Protection vs Discrimination

Last week  Republican Governor, Mike Pence signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This act protects business owners in the legal department, if they refuse service to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender customers if they want to cite their faith as justification for their actions. 

Eric Miller who is the Executive Director of Advance America and stood behind Pence while he signed the act said, “It is vitally important to protect religious freedom in Indiana. It’s the right thing to do. It was therefore important to pass Senate Bill 101 in 2015 in order to help protect churches, Christian businesses and individuals from those who want to punish them because of their Biblical beliefs!” Since Miller is an anti- LGBT advocate we can sense that he really believes that this act can do wonderful things. He uses the word "protects" giving the audience a positive connotation of the word. It gives off the feeling that this act keeps us safe from the gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender. And that this law will protect Christian businesses that follow their faith.

On the other side of the argument, we have Marc Benioff. Benioff is the CEO of the tech giant Salesforce, he tweeted, "Today we are canceling all programs that require our customers/employees to travel to Indiana to face discrimination". Using the word discrimination has a very negative connotation to it. The act is singling people out and that's why Benioff uses that word.

In George Orwell's piece, Politics and the English Language he says,"The writer either has a meaning and cannot express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything or not. This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose, and especially of any kind of political writing". I believe this is completely true. Pence using the word "protects" gives us an image, but he cannot fully express it. Yes he says that the businesses are being protected from being punished, but he is super vague. He has a meaning, but he only says that the act is protecting people from punishment. He has no way of expressing his ideas so he uses the word "protect" instead. Benioff on the other hand does a good job in explaining that he doesn't want people from his company traveling to Indiana so they don't get discriminated. Using the word "discriminated" fully explains his point because people are familiar with that term and it isn't vague.

I'm just glad I don't live in Indiana.

Goodbye McDreamy

On Thursday April 23 a horrible event occurred. Derek Shepherd, the male lead of Grey's Anatomy was killed in a car accident. Derek (Patrick Dempsey) had played a neurosurgeon working at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital for around 11 seasons. He had two children and a wife, Meredith who is the female lead of the show. He was also known as "McDreamy" you can probably see why.

I took Derek's death pretty hard. Grey's Anatomy has and always will be my favorite TV show. Grey's Anatomy was shaped around Meredith and Derek's relationship and now there is no Derek. I hadn't watched the 11th season yet, so I wouldn't have known about Derek's death at all, except something called Twitter ruined that. I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty upset. I shed a couple tears, I just couldn't believe they had killed him off. 

After Dempsey had signed a two year contract last year, I thought he wouldn't be going anywhere. Well I was definitely wrong. It's reported that Dempsey wanted to branch out and do some new things. So they killed him off right in the middle of the season. Quick and easy, with no warning. 

Derek's death didn't just hit me hard. It hit the whole Grey's community. The hashtag #ripDerekShepherd has been trending all weekend on Twitter. Even Taylor Swift was grieving about his death. 

Derek Shepherd you will be greatly missed. 

Can't Stop, Won't Stop

If you were to unlock my iphone 5 the first thing you would see would be social media apps. These would include Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, Snapchat, and Yik Yak. If you were to open my laptop and look at my bookmarks you would find Netflix, Spotify, and Youtube.  So I guess it's safe to say that I really enjoy social media. Whether it's posting pictures on Instagram or binge watching Orange Is The New Black on Netflix.

I first started using social media when I was in 7th grade. I had just gotten a Facebook and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. You could communicate with people from everywhere and if you were friends you could even see their pictures. I  was so excited because I hadn't seen anything like it. Then all of a sudden there was something called Instagram. What was an Instagram? But I had to have one, everyone did! It was the new Facebook. This trend continued with Snapchat, Twitter, Tumblr, and Yik Yak. 

One of my favorite things in the entire world, is watching Netflix on rainy days with a cup of hot chocolate with sweats on. Though I usually watch Netflix more than just on rainy days, because then I would be watching Netflix about 4 times a year, due to this drought we are currently in. Netflix has become a nightly thing whether I'm watching Friends or Greys Anatomy I have just become so accustomed to it. 

Social media and other types of media have been so encompassed into my life that I feel that I cannot stop. I feel a need to share the pictures I take and post what comes to my mind on Twitter. I need to listen to music while walking down the halls during school and watch some Netflix before bed. I guess you could say I'm a little obsessed.