Perhaps, it’s that time- time to put down our grease-soaked Big Macs and Big Gulp “supersize” soft drinks and really listen to what the CDC has been saying all along, which is that all across the country, both children and adults are becoming dangerously overweight. In Iowa alone, obesity rates have risen and nearly doubled. Obesity trend data compiled by the CDC reflects that while anywhere from 10-14% of the population was considered to be obese in the early 1990’s, as of 2006, 25-29% of the population was obese. Now two years later, those numbers have undoubtedly risen again.
And obesity itself is not even necessarily the issue at hand (is it even possible to imagine Santa Claus without his “bowl of jelly” belly or a skinny Homer Simpson?) The issue at hand is diabetes, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease, and a long list of other serious health complications. As a country and even as a state, obesity is killing us slowly. Yet, no cure-all, save-all solution exists. There is, however, a law that could possibly serve as the light at the end of the tunnel. New York has already taken the lead in making this proposed law a reality.
Imagine stepping into a fast food restaurant, say McDonald’s. McDonald’s-goers in New York will notice a major change on their menu board. The mouthwatering Big Mac still smiles back from the board, but what also haunts the image of the precious Big Mac and all other menu items at McDonald’s restaurants and other food establishments across New York is the cold, hard truth: a calorie count-540 to be exact-for McDonald’s trademark treat. By law, New York restaurants must now surrender calorie counts next to menu items displayed on price boards or pay a hefty fine of up to $2,000 for noncompliance.
With this law comes the question, is it really the government’s job to control obesity? After all, what right does the government have to interfere with the right to “eat great, even late” and to live guilt-free while doing so? Though there seems to be no definite answer to either of these questions, we say that a more informed public is a healthier public. In this case, it seems safe to say that a little truth and a dose of reality couldn’t hurt.
So what if John Doe ditches his seemingly healthy Taco Bell Border Grande beef salad (1,450 calories) for a healthier alternative like Subway’s 6 inch turkey breast sandwich (only 280 calories without condiments)? Still healthy and mobile as a senior citizen, John Doe may end up thanking the government for making this information readily available. Sure, it may be emotionally crippling to surrender the most grease-filled, deep-fried fast food concoctions after learning the truth, but when the health benefits outweigh the power of the “happy” chemicals released in the brain after biting into a Big Mac, a little information might not be so bad.
As customers, we should not have to scavenge for nutritional information. When inquiring about the number of calories in a Wendy’s bacon and cheese potato, John Doe shouldn’t have to be passed from employee to employee then finally to a manager, only to discover that nutritional information can only be found online. To assist customers in making healthier choices and with respect to a customer’s decision to lead a healthy lifestyle, restaurants everywhere, not just in New York, should make an effort to give customers the information they deserve. After this information is available, it’s up to the person consuming the food what he or she will choose to do with this information. The truth may not completely solve the obesity epidemic, but it may be the first step toward a solution.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Myanmar
I have no idea if I am doing this right. I hope so.
Anyway. I just wanted to say that I am really upset with the Myanmar government for not allowing the aid to be distributed evenly after the cyclone that killed so many people. Today on CNN, they had a reporter who had to be smuggled into the zone that got hit the worst and there are still corpses just laying around on the ground and in the rice patties. The people are so poor there they have no more places to put the bodies and are unable to afford the manpower to take care of the bodies. They are trying to get on with their lives, but how can you with no help? Speaking from the point of view of a person who has been displaced due to a disaster, I feel for these people who don't even have a place to live. I at least have somewhere to stay, but they are trying so hard to get food and shelter and I feel like the government there needs some serious overworking and to get this taken care of. If they can't do it or won't do it, someone needs to get in there and do it for them by force. You can't just let your own people starve and die and just not care.
Hope that was a good start.
