Celeb Activism continued!

Welcome to 2014! I know it's July, but I had a pretty intense last semester that involved trips across America and then to Europe to learn stuff that I'll bring up in another blog post because I'm going to keep this short.

My last entry was about setlock and how Cumberbatch was using his fame to try and shape dialogue to current events that matter to the world a bit more than a new series of Sherlock existing does.Well now it's happened again with the beautiful Emma Watson, who has just been named an UN Ambassador to promote women. And the news was so popular the announcement actually led to the UN website crashing.

And on the note of celeb activism the creator of the character that made Watson famous, JK Rowling, donated a cool million pounds to the effort to keep Scotland a part of the UK, so there's that for celeb activism too.

While not many of us can be that publically involved in the political process as an advocate it's important to still be aware and be active to the extent you are comfortable with.

Also in case you haven't heard yet Rowling released a new short story so that's cool.

Until next time!

Benedict Cumberbatch and Political/Social Activism go together? YES!

It’s been a while since I’ve written one of these posts; but with school, work, and doing fun college things I’ve been busy…or at least I’ve been spending most of my time wishing I could hole myself in my room and watch BBC Sherlock on a continuous loop.

Speaking of Sherlock, it’s a TV show that I’ve recently become acquainted with (I live in North Dakota so culture takes a while to get to my area). And I’ve become enthralled with the actor playing the Sherlock: Benedict Cumberbatch. Now it’s not because of the high cheekbones or his rather handsome physique that I find enthralling—it’s the fact he did something, multiple times, during the shooting of season three that makes him stand out to be (although being British, tall, and handsome looking does score some points in his favor).

One day Cumberbatch was annoyed with the paparazzi, so he took a piece of paper and held it to his face telling them to go take pictures of Egypt (back when Morsi was having trouble). He did the same tactic again except to criticize the UK government for detaining a journalist’s partner. (Check the details here:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/benedict-cumberbatch-sherlock-egypt-paparazzi?bffb

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/benedict-cumberbatch-sherlock-set-sign-setlock.)

So now you might me wondering what exactly Benedict Cumberbatch has to do with the average person being politically active. That’s the beauty of it—he simply held signs and the world listened. (Granted in terms of the one where he told them to go report on Egypt, I’m not sure I’d want entertainment writers discussing Syria—The West Wing did a good job of explaining why in an episode Season 3 when a fashion/entertainment reporter tries to cover a bombing in Tel-Aviv.)

Putting a Human Rights Campaign or a candidate bumper sticker on your car or computer is a great start to becoming civically engaged. It means you've taken the step to publicly take a stance on an issue or candidate.

You may not think people notice—but they do. For example I was at a speech tournament earlier this year and I was working on my computer and a girl who has volunteered with the HRC for several years came up to me and we had a lovely conversation. In another instance I was working at a high school tournaments and one of my students asked what LGBTQ safe zone meant and I was able to explain to an eighth grader about the concept of a campus that has a network of allies and supporters.

All in all, putting a sticker somewhere prominently on a belonging or wearing a t-shirt is a great way to start the conversation. Paparazzi may not swarm you like they do Cumberbatch—but showing support for causes you believe can make you feel like you can...I don't know-I'm trying to come up with some joke dealing with Sherlock Holmes or Hobbit or Star Trek, but I can't think of anything that clever. 

Until next time! 

Be Prepared: Disney's Scar to the Classroom.

Be prepared. If you're like me when you hear the phrase be prepared what immediately pops into your head is Disney's Lion King where Scar is in his cave singing "Be Prepared" with the hyenas marching past in style reminiscent of  the Third Reich. Or maybe you think of the phrase from your days of scouting, as "be prepared" is the motto of both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America.

But what does that phrase have to do with politics you may ask? Well let me tell you a little story. In my political ideologies class I heard two girls, both of whom are poli-sci majors, sitting behind me complain about the fact they had to read so much for said class. I (can try to) understand the fact many college student probably don't relish spending part of their college experience reading the works of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau. But I read Communist Manifesto my sophomore year of high school "for a bit of light reading",as Hermione would say, after I was introduced to the concepts of Marxian Communism because I wanted to understand why Communism had gained such a bad reputation (the answer, by the way, lies in the fact every real world application of communism was a small coup-de-tat, not a massive uprising of the proletariat, so those who couped had to impose some form of an authoritarian state in order to maintain their power).


