Break the silence

 

Last Friday, April the 17th was the International Day of Silence. 

 

 

For those who do not know, allow me to enlighten;

The mission: “The National Day of Silence brings attention to anti-LGBT [Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender] name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. Each year the event has grown, now with hundreds of thousands of students coming together to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior. ” http://www.dayofsilence.org/index.cfm

What: a group of organised students do not speak during a school day. Not in classes, on breaks or to each other.
It is a symbolic protest to the anti- LGBT attitudes that everyday silences LGBT teenagers and adult. To come out can be social or career suicide, it is to risk one’s friends, one’s family and one’s self respect.

I am silent because I support human rights.

I am silent because it is wrong.

The rash of anti-LGBT messages and it’s emergence in pop culture as “okay” is wrong. Shows like South Park and Family Guy show how our society has accepted the idea that homosexuality are a joke.

Teens have taken it to scary levels.
Rumours, attacks and murder.
Hate, bigotry, cruelty.

The only downside to this protest is that it is by nature and design, a school event, to be held in a school.

However, there are other was of protest even for the general public

National Day Against Homophobia is May 17.

The idea of this years campaign is to show that homosexuality exisits in all countries, and is not resticted by borders.

 ”Homophobia
Homophobia is a negative attitude or feeling, an aversion towards gays and lesbians or towards homosexuality in general. It is also the rejection of people considered gay or lesbian and of all things associated with them, for example, gender non-conformity.” http://www.homophobiaday.org/default.aspx?scheme=1204

If you think is wrong I challenge you to speak up.

 

 

 

Lens Cap

First introduction into my photgraphy, both nature and conceptual.

 

“the market closed today at…”

Well, for once I seem to have an actual news post. However, tragically it is not about my boring tedious life. Instead, I bring you another boring, tedious topic to place on the table.

The Economy. (Cue sinister theme music).

It is understood that it is in the toilet, slowing winding its way down like a badly cared for goldfish.

The media’s response to this is like the media’s response to everything, overblown, underdone, exaggerated and understated.

Commercials claim slogans like “If you lose your job next year, you can return it [a car]!” (This is an actual Hyundai commercial from the United States).

Experts are all over saying this, demonstrating that and the anchor people seem to contradict themselves nearly every sentence with all the “latest” reports from everyone and their dog.

Now I am an eighteen-year-old woman, and do not claim to be an economist, a market watcher, nor am I an investor. I do however have a father whose job is tied into the economy.

With high school coming to a slow close, with all the usual festivities planned and University looming on my near horizon, I have been a little more than worried about my future, scholarly minded mostly, but financial plays a large part into that.

I ask my daddy a lot of questions regarding this, and he often tries his best to explain things to me and I like to think I understand it quite well. Today was one such day.

I asked what cause the initial collapse, because try as I might newscasts will not give the variables to be blamed, just the dire doom of our monetary demise.

The answer I got was about the housing market, the investing market and general human greed. The follow up conversation is what I am long windily leading up to.

My father, who is tied up in the now fragile auto industry, heard from a very large Canadian food company economist, some disturbing and fretful news. I guess it is nothing of a surprise to tell you that the government is lying to us. That is inevitable.

However, they are, according to this economist, lying and misleading about the timeline set out for this depression.

We have been told, “It will be over by the end of the year”, “by the beginning of this year”, and such sayings. All comforting, only a few months of hell then we can go back to eating brand names and buying expensive clothing.

Alternatively, according to the man my father spoke of, they are sugar-coating it, covering that in caramel and adding two tonnes more sugar. The perhaps adding a little bit of sweet n low to top it off.

Five years.

2014.

That is apparently the real predicted end of this downturn. Good news, I should be out of University by then. Hell that is not even all I found out.

I had three jobs. Two granted were EXTREMELY part time, but three none the less. End of last month, on of the companies I worked for…went completely bankrupt. I worked that last shift they had, then bam, next day heard word they closed their doors forever. (Still have not gotten my last pay check).

This is just the beginning. Unemployment is going to keep rising, and ultimately peak to an expected 22%. Yeah… not good news. This will be the worst five years in recent memory, the worst since the 1030’s.

The last thing I was told was the troubling revelation that this is worldwide. Europe to Asia to North America, we all falling. It is bleak enough that it may “take a war to end this” (my father).

I am more that a little afraid.

 

 

 

How to Live While Alive

This is a piece something I wrote. It’s called “how to live while alive, after that I can’t help”.  It’s what a character says in a short story of mine.

—
What to do.

Look at yourself naked in a mirror. Touch your shoulders, your face, and your hair. Poke yourself in the stomach. Say, “I’m beautiful” and smile. Now say, “I’m ugly”. Watch what happens. Try calling another person ugly after that.

Paint your toenails bright red, then with black spots like ladybugs. Go walk barefoot in the grass. Find a cloud that looks like a fish. Lie on your back and try to grab it.

Sleep until noon one day. Wake up at dawn another. Pull an “all nighter” under the stars, with your best friend.

Turn on your own theme music and blare it. Sing in the shower, sing on the street. Dance in your socks. Dance with someone. Dance in the rain.

Take millions of pictures, but never look at them. Try to be in them. Kiss someone, and hug a tree. Skip rocks and make snow angels. Develop the film for years from now. Make the pictures memories you want.

Drink coffee. Drink tea. Drink liquor but not too much. Drink water, it will be the sweetest of them all.

Treat a stranger to lunch. Buy them coffee and ask them their life story. Bring tissues.

Wear overalls. Ride in a convertible. Watch an old movie. Fall in love, but keep your head. Give kisses but keep your heart.

Swim naked in the sun. Climb a tree. Eat a cherry.

Read a book. Read it again. Read it aloud to someone.

Live. Breathe.