Today is something much bigger than 420

Today is the anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado.

I distinctly remember that day. I was nine and living in Iowa at the time. It was just two months before our family's move to Florida.

I had just gotten off the school bus after the last few days of the 4th grade, when I walked into the kitchen and saw my mother. She was watching the small television we had over the counter, and she was visibly upset. I remember seeing the television and seeing some of the images that are synonymous with Columbine even today.

Groups of students running out from the tan brick building, shielded by the SWAT team and police officers. Bloody victims hurling out of broken windows. People crying, news casters solemn.

It was the first time I can remember hearing the terrifying term, "school shooting."

To all of you celebrating "420" today, I challenge you to instead remember the victims of the 10 year anniversary of one of the most indelible marks on American history.

If you want to read more, check out this article by CNN.

Wtf Pope?

Can someone tell me why, in Africa, a country where more than 22 million people are infected with HIV, nine out of 10 children with HIV in the world live in the region, which has 11.4 million orphans because of AIDS, and 1.5 million people there died of the disease in just 2007, the Pope BANS condom use?

click here to read the article

I've never understood the religious stance on banning contraception, especially in a place where more people have a sexually transmitted disease than clean water. I'll give the Vatican props, they are the largest private supporter of HIV/AIDS treatment in Africa. However, if they put so much financial support into helping the sufferers of HIV and AIDS, why wouldn't they want to take the necessary steps to help the people in Africa slow the spread of it?

I find it ignorant and irresponsible to hold the same morals of a time when HIV and AIDS did not exist.

EDIT:

love the commentary by this guy on CNN.com

7 reasons why I probably hate your facebook status

I, like most other college students, am mildly obsessed (yes, obsessed) with my facebook profile.

However, sometimes when I read my news feed, it makes me want to reach through my internet cables and suckerpunch half of my facebook "friends".

I have compiled the following:

1. The I-have-no-friends-so-text-me status
"X is bored. Text it. ###-###-####"
First of all, didn't your mother ever tell you not to post your personal information on the internet? Further more, if you have to beg your friends to text you, you should probably invest in some new friends.

2. ANYTHING involving "Twilight" status
Yes, we know, you love Edward Cullen. What is that you say? Everyone isn't in love with a fictional vampire? Yes, we all have/had our celebrity crushes (I was in love with Zac Hanson until I was like... 16), but planning your wedding with a fictional character? You need therapy, stat.

3. the "X IS SO SCHMAMMERED" status
Its friday night, you're drunk. awesome. Do I care? No. & "schmammered" might be the most obnoxious word ever.

4. The song lyrics status
Put down your razors, emo kids. I've never understood why people tap dance around their feelings with obscure song lyrics. You THINK that Pete Wentz and the rest of Fall Out Boy wrote specifically about your break-up with your lame high school boyfriend, but really, no they didn't. Get over it.

5. The i-feel-the-need-to-update-my-status-500-times-per-day status
you're walking your dog, molly. You're going to the mall. You're hanging out with Tina. and then OMG the Jonas Brothers are on MTV. I don't care. Check your newsfeed. If you have more than 5 status updates per day, you are abusing the facebook status privilege.

6. The I!! am!!! so!!!! excited!!!! about!!! every!!!! status!!!!! I!! have!!!! status
A million exclamation points does not make you look intelligent.

7. The passive aggressive facebook status
Now, can you expect that the object of your hatred is going to see your status, figure out it is them, alter their behavior accordingly and all will be well? Nope, probably not. Probably will never happen. Broadcasting such on your status is more than likely ineffective.

1)
2)
(statuses courtesy of passiveaggressivenotes.com)






p.s. I am probably guilty of one or all of these at one point in my facebook career (except Twilight. Twilight sucks). Just sayin'.

Can you have a mid-life crisis at 19?

More often than not when people ask me my major and I tell them "journalism", I get negative reactions.

I will agree that the newspaper industry is on a heavy decline, and typically writers don't fall into the highest income bracket. Becoming a writer takes a lot of work, frusteration, rejection by editors, and, if you're a perfectionist like me, long hours to perfectly articulating your thoughts on paper (or blogosphere).

I'm stuck right now deciding whether I want to dive headfirst into a publicly crumbling industry.

Props to all of you medical or finance majors, your job security is much higher than mine. You will get to work your 9-5 desk job, come home every night to your suburban house, and, provided the economy builds back up, collect your 401k and retire here in southwest Florida like the rest of corporate America.