Coming back from tangent land, I've written about the fact one should learn about political and take an active role in it, but I forgot to mention that being a politically conscious individual is a process, and you need to be prepared to accept that fact. Take that political ideologies class for example: the best way to learn the opinions of others in terms of their political views is to hear it from the person themselves. And Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau aren't just random people who liked to write- they knew what they were talking about through years of study and participation in the political process, and so I'm about to go to class-and further my study of what they learned.

Now I'm not saying go and pick up the copy of The Prince for your next bedtime reading book. Start with what you know and go from there. And be prepared for the fact there will be times when you don't understand something-trust me, there were moments reading Marx when I had to re-read parts and investigate meanings and implications of what he said.

So remember that politics is like anything else, you need to be prepared to expand your horizons and also be prepared that sometimes it means you may have to read or take part in discussion, but the rewards of being politically conscious are numerous because knowledge is certainly power.

Gender Stereotypes from Legos to the Legislature

      This weekend I went to visit a friend at the Mall of America in Minnesota. My family dropped me off and told me to meet up with them at our designated time at Legoland because of it's easy to spot location (there's  a roughly 30 foot transformer built out of Legos). My next few hours consisted of browsing (after all we're college students working underpaid jobs-we can hardly afford to look at anything from most of the stores), gelato consuming (I recommend candied maple bacon if you're ever there), and discussing non-existent love lives. Finally the time came for my friend to go to work and for me to meet back with my parents at Legoland.
      They texted me saying they were stuck in traffic, so I decided to browse the shelves to see if there were any good Legos to be had (my inner geek has recently been finding Legos to be a great relaxing tool). While walking around the congested store, contemplating whether or not to get a Lord of the Rings Lego set,  I noticed the same thing multiple times: young girls carrying American Girl dolls were utterly bored in the store. Some even seemed exasperated while their brothers ran around the store soaking in all the Lego glory. Looking back I realize, it's a look I've seen before, except on faces on old females when they're hearing about current affairs.
      You see in my area of the world men still write into the paper with editorials saying women belong in a kitchen pregnant (although if they were a teacher, nurse, secretary or cheerleader that'd be okay). Women have been groomed that there are rules each sex must follow. Girls play dress up, kitchen, Barbie-maybe the new line of Disney Princess Legos (but it's because they're in pink packaging). Boys enterain their young selves with  play tools, GI Joe and other action figures, Lincoln Logs, and Legos. As children grow up, women entering public sector occupations (minus elementary teachers) are frowned still relatively frowned upon. So some of the people I go to school with don't engage in discourse on current affairs because they've been trained to think it's not for them, so it's boring to have to deal with.
    Though women are certainly breaking away from those homemaker/the political arena stereotypes. There are twenty women in the Senate, seventy-eight in the House. (And another fun fact, former Representative Gabrielle Giffords was featured more prominently than Barack Obama in a magazine covering Emerging Democrats to watch for in the future.)  There are more women attending certain law schools than males; more women are pursuing jobs in the military, campaigns, the State Department, basically everywhere. Women are starting to stand up and show we are equally as capable in the same situation. Women don't want a special purple packaging to distinguish their sex. Women don't want a special pen marketed to them (cough cough BIC). Women want to show the world you don't have to be a "bra-burner" to be a female influencing politics and advocate for their beliefs. Woman want to make their voices heard in the political arena, since females make up the other half of the population.  
      In the end I bought a Council of Elrond Lego set. And I can tell my parents it was to show all those girls American Girls dolls are cool, but so are Legos- and so are careers in public service.

Get Informed, get involved...like every time.

Not to be redundant...but I feel the need to reiterate the fact it is essential to be a part of the democratic process by learning about public affairs and then getting involved.

I'm pretty sure I've beat the idea of learning about the process with the stick enough times that I won't say any more, but there's one idea I feel the need to relay as many times as possible, and that's the need to get involved. And the best part of that is it's really simple to do this. It's called:
VOTE. WRITE TO CONGRESSMAN.

