Educated Opinions

A Peppered History The United States, and the world, has a long history of censoring things deemed inappropriate; art and literature have been censored for centuries. I remember when I was a student in high school, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was censored due its profanity and sexual content. Students are now free to read this novel, and it is also included in most curriculums, as it should be; The Grapes of Wrath won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction. You might say that people censor things which make them uncomfortable. Unfortunately, this means that people, and eventually governments, censor protests whose goals make them uncomfortable. A Step Back In Time Prior to, during, and after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the NAACP was subjected to many instances of censorship due to the civil rights protests they were orchestrating. One notable case is Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, 372 U.S. 539 (1969) [1] . In 1959, during the...

Tweets versus North Korea I recently found myself wondering if there is any correlation between President Trump's tweets, specifically those directed at N. Korea, and the increase in N. Korean missile launches and nuclear bomb tests. A lot of people have praised President Trump for standing up to the North Korean tyrant. Other people, probably a number equal to those who praise him, have condemned the president's incessant insults directed at Kim Jung Un via twitter. I find it rather ironic how our president, a man who criticized the public announcement of military plans by past and present administrations during his campaign, insists on forewarning N. Korea through televised and social media comments, such as mentioning the possibility of a coordinated assassination [1] or saying N. Korea "won't be around much longer" [2] . That second one, which President Trump tweeted on the weekend of September 23, 2017, was considered a declaration of war ...

The Gender Handicap You have probably heard that women earn less than men in the work place. However, what was most likely not made clear was that the bulk of the wage gap is not due to men and women being paid differently for the same job. The difference in salaries for the same jobs, qualifications, etc, only make up for a four cents per dollar difference compared to male salaries [1]  (i.e., on average, women earn $0.96 per $1.00 earned by men). This is much smaller than the 23-24 cents per dollar that is often quoted, but it still is not fair. This should have been solved decades ago by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned employment discrimination for many things, including sex [2] . This includes differences in wages due to a person's sex. The ever apparent gender wage gap has been repeatedly addressed, especially during the Obama administration, and corporations have continued to implement changes in their wage practices. Obviously, though, the current four ce...

So There's This New Game Show  Have you noticed the new game show on local television? It is that one where player number one gets offended and then player number two has to find something about player number one's offense that is offensive to them. The player that gets offended last wins. You have not heard of it or seen it? It is getting coverage on all of the TV stations and social media outlets. The first episode had some girl in Texas who got offended by a cotton plant display, claiming it was racist; she further stated that she intended to boycott the store carrying the display. Her opponent was offended because the girl decided to only boycott the store carrying the cotton display instead of all cash crops and the stores that carry them. Player number one, the girl offended by cotton, gets offended by player number two's remark, citing racism. Usually the racism offense trumps all other offenses, but, out of nowhere, player number two hits player number one wi...

Empathy for the Opposition Webster's dictionary defines empathy in the following manner [1] : "the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner" Have you ever had a strong feeling about a particular issue? Are you so convinced that your stance is the correct one and you wonder how it is not obvious to the person who opposes you? Well, guess what...that is exactly how the opposition feels. Chances are, while you are providing the opposition with your well-thought-out argument, they are tuning you out and waiting for their turn to begin speaking. We have all done it. We want to save that poor soul from their ignorance; show them the light! Or worse, you get the person who does not want to let you chime, refusing to even consider anyth...

NFL protests of the National Anthem  |   by a "privileged" white guy #TakeAKnee  As I prepared to watch my first NFL game of the season, I wondered if the protest against our nation's national anthem was going to continue. You know, the one intended to shine light on the injustice people of color suffer on a daily basis. It is continuing, but it is not going as the players hoped it would. Although players have stated that their protests have nothing to do with service members, U.S. citizens are still angry. Look at any Facebook post referencing the protests and in the comments section you are bound to see "that is offensive to our veterans" or "they are spitting on the flag" in as many variations as there are stars in the sky. To be clear, the protests, which are against the National Anthem and consequently the US flag,  are certainly offensive to our veterans and our nation, regardless of their intentions. Social media personalities have taken to...