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National Day of Silence = Today. Do we have too many 'months'?
Today's the National Day of Silence, a day of silent protest against the harassment and discrimination that GLBTs face. This year, they're mourning the death of an 8th-grader, Lawrence King, who was killed on the 12th February by a classmate.
As usual, I picked up a t-shirt and armband to wear, along with a few print-outs to hand out to people to explain why I won't be talking today. The funny thing is, the atmosphere on campus is almost identical to that when National Coming Out Day is approaching. Both of them involve the sale of t-shirts, both are centered around GLBT events, both usually have concerts or lunches attached, and both are specific to America as far as I know.
Being gay is often compared to being black, or belonging to disadvantaged racial group, and yet, shockingly enough, there's no day during which people come out as black or Latina or Asian. But at the same time, I can't think of any day that's specifically designated to combat racial discrimination.
It is Latina month here on campus but at the same time, it's Sexual Assault Awareness Month. I know that Wellesley campus isn't unaware of the latter because we have all the Take Back The Night ribbons strung up everywhere, so we're apparently hosting both months at the same time.
While I am all in favor of promoting cultural events, and definitely in favor of working against sexual assault, I think it's just a bit much to have both of them at the same time, especially when one is about pride and the other is about survival.
Does anyone else think that America might have too many 'months'? I don't remember Austria having so many specific holidays. We have our version of Halloween, we had Mother's Day, random Christian holidays, but that's about it. Sri Lankans celebrate their own culturally specific events such as New Year's in April, but again, we don't have a Buddhist Month or a Soldiers Killed In The Civil War Day.
I'm supporting National Day of Silence, obviously. Same for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. And if I knew what to do for Latina Month, I'd support that as well.
However, I am having difficulty remembering all the months and holidays. Unless I see flyers for them or are reminded online, it's too easy to have these dates slip my mind. And I know that some people on my flist feel the same, since I'm the one reminding them of National Coming Out Day and other such events.
Which holidays (apart from the obvious ones like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, your birthday, etc) do you remember? Apart from the months I've named, can you think of any? And for those of you who live outside America -- do you get special months allocated to causes, or is it just an American thing?
As usual, I picked up a t-shirt and armband to wear, along with a few print-outs to hand out to people to explain why I won't be talking today. The funny thing is, the atmosphere on campus is almost identical to that when National Coming Out Day is approaching. Both of them involve the sale of t-shirts, both are centered around GLBT events, both usually have concerts or lunches attached, and both are specific to America as far as I know.
Being gay is often compared to being black, or belonging to disadvantaged racial group, and yet, shockingly enough, there's no day during which people come out as black or Latina or Asian. But at the same time, I can't think of any day that's specifically designated to combat racial discrimination.
It is Latina month here on campus but at the same time, it's Sexual Assault Awareness Month. I know that Wellesley campus isn't unaware of the latter because we have all the Take Back The Night ribbons strung up everywhere, so we're apparently hosting both months at the same time.
While I am all in favor of promoting cultural events, and definitely in favor of working against sexual assault, I think it's just a bit much to have both of them at the same time, especially when one is about pride and the other is about survival.
Does anyone else think that America might have too many 'months'? I don't remember Austria having so many specific holidays. We have our version of Halloween, we had Mother's Day, random Christian holidays, but that's about it. Sri Lankans celebrate their own culturally specific events such as New Year's in April, but again, we don't have a Buddhist Month or a Soldiers Killed In The Civil War Day.
I'm supporting National Day of Silence, obviously. Same for Sexual Assault Awareness Month. And if I knew what to do for Latina Month, I'd support that as well.
However, I am having difficulty remembering all the months and holidays. Unless I see flyers for them or are reminded online, it's too easy to have these dates slip my mind. And I know that some people on my flist feel the same, since I'm the one reminding them of National Coming Out Day and other such events.
Which holidays (apart from the obvious ones like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, your birthday, etc) do you remember? Apart from the months I've named, can you think of any? And for those of you who live outside America -- do you get special months allocated to causes, or is it just an American thing?
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World Population Day is an annual event, observed on July 11, which seeks to raise awareness of global population issues. The day was inaugurated in 1988 by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to mark July 11, 1987, when the world's population hit five billion.
One day after my birthday! Fantastic. I'm thinking of starting to celebrate my birthday on the 11th instead of the 10th, so this is very fitting.
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What angles have you heard?
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The ethics really comes down to the issue of individuals' reproductive rights and the extent to which it can be superceded by commmunity/global needs. And people will come down with different viewpoints on that, some saying that individuals' rights must be paramount and population control should be exercised exclusively through education; some saying that this is such a serious issue that people should acknowledge their own personal responsibility for the effect they have on the world (I suppose this is akin to global warming arguments in many ways - particularly in that the level of rights is determined by the perceived severity of the situation...).
But population control has ethical considerations beyond the founding principles; it can have bad social effects, too.
Taking for example the limit of one child, practised most famously in China:
1. Monetary disincentives of course, they don't kill the extra children. But for some poor people this is effectively forcing them to stick to the ban, whereas the rich families can afford to flout it.
2. Although rare, it has leaded to cases of genocide where the first-born was female and they wanted a son, or where further children were conceived accidentally and they couldn't afford it. If not infanticide, then certainly abandonment.
3. A culture of only children, for better or for worse! One effects of this, my housemate tells me, as that everyone is a whole lot more competitive, and they're expected to perform well as the only descendent.