In recent days there have been congressman who have gotten into a little bit of hot water because of comments they made. (I guess republican men have yet to learn from Akin, Berg, and the guy from Indiana that's people get p.o.ed when one makes negative comments about women.) While the nation is enraged at these comments, the fact remains these people were all elected to public office-meaning enough people who agree with their politicians in their districts voted them into office.  

So basically this is a friendly reminder to go out and vote whenever the opportunity arises because all elections are important, even if the POTUS isn't one of the candidates. For example a friend of mine recently ran for a local office in his hometown. The town has about 7700 people...only about 500 people voted. Now that's just sad.

So remember as President Bartlett said on the West Wing, "Decisions are made by those who show up." So show up every time you can, and when a piece of legislation makes you angry tell your legislator. I mean as long as you aren't represented by someone like Bette Grande, they'll most likely take a moment to listen.

Keep livin' the vida politica!

Step One: Get your head in the game.

Probably the most important thing young Americans need to do for the political system: 

LEARN

You're probably thinking, seriously, I'm a student- that's all I'm doing right now, and coincidentally  paying thousands of dollars to do it. I get it-I'm doing the college thing too (and currently avoiding doing homework by writing this). But in all seriousness, the first step to doing something is to know how to do it.

For example does someone working at a nuclear reactor go into it not knowing anything about nuclear-ness so when something happens their reaction is: "What does this button do?" No, those people are nuclear physicists and spent a lot of time in school doing math and science to learn all about the workings of a nuclear reactor.

It may seem like comparing the workings of  nuclear reactor to politics is apples to oranges, but the principle is the same. You have to know what you're doing and how to do it in order to actually go out and achieve something. I mean, I guess you could go into a campaign office, get your clipboard and pen (or just the canvassing packet if you're me and don't like to use clipboards) and go out and talk to people without knowing what's going on, but really what would then be the point? None of it would make sense to you and you couldn't connect with the ideas or aspirations of that candidate.

It order to know what implications the government has in your life, you need to understand how it works, how checks and balances work together (really people, do learn this if only because it'll make Obama's 'jedi-mind meld' comment make much more sense). Also in learning the process, you can learn when the process, or part of it, is failing to protect the citizens (like the what the Republican agenda of the North Dakota state legislature is doing this session with trying to make abortions completely illegal while maintaining the legality of LGBT discrimination) and respond by knowing how  fight for equality without breaking any laws.

I feel the simplest way to explain the essence of what I'm trying to say is with this from the tumblr capaignsick:

 

Debunking the old fat man myth

Why should young people be involved in the political process anyways? 

"It's just a bunch of old, fat, men sitting in a room."

That "old fat man" remark is the biggest reason I hear when hanging around people who talk about politics that prevents never go beyond just talking about politics. They think because they're not old or fat or male they don't have the right to say anythig

So let me put an end to that line of thinking in the first of most likely many quotations from The West Wing: as President Jed Bartlett states, "Decisions are made by those who show up." 

This is precisely why we, the young people of American, need to start taking part in the political process. Politicians (aka the old, fat, guys) and their compatriots/supporters are the ones that show up, ergo they become the ones that get the power. Then they have the power to make decisions in countless aspects of our lives, decisions ranging from declaring wars, to passing economic and educational measures, to even whether or not two men or two women can marry each other, decisions that will ultimately affect us when we are older and paying taxes, getting married, and paying off our student loans. We need to make sure or local, state, and national representatives of all the branches of government will support us and our goals in life, because we are the future. If our legislators leave us a "hot mess" in terms of economic, foreign, and social policies, it's our hot mess to clean up after. 

I hope by now I've hit home enough on the fact legislators make decisions that effect us, even though for most of our lives we haven't been able to vote (it's actually one reason why candidates won't ever dare to mention eliminate social security, but some will promote cutting students loans-because old people vote en mass and young people don't-but that's a topic I'll discuss in a later blog).

It all comes down to the fact we, the young citizens of America, need to stop just discussing our anger over decisions of legislators over lunch in the cafeteria in high school, or dinner in the dining hall in college. We need to step up and start making our voices heard. Let's stop listening to the little old ladies sitting at the front of the church telling us "we young whipper snappers are going to send the country into ruins", and instead; let's start listening to the history teachers in the front of the classroom that have repeatedly told us that movements start when a group of mostly young people get together under a common goal.