28 Friday Oct 2011
Posted in Uncategorized
Hey, guys and gals!
If you are annoyed that I haven’t been upkeeping this particular blog, then you are not alone! I am, too. But this blog is no more. I have moved the majority of my blogging activities over to samwatsonmedia.com. There you can find any new post that i do- whether that be a written piece, podcast or short video. Go check it out!
Also, make sure to check out my new production company’s site: Forbidden Tuna Productions!
Thanks!
18 Tuesday Oct 2011
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Tags
anger, baseball, baseketball, culture, football, grumpya, hockey, philadelphia, philly, santa, Society, sports, the 76ers, the eagles, the flyers, the phillies
Phillies fans on the night of our 10,000th loss
Welcome back, Philly- you miserable old-timer! It’s been way too long. What? Three years? We can finally stop this charade. No more distractions. No more parades. Just the longing and heartbreak we’ve missed so much.
It was only in 2008, when the Phillies ascended into baseball heaven with their second ever World Series win. I’ll never forget how Brad Lidge’s perfect arm struck out the final batter, and threw me out my door into the celebrating crowds. Everyone was so happy. Strangers hugged without groping (somewhat). Everyone’s voices became martyrs, as they willingly gave their lives for the life of the only two words that mattered: “We win! We win!” And, sure, some people turned over trashcans and committed plant murder, but they were happy.
The night the Phillies won the World Series in 2008.
It was weird.
This was not the Philadelphia I knew. I strolled through the heart of my city and was lost. Where was I?
Well, okay, I passed by an overturned car on Broad street, and warmed my chilled hands over a newspaper bin someone set on fire. So, it was still Philly in some way.
I was born in 1985. I don’t blame my parents per se, but a part of me is jealous of the children who were born into the current golden-age of Philly baseball (and silver-age of Philly football?).
I don’t remember much about the 80s. I was only five when I escaped them. But, man. The 90s. The closest our sports teams ever got to a championship depended on how straight a pitcher nicknamed “Wild Thing” could throw a ball.
In our sports history, before 2008, we had won one World Series, zero Superbowls, two Stanley Cups (and, in Philly fashion, the team was nicknamed the Broad Street Bullies), and three NBA championships. None of which took place in the last 28 years.
So, please, forgive our frustrations, or don’t. We don’t really care, because we get grumpy. We threw snowballs at Santa and batteries at outfielder JD Drew. To be fair, though, the Eagles were losing big time that day, and everyone assumed that Santa wore red as a target. And the fan, who threw the battery at the Cardinal’s outfielder? Well, he was just a moron, who’ll never see another Phillies game in this city in person, again.
I’ve witnessed fights break out in the stands around me during baseball games. When we were in the midst of yet another losing game, the majority of fans didn’t simply go home. We booed, spat, cussed, punched and kicked through our frustrations.
After 2008, we were still as passionate as ever. Our fans have been known to shut down all-star pitchers just by the sheer volume of our voices. But there’s been an almost scent of pretentiousness in the air.
We now expect to win. Kids these days (says the 26-year-old). This new generation of Philly sports fans doesn’t start every season with that deep seeded feeling that everything that can go wrong for our teams will. They’ve known what it feels like to start a season and know we’re going to win. That’s not a concept one lives if he or she has never known heartbreak.
Phillies parade in 2008.
Well, after the Philles, the favorite to advance into the 2011 World Series, couldn’t even make it out of the first round…after the Eagles have lost the majority of their games this year in ugly fashion, after spending top dollar for key talent, I can already hear the crunch of snow inside hands who prepare snowballs. I can hear the boos, and the sad sighs that follow the even sadder words: “Maybe next year.”
So, welcome back Philadelphia- you’re a grumpy, old bastard. And you’re not dying any time soon.
10 Wednesday Aug 2011
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Tags
african american, american history, biracals, biracial, culture, current events, history, human race, interracial, Love, loving vs virgina, marriage, people, relationships, richard and mildred loving, the lovings, thoughts
Illustration by Kathleen Foley
Richard and Mildred Loving slept next to one another in bed like any husband and wife did during the late night hours.
But, unlike most married couples today, the Lovings had their slumber interrupted by police and a discriminating law that would not only have them spend the next few days in jail, but also lead to their exile from Virginia.
An Unaccepted Love
1958 was not a great time for Richard Loving, a Caucasian brick layer, and Mildred Jeter, his African American and Native American high school sweetheart to be in love.
Slavery had offically ended 93 years prior, but the country was still ripe with racial discrimination.
Mildred had been born in rural Virginia in 1939. These were the times of the miscegenation laws, which sought to keep the Caucasian race “pure” through the prohibition of interracial marriage.
But despite all of this, Richard and Mildred were in love (she was also pregnant at the time) and so the couple drove 80 miles to Washington, and did what Virginia thought an abomination: They were wed.
Five weeks later, they paid the price.
When the Lovings returned to Virginia, their marriage license hung proudly on their bedroom wall. But on the early morning of July 11, 1958, around 2 a.m., the sheriff broke into the couple’s bedroom along with two of his deputies.
“I saw the lights, you know, and I woke up and it was the policeman standing beside the bed and he told us to get out and that we was under arrest,” Mildred recounted in a 1967 ABC News report.
“Who is this woman you’re sleeping with?” the sheriff asked, as he cast his torch’s light over Richard’s face.
“I’m his wife,” Mildred replied. Her husband had been too gripped with fear to answer.
But Richard finally did show the sheriff their marriage license- the piece of paper that proved a Caucasian husband and an African American and Native American wife stood before these enforcers of Virginia law.
“That’s no good here,” came the sheriff’s response.
Exiled
The Lovings spent the next several nights behind bars. Mildred had been jailed for a few nights, while Richard spent only one night.
Even though the Lovings were married in Washington, their license was invalid in Virginia as dictated by the state’s law. They were charged with “cohabitating as man and wife against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.”
The judge, who found them guilty, embodied the discriminatory law with every word he spoke: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.”
The Lovings were criminals.
To avoid a one year prison sentence, Richard and Mildred agreed to leave Virginia for 25 years. If they wanted to return to their home state and visit their families, each had to make the trip alone.
Mildred and Richard Loving
Loving v. Virginia
On May 17, 1955, the Supreme Court had ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education. On December 1 of the next year, Rosa Parks made the historic decision not to yield her front-of-the-bus seat to a white passenger.
So, with the rise of the Civil Rights movement, and its numerous victories, Mrs. Loving became inspired, and wrote a letter to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy asking for help. He directed her to the American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.) where lawyers Bernard S. Cohen and Philip J. Hirschkop took the case.
They were headed to the Supreme Court.
The Lovings’ lawyers discussed many ways to approach their day in America’s highest court. But Mr. Loving, no lawyer himself, but a husband, said, “Mr. Cohen, tell the court I love my wife, and it is just unfair that I can’t live with her in Virginia.”
His emotional words spoke to the very core of their battle. They had placed themselves in the middle of the Civil Rights movement, but at the end of the day, they simply wanted to be able to fall asleep next to one another at home as husband and wife.
“We have thought about other people,” Mr. Loving said in a 1955 interview with Life Magazine, “but we are not doing it just because somebody had to do it and we wanted to be the ones. We are doing it for us.”
With racial discrimination weakened throughout America’s legal system, the Lovings did it for interracial couples everywhere.
In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 to end miscegenation laws throughout the entire country. Sixteen states still had them in place at the time.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, who had also wrote the court’s opinion for Brown v. Board of Education, wrote in his ruling that marriage is “one of the basic civil rights of man… To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as racial classification embodied in these stature…is surely to deprive all the state’s citizens of liberty.”
To this Richard Loving proclaimed, “I feel free now.”
The Fight Goes On
Richard and Mildred returned to Virginia as Mr. and Mrs. Loving, but soon after, tragedy struck.
Mr. Loving was killed in a car crash in 1975. Mrs. Loving never remarried. She was a quiet woman, who, never seeking out the spotlight, very rarely gave an interview.
But on June 12, 2007, the 40th anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, Mrs. Loving delivered a speech in response to the politically charged issue of gay marriage:
“Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the ‘wrong kind of person’ for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.”
By the time of Mrs. Loving’s death in 2008 at age 68, she was survived by her son, eight grandchildren and 11 great-grand children.
At the end of it all, Mr. and Mrs. Loving could claim to be criminals no more. They were simply husband and wife.
14 Thursday Apr 2011
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Tags
blogging, charon, entrepreneur, inspiration, inspirational, life, my life, opinion, personal, the nerdist, the river styx, thoughts, unemployment, Writing
Don't go complaining to Charon about the life you wish you had. Just do it yourself!
Charon, the boat man on the River Styx, who sails the dead into the Underworld, must be the most annoyed creature in existence. I can’t even imagine the amount of souls who try to bribe him into telling them some secret way of gaining life again. And I bet they all have one thing in common: un-fulfillment. I’m doing my best to not be one of them.
Let me explain.
The hardest thing I’ve found about writing lately is putting pen to paper and letting loose. Usually, a blank page lays in front of me, as I imagine the masterpiece I’ll ink. The result? A blank page, which is the main reason why I fell so far behind on blogging.
I got so obsessed over making everything a masterpiece that nothing got done.
The solution was so simple, though. I just put pen to paper and wrote. When thoughts appeared, I didn’t dismiss them as “not being good enough.” I got them down on the page. It’s the notion that a body in motion tends to stay in motion. The hardest part is always getting started, because that’s where the risk is taken and the willpower needs to kicks in.
To get back to writing, I had to engrave the words “Just Do It!” into my mind. And I wish those around me would do the same.
Sadly, though, no matter the level of desperation and depression, I find that too many people won’t take on the act of just “doing”- especially when it comes to their dreams and talents.
It’s heartbreaking…
I myself have been called too ambitious by some people. Back in January, I started Bridge Magazine- a Philadelphia, multicultural magazine. You see, it’s always been my dream to write- ever since I used to write sequels to my favorite R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps books back in second grade.
It was my destiny to become a writer. I graduated from Temple University with a Bachelors of Arts in Communications: Journalism and Multimedia. I had three internships and even taught writing workshops. I am a writer.
Too bad the economy didn’t see it that way.
I had applied to over 80 jobs since my graduation in 2009 with no luck. I was beaten, bloodied and bruised with failure. That is until my phenomenal magazine teacher from Temple asked me, “Sam, why don’t you just create a job for yourself? Create a magazine. Do it yourself!”
And I did. I had the ambition and the willpower to act.
Bridge debuted to some good reviews and despite the flaws of a first issue, I was proud.
As the leader of this, I’ve discovered that the hardest part is finding people who share the willingness to work toward their dreams. I wanted my attempt to make my dreams a reality, a chance for others to do the same. And I’ve found that it’s never a battle to come across those who have the goals. I’ve approached plenty of people who express the excitement of working for a publication. But it is difficult to find those who are willing to actualize those excitements.
Sadly, it seems much easier to come across those who settle for a job(s) or life they dislike. I don’t understand it! Where’s the fire? Where’s the adventure? Why choose to stick with the job you hate or stay in the life you can’t stand?
I’m not saying that the sucky job or situation is not needed. Bills. Marriage. Staying alive. But, I wish there were more people who would at least try. I launched Bridge, but I still have to work the 40 hours a week desk job to survive.
I listen to eight hours of podcast every day at work. One of my favorites is The Nerdist. In it, Chris Hardwick has talked about how people always tell him, “Dude, I wish I could do a podcast. I wish I could do what you do. What’s the secret?”
His reply is always, “Just do it yourself!” Don’t sit around and wait for opportunities to come your way.
And he’s completely right. Especially in this economy. To get myself in the right entrepreneur mindset, I no longer look at celebrities or well-established people in the business as marvelous, unattainable, god-like beings. I look at them, and declare, “I can do what you do!”
The days of sending out a resume and landing that dream job are mostly gone.
I had to be ambitious. I had to create my dream. I may not be getting paid enough to sustain myself yet, but I’m trying. This is life. If you’re not going to be ambitious now, then when? If you’re in a job you hate, then what does it matter if you try and fail? The boat man on the River Styx isn’t going to have your dream job waiting for you. I’m sure his boney ears have listened to plenty of those who never tried, but wish they had. And I’m sure he’s annoyed as hell.
“I wish I had taken a chance! I wish I had tried! If only I could go back!”
Spontaneous ambition doesn’t count for much once your dead.
It is not impossible to make a dream come true. Sometimes it’s good to bite off more than you can chew. Even if you do choke, and stay stuck in the life you never wanted, at least it’s not one you never attempted to change. So, if you’re frustrated, and feel like you have a dream or talents that are being wasted, listen for those annoyed words of the boat man shouting up from the River Styx as he sails sad souls to the afterlife:
“Just Do It Yourself!”
08 Friday Apr 2011
Posted in Uncategorized
Is there a soul hiding somewhere in there?
I believe in the soul- that spark behind the eyes that makes us who we are- that pure version of us that sits somewhere deep inside. There’s a few reasons why. One could be that I’ve attended Catholic school for 14 years, where the soul is a central concept due to the belief in an afterlife. Another could be that I thrive off of emotion. As a creative writer, I’ve always turned to the “depths of my soul” for inspiration. Lots of people like to make the soul responsible for the rang of emotions we experience. I feel as though I connect with something “inner.”
Last year, though, I had the joy and privilege to do science writing for Kidult.com, and, counter to popular belief, I found that science only strengthened my belief in the soul.
Religion may be full of gods, hells, heavens, angles and reincarnations, but science can feel like fantasy, too. Stars. Dark Matter. Dark Energy. Black Holes. Quantum Mechanics. Science is a world of facts that is forever evolving with each new minuscule and mind-blowing discovery. So, in regards to the existence of the soul, I say, “Why not?”
The thing about Science is that it connects you to everything. Exploring the universe and unlocking its secrets, gives you a feeling of something more. There’s a meaning behind everything. There’s a plan. There’s an “inner.”
A lot of scientists are said to believe in the soul and its accompanying concepts (Really, a belief in the soul is a belief in something spiritual). Physicists are especially known to feel as though there’s some sort of grand design behind the forces of the universe. When you witness the strange behavior of particles or discover that there’s mysterious, invisible matter that’s responsible for the shape of cosmological bodies, I guess you start to ask the big question that all religions try to answer: What’s the plan?
Biologists, of course, tend not to feel this way. Long story short, everything can be explained by the necessity for survival. You are who you are because you need to be that way to stay alive. I personally think there’s a huge merit to this, but it’s just so, well, soulless.
My favorite endorsement for the soul from the scientific community comes from a scientist who believes that the brain is like a radio and the soul is like music (I wish I could be a responsible blogger and remember his name, but I don’t. He talked about this in a back issue of Science Magazine). Say that a radio is streaming some music. Then turn it off. Does this mean that the music doesn’t exist anymore? No. It simply means that it isn’t being transmitted by the radio at that moment. Its signal isn’t being broadcast.
Now, make the radio the brain, and the soul the music. Essentially the brain is a transmitter for the soul. It translates the soul in a way like a radio translates a station’s signal. If the radio has a few bad wires, the music might come through full of static and deformities. It won’t be pure. If the brain isn’t healthy, that’s going to affect the personality and the behaviors of the person. Maybe when a person is suffering through some sort of mental disorder due to “crossed wires” or brain damage, their soul is simply full of “static.”
All of the chemicals and their balances and imbalances that affect our moods- maybe the brain is auto-tuning the soul. Who we purely are is filtered through the translation from the brain.
I love this idea, but, of course, as any scientific mind would argue, where’s the evidence?
But that’s not the point here. Science has me approaching the concept of the soul in ways that my religious education never did.
I love Teilhard de Chardin‘s saying, “We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
These two concepts go hand-in-hand. My soul could be transmitted by an elephant’s brain, a penguin’s or a cat’s. So, not only does science have me thinking about the soul, but it connects each member of our world’s vast biodiversity to one another in a way that religion does not (although, reincarnation certainly comes close).
So, science may not yet provide concrete proof that that light behind your eyes isn’t anything more than the fictional creation of religions and poets, but it certainly has me turning up my radio and listening for the music.
04 Tuesday Jan 2011
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Tags
barbie, barbie video camera, barbie video girl, bridzilla, children, children toy, children toys, creative, creativity, culture, current events, imagination, ipod touch, kids, life, my life, opinion, pens, personal, pocket god, reality t.v., reality television, reality tv, snooki, the real housewives, thoughts, toys, video girl barbie
My pen used to save the galaxy.
I sat at my third grade desk, with my hands hidden inside, and my light brown eyes lit with wonder at the magical pen between my fingers. It was a special pen, not one of those fancy, felt tip or gold-lined pens, but better than the average.
It came with five different colored inks- red, blue, green, black and purple.
What eight-year-old child- especially one obsessed with writing- wouldn’t find this splendid thing fascinating?
But as my teacher babbled on about the different types of clouds, my mind mingled with them- afloat in the sky, lost in the throes of creativity.
You see, my multicolored pen was so much more than a writing tool. Yes! It was something magnificent.
It was my pen- The Defender of the Universe!
The Power Rangers
I had loved the very popular television show, The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers at the time. Each of the Rangers had their own specific fighting dino-robot. If the villain of the week was too difficult to defeat with just their fist and feet, they would summon their robots and battle. And if the bad guy still would not fall, the robots would combine to form a single, powerful entity called Megazord.
I had been an expert at taking my pens apart and putting them back together again. What little kid didn’t find excitement in the destruction and construction of objects by his/her own hands? While my teacher was busy reading from a textbook, I undid the casing and pulled out the individual colored inks.
And I’d put on my creativity goggles. In my mind, the inks were five separate warriors much like the Power Rangers. They always had an enemy to face. It was usually a big eraser or a stapler. A thing that dishes out metal shards strong enough to forcefully bind other objects together against their own will? Staplers are the villains of school supplies.
Every day during class, my colored inks and stapler battled.
“Can anyone name which type of cloud hovers closest to the ground?”
Sorry, Mrs. Jones. There’s a raging stapler trying to destroy the galaxy. I’m a little busy here.
Most often, the stapler (or whatever I decided was the bad guy of the day) proved too strong for my inks to defeat, and they had to combine into a single, ultimate fighting force. I put my pen back together, and the stapler never stood a chance.
Megazord. Oh, the memories!
My pen saved the galaxy day after day!
But I fear it may not be able to save creativity.
I look around at kid toys today, and I fear the world has made imagination more and more obsolete.
With the rise of reality T.V., and toys that restrain creativity, a world-wide blackout on imagination has dawned.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not an old geezer complaining about being left behind in the dust of present day progress. I’m only 25-years-old. “Kids these days!” isn’t a phrase that’s always on the tip of my tongue.
But, damn it, kids these days!
Around Christmas this year, my girlfriend and I were in Toys ‘R Us to buy a present for her nephew. I came across the Video Girl Barbie. Unlike Barbie of days past, this doll comes with a camera inside that records everything she sees.
The uncreative (and creepy) Video Girl Barbie
Let’s ignore the obvious creep-factor of this toy. My problem is that it lessens the amount of creativity a kid uses to play with it. No longer will Barbie’s eyes be animated by the power of the child’s mind. Now, the doll literally sees things the way they are through a lens.
It’s all rather boring.
When my third grade pen looked at a stapler, it didn’t see a stapler. It saw what I saw: a villain that would darken all the stars across the galaxy. Nowadays, children see what the toy sees. Place a stapler in front of that Barbie, and it only sees a stapler.
It’s as if toy makers have to make toys as advanced as possible, today. When I was a child, whether it was a pen or a piece of string, I could easily play with it. Okay, maybe that makes me a cat, or, well, a kid simply being creative.
It’s no surprise that reality television is so popular, now. In a time where imagination continues to take a backseat, the Snookies and Real Housewives of the channel-surfing world are appealing.
People would rather see life through the eyes of others. People would rather take a break from reality by grabbing the remote control and watching reality.
This isn’t always a bad thing. I admit to being a fan of Bridezilla (which is a topic for another piece). I love my iPod Touch and its applications (Pocket God!). But every now and then, I get the urge to reach for my pen and save time and space. Maybe I’ll have it battle the Video Girl Barbie and rescue creativity from its prison within the doll- the power button.
27 Monday Sep 2010
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Tags
american idol, current events, Edward Pimentel, fox, karaoke, karaoke contest, karaoke contests, karaoke world championship, Karaoke World Championships, moscow, music, opinion, random, reality television, reality tv, russia, simon cowell, singing, singing competition, the Karaoke World Championships, thoughts
Who doesn't love a good karaoke experience? From: http://djmiketobin.com/about.html
Like me, you probably had no idea the Karaoke World Championships even existed…much less that this three day competition recently concluded in Moscow, Russia. You’ve probably lost interest in this post already, because it wasn’t “American Idol” that I just mentioned. But, I’m here to tell you, I’d watch the Karaoke championship over Fox’s mega hit any day.
Here goes some detail about the Championships from the Associated Press:
The first night of the competition Thursday seems to show that karaoke is at a tipping point. It’s gone far beyond caterwauling in front of a group of sozzled buddies and regretting it the next morning; most of those on stage here have serious pipes and carefully worked-out moves. Yet it retains the casual camaraderie of a barroom at midnight.
“It’s a contest, yes, but it’s more like a family,” said Atte Hujanen, managing director of the Finland-based KWC Organization that is the equivalent of a sports governing body.
One woman’s rendition of “Vogue” proved his point. Imagine Madonna if she’d never been to a gym, moved awkwardly and dressed like a diplomat. Still, the applause was warm, cameras flashed and no journalists seemed inclined to ask if the performance was intended ironically.
American telephone engineer Edward Pimentel won, and what did he get for this accomplishment? Renowned fame? Guest star appearances on Glee? No. Try 1 million Russian dumplings! So, now he can become the kind of overweight contestant that American Idol producers loved to have the show’s cameras focus on, while Simon Cowell would make him drown in his own tears.
“You might as well cry harder. Our stage isn’t strong enough to hold you, and that tear-puddle isn’t big enough to fit you yet,” is something I imagine producers and audiences at home would have loved to hear dear ‘ol Simon say.
And this is exactly why I would choose the Karaoke Championship over American Idol. Let’s face it. More people have tuned in to watch it over the years because of a British man’s insults and the (prima) drama that inevitably occurs. The excitement of an unknown belting out their talent and achieving their dreams takes a backseat. This show hasn’t exactly been the finest of examples in human nature.
Now, think about the Karaoke Work Championships as the “buddy cop” movie of singing competitions. Karaoke in itself is all about throwing such notions as singing in tune to the wind. It’s silly. It’s freeing. It’s about talented and untalented singers coming together and having fun. It’s much more Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker…and, of course, 1 million Russian dumplings.
27 Monday Sep 2010
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Tags
2001, 9/11, america, anti-mosque, culture, current events, grief, ground zero, human race, intolerance, islam, life, mosque, muslim, muslims, new york city, nyc, opinion, peace, people, photography, photos, politics, quran, race, relationships, religion, religious intolerance, september 11, terrorist attack, terrorists, the quran, thoughts, Tragedy
Ground Zero was created by hate. So, why are we still spreading hate there? Photo by Kathleen Foley
Tragedy. It is one of the most powerful unifying forces. Grief has a way of bringing people together. I had an entire side of family who had been unrecognizable to me. I hadn’t seen any of them in over a decade…until my father died. It wasn’t until then that we came together. We held hands and connected around a hospital bed filled with tragedy.
On September 11,2001, two hijacked planes destroyed the Twin Towers, murdering thousands of people. Everyone across the country came together with tears in their eyes, and mourned. People held hands, because the grief and shock were too much for one person to handle.
Photo by Kathleen Foley
But, now, nine years later, on September 11, 2010, as I walked through the streets of New York City, I witnessed a place overtaken by hate and intolerance instead of one that had been able to rise above these destructive qualities.
As anyone who’s not completely out of touch with the world knows, a mosque and community center is being built near Ground Zero. This has caused a great uproar amongst those who believe this is insensitive because the terrorists worshiped Islam. I have encountered much hatred toward the Muslim community over the last few weeks. I’ve heard people claim that all Muslims are terrorists, or that Islam is an evil religion. It was all the same on this year’s 9/11 in NYC.
Rebuilding. Photo by Kathleen Foley
As I walked parallel to the site where once stood the Twin Towers, there was a sea of protesters, and my eyes immediately scanned them all: There were signs that proclaimed, “The Qur’an is a lie!” One was proudly held high by a 30-something year old man, whose face was scowled, contorted by anger. There was an older man with a white beard directly in front of me. He was preaching the word of his god, and claimed, “Islam is evil!” His lower lip quivered from the magnitude of his anger. He was wearing a black jacket, which read, “Cry to God” on the left sleeve.
His message was clear: All who don’t believe in the Christian God should cry to him for forgiveness.
“They should burn the Qur’an!” I hear somewhere near me, but as I look around, everyone is shouting.
Poeple came out to battle religious intolerance with religious intolerance. Photo by Kathleen Foley
I stop for a moment. My eyes focus on Ground Zero right across the street. I study the construction replacing what once stood there. I see an American flag blowing in the wind on top of some metal beams.
This should have been a place of mourning and respect for perished lives.
But as another protester shouted at the top of his lungs, “No mosque!” I realized that this site had become infested with hate. This was the ultimate disgrace to every single person who had been murdered by the actions of terrorists.
Those terrorists struck at America through the fall of the Towers, because they hate us. They hate the way we live, and what we stand for. They hate the major religions in this country. They believed in Islam, sure, but were also radicals with murder in their hearts. Islam didn’t put that evil intention in them. Their hate did.
A man mourning the lost of loved one on 9/11. Photo by Kathleen Foley
So, how tragically ironic that nine years after religious intolerance murdered thousands of people, we are fighting it with religious intolerance.
Just like how those terrorists hate Americans as a whole for just being Americans, these anti-mosque people hate all Muslims because of the actions of a few. An entire Muslim population is being blamed.
One Muslim man spoke to my friends and I about how afraid he was when the planes struck the Towers, because his daughter worked near the site. His words came forth from his thin lips, as tears filled his eyes when he described the events of that day. He called Osama Bin Laden “an evil monkey” who shouldn’t even be associated with Islam because his radicalism doesn’t represent the religion at all.
Photo by Kathleen Foley
This man looked around at the protesters around us, and wondered why he couldn’t be free to live as who he is…especially since 9/11 shook him up just as bad anyone else in this country- Muslim or not.
But, it wasn’t just the anti-mosque protesters that had me yearning for a coexistence. The pro-mosque people were in the wrong, as well. They displayed just as much hate as their counterparts. They were shouting threats, waving fist and name-calling.
I stopped to listen to one pro-mosque supporter rant on about the intolerance of the protesters. She was filled with good intentions, but was lost to her hate for the other side.
“What would Jesus do? Jesus would tell the [anti-mosque protesters] to shut the #$%& up!,” She, too, was filled with so much anger. She was out there to fight against hate, yet, embodied it herself. And this from a self-proclaimed “Buddhist!” She had no problem dropping obscenities as children walked by.
Finally, there were the other groups who decided to come out on this day of mourning to sell their messages. The anti-abortion people yelled at the pro-abortion people, and vice versa. The “Truthers” came out, and yelled that our government was really behind 9/11, and all who don’t believe this are idiots. It’s as if the cap had come off, and every single person there drank from the bottle of hate.
A Truther. Photo by Kathleen Foley
I’m mixed- black and white, and I feel like this represents a union between people of different races. In a way, I yearn for our entire nation to become mixed, and not just racially. It would truly be something great for different religions, nationalities, political parties to mix it up a bit, and find a way to coexist.
Yet, we have proven our inability to rise above our differences, and get along. Even on a day of such great mourning, we directed hate at one another instead of holding hands. Is this how we should remember the lives lost on 9/11? By terrorizing each other?
Photo by Kathleen Foley
The lives lost by terrorists on 9/11 should be honored by all of the unique and different beliefs held by people in this world living in a coexistence. They should be honored by peace, and not the hate that not only created Ground Zero, but still dwells there to this day.
23 Thursday Sep 2010
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abbot, Abbot Pharmaceutical, Abbot Pharmaceutical baby formula, Abbot Pharmaceutical baby formula recall, Abbot Pharmaceutical recall, Abbot Pharmaceutical's baby formula, Abbot Pharmaceutical's baby formula recall, abbot recall, baby formula, baby formula recall, beetle, beetle larva, beetle larvae, beetle parts, beetles, current events, health, humor, jillian michaels, jobs, News, opinion, random, recall, thoughts, unemployment, weight loss
Abbot recalls baby formula tainted with beetle parts
When I was little Sam, I remember my baby of a sister running all over the house, crying her big eyes out. I, of course, sat back laughing.
“Sam!” I heard my mom shout. “Give your sister back her bottle!”
As was my big brother right, I used to hide my sister’s bottle all over the house, because, quite honestly, cruelty towards siblings- especially hungry siblings- is the best form of entertainment. My mom was never too amused by this, of course, and her death stare would force me to revel the bottle’s hidden location.
Little did mother know, though, that I was simply saving her daughter from drinking beetle parts.
The pharmaceutical company, Abbott, is recalling its baby formula because it’s tainted with such tasty treats as beetle larva. Here’s how an article from The Epoch Times details the situation:
“Abbott is recalling these products following an internal quality review, which detected the remote possibility of the presence of a small common beetle in the product produced in one production area in a single manufacturing facility,” the company stated.
The Food and Drug Administration said that the beetles don’t pose a significant health risk to infants, but there is a possibility that babies who consume the beetle-tainted formula could experience “symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort and refusal to eat as a result of small insect parts irritating the GI tract.”
I feel bad for any baby that may be feeling these side effects. I also feel bad for the parents of these babies. Gastrointestinal discomfort? Oh, how sleepless parents must be cursing Abbott and beetles everywhere in the early mornings. But, I say, let’s use this discovery to our advantage. The babies are refusing to eat after swallowing beetle parts? Bad. My baby sister once ate an entire bubble gum hot dog. Babies aren’t that picky.
So, let’s take the power of beetle parts, and use it to help fight obesity in this country. Maybe this has been Abbot’s plan all along, and babies were just first stage. It’s so simple! Skipping carbohydrates? Working out? Drinking water instead of soda? Fruit?! We’ve been going about it all wrong! We should have been tainting the food of the obese with beetle parts this whole time!
Beetle Larva. Hungry now? Didn't think so. Score one for Abbot!