M
Anyway. I just wanted to say that I am really upset with the Myanmar government for not allowing the aid to be distributed evenly after the cyclone that killed so many people. Today on CNN, they had a reporter who had to be smuggled into the zone that got hit the worst and there are still corpses just laying around on the ground and in the rice patties. The people are so poor there they have no more places to put the bodies and are unable to afford the manpower to take care of the bodies. They are trying to get on with their lives, but how can you with no help? Speaking from the point of view of a person who has been displaced due to a disaster, I feel for these people who don't even have a place to live. I at least have somewhere to stay, but they are trying so hard to get food and shelter and I feel like the government there needs some serious overworking and to get this taken care of. If they can't do it or won't do it, someone needs to get in there and do it for them by force. You can't just let your own people starve and die and just not care.
Hope that was a good start.
M
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Recommended Reading
In international news, global development and security expert Thomas P.M. Barnett discusses his concern that Israel may bomb Iran before the American presidential election later this year:
The Sunday Times also reports on the looming possibility of Israeli air strikes against Iran. (Via Sullivan.)
On the domestic front, electronic rights activist Cory Doctorow expresses enthusiasm over efforts to fight against the new FISA bill in court:
Zooming in yet further to Iowa, Bleeding Heartland updates us on Rob Hubler's uphill battle against incumbent Representative Steve King.
On the Christopher-thinks-technology-can-solve-all-our-problems front, it looks like Internet-ready electronic parking meters may soon allow us to pay with our smart phones instead of digging around in our pockets for change. (Via Slashdot.)
However, not everyone might be quite ready to adopt such new-fangled techmology.
More opportunities for reading over my shoulder abound on my shared items page.
Looming behind the most crucial dynamics is the possible presidency of Barack Obama, suggesting that war may become inevitable due to the fear of peace. After eight years of Bush-Cheney, such is the state of our world.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency has been a disaster for the Iranian people. Despite all the oil wealth, inflation is raging, and the economy goes nowhere. Add in a stunning birth dearth, the world's worst brain drain, plus Iranian prostitutes headlining European brothels, and this is clearly a society in a death spiral.
With restless students chanting in public for Ahmadinejad's death, little wonder the man pines for a splendid little war.
The Sunday Times also reports on the looming possibility of Israeli air strikes against Iran. (Via Sullivan.)
On the domestic front, electronic rights activist Cory Doctorow expresses enthusiasm over efforts to fight against the new FISA bill in court:
Yee-HAW! EFF, the ACLU and others are suing the government -- in multiple suits! -- over the new spy bill that "legalizes" warrantless bulk surveillance and immunizes the telcos from civil prosecution for their past bad deeds in cooperating with the President in wiretapping the whole nation.
Zooming in yet further to Iowa, Bleeding Heartland updates us on Rob Hubler's uphill battle against incumbent Representative Steve King.
On the Christopher-thinks-technology-can-solve-all-our-problems front, it looks like Internet-ready electronic parking meters may soon allow us to pay with our smart phones instead of digging around in our pockets for change. (Via Slashdot.)
However, not everyone might be quite ready to adopt such new-fangled techmology.
More opportunities for reading over my shoulder abound on my shared items page.
Headline of the Day
From CNN.com:
100 snakes seized; pastor arrested
As this post's title suggests, I was drawn to this story by the sheer hilarity of the headline. The rest of the article is pretty interesting, too. However, it leaves us hanging as to what sort of odd interpretation of Bible verses could possibly lead good religious folk to play with poisonous reptiles.
Due to my fundamentalist Baptist upbringing, I know exactly what verses are at issue. Although the church I grew up in doesn't do anything as facially crazy as handling snakes, I did learn the Bible well enough to know the basis of most Christian doctrine. And the truth is that there's a lot of trippy shit in the Bible.
In fact, the New Testament actually quotes Jesus as saying that his followers will be immune from all sorts of harmful things, including those sinister snakes Biblical authors love to slander.
Mark 16:14-20 reads as follows:
Later on in the New Testament, there's even an example of this happening.
Acts 28:3-6 reads as follows:
Thus, the fundamentalist contention that true believers should be able to safely handle snakes is quite well-supported by the text. Frankly, I don't see any reason to try to stop these people from putting their beliefs into practice. Someone has to provide material for the Darwin Awards.
100 snakes seized; pastor arrested
More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover sting after Thursday's arrests, said Col. Bob Milligan, director of law enforcement for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife.
Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers can take up serpents without being harmed.
As this post's title suggests, I was drawn to this story by the sheer hilarity of the headline. The rest of the article is pretty interesting, too. However, it leaves us hanging as to what sort of odd interpretation of Bible verses could possibly lead good religious folk to play with poisonous reptiles.
Due to my fundamentalist Baptist upbringing, I know exactly what verses are at issue. Although the church I grew up in doesn't do anything as facially crazy as handling snakes, I did learn the Bible well enough to know the basis of most Christian doctrine. And the truth is that there's a lot of trippy shit in the Bible.
In fact, the New Testament actually quotes Jesus as saying that his followers will be immune from all sorts of harmful things, including those sinister snakes Biblical authors love to slander.
Mark 16:14-20 reads as follows:
Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
Later on in the New Testament, there's even an example of this happening.
Acts 28:3-6 reads as follows:
Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, "This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live." But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
Thus, the fundamentalist contention that true believers should be able to safely handle snakes is quite well-supported by the text. Frankly, I don't see any reason to try to stop these people from putting their beliefs into practice. Someone has to provide material for the Darwin Awards.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Iowa GOP Convention Coverage
If you want a short and uninteresting summary of what happened at Iowa's state-level GOP convention today, read about it in a mainstream media, dead-tree publication.
However, if you prefer more detailed analysis, check out Jason Hancock's coverage of the event for Iowa Independent.
And, if you're a real political junkie, you'll love John Deeth's extensive liveblog of the entire day's proceedings.
However, if you prefer more detailed analysis, check out Jason Hancock's coverage of the event for Iowa Independent.
And, if you're a real political junkie, you'll love John Deeth's extensive liveblog of the entire day's proceedings.
The Death of Tony Snow
Fox News has of course already created a tribute page.
Hopefully, we won't now be subject to the same self-indulgent barrage of news about those who deliver the news that we got after Tim Russert died. But we probably will. And people wonder why I don't watch television.
It's not that I'm criticizing journalists for becoming part of the story. My real complaint is that most of them are just too boring to pull it off. Hunter S. Thompson was famously self-indulgent, but at least he was also entertaining--and an excellent writer.
Of course it's sad when anyone dies, but I just don't think Russert and Snow are as newsworthy of people as their colleagues think they are. Let's be honest: neither of them was all that great of a journalist.
In any case, out of sheer irreverence, I'm posting some of what Westboro Baptist Church had to say about Snow on their always entertaining blog:
Now that's a perspective you won't find represented in the mainstream media. God bless the Internet and all of the weirdos it gives voice to.
Hopefully, we won't now be subject to the same self-indulgent barrage of news about those who deliver the news that we got after Tim Russert died. But we probably will. And people wonder why I don't watch television.
It's not that I'm criticizing journalists for becoming part of the story. My real complaint is that most of them are just too boring to pull it off. Hunter S. Thompson was famously self-indulgent, but at least he was also entertaining--and an excellent writer.
Of course it's sad when anyone dies, but I just don't think Russert and Snow are as newsworthy of people as their colleagues think they are. Let's be honest: neither of them was all that great of a journalist.
In any case, out of sheer irreverence, I'm posting some of what Westboro Baptist Church had to say about Snow on their always entertaining blog:
Tony Snow was a rebel against God and he had NO cause. He could read and he could have used all the positions that he was put into by the Lord his God (he and YOU had/have NOTHING except what you all receive from the hand of the Lord your God!) to speak truth about the standards of God and HIS righteousness, and encourage his fellow countrymen to put away their idols, their false gods and their FILTHY, disobedient and rebellious manner of life. Tony Snow was an unfaithful steward!
1Co 4:2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
God killed Tony Snow - first he smote him with cancer, and yet Tony Snow would NOT repent and serve his God in truth! That God that held the very breath of his life in HIS hands gave Tony Snow space to repent, and he would not!
Now that's a perspective you won't find represented in the mainstream media. God bless the Internet and all of the weirdos it gives voice to.
Recommended Reading
This is the first in what I plan to make a daily series of posts where I link to some of the most interesting things I find online. Enjoy!
