I'm going to attempt to fill you all in on the many upcoming events this spring. If any of you remember Bill Nye the Science Guy, he had a segment on his show called "Did You Know That?" The segment put 30 seconds on the clock and told a quick and interesting science fact. This entry is neither quick nor science-y, but it's super-informative and will hopefully give you some new ideas for how you can give back to your community this spring.
Lady GayGay
When I got back from class this afternoon (on a very busy, stressful day), I visited the fan site for Lady Gaga (I'm a huge fan). She had a post about a boy named Cole who was sent to the principal's office of his Greenbrier, Tennessee school for wearing an "I (heart) Lady Gay Gay" shirt. This happened April 6.
For those of you who don't know...
For those of you who don't know, April 16 is the National Day of Silence. Hundreds of thousands of students take a vow of silence for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students that experience discrimination and bullying in schools.
Anyway...
Anyway, Cole has been getting a lot of attention, both positive and negative. He wrote a note on Facebook discussing his strong sense of pride and identity, two things he says he will never compromise. He was told by teachers and several harassing bloggers that "school is not the place to display your sexuality," to which he answered, "then it also shouldn't be the place to display your religion, your political beliefs or your Southern pride."
Want to learn more?
Read the article about Greenbrier High School's actions against Cole's self-expression.
The situation in Sudan.
After some facebook updating, I checked my e-mail. I'd received an email from one of the many advocacy newsletters to which I subscribe. This e-mail was from the Save Darfur Coalition.
For those of you who don't know...
For those of you who don't know, the area of Sudan known as the Darfur region is experiencing a genocide that has been going on for about six years now. People across the Darfur region are homeless and living in displacement camps, some of which are miles away from natural resources. Women must leave the camps daily and risk rape and murder to fetch water for their children in the displacement camps.
The Religious Action Center and the Save Darfur Coalition held a rally Washington, D.C. in April of 2005. About 20 members of the Jewish community in Columbus organized a bus, and I attended the rally, where I heard Elie Wiesel, George Clooney, Barack Obama, and other activists speak about the atrocities in Darfur. April of 2006 I attended a social justice seminar called L'Taken, also in Washington, D.C. where I lobbied and spoke to my representative about getting the United States and the United Nations to intervene in Darfur.
Anyway...
Anyway, I received this e-mail from the Save Darfur Coalition. This Sunday, April 11, Sudan will have its first multi-party elections in 25 years. Of course, there's always complications. Sudan is still in the midst of a civil war which is preying on unarmed women and children, using rape as a weapon.
Want to learn more?
Click here to learn more about Sudan's first "free and fair" elections. Also, April 16, in addition to being the Day of Silence, is also Darfur Awareness Day - at least at Ohio State.
Speaking of Sunday, April 11th...
This Sunday, April 11th, 2010 is Yom Hashoa, or Holocaust Remembrance day. At Ohio State, all of next week is Holocaust Remembrance Week. I don't need to tell you the details of the Holocaust - 13 million murdered, 6 million of them Jews, while the world stood idly by.
This quote is featured in the Holocaust Museum in D.C., and can also be found in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Never Again-Again.
For those of you who don't know...
For those of you who don't know, April 7 began the 16th commemoration of another global atrocity - the 100 days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. I've mentioned this before - the Rwandan genocide took the lives of around 800,000 Rwandans and left 1.2 million children without parents, one of the largest orphan populations in the world. Over 65% of Rwanda's population is under the age of 25. The median age of Rwanda's total population is 18.7 years. The hundreds of thousands of rapes that took place after the genocide ended left tens of thousands of women with HIV or AIDS.
One of the ways Rwanda is slowly being rebuilt is through the creation of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village. The ASYV, started two years ago by South African native and current Jewish New Yorker Anne Heyman, is a place of residence for 250 Rwandan teenagers orphaned by the 1994 Rwandan genocide. As you may have read if you followed my blog last year, I visited the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in June of 2009.
The Village is based on Yemin Orde, a village in Israel which housed young escapees of the Holocaust and is now home to Israeli youth and kids from all over the world.
I still keep in touch with some of the friends I made there - there's a computer lab in the village, and a few of the kids have Facebook accounts. They keep me updated on the changes going on in their new home. I miss Africa so much. If I'm having a really bad day, I can go back and look at my pictures from the Village and I feel better knowing there are people in the world who still want to make a difference. Margaret Mead is right - it only takes a small group of committed citizens to change the world. The Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village is unique in Africa, and the school in the Village has become one of the best in Rwanda. The kids are motivated and optimistic, and have big dreams for their future and the future of their country.
You can read my blog posts about my time in Rwanda, and I have a few albums of pictures up on Facebook as well.
Anyway...
Anyway, the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village is amazing, and donating to the village is a really meaningful way to remember the dead and to honor the living. Visit http://agahozo-shalom.org/ to donate and to learn more.
Relay For Life
Relay For Life is an event sponsored by the American Cancer Society. It's a 24-hour fundraising event to raise money for cancer research. Ohio State's Relay For Life is Saturday, May 8 to Sunday, May 9. OSU has 110 teams, 903 participants, and has raised almost $30,000 so far.
For those of you who don't know...
We've all been affected by cancer in some way. For those of you who don't know, my family has recently experienced the effects of cancer firsthand - a family member, as well as a few friends of the family, were and are sick with cancer this year. It's been a very emotional and trying couple of months for our family, but with love and commitment we're getting through it. And for many of you who have asked, though this has been quite a strain on my immediate and extended family, it has not affected my parent's relationship. They're still strong and very much in love. =)
Anyway...
Anyway, I'm on Ohio State Hillel's Relay For Life team, raising money for the cause. I hope to make AT LEAST 100 dollars, though I think I'll be able to raise more than that.
Wanna help? Visit my personal Relay For Life page and click "donate." It's pretty easy from there. OR, you can visit my Facebook profile. If you scroll down you'll see a banner in the left-hand column that says Relay For Life. There's a "donate" button there as well.
Fighting For Women's Rights to Be Just as Safe and Empowered as Men Already Are.
...and maybe a little more than that. May 13 is Take Back The Night, my feminist group (Womyn and Allies Rising in Resistance)'s big event of the school year. TBTN begins in the afternoon with speakers, live music, different awareness groups and short seminars, and ends in the evening with a walk down High Street to show that women shouldn't have to fear men and assault when they are outside at night. The theme of this year's Take Back The Night is "Illuminating Truths."
For those of you who don't know...
For those of you who don't know, rape is a problem on all college campuses, especially the large, heavily populated campuses that party a lot and have a large Greek Life population. Sound familiar? That's right, Ohio State fits that description perfectly. This year alone there have been two reported rapes and a handful of reported sexual assaults on Ohio State's campus. Many women don't come forward, and there are countless rapes and assaults that go unreported every year. The Ohio State University isn't required to do anything about it, because The Ohio State University does not have an official sexual assault policy - a contract in the student handbook that students sign and that will hold them accountable for their actions. There's a "resource guide," which is not nearly detailed enough, and is just a "guide." Womyn and Allies Rising in Resistance (WARR) is fighting and appealing to the student government and the exec board to get this changed. People need to be held accountable for their actions.
Anyway...
Anyway, if you're in town May 13, 2010, you should most definitely stop by the Wexner Center for the Arts plaza to hear some speakers and be a feminist for the day - you might like it. Feminism's a spectrum in people's minds, but it really just comes down to equality. Human rights.
I hope you've enjoyed my looooooong post - now go out and do something for someone else!
-Maddie.
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