fair" trade and human rights don't generally go hand-in-hand.

Let's close our manufacturing plants in Mexico. The Mexican government cannot protect the maquiladoras who work in them - over 470 women and girls have been killed in Juarez, Mexico. Over 100 journalists have been killed by drug cartel people, some of the victims thrown to the lions...literally. Over 1,600 people, including US journalists and citizens, were kidnapped and killed just last year. The corrupt government of Mexico can't and won't control its criminals and allows them to act with impunity, because the criminals also include the police, military and government officials, themselves. At the end of this post, please read the more detailed information on the inexplicable arrest of over 45 women in San Salvador Atenco, Mexico. Many of them were tortured and repeatedly raped by their arresting officers and held for over a week without bail. The government has purposefully refused to pursue any investigation of these arrests, rapes, tortures, and detentions since they occurred in May, 2006.

The United States government should recommend that all US corporations and non-profits discontinue all operations and pull their employees out of Mexico for their safety. We can use the production jobs to increase our own GDP and humanitarian assistance here in our own country during own rough fiscal times, anyway. Our country should refuse to send any aid or assistance to Mexico until the government pursues the prosecution and detention of all guilty parties involved in the drug cartels, violence and human rights violations in their country. This should help motivate the Mexican government to actually do something significant about the violence. We should be doing something to protect American citizens in border towns on our side of the border, as well. Our reporters and government should also be telling American citizens the truth about the extremely high levels of violence being perpetrated right on our doorstep!

Check out some of the interesting first-hand accounts of life in Juarez, Mexico and across from it in El Paso, Texas, USA on this CNN blog:
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/26/this-is-not-the-mexico-i-remember/

Information of the women of Atenco, Mexico, plus a request to write a politely-worded letter to Mexico's Attorney General demanding justice for these victims of human rights violations:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/individuals-at-risk/priority-cases/the-women-of-atenco/page.do?id=1361019

UPDATE 3/7/09
I just learned that an 18-year-old girl, a cousin of a collegue, was murdered by drug cartel members a week ago in Chihuahua, Mexico; she was an innocent bystander. My collegue has stated she would absolutely not travel to Mexico at this time because of the extent of the violence, much of which is not publicized north of the border to United States citizens. This violence includes grenades being thrown into crowds, as well as kidnappings for ransom. If you're thinking of traveling to Mexico, please think twice.

9-11 and Pearl Harbor Were Not the Only Attacks on US Soil

I was doing research on the Austro-Hungarian Empire when I came across the following information: the United States was attacked on its own soil by German saboteurs long before the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the World Trade Center or the multiple attacks on 9-11. During World War I, there were three attacks on American soil by German saboteurs.

The first was at the Black Tom munitions plant on Black Tom Island, part of Jersey City, NJ on July 30, 1916. German agents sabotaged ammunition supplies to prevent the Allies, especially the British, from using the American-made materials to continue their blockade of German troops during WWI. The first and largest ammunition explosion would have registered between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter scale, was felt as far away as Philadelphia, and was heard in Maryland and Connecticut. Fragments from the explosion tore into the Statue of Liberty (after which the arm was permanently closed to the public), and the concussion broke windows as far away as as Times Square in NYC. The explosion killed 4 people.

The successful attack at Black Tom emboldened German agents to stage a second attack on US soil at the Montreal-based Canadian Car and Foundry Company at Kingsland (now known as Lyndhurst), New Jersey. The Foundry had large munitions contracts with Britain and Russia. The Kingsland Explosion occurred in what is now known as the New Jersey Meadowlands on January 11, 1917 and leveled the entire munitions plant, which had been supplying arms to the Allies. Although Germany never admitted guilt in the Kingsland Explosion, the government paid reparations to the United States in the 1950's.

In March, 1917, the third sabotage attack was at the US Naval Shipyard at Mare Island, CA, 25 miles northeast of San Francisco, during which explosive-filled munitions barges exploded, killing 6 and injuring 31.

All three sabotage attacks were not publicized at the time, although President Woodrow Wilson, who had campaigned for re-election in 1916 on an anti-war platform, was well aware of them. He won re-election by a narrow margin. Had news of the first attack been widely publicized to American citizens, the results of this close election may have been different. Nevertheless, these escalating sabotage attacks by German agents on US munitions sites contributed to the decision made by the United States to join forces with the Allies and enter WWI on April 16, 1917.

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/607_sabotage.html

Mugabe's Zimbabwe: A Reign of Poverty, Hunger and Cholera

President Robert Mugabe refuses to step down, even though he lost the 2008 election. Since he came into office, Zimbabwe has experienced hyperinflation and a complete breakdown of its health care, agriculture, education, water treatment, energy, and other basic infrastructures. His policies have caused the starvation, illness and death of thousands of people, left many homeless and without jobs to earn a living wage. His ruling party has terrorized the population through the use of imprisonment, torture and death to enforce his will. Just a few days ago, Zimbabwe abandoned its currency to allow people to use other currencies to pay for goods and services, and to conduct business. The Zimbabwean government will be paying its workers in US Dollars.

In Zimbabwe, the cholera epidemic has already killed an estimated 3,000 people, and has rapidly become a global threat as Zimbabweans attempt to reach the safety and security of neighboring countries, predominantly as illegal immigrants. Those who travel to receive adequate medical care often die along the way, or soon after they reach overflowing hospitals.