Glenn Greenwald, a fierce advocate of civil liberties and Salon.com writer, argues the United States is abandoning the rule of law at a frightening rate, through both torture and illegal wiretapping.
However, Orin Kerr argues on The Volokh Conspiracy, a prominent law blog, that the FISA bill Congress just passed isn't as bad as many are making it out to be.
And the Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan also sees a major distinction between wiretapping and torture.
To end on a lighter (higher?) note, I'll bring your attention to Reason's coverage of a marijuana decriminalization initiative in Massachusetts.
If you'd like to read more interesting things I find online, go here. I update that page almost constantly.
Glenn Greenwald, a fierce advocate of civil liberties and Salon.com writer, argues the United States is abandoning the rule of law at a frightening rate, through both torture and illegal wiretapping.
However, Orin Kerr argues on The Volokh Conspiracy, a prominent law blog, that the FISA bill Congress just passed isn't as bad as many are making it out to be.
And the Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan also sees a major distinction between wiretapping and torture.
To end on a lighter (higher?) note, I'll bring your attention to Reason's coverage of a marijuana decriminalization initiative in Massachusetts.
If you'd like to read more interesting things I find online, go here. I update that page almost constantly.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Information Revolutions
My column this week attempts to put newspapers' current problems into a broader historical context.
Check out the rest of my column on the DI's main site.
Those working in the newspaper business are well aware that major changes are afoot. Advertising revenue is collapsing, newsrooms are hemorrhaging staff members, and the quality of the journalism being done at most publications is sinking to a depressingly low common denominator. These developments are causing many reporters to despair and resign themselves to slowly sinking into the sea as the battered and broken organizations they work for take on water like the Titanic.
Not me. I see plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
The seismic shifts going on in today's media industry are not unprecedented. They're just bigger and coming faster than the changes most people are accustomed to. The media isn't the only aspect of society being affected by the increasing pace of change in today's world, but it does happen to be an area that is undergoing a fundamental reorganization.
Check out the rest of my column on the DI's main site.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Jon deals with not being able to moderate comments
Noooo...it takes the precious away! Nasty mean Nate Whitney steals it from us!
We misses the precious. Make commentses appear and disappear, we could! If they was wise and laughsie, we puts them through so everyone could see. If they tries to sells us viagra, we smashes them to pieces. How we laughs!
Now cruel Nate takes it! We hates it; nasty, cruel opinions editor, *gollum*, *gollum*...
We misses the precious. Make commentses appear and disappear, we could! If they was wise and laughsie, we puts them through so everyone could see. If they tries to sells us viagra, we smashes them to pieces. How we laughs!
Now cruel Nate takes it! We hates it; nasty, cruel opinions editor, *gollum*, *gollum*...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
What's the point?
So, John Edwards is finally endorsing Barack Obama. Great. Yippee. How interesting.
/sarcastic
May I ask; what's the point? By waiting until it was totally safe, Edwards' endorsement has gone from what could have been the most important of this race to completely worthless. What's the damn point; does Barry honestly need those few delegates from Edwards? Is he worried?
Don't answer that.
This was a dumb move on Edwards' part. Way to go out on a limb there, Johnny. I'll bet when you go to Vegas you play the nickel slots, but you limit yourself to a dollar a day, right? Don't want to get too crazy. People might think you're a rebel if you moved over to the quarter slots.
/bored with this story
I've got to go get in the shower, John Edwards is having a millennium new years party tonight.
/sarcastic
May I ask; what's the point? By waiting until it was totally safe, Edwards' endorsement has gone from what could have been the most important of this race to completely worthless. What's the damn point; does Barry honestly need those few delegates from Edwards? Is he worried?
Don't answer that.
This was a dumb move on Edwards' part. Way to go out on a limb there, Johnny. I'll bet when you go to Vegas you play the nickel slots, but you limit yourself to a dollar a day, right? Don't want to get too crazy. People might think you're a rebel if you moved over to the quarter slots.
