Finding Tomorrow’s Heroes in Today’s World

What’s a sappy last post without a cliche title? It’s the end, my friends. Grab some popcorn and dig in.

Continue reading “Hiding in Plain Sight” →

All human life should be respected and protected. End of story. Or is it? This statement continues to rise up in discussions all over not just America but the Globe. Why is this such a controversial topic? Why can we not agree on which lives matter? I think the biggest obstacle to these assertions is ourselves. We as a society tend to get stuck in our ways. I know that when I feel strongly about something, I can tend to have tunnel vision. It’s human nature! However, if everyone is stuck, that means there is no movement forward. With the way the world is today (school shootings, climbing suicide rates, etc.) it can be easy to be numb to the death around us. I can personally attest to this phenomenon. I believe that each individual person has an undeniable right to their own life that no one can infringe on. If we continue to look at this concept as we are currently, life itself will lose its meaning.

Before we continue, let’s get to know each other. I’ll start. My name is Sarah, my favorite color is blue, and I have a small kitten that attacks me with love every time I come home. That’s all well and good, but you still don’t know anything about me. These are surface-layer facts that are not as consequential. Sometimes we tend to go about arguing through these means. We take the readily available information and run with it. I know I’m not immune to it. For example, I am an older sister. Oldest of three girls, to be exact. This means I grew up with a good amount of arguments and debates ranging from trivial to more trivial. There have been an embarrassing number of instances where we fought over what shirt belonged to whom. I would get frustrated that she was wearing my shirt, and she would insist it was hers.

In our first arguments, we would ping-pong back and forth over whose it was in that annoying cliché of “nuh uh, uh huh” for what felt like hours on end. (Let’s be real, it probably didn’t last more than five minutes, but eight year-olds—whatyagonnado with them?) At some point sooner than later, we learned this did nothing but annoy each other (still a win) and got us into serious trouble with our parents (not a win).  We ventured into the art of debate at this point. If we presented our case with logical facts, surely the other sister would concede. Unfortunately for me and what I’m sure many oldest siblings deal with, this mature concept soared above my younger sisters’ heads. This resulted in me calmly (for the most part) stating my “case” and my sister yelling back without even listening to me! You get the picture.

As we grow older, we learn more effective and efficient ways to live our lives. One of these journeys we go through is learning how to state what’s bothering us or what we disagree with without causing an uproar. The kicker is, though, that a surprising amount of people never progress past the last phase I discussed. Now, I want you to think about something for a second. What if both sides looked at it like my cool, calm, and collected ten-year-old self did? How do we get groups on opposite end of the spectrum to come to understand one another? Before I get too John Lennon-y, hear me out. Most of the world’s most polarizing controversies stem from each side not fully listening to the other. Whether we want to believe it or not, there is merit in every side to the story. As we “mature”, it is more and more important that you listen to every side before making a decision. I would strongly suggest reading the article liked in the opening paragraph. It provides evidence as to why we can be so strong-willed. The article did MRI-scans on people while challenging their strong beliefs. The researchers found the part of the brain that had the most activity was the section believed to “correspond with self-identity and negative emotions”.

Back to the point: life. Specifically: the Pro Life Movement. What comes to mind when you read that phrase? I’d be willing to bet it would be about Roe v. Wade. This isn’t an incorrect assumption; it is just not the full answer. I’m writing to implore you to open your mind to the circumstances surrounding the Pro-Life issue. We’re here to expand the definition of “pro-life”.

To be pro-life does not just mean anti-abortion; it provides respect for all human life in its entirety.

We all believe in Human Rights, right? Limiting them for any reason would be not be okay, right? If we decide when people become real people, we’re no better than the horrible groups who enforced slavery, segregation, and other dehumanizing behavior. We can see this in Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World, where he displays a dystopian society where human work and life has very little meaning.

This brings us to our next point: society is used to death. I know everyone responds to death and grief in their own way, but it affects our overall outlook on life. It makes sense! We’re reminded of our own mortality and become extremely morbid creatures. We can see a glimpse of this in the literature of today and past. While Brave New World painted a disturbing picture of humans being empty shells to be sedated and used, Fahrenheit 451 was written much earlier and still represents some of the same eerie themes. In Ray Bradbury’s novel, one of the characters (Mildred) attempts suicide! To make things more unsettling, this event is nearly glossed over. Written off as something that “happens”. I think that these two books could have occurred in the same universe. The conversation would flow easily with any one in Huxley’s novel asking Bradbury’s about soma, Mildred responding with the talk of their television shows. Maybe they’d talk about their respective cultures being a perfect society with order and happiness even though it’s plain to see that’s not the case. Anyway! Back on topic. Death changes people. I know this personally happened to my sister and me. We lost both of our grandfathers within a month of each other. We had to go through all of the pain and grief twice. As a direct result of this, my sister and I have a funny relationship with death, almost a mocking one. Add that tragedy to the way our world is acting right now, and you get what our society is quickly becoming: numb. It’s a twisted way to think. With this being said, why add to the violence? Why take more lives? We as a society need to wake up and see that this shouldn’t go on further.

Now let’s talk about what we aren’t lobbying for: the defunding of programs like PlannedParenthood. For those who think this is only an abortion clinic, I strongly recommend you keep reading! I, too, was under the impression that these programs were the problem. However, Planned Parenthood actually provides affordable healthcare to women more than they facilitate pregnancy terminations.

