Saturday, December 31, 2011

The "Unclean"

This morning, I had breakfast at Chick-fil-A.  It's somewhere I've decided to boycott, and yet their delicious Chick-n-Minis keep me coming back. But while I chowed down on my delectable treat, my guilt grew.  How could I support such an organization?

So what's the problem?  Well, in 2009, Chick-fil-A donated nearly $2 million to anti-gay groups, according to the Huffington Post.  Earlier this year, change.org released a statement that Chick-fil-A still has deep ties to the anti-gay movement.  "We do not accept homosexual couples," wrote WinShape Foundation, Chick-fil-A's "charitable arm."

As a final paper for my public opinion class, I wrote an analysis of the same-sex marriage debate.  I pride myself on my ability to play devil's advocate, to argue both sides (when needed).  People should be able to make their own decisions instead of relying on the decisions handed to them by their parents or society or their church.

But when I wrote the paper, I was horrified by many of the arguments against gay marriage.  "Legitimate" arguments.  Ones that people actually argue, and not something silly that a comedian says.  Arguments that people actually believe.  A list of them, found in "Same Sex Marriage: Focus on the Facts" by Sean Cahill, is below:

Thursday, December 15, 2011

A look back at 2011

The holiday season is upon us, as they say, and that means a time to reflect and be thankful.

Personally, 2011 has brought it's own adventures and difficulties.  I packed my things and moved away from home for the first (real) time.  I have struggled with making friends, being away from family and those who love me, and finding where I fit in at graduate school.  But I am blessed with some amazing new friends, an increased confidence in myself, and the ability to scrape by in a meager studio apartment and lots of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

I try to use this blog to reflect on the world from my own perspectives, to bring attention to injustices and examine the decisions we blindly make every day.  We're just going through the motions, more often than not.  I wake up and switch on my little green coffee maker from my friend Christine.  I go to classes, churn out papers with moments to spare, and wave to familiar faces at the corner of University and Park.

That behind me, I'm going to use this space to look back not just on my life, but on what 2011 meant to the now 7 billion humans that call our Earth home.  What did this year mean?  What have we accomplished?  Where have we fallen...

Thursday, December 8, 2011

A pleasant kind of Onion

"It smells like roses!" he yelled.  The crowd erupted in cheers.  "They said that's wind you guys up."

Monday evening, UW alumni Joe Garden and Carol Kolb of The Onion came to speak at the Distinguished Lecture Series in what was titled "An Evening with The Onion."

I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen, but it did not disappoint.  Garden and Kolb proceeded to give a presentation worthy of Onion fame.  They began with the history of the paper, which they claimed was established in 1783 by T. Herman Zweibel, a Prussian immigrant and "tuber farmer" who established The Mercantile Onion.