/bored with this story
I've got to go get in the shower, John Edwards is having a millennium new years party tonight.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Coconut Road
As a follow-up to my vague reference in my column that annoyed Jon last week, I'm providing a link to that explains the Coconut Road controversy. Apparently an earmark showed up in a 2006 bill after the congress voted on the legislation, but before President Bush signed it. The earmark is for a road in Florida, but was apparently requested by Alaska Rep. Don (Bridge-to-nowhere) Young, the committee chairman. It's an interesting case. The project was not supported by the Florida congressman whose district it would affect, and it was opposed by the local community. But, it would benefit a local real estate developer and donor/fundraiser for Rep. Young. Recently the subject of investigation into this issue has come up in the Congress. It would be nice if there were more media coverage of this egregious earmark and the investigation, but there doesn't seem to be much mainstream political coverage without the word "Obama" or "Clinton" involved. Seems important to me, but what do I know? I'm sure there's some logic to talking about a candidates bowling score and ignoring a $10 million earmark.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Crass testosterone meets pathetic news story
So some stupid little shit in Connecticut wore his Favre jersey for over 1,500 days in a row.
And now he's finally taken the damn thing off.
Didn't he hear about the lady in Kansas who had her ass grow around the toilet seat over the years? Is the mesh not a part of his biology now, grafted into his pasty skin?
I'd make some really easy joke right now about how wearing the same jersey 1,500+ days consecutively makes him 95% likely to die a virgin, but considering he's a Packers fan I think those odds were pretty much above 90% anyhow.
Look, I'm a Bears fan, but I love Brett Favre as much as anyone else. That said, what the hell are you doing wearing the same thing 1,500 days straight? There are kids in sub-Saharan Africa who have had a more extensive wardrobe in 10 days than you have had in three years of being a Connecticut Packer in Tim Gunn's court. "No, no silly. This simply doesn't work!"
Where is DCFS when you need them?
And just wait...Brett Favre will go tell ESPN soon that he read this story in the paper, and because of this little boy he will (tearfully) end his re-retirement and play next year for Green Bay.
Gawd.
And now he's finally taken the damn thing off.
Didn't he hear about the lady in Kansas who had her ass grow around the toilet seat over the years? Is the mesh not a part of his biology now, grafted into his pasty skin?
I'd make some really easy joke right now about how wearing the same jersey 1,500+ days consecutively makes him 95% likely to die a virgin, but considering he's a Packers fan I think those odds were pretty much above 90% anyhow.
Look, I'm a Bears fan, but I love Brett Favre as much as anyone else. That said, what the hell are you doing wearing the same thing 1,500 days straight? There are kids in sub-Saharan Africa who have had a more extensive wardrobe in 10 days than you have had in three years of being a Connecticut Packer in Tim Gunn's court. "No, no silly. This simply doesn't work!"
Where is DCFS when you need them?
And just wait...Brett Favre will go tell ESPN soon that he read this story in the paper, and because of this little boy he will (tearfully) end his re-retirement and play next year for Green Bay.
Gawd.
Monday, May 5, 2008
620 ways to use denim
This is hilarious. Mo Rocca and Tim Gunn say what most of us have been thinking about polygamist fashion.
Yeah, so they're gonna put those guys away for awhile. I'd say (jokingly, of course, so keep your words to yourself) that being in a compound with these sultry vixens is punishment enough.
I suppose I should comment on what I think about the rights of the government to go in and take DNA from these people and take their children, or whether or not it just bothers me from a womens rights perspective or an incest angle. Yeah, I'm not gonna do that. This is easier.
Besides, every time I try to concentrate my mind drifts to Iron Man. Damn you, Tony Stark.
Yeah, so they're gonna put those guys away for awhile. I'd say (jokingly, of course, so keep your words to yourself) that being in a compound with these sultry vixens is punishment enough.
I suppose I should comment on what I think about the rights of the government to go in and take DNA from these people and take their children, or whether or not it just bothers me from a womens rights perspective or an incest angle. Yeah, I'm not gonna do that. This is easier.
Besides, every time I try to concentrate my mind drifts to Iron Man. Damn you, Tony Stark.