This is especially important in low income neighborhoods. Women can go to clinics like these to get their mammograms, pap smears, etc. As noted by the chart, the program treats sexually transmitted diseases as well. When women get regular physicals and check-ups, they are less likely to die from women’s health related issues like cervical or breast cancer. I think we can all agree a culture of cancer-free women is a winning one.

So we talked about protecting the rights of the unborn, let’s move on to our next segment. Being pro-life means you protect all human life from birth to death. This means that to be truly pro-life you must not support the death penalty. There is no getting around it. I fully understand that the victims of these inmates usually are the biggest advocates for the “capital punishment”, but we need to reconsider. If it’s justice that’s called for, let the punishment be justified. Who are we to determine who lives and dies? Another factor in this equation is the startling percentages of wrongly-convicted inmates. With no death penalty, at least these convicts would have more time to be proven innocent. For more information, please do some reading on deathpenaltyinfo.org. It has a running list of all of the death row inmates that have been exonerated as recently as last month. Just a skim of their fact sheet shows that “A 2009 poll commissioned by DPIC found police chiefs ranked the death penalty last among ways to reduce violent crime. The police chiefs also considered the death penalty the least efficient use of taxpayers’ money.” I am aware that an argument for the death penalty is the horrible overcrowding in our prisons, but thinning the numbers by death is not the most ethical option. In fact, a much more practical solution to the overcrowding would be to rehabilitate those who are not a danger to society and themselves. Specialized drug courts have proven to be instrumental in the rehabilitation of inmates back into society. If we can help other inmates become valuable members in the community, we can save the bunks in prison for those who are a danger to the community.

Today’s world has made a shift uncomfortably close to that of being oblivious to the death of its people. Even with the tragedies that occur every day, we cannot become numb to it. Life is a gift! Think of how the world reacts when a public figure takes their own life. Suddenly, everyone shares how beautiful life is and how we can’t take it for granted. Why do we only have this mindset for this circumstance? We as a human race should always have the protection of human rights in our best interest. We protect the unborn because they don’t have the voice to do so themselves. We advocate for the imprisoned as we would want someone to do for us. I’m not saying it will be easy. That’s why looking at the issue from all sides is so important. From a distance, it can seem easy to just assign it into another “controversial topic” not to bring up at the dinner table. We need to stop making the right to life a controversy. We see the topic in our literature. These books are clearly exaggerated, but imagine a world that emulated the ignorance of 451 or the horrifying passivity of Brave New World. That is why we must stay awake. Don’t let our world become catatonic. If you’ve made it this far down the page, we’re getting somewhere.

“It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for all people.”

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

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I am Woman. Hear me Roar.

The rise of feminist movements has taken the world of media by storm. It’s as if the world looked at their products and went, “Wow.. we are missing the mark on HALF OF THE POPULATION.. wonder why?”

As a nation, the United States has a bad track record for using advertisements that perpetuate sexist stereotypes. I’m not just talking about years ago when sexism was okay (note: it wasn’t). Companies have used the objectification of women to sell products as recent as the last few years. Don’t believe me? I dare you to fall into that black hole of “Sexist ads recently”. 

But! More importantly, the country and world has stepped their game up. We have seen the creation of empowering adverts and slogans for women of all ages. I will be analyzing two of these to determine which is the most effective in a later post. But for now, I’m unveiling the two I chose.

The first I will be analyzing is the iconic Always #LikeAGirl campaign.

I chose this because it was the first time I was struck emotionally by an advertisement. I know, I know. Sarah McLachlan’s voice over a slideshow of homeless animals never jerked a tear from my eye. So in this project, I want to ask why? Why did I cry? Was that their purpose? Rhetorically, it’s a dream. It’s got emotional appeals galore and a call to action!! in the middle of a commercial for feminine hygiene products!! In fact, you don’t even know what the ad is selling you until the end.. but it works!!

The next visual text I will be analyzing isn’t another feminine hygiene commercial. This ad is effective in its own way. For my second commercial, I will be diving into the Barbie: Imagine the Possibilities ad from Mattel.

As anyone would know, the doll has come under fire in recent years for the unrealistic body and beauty Barbie has. However, the company re-branded and saw a new angle to try. In this ad, they show young girls acting in adult scenarios with real people reacting. This is all captured by hidden cameras. Eventually, the ad cuts to the young girls reenacting the situations with their dolls.

Although these two products are not so similar, they correlate greatly. Both ads are bringing this question to the table: why are young girls being confident so striking?

Both are utilizing the “shock” value that young girls differ from the rest of the population. The prepubescent girls on the Always commercial are confident in their abilities and haven’t come to the sad realization that “like a girl” is used negatively yet. The Barbie advert depicts real world adults being amused by a young girl’s confidence in a mature role. The common theme is what happens later in life? Clearly the reason we see their behavior as amusing and odd is because we don’t expect it. In the coming weeks, I hope to dive further into this topic, as well as break down what makes these advertisements so effective.

Stay tuned!

How ridiculous is it that this my personal blog that I have control over and I can’t find a way to start it?

Well. There’s my opener.

Continue reading “Power of Language” →

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton