Thugs? Let's Be Real Here

Over the past couple of days, riots have broke out in Baltimore due to the arrest and death of Freddie Gray. While in custody, Gray was found to have serious spinal cord injury. This sparked the riots happening in Baltimore, including the burning of the local CVS. As these protests occurred, a new term was used to describe the rioters: thugs. The protestors were called thugs by Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the mayor of Baltimore, and President Barack Obama. I have never heard such an unfitting word used to describe those who have been mistreated and want to take back their safety as equal citizens of America. Perhaps there have been incidents that spiraled out of hand, including the burning of the CVS, but for the most part the protests are predominantly peaceful. But to call all citizens who seek justice for their city is marginalizing. Let's call them what they truly are: protestors. This is related to the George Orwell essay: Politics and the English Language. Orwell argues against the use of euphemisms, because they do not accurately describe what we hope to say. We do this in order to sway the vision of those who hear us. For example, he uses the sentence, "Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry." He says this can be rephrased as "transfer of population." This is no different from changing the literal term of "protestors" to "thugs". As this word is used by people such as Barack Obama and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, they hope to lead us into believing that these acts of seeking justice were merely criminal behavior acts, and that there are not issues of police brutality.

Taco Night, or Should I Say the Night Where Izzy Desires to Punch Everyone Square in the Face Over A Small Thing that Annoyed Him but Probably Shouldn't Have

So my dad came into my room and told me that dinner was ready. So I came out to the kitchen, not knowing that I'm about to see what kind of twisted household I live in, and he asked me to grate some cheese. Grate some cheese? The balls of that guy! So not only are you a liar, but you are willing to break our mutual agreement. As the dad, he makes the meal, and if he keeps up his end of the deal, I wash the dishes. I don't remember agreeing to being the cheese-grating guy. In order for this deal to take place, you have to make 100% of the meal dad. What do you think this is a relay race? You fry a tortilla, frisbee it to my brother so he can set the refried beans foundation, he chucks it my way, so that I can put a layer of meat on, while at the same time, maintain a preferable ratio of meat to beans, and then send the masterpiece to other family members to can execute my precise formula to make a taco? No way José! See what I did there. Yeah just over there, it was so so clever. Next time it happens, I'm gonna get in the man's face and say, "If there is even the slightest task for me to do when I get into that kitchen (yeah grating cheese can be a real pain) I will burn this house to the ground." No I wont say that, but maybe I'll think about it. (I owe a lot of this rant to one of my favorite comedians: Bill Burr). Here's a picture of some tacos. 

Forgot to post a picture with my last post. There you go.

I believe I have a strong relationship with today's media. I first became aware of media when I got a Facebook account in sixth grade. Since then, I got an instagram, twitter, and snapchat account, but I am not one that frequently posts on them. They are not my favorite forms of media. I would say that I definitely am a fan of movies and music however, so my favorite forms of media would be in music and film. I have always had a passion for music, whether it be playing piano or jamming to an absolute banger, since a very young age. I wouldn't say that music is the first form of media I became aware of, considering that I mostly listened to what my parents listened to since I was three. But about a year ago, I really immersed myself into the film media, it was probably the David Fincher's that did it for me. But since then, I have been looking for new movies to watch just about every day. Without a question, I have a passionate relationship to the media.