My best columns are in my head
Do the other columnists have this problem, too? On a regular basis, I'll see something, read a news story or encounter something that inspires me. I think, "That would make a great column!" Sometimes these ideas turn into mediocre columns, and sometimes they just fade away on my long mental list of things that seem brilliant. Having a column has been a great experience, and it would've been so much better if I didn't have the distraction of having to graduate from college.
The end of the semester is nearly here and most of the inspiring encounters will remain in my head (some of them are better off there.) There's one article that I have to share with everyone. Even though I never ended up columnizing about it, the story needs to be shared. It's from the periodical, "Rethinking Schools" (vol. 22, Fall 2007.)
Brotherly Love? Hardly
After enduring intense public haranguing and threatening phone calls that were said to border on "terroristic," Philadelphia Public Schools has pulled Gay and Lesbian History Month from its official calendar. However, in an effort to be fair, the district also scratched similar diversity recognition months and days, including African-American and Hispanic Heritage months and International Day of Disabled Persons.
In keeping with the spirit of its diversity policy, the district moved to include Gay and Lesbian History Month — celebrated in October — on last year's calendar, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The outrage was immediate.
"We were just not prepared for the controversy," Cecilia Cummings, the district's spokesperson, told the Inquirer. "We were besieged by calls, threats, letters, and we didn't have the manpower to staff it. Nor did we have the preparation or training to really figure out how to deal with this issue in a way that could keep kids safe. We had meetings where adults were calling kids names."
The district had received complaints in prior years, but never to the extent seen when they placed Gay and Lesbian History Month on the calendar, Cummings said.
(Fall 2007, "Short Stuff")
I love this story! The school district said, "Alright, that's it - nobody gets a day of recognition!" An argument could be made on either side of the argument of whether to add this to their calendar, but to solve the problem - They're actually treating everyone the same.
The flaw in all of these well-intended days of appreciation is that in calling attention to someone, even in an attempt to celebrate diversity, a divide is created. I know someone who was the only African-American in her high school. She dreaded every February because whenever Black History Month came up in the classroom, all eyes were on her. It didn't make her feel appreciated, it made her feel embarrassed.
So I say, Good for Philadelphia school district for their inclusive exclusion. Treating everyone the same should ultimately do more to bring people together than having George Washington Carver in the curriculum every February.
The end of the semester is nearly here and most of the inspiring encounters will remain in my head (some of them are better off there.) There's one article that I have to share with everyone. Even though I never ended up columnizing about it, the story needs to be shared. It's from the periodical, "Rethinking Schools" (vol. 22, Fall 2007.)
Brotherly Love? Hardly
After enduring intense public haranguing and threatening phone calls that were said to border on "terroristic," Philadelphia Public Schools has pulled Gay and Lesbian History Month from its official calendar. However, in an effort to be fair, the district also scratched similar diversity recognition months and days, including African-American and Hispanic Heritage months and International Day of Disabled Persons.
In keeping with the spirit of its diversity policy, the district moved to include Gay and Lesbian History Month — celebrated in October — on last year's calendar, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The outrage was immediate.
"We were just not prepared for the controversy," Cecilia Cummings, the district's spokesperson, told the Inquirer. "We were besieged by calls, threats, letters, and we didn't have the manpower to staff it. Nor did we have the preparation or training to really figure out how to deal with this issue in a way that could keep kids safe. We had meetings where adults were calling kids names."
The district had received complaints in prior years, but never to the extent seen when they placed Gay and Lesbian History Month on the calendar, Cummings said.
(Fall 2007, "Short Stuff")
I love this story! The school district said, "Alright, that's it - nobody gets a day of recognition!" An argument could be made on either side of the argument of whether to add this to their calendar, but to solve the problem - They're actually treating everyone the same.
The flaw in all of these well-intended days of appreciation is that in calling attention to someone, even in an attempt to celebrate diversity, a divide is created. I know someone who was the only African-American in her high school. She dreaded every February because whenever Black History Month came up in the classroom, all eyes were on her. It didn't make her feel appreciated, it made her feel embarrassed.
So I say, Good for Philadelphia school district for their inclusive exclusion. Treating everyone the same should ultimately do more to bring people together than having George Washington Carver in the curriculum every February.
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