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Poor Rick Scott.
He sold his soul to the devil a few weeks ago when he endorsed Donald Trump and now he can’t even walk around Gainesville in peace.
Of course, that’s what he gets for being a total prick.
Cara Jennings, a woