trevordayschool

Opinion Page 7 February 20, 2015 Patrice's Wisdom Patrice answers the toughest questions in life By Patrice Scott Why is a chili pepper called a chili if it's actually pretty hot? –Senior Think about all the "hottest artists"– there's a reason why they aren't called Red Hot Chilly Peppers. How does honey never expire? –Senior I don't think sugar ever really goes away. Honey and sap (unlike black tar, hopefully) are in the same vein. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck food? –Senior Not sure but it better be chuckin' the food into that compost bin. Who sells sea shells by the shore? –Senior Ariel's bra-smith. What is the speed of an unladen swallow? –Senior Your speed is eternal when you're unladen with life's burdens. If you could end the lyric "Let it go, let it go..." another way, what would you say? –Senior "Let's exploit a new lyric on kids' merchandise." Parents often say, "you are what you eat." You are what you...? –Senior Dress up as for Halloween. If you had a nickel for every time something happened, what would it be and how many nickels would you have? –Senior One nickel someday, for whenever the voices stop. What is the dying process? – Sophomore I like to imagine that you pull a Raven Symone and dramatically pause to have visions of your life unfolding. What makes someone basic? – Sophomore "Basically", it's a mentality you'd have to have all along. Those who once hopped on the Uggs bandwagon have been basic from the start. Religiously checking an "unfollow" insta app and buying that tote bag everyone uses instead of backpacks here are dead giveaways as well. You might end up picking Lululemons over life support. What is the hardest decision you've made and what advice would you give? –Junior Right before Kingda Ka took off once, I had to figure out where to put my glasses. Really scary at the time; this was a choice of putting them down on the pavement beside me to never see again or to watch them fly off on the ride (as pre contact-lens-Patrice). My emergency plan was pretty mediocre. They had to get shoved in my pants. I don't mean the pockets. Give yo' valuables to a trusted friend before you hop on something turbulent! Why do words like "through", "rough", and "ugh" look the same but sound so different? –Sophomore A problem like that is enough to get some Rosetta Stoners to give up on English. T he recent events in Ferguson and Staten Island deserve our attention. In both, unarmed black men died at the hands of policemen who have since failed to be indicted by grand juries. These are difficult events to digest and speak about and are highly charged due to the racial tension that underscores them. But this is exactly why we must talk about them. We often try to treat events of these variety with a political detachment, but it is wrong to do so. Though it is easier to look at such violence as singular incidents with no larger societal significance, to do so completely misses the point, for these events were very real and had very real consequences for all involved. I am not referring solely to the victims Eric Garner and Michael Brown or the policemen involved in their deaths, but to minorities and policemen everywhere. Such tragedy affects all people, everywhere, for as Martin Luther King once said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". We are all responsible for addressing the issues these events have brought to our national attention. There exists a convenient perception that because our government has achieved some semblance of racial equality in legislation, that actual racial equality is just a matter of time. That as generations pass and history grows foggier, prejudice will slowly fade from our hearts and minds. But this future is unreachable without discussion. We cannot outdistance the winds of prejudice if we fail to recognize the obstacles and impediments that stand in our way. Conversation is a vital weapon in the fight against intolerance and injustice. And as long as prejudice exists and continues to affect our lives, so must conversation. There is no denying the legislative progress achieved by the Civil Rights movement. Lyndon B. Johnson, prompted by the peaceful protests orchestrated led by Dr. Martin Luther King, eliminated discriminatory laws and practices and forged the beginnings of legislative racial equality with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But he and Dr. King understood that such legislation was by no means an end to racism and that with such progress the American people would face the immense difficulty of enabling racial progress in a society so deeply entrenched in prejudice. This is why the events in Ferguson and Staten Island merit such attention: because it is naive to think that just because our country has mostly rid its laws of racism means that racism no longer exists and affects people's lives. We cannot treat the recent occurrences as singular events; we have to frame them in the larger picture of society and think about the moves we can take to subdue and combat whatever prejudice may have played a role in the deaths. Therefore it is less important that we attack the court system or police departments in general, but instead force accountability more broadly. It is vital that we see past these events and attack the larger issue of prejudice, in others but also in ourselves. Prejudice is not a myth, or a secluded disease reserved to society's worst. The national outcry we've experienced in recent months is indicative of a prejudice that has plagued America for far too long. A prejudice born from our nation's darkest points in history. A prejudice that lies waiting, in dark corners of our nation's conscience, infused in the bearings and attitudes of its people. A prejudice that is difficult to confront and even more difficult to transcend. Progress in this case, is not a matter of investigating grand jury process or institutionally rooting out racial profiling. It is a matter of honesty––a brutal kind of honesty, the success of which hinges upon everyone taking part. It requires that every human––not white man, not black man, not man, not woman––but human, hold themselves and each other to a higher standard of respect and tolerance. There exists no subset of people that escapes the sinister grip of this prejudice. The precedent that allows one person to be subjected and oppressed can just as easily be used to oppress someone else. In this way, we are all victims of prejudice, and must not get caught up in the polarization of us versus them. We must instead speak of humanity, and the ways in which we as individuals and we as a nation can forge a more just and perfect world. Moral perfection is not a concrete state that can be found or realized. Instead, it lies in the constant struggle for a better world. This is the reason we must all feel some measure of responsibility for the events in Ferguson and Staten Island. This is the reason we must discuss these events and confront our own prejudices. This is the reason we must each ask ourselves the question: what can I, as an American and as a human, do to make life better for my fellow men and women? This is the reason we must always push for a greater humanity, one that enables us to transcend self-interest and achieve a sincere and enduring altruism--a greater humanity that enables us to truly embody the idea upon which our country was founded: that all are created equal and that we are all tied together in the never-ending fight for a world better than we have yet to know, a world always improving. in 2008 as a joint venture between AOL, MSN, Facebook, Comcast, Myspace, and Yahoo!. The website provides free streaming of television programs with ads paid for by sponsors, along with a membership service called Hulu Plus that allows members to watch a wider array of shows without ads. Though Hulu has created original content as well, it is less viewed among the Trevor Community, the most popular show being Behind the Mask, which follows the lives of different types of professional and amateur mascots. Only two responders had seen this show, a stark difference from the over 50 who had seen the most popular Netflix original show. This may be due to Hulu's smaller paying subscriber base, which consists of only 6 million paying customers. Hulu made one billion dollars last year, almost one third of a billion less than Netflix. Another service inspired by the Netflix model is Amazon Prime Instant Video. The service was unveiled in 2006 by the electronic commerce superpower Amazon. com under the name Amazon Unbox. In 2008 the service was rebranded as Amazon Video on Demand, before finally being changed in 2011 to Amazon Instant Video. In addition to the name change, over 5,000 titles were added to be viewed free of charge by Amazon Prime members. In 2013, Amazon released its first original content: Alpha House and Betas. This year, Amazon has released another original show, Transparent, about a family in Los Angeles coping with their father Mort coming out as being transgender. Among the Trevor community, the show is the most popular of Amazon original series, with 4% of responders having watched it. Though this number is very low, Amazon, which has over 200 million users, and Amazon Prime which is speculated to have over 40 million subscribers, continues to have incredibly high revenue. Last year the company reported a total of 74.45 billion dollars in revenue. 79 million of this was from Amazon Prime memberships. Though that represents only 0.1% of Amazon's total revenue, Amazon Prime members are shown to make up about 10% of total Amazon sales, and by offering other benefits such as free shipping and an instant video service more people are encouraged to subscribe to the service. Even major networks such as HBO and BBC are starting to move towards online streaming with websites and apps such as HBO GO and BBC iPlayer. These websites offer access to shows that have been aired on their respective networks with ads. Though some of these websites require viewers to have cable providers to use their services, some providers such as HBO GO are starting to offer their services to those without cable subscriptions. As more networks move towards online streaming, the necessity of cable will begin to diminish. This is not to say that people would be willing to get rid of their cable, which provides the ease of recording a show instead of going to separate websites for each show. In the Trevor community, 43% of responders would not be willing to get rid of their cable, while only 9% of responders had already gotten rid of their cable, and 9% would consider getting rid of their cable in the near future. This still leaves the 37% of people who would consider getting rid of their cable in the distant future, and the 2% of people who do not use either cable or online streaming services. Though the future of cable is uncertain, for now it holds its place in American households. Confronting Prejudice By Jason Strongin

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