TOW #16 - What's Next for Women's March Movement

Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Melbourne and even these United States. Hundreds of thousands of people came out on January 21st to protest the new President, Donald Trump and to unify women, people of color, all genders and sexual orientations. While an extremely low 193,000 people came to watch the new president's inauguration, an estimated 1.15 million people attended The Women's March in Washington D.C, according to authors at heavy.com. If these numbers are true, then this will have been the largest inauguration protest to date. But this is not my point. USA TODAY author, Heidi M Przybyla, says, “This is the moment of the beginning of the revival of the women’s movement,” and I agree 100 percent. We live in a country where we are fortunate enough and privileged enough where we are able to exercise our basic rights. Countries like Burma, North Korea, Turkmenistan Libya, Cuba, Syria, Eritrea and Uzbekistan have to abide by strict censorship laws. This is what America stands for. But should we really be protesting things like equal rights for all in the year 2017. The fact that women have to protest this is an abomination and is unfair. How is it the year 2017 and people in the LGBTQ+ community are still fighting for equality? How is it the year 2017 and people of color are still being oppressed constantly? How is it fair? This is why people like Meryl Streep, Madonna, Miley Cyrus and so many more are using their public platform to help gather and get people to rise up. This protest is an open letter to Donald Trump. This protest is a battle cry. Protest like these are the ones that made this country what it is today. This is what exercising your rights look like. This is what America is.

TOW #15 - I Have A Dream

Martin Luther King Jr. Activist, teacher, fire-eater, friend, literary and rhetorical genius. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I have decided to analyze his famous, "I Have A Dream," speech.

Dr.King uses anaphora frequently in his speech, repeating the phrase, "I have a dream." King repeatedly says this to put impact on his views towards the racial divide in the at the time. He also uses a few metaphors sporadically throughout his speech, for example, "In a sense we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check…It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked “insufficient funds.”(King 1963). Martin Luther King continues to use more rhetorical devices like allusion when he says something similar to a quote from the sixteenth President of the United States and the "Great Emancipator", Abraham Lincoln, "Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation."

Martin Luther King Jr.'s words have impacted so many peoples everyday lives and the way many people think. If you really think about it, slavery ended in 1863 which isn't as long ago as we think. Jim Crow ended in 1950, which isn't even 100 years old. Martin Luther King has influenced groups like Black Lives Matter to protest peacefully instead of using violence.

TOW #14 - How Far I'll Go in 24 Languages

This week, I went to the movies and saw the new Disney animated film, Moana. I really enjoyed this movie because Moana solved her own problems, with very little help from her male counterpart, Maui. But this is beside the point. I mentioned the movie because while I was browsing through my twitter feed, I saw a video of the star, Moana, singing the song "How Far I'll Go" in twenty four different languages.

I heard all of the languages and it was so beautiful. This video reminded me of the Coca Cola commercial where various peoples from around America were singing "America the Beautiful' in their preferred languages. This proved that America is the land of immigrants and the land of the Melting Pot. A plethora of people were upset by the Coca Cola commercial, claiming that the true "American language," was English. I searched on twitter if there had been any hate towards the Moana video.

There was no surprise that many people were hating on the video. While there was nothing said about the true American Language, the internet trolls came out of their hiding places to make the other speaking people feel poorly about themselves and their countries.

I think the authors point of view was to show how beautiful the art of language is, not to spark a hate war on social media websites. This brings me to question, what is wrong with the people in America? Why is there so much hatred towards the unknown.The people of other countries were expressing great feelings of admiration towards the song. Why can't Americans be like this? Is it because of the feelings that we are more superior than other countries. Not only does this make me angry that Americans can so easily show hatred in their hearts, but it makes me sad because Americans are not seen spreading love.