So, watch out Jillian Michaels of the Biggest Loser! If Abbott has its way, you’ll have the embarrassing privilege to state that you lost your job to beetle larva. And with millions of people in this country laid off and unemployed because of the economy, that would still be a first.
22 Wednesday Sep 2010
Posted in Uncategorized
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career, careers, economy, employment, jobs, life, ohio state, ohio university, opinion, recession, seth myers, thoughts, unemployment, villanova university
You may be making a fatal mistake in the search for your career job.
So, you’ve just graduated from college, and that sparkling, brand new degree is framed on the highest shelf in your living room. You’ve done it! Four years of school- six if you couldn’t resist your college’s game room- and now you’re ready for that career job! You start your employment search- cover letters, resumes, cold calls. You’re young, bright and determined to have an income any time now. But then a month later, and not one response back, the situation that this current economy has created hits you like an unwarranted tackle from Ohio University’s troubled mascot.
I attended a stand-up comedy routine last Saturday, and maybe Seth Myers summed it up best when he told a gym full of over 2,000 Villanova University students, “As for the Seniors, I’m sorry about the economy.”
The room laughed, but the tone was more of a desperate haha. I know I was holding back tears. It’s no secret that the search for employment, especially career-oriented employment, is as hard as ever.
I myself graduated from University over a year ago, and 40-50+ rejections later, I still find myself answering phones and bagging customers’ food at a restaurant. It is maddening for sure to constantly ask, “Pick up or delivery?” as my Bachelor’s Degree withers away under my Counter Boy title and tip jar.
The restaurant isn't my career job, but I must work there until I get it.
I have had many instances where I almost hung up the phone, grabbed my bag full of notebooks filled with story ideas (I have a B.A. in Communications: Journalism and Multimedia), and walked right out of the restaurant.
But then I think about the huge mistake that people in my position are making right now. Do I want to work in a restaurant- the job I’ve held for almost four years now as I worked my way through school? No. But will I quit before I land my career job? Of course not!
Too often I see those who have been laid off, or those who have graduated and can’t find work, apply for jobs all day, and then sit around the house, waiting for a good job to come calling back. And every time, I cringe, because they are making the biggest mistake of their unemployed careers.
I work at the restaurant not because I like it. The food is good, sure, but I would much rather be a customer. I do it, because, well, the simple truth is that one needs to be doing something. One needs to be working, even if it’s not at a job he or she wants. It’s very important to the resume. Imagine if you’re one of those people who have graduated or been laid off for over six months now, and all you’ve done is search for your type of job, neglecting all other opportunities that come your way. Because you’re better than asking customers what kind of cheese they want on their burger, right? Now, you finally get an interview for one of the jobs you’ve been searching for all over the world. You’re sitting in front of the Human Resources representative, and you’re bursting with confidence.
I’ve got the great education! you boast to yourself. I’ve got the great past work experience!
But then she looks up at you with concerned eyes, and asks, “So, what have you been up to recently?”
“I’ve been looking for jobs” isn’t going to be a sufficient response. It’s going to cut your interview short, and prolong your already long employment search.
I recently had a job interview where I had been asked the same exact thing. My current resume reflects my college degree, three internships, an on-going gig as a science writer for an award-winning news website, freelance experience and volunteer work. Believe me when I say I felt confident in it. But then my interviewer looked up at me with confused eyes.
“What have you done recently?” she asked.
I was taken back by this question for a slight moment, but then quickly directly her eyes down to the section where I had listed my restaurant job.
“Oh! Sorry!” she responded. “I skimmed it too fast!”
Just like that, she had been willing to neglect all of my relevant work experience and education I possess just because it seemed I didn’t have any sort of job now. It is ironic and sad that the crappy job becomes just as important as the degree and experience.
But of course, in this economy, finding those irrelevant jobs isn’t an easy task either. At the restaurant, I have listened to my boss reject three people for jobs in one day. This is not an excuse to sit at home and do nothing, of course. Go out and volunteer. Go get an internship in your field. Sure they won’t pay, but your resume will look that much better with them on there. You’ll be prepared to answer that question, “What have you been up to recently” before it even gets asked. Because in the world of employment hunting, your present activities- relevant or not to the job you ultimately want- can be your greatest tool.
Out of the millions of things I appear to be doing right now- the internships, science writing and volunteer work- the only thing that pays me is the restaurant job. But they all, along with my counter boy mantle, pay me back a thousand fold as they cover all of the empty space on my resume page, and I am able to show any potential employer that I am still capable of being a hard worker no matter the situation. Because being unemployed is no excuse to not work.