Nearly 3 million people have left the country in the past decade. Those Zimbabweans who now want to legally leave the country can no longer afford the exorbitant passport fees. This affects many people, including those who were slated to go to University outside the country and business people who trade with neighboring countries for necessary goods. As for starvation in Zimbabwe, the World Food Program has estimated approximately 7 million people, or 75% of the population, need food aid. WFP has halved cereal rations in order to feed more people.

Hopefully, when the new unity, all-party government begins rule on February 13, 2009, many of these horrible problems will be addressed and eventually remedied. However, I'm not going to hold my breath.

For basic information on Zimbabwe, read this from the CIA Factbook:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html

For additional information, read this BBC News article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2776719.stm

This link will provide you with information about cholera:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82608

These IRIN articles are about the high passport fees and starvation:
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=82515
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82458
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82649

Beauty of Spirit and the Spirit of Age

This YouTube video of an 80-year-old woman dancing shows an incredible beauty of spirit, while also showing the spirit of age. Aging doesn't have to mean sitting back in your rocking chair, watching life pass you by, or worse, giving up on life. Spirit can also be shown in many more ways than dancing. As we age, it is up to each one of us to discover or create ways to allow our own spirits to dance.

Pay Equity for Women - Lillian Ledbetter Makes History!

In his first legislative act as the 44th President of the United States, President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on January 29, 2009. After decades of being paid less than men, with women now earning only approximately 78 cents to a male-earned dollar on average, American women can now more easily file suit for equal pay.

Although Lilly Ledbetter cannot benefit from this legislation to reclaim the lost $200,000 in lifetime earnings due to discriminatory pay practices at the Alabama Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, her persistence in getting this legislation passed and signed into law enables women now and in the future to sue their employers for pay equity. Lillian Ledbetter has positively changed the financial future for all American working women and their families. The Fair Pay Act is non-discriminatory, so if a man is not being paid equally, he can also sue for pay equity under this law.

As a woman who experienced both sexual discrimination and harassment (one of my bosses had the nerve to try to kiss me - yuk! and, how dare he!) in her earlier working life, and who earned less than a man for doing the exact same work (I was actually told by my boss it was because the man had to support his family), I commend Lillian Ledbetter for valiantly fighting for passage of this landmark federal legislation.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1874954,00.html

http://www.infoplease.com/spot/equalpayact1.html

President Obama, a Third Culture and Cross-Cultural Adult, is Changing the World!

Our society, our economy, and our future are all changing rapidly. The fluidity of the global economy and the continuous, extensive migration of people around the world have blurred cultural lines, creating a new type of citizen. Their numbers are exponentially increasing, so they are rapidly becoming the norm. These people significantly impact the educational systems of the country in which they are growing up and, as adults, the business, political, cultural, and economic structure of the country in which they choose to live and work. They are changing the world, since they live in almost every country on our planet.

President Barack Obama is probably the most famous Third Culture Kid (TCK)/Cross-Cultural Kid (CCK); and he grew up as both. TCK's are children who spend a large amount of their formative years growing up outside of their parents' culture. These kids have also been known as Army Brats, Missionary Kids, Cross-Cultural Kids, global nomads, or children of expatriates. Their birth culture is their first culture; their second is their new culture; and their third is the combined culture they create by integrating the first two cultures, forming something completely new and different. TCK's have different relationships with each of their cultures than would someone who has only lived in one culture. Many TCK's grow up never having a feeling of home, or belonging, anywhere they live because they are not from just one culture. Some TCK's make the world their home and flourish, as has President Obama.

"A Cross-Cultural Kid (CCK) is a person who has lived in—or meaningfully interacted with—two or more cultural environments for a significant period of time during developmental years.” - CCK definition and subgroups by Ruth E. Van Reken, co-author Third Culture Kids: The Experience of Growing Up Among Worlds. There are many sub-types of CCK, including children of immigrants, minorities and refugees, so I'm including this link for you to check them out and learn more:
http://www.tckid.com/crossculturalkid.html

The majority of students in my own classroom are TCK, CCK or both. In fact, I lovingly call my class a mini-United Nations. My students hail from Eastern Europe, Central and South America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. I, myself, am an adult TCK/CCK with many friends who are also members of this diverse group, so I understand many of my student's issues and how they may feel.

Growing up as a CCK/Domestic TCK, I experienced differences in language, accents and dialect, climate, geography, educational curriculum within the same grade level, and culture. Whenever I opened my mouth to speak, I was easily identified as other than a local. I also have a completely different life experience and survival skill set than do others who were born and raised in one place and culture. As a result of my childhood experiences, I never feel totally at home, because I'm not from any one place, often feel restless to move again, and tend to feel more comfortable in the company of other other "travelers." I resist the idea of moving because I know that I'll experience the same restless feeling wherever I go, as well. I've learned that home is where you currently live, wherever that may be, not where you're from. Another benefit of my experience is that I love to travel, meet new people, and learn about and experience other cultures.

Political, business and educational leaders should learn as much as they can about TCK/CCK folks like us, as we often think and learn differently, and have different social and cultural issues than do those in the traditional "monoculture" of the country in which we live, and we will affect the culture and climate of your society, office and classroom.

For more information on TCK's, please check out this link:
http://www.tckworld.com/

To better understand a TCK/CCK, please read The Story of Mr. Roundhead:
http://www.tckworld.com/rndhead/home.html

Here is a link to a TIME article about another influential TCK, Kevin Conrad, who stood up to the United States during the Dec. 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia, saying, "If, for some reason, you're not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please, get out of the way!" The US backed down, opening the way for creation of the new Bali Action Plan.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1841778_1841779_1841795,00.html