I spoke to one of my professors today not looking for the definitive answers to my questions, but just a little insight. She told me that journalism is a tough career and like anything else, worth pursuing if it is something you're passionate about.

I'm not interested in society's textbook definition success, I just want to be happy.

Is that so much to ask?

My God I think I'm becoming a liberal.

I was working on yet another one of my professor's abstract demands in regards to writing a paper, and as always her topics always lead me off on a tangent I become mildly obsessed with. First, it was my two-week Nietzsche obsession and now it is the concept of "culture jamming".

In my quest for books in the FGCU library, I came across a book by Kalle Lasn titled "Culture Jam". The topic of my paper was "my generation" and my generation is very culturally connected, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Despite the dated references to President Clinton and "eventually in the year 2003", it was a still very relevent book to 2009.

I did some googling (I love how "googling" doesn't come up on my macbook's system-wide spell check) on the author, and I found Lasn's Canadian based website Adbusters.org. Basically, it is a network of creative, and, dare I say, liberals who have a passion for "culture jamming".

Let me define.

Culture jamming is best defined more as an art movement. A group of people who poke fun at popular culture and promote civic engagement.

Basically, get your True Religion Jeans wearing butt off the couch, away from your 50" Sony plasma screen TV, turn off the latest episode of The Hills(I love making fun of that show), and go stand up for something you believe in.

The thought of culture jammers is that America has evolved into a brand, overcome by capitalism and its citizens are grossly consuming anything corporate America shoves down their throats. (They call televisions "idiot boxes"... love it!)

I personally enjoy the corporate flag they sell in their online store, pictured above. Instead of "stars & stripes" they call it "brands & bands".

Don't get me wrong, I'm just as guilty of falling into the corporate cult as anyone else. It is incredibly difficult to find your way out of the superficially obsessed society that most of us grew up in.

Take a look at what they have to say, its interesting.

What a day!

Every eight years, January 20th is one of the most important days of our calendar year.

This morning, Americans ate their breakfast under the leadership of one President and will go to sleep lead by another. The inauguration today was profoundly historic and despite President Obama's fumble on the oath, (Who could blame him? Talk about nerve wracking), I was elated to have participated in the election that put our 44th President in office.

I was out the other night, when I heard a comment from a girl that really caught me off guard. I was at dinner with some friends, and a girl I didn't know well made a comment regarding the election. She barely looked up mid-text messaging and said, "Oh the Inauguration is Tuesday? I thought it already happened. Oh well, I could care less who our President is. I didn't vote, I'm not even registered. I don't care. I don't wanna be bothered with stuff like that, I have better things to worry about."

Now, I get that not every person that voted in the 2008 election can recite the preamble on command or know the names of every senator in Congress in backwards alphabetical order.

But really, is it that painful to flip to CNN while The Hills goes on commercial break?



a quote by the former President who inspired much of Obama's inauguration today:

"Let us at all times remember that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling."
--Abraham Lincoln

Why I think Starbucks is evil (& you should too).

My last post inspired me to explain why it is I haven't had a cup of Starbucks coffee in the past three months.

I saw this film in my documentary filmmaking class called "Black Gold" (for the movie's website, click here). The basic synopsis of the film is to give the audience a look into the production of coffee and its import from Africa.

here's the trailer:

Black Gold:


In the United States, it is no secret that a vast majority of our goods are imported from overseas where often raw materials and labor are significantly cheaper. While we know sweatshops and impoverished countries exist, it is easy to not fully understand the exploitation that happens to produce that $4 grande caramel macchiato.

One of the most powerful scenes in the film for me showed a mother in Ethiopia bringing her child to one of the medical stations in her village. Doctors had set up a tent in the village to help the impoverished families get the medical care they needed for their children. The doctors weighed the fragile, bony, frightened dying toddler and gave her mother their decision. Her child was dying, but not dying "enough" and because of lack of resources was denied medical care.

Her mother spent hours a day sorting coffee beans, making about $2 a week in salary. The coffee she helped produce was then purchased by the kilo from companies such as Starbucks, where they turn a profit in the United States for nearly 10 times what they purchase it for.

From that day on, I haven't had a single cup of Starbucks coffee.

I'm well aware that Starbucks isn't the only company that lends a hand in the exploitation of overseas workers, and to fully boycott everything would be next to impossible.

It is only my one, tiny little way of making a difference.

Besides, Starbucks coffee sucks.