Words are only Words

Prompt 2

Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away. Neither does simply changing the words that you choose to phrase a problem. Michiko Kakutani notes that by being politically correct, one "warp[s] the meaning of words by placing them under a high-powered ideological lens"(Kakutani 764), and problems like sexism and racism are concealed by their lack of prominence in spoken language. Euphemisms like "'Fat' becomes 'big boned' or 'differently sized'"(Kakutani 764) misleads people into thinking issues aren't terribly serious. Of course, people shouldn't be openly sexist or racist. However, euphemisms are confusing frankly and are used so frequently some euphemisms themselves have become connotated negatively. Have you ever been called "special"?

There is a problem deeply rooted mentally in sexism, racism, and prejudice in general. Whenever people are truly racist, they are not just rotten, mean people. They are rotten, mean, and societally influenced from a young age. The core problem cannot be wiped away with a few fancy words. Don't be openly hateful. Don't be microaggressive. Don't euphemize. Sometimes it's not possible to not be hateful and not euphemize. That is ok. However, speaking about an issue like sexism or racism in a manner that masks the true severity of the issue, is essentially lying. And that's not the most  politically correct thing to do.

Awkward Passing

A man walks down the hallway, and notices his old friend. He says, "Hi, how are you?"

The man asks because he knows the awkward passing: that moment when running into a familiar face, debating whether or not to wave or say "hi" but end up not doing anything.

His friend, George Lincoln, tells him, "Good, how are you?"

He will not know, however, because they both continue walking in opposite directions becoming too far apart to communicate. Indeed, their communication was largely socially polite. Disregarding these unwritten rules results in an uncomfortable silence and an even awkwarder next encounter. Polite speech is invaluable.

Yet, why in books, movies, and TV are there never these moments? (except those highly exaggerated stints of awkwardness that are 100x worse). That's because there's always something to talk about. There's always a discussion to be had. Everyone is happy to be part of their wonderful social environment.

Face to face communication is very personal and can revitalize a person's day. Anything that comes to mind can spin into a fascinating or informational conversation which in turn can spread to others. In truth, not all stories capture the attention of every pedestrian, but simply the act of being spoken can make any person's day.

However, in reality, ideas for small talk don't always instantly come to mind the second people meet. That's why polite talk exists. All to avoid the nasty awkward passing. But if everyone talked politely the world would be boring and superficial. So, please, converse.

What is the value of a life?

The Food We Eat

                                                Michelle Obama Campaigns for Obese Kids

This image is somewhat dated. We have gotten our cookies back! And school pizza has always sucked. However, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAKE? Well, technically it's "banned". Yet, I haven't seen a food jail to be thrown into, so I think it's still alright.  Naturally, after the reformation of the entire school lunch menu, there would be a difference.

For those unaware of the changes, I will try to list them to the best of the memory.

• All the school portions have gone down. Not just by a bit either: the pretzels are about 1/3 size.
• I'm not sure how to describe the new meat, but it's sketchy. At least, more so than usual.
• All the chips are baked or reduced fat.
• Pop tarts and rice krispies are now whole grain (don't try the rice krispies).
•  All drinks are not energy drinks, vitamin drinks or diet. Plus all variations of water.
• Mandatory fruit or vegetable per meal (largely ignored).

As seen in the picture, the reaction was explosive. The animosity towards Mrs. Obama was palpable. 

Incoming 6th graders will never again experience the full glory of the snack bar. Incoming freshmen will never again experience snackhalla.

Michelle campaigned to help the children, but her help caused great suffering. Hopefully, the land of great munchies will return.

Serengeti Plains

      The Serengeti Plains is a immensely vast field filled with various mammals on the battlefield of the greatest hunt. Trees and watering holes dot the landscape filled with tall grass.  Lions, zebras, giraffes, elephants and more roam this land grazing and hunting. This is the Savanna.
      Seven months of dry season scorches the plains as the animals migrate all across the plain looking for the next oasis. The other five months is rain season getting up to twenty five inches of rain per month. Thornbushes, cacti, elephant grass crowd the area hiding the lions preying on the gazelles. A breathtaking sun fills the sky from one of the closest vantage points on Earth at dawn and dusk. Wild, exotic creatures in their natural habitat will roar their unrestrained roar. This is the Savanna.

Not to be confused with Africa. Just like New York and Miami symbolize America, so does the African Savannah symbolize Africa. However, any informed traveller could point out that half of the U.S. is plains and farms. Likewise, lots of Africa is desert and rainforest. Of course, the Serengeti is the archetypal savanna.

The millennial plague

Today the world is fighting. Everyone has decided that violence is always the answer. The words of Gandhi are no more than whispers of a forgotten haiku. Some take up arms; Some watch the horror. We are now used to war. Is there hope for peace, World Peace? Perhaps not. However, there is still hope: a protest, a sitdown, a rally for the future. Let us not be destroyed by our own race, the human race and may we swallow the pride that causes these collisions and be hot with humility. Hereafter, let us focus on the problems from without, not those that plague us from within for over 2000 years.

Solving World Hunger

Tsk Tsk. You didn't eat all the food on your plate. Don't you know children in Africa are starving?

World hunger may seem like it's not a big deal. Why don't people eat grass and tree bark? Well, for the same reason everybody else doesn't. it's not edible and digestible. Actually 3.5 million children die every year to hunger. That's only the children. Millions of adults die every year too from malnutrition and diseases that attack their weakened immune systems. 

So the big question is how can we end world hunger. My 9th grade world history teacher came up with the perfect solution. Feed them the elderly. Solves all the big problems of today. 

There's hungry children? Eat the elderly.

Financial debt too large? Eat the elderly.

The population is getting too big? Eat the elderly.

Maybe old people are just too mean and crotchety. Just eat them.

Together we can solve world hunger one old person at a time. Think of the children.

Jainism

 Sadly, the SAT is coming up and parents everywhere are shoving their kids off to whatever class that takes the most time. I am one of those kids who now must dedicate my very lively hood  hunched over a desk, crying on the inside, yet gritting my teeth and carrying on. In my torture class, I came upon an article about Jainism.

This religion started out in India where a rich man suddenly found enlightenment and decided to enter the ranks of poverty. The religion holds many beliefs like harmlessness and renunciation. Their belief in harmless is so potent, in fact, that they will refuse to eat root vegetables as it's bad for the mind/body and essentially kills the vegetable.

People today are so concerned about meat, fish, lobsters, that it seems the extent of these floras existence is having vitamins and making oxygen. No one takes the time to consider the root vegetable. Carrots, radishes, and turnips no longer count as beings, but as objects -- bad tasting ones at that. At least potatoes contribute to taste bud society.

Every year millions of root vegetables are grown in farms across the world. They are living beings, too. Imagine if millions of baby chicks were grown every year and slaughtered and turned into chicken nuggets. Oh Wait.

The marked man

Blue, Yellow, Red! The colors swirled throughout the screen as the monotonous speaker droned on about profit margins and marketing spiel. I noticed these colors seemed to blur around the outlines of all the men in the room, but not one color seemed to grace the all-business suits the men wore. The colors brown, black, and grey hogged all the space on the clothing and they didn't exactly demand attention. The men's hair differed from combed, to uncombed, and even a bald one. Whenever they spoke it all seemed to be with the same voice, as if they were all robotic recordings -- never speaking just telling. My eyes started to wander and a speck of color glinted across the room. A woman wearing an ornate yellow butterfly brooch was animatedly taking notes. Under her business attire was a blue blouse only showing at the edges. Her glasses at first glance seemed to be completely inconspicuous until the light reflected a dark red rim as her eyes darted between the screen and her pad. There was something special about what she was wearing; something seemed to stand out about her that screamed attention. Then it hit me that she was completely unique in the meeting. She had some mark that symbolized who she was and only she had that mark. I looked back at all the other corporate men who were still driveling on about financial trends and I wondered "Why are there so many unmarked men?"

Playing with Mother

    If you went to my house during the summer you could tell everything was just fine. The flowers were in bloom and there was laughter and sunshine filling the air with joy like our own Garden of Eden. There wasn't anything terribly wrong. My mother and I both like to play games, lay down relaxing, and fancy bubbly drinks were our drink of choice

    My mother and I disagree on one thing and that was at what time to get up -- I prefer later and she leans toward earlier.

    I am the son of an IT software designer. I like to call my house the United States to Peace.
 I was six when I moved into that quiet house. I distinctly remember my mother cooking a warm home-cooked meal while my family and I sat around the dinner table watching TV.

My mother and I used to tell jokes to each other and laugh heartily, I bought a joke book in China and we'd read our favorite jokes and have fun. It was a good time.

Nowadays my mother and I seem to argue about some of the smallest things. She'd tell me to finish some random 1000 page SAT book and I'd say that was totally unreasonable. I wasn't always so rebellious. There were times when I would actually enjoy my mother's company and we could do family activities.

There were times when we could play games like Sorry and Life, knocking pieces aside or collecting cash from all the tiles. It was a blast. The games were really useful when my friends came over too. I could just grab a random board game whenever a party got stale.

Of course nowadays I prefer playing games online with my friends and my mother seems to enjoy her Candy Crush. She definitely seems to enjoy denying me the chance to go online and play games with my friends there. She insists on studying and whatnot, like a typical Asian mom on Youtube. Of course she tells me her history of how when she had to go to school she studied all day long and she her brother studied all the time too.

Now it seems we share different hobbies and we separate ourselves into our own corners of the house.

Victimized

Underneath all the spew of freedom and equality, there lies a few undeniable sad truths. 

130 years ago a terrible war ravaged the U.S.A. that split the country in two. While the war ended a very long time ago, the conflict remains. Racism still splits the people living in the land of equality from the people living with inequality, however, the tells of racism are more subtle i.e. a sneer, shying away. Back in Maya Angelou's day, it was tragic.

A long time ago, one  man won the championship boxer match. Some people were happy and some people were angry. As it turns out, those happy people weren't happy for very long because of the angry people. So really there were a lot of sad and angry people. The 1930s weren't happy times.

An even longer time ago, witches roamed the land. Now these witches may have seemed like confused, old ladies, but really they were bad luck bringers and satan worshippers. So the obvious course of action was to ostracize the witches. It was even financially beneficial because witches are high maintenance. 

Moral of these stories: The ancestors of today were witch hunting, racist, war hawks.