Unfiltered Ocean

This is my final post of 2017. 2017 has been a year of, well, ugh. For some people though, it has been a year of despair. Our fellow friends and neighbors who were protected by DACA now face an even more uncertain future. They do not know whether or not they will be deported to countries that they do not know, as the United States of America is their one true home. Our Grandparents could face cuts in their Medicare and perhaps even their Social Security. Our environment is facing a great crisis and yet our government chooses to deny that fact and to pretend that there are no problems; instead they choose to exacerbate problems by building new oil pipelines and deregulating environmental protections. Millions stand to lose their health insurance coverage in the coming years. Income inequality stands to widen further and further, as the rich will get their permanent tax cuts, while the poor will keep getting the shaft. It is hard to try and say something uplifting when this will contin...

Recently, I took a short break from writing the Profiles In Politics series in order to call for Senator Al Franken to resign over his recent sexual harassment allegations. This past week, he did just that. This conversation on sexual harassment must and will continue, but in the meantime, I'd like to continue with my series. The Reverend Ralph Abernathy wasn't a politician in the traditional sense. In fact, he never held elected office. However, his contribution toward the betterment of American society was far greater than any average politician could ever hope to achieve. Rev. Abernathy was born on March 11, 1926, in Linden, Alabama. His father, William Abernathy, was the first black man to vote in Marengo County, Alabama, as well as the first to serve on a grand jury. Growing up, the Reverend was no stranger to activism. At his school, he led a successful demonstration to protest the inferiority of the school's science lab. As a result, the school updated it. After...

I'm taking a brief break from my Profiles In Politics series to address the Al Franken scandal. I admired Al Franken, not just because of his background in comedy, but also because of his forceful advocacy of progressive values. In high school, I included him in a drawing that I did of Progressive Senators that I admired: himself, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders. His official Instagram still follows me after I shared the picture on Instagram; which I took great pride in. So, as terrible as it is to see someone I admire be named as a sexual harasser, what's more important is the fact that these people were harassed and it was wrong. Two so far have spoken out against him. Will there be more? Al Franken should resign from the Senate. In the Democratic Party, we have to set an example of the changes we want to see in our society. We can't expect things to change in regards to sexual harassment if there is no self accountability or self responsibility. As the real pa...

This is the second installment of my series, Profiles in Politics. In Profiles in Politics, we'll explore some of my favorite politicians and why I admire them. Kiefer Sutherland is well known for his acting in such films as Stand By Me , The Lost Boys, and A Few Good Men ; but one little known fact about Kiefer Sutherland is that his grandfather was Tommy Douglas. Tommy Douglas probably isn't a familiar name for most Americans. In Canada, he is more than well known. In fact, in 2004, a CBC Television program called The Greatest Canadian , which ranked Canadians throughout all history on a scale of greatness, ranked Tommy Douglas as the greatest Canadian of all time. Who was he and why did he win? Tommy Douglas was born on October 20, 1904 in Falkirk, Scotland. When he was 6 years old, his family immigrated to Canada, settling in Winnipeg. Before leaving for Canada, Douglas fell and injured his knee. He developed Osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone, and had to go through...

To keep this blog going, I've decided to write a little series about politicians that I admire. I imagine I'll dedicate the next 4 or 5 posts to this endeavor.  Being in Germany, it is only appropriate that this first post is dedicated to Willy Brandt. I often like to announce, to the annoyance of my classmates, "Willy Brandt! Er ist mein Man!" It translates to "Willy Brandt! He is my man!" It's a reference to this Til Schweiger movie called Honig im Kopf or Head Full of Honey in English. In the movie, the main character is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and so he says things at random. In one particular scene, he's out to dinner with his family, and that's when he randomly announces his support for Willy Brandt. Willy Brandt was born Herbert Frahm on December 18, 1913, in Lübeck, Germany. He was raised by a single mother, who worked full time while his step-grandparents took care of him. He became a Socialist at a very young age. B...

With the rare exception of my high school graduation, I haven't stood during the national anthem since probably middle school. Fetishizing our country, blindness to reality, and pretending to be patriotic are just not my cup of tea. What are we even standing for anyway when we stand during the national anthem? We send our brothers off to die in someone else's war and then we don't take care of them when they come back physically and mentally broken. We don't take care of our own and yet we're supposed to be proud to be Americans? What sacrifice are we really honoring, when all we're doing is wasting the lives of our fellow human beings? I personally don't stand because I'm not gonna honor a country that everyday perpetuates systemic racism and sexism, casts out the poor and helpless to the streets, and sends our own neighbors and siblings and parents off to die for someone's oil stocks. And when I see our President of the United States call peo...

Recently, I read an opinion article by Zoe Williams from the Guardian. In it, she argued that politicians use their religious faith to justify their bigoted and misogynistic views instead of using them to justify doing things for the greater good. She suggested that the solution is not to prevent religion from being an influence in politics, but rather that sex in politics is the actual problem; and that people that share the same faith as these politicians need to stand up and reject such intollerance. Finally, she argued that to call out intollerance, whether fueled or not by religious faith, does not make one intollerant. I agree with her on all of these points. Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Moog, of the British House of Commons was her target here. Recently, Rees-Moog came under a lot of fire when he suggested that his Catholic faith to implores him to reject abortion in all circumstances and to disavow same-sex marriage. Now, I was not baptized Catholic, and I don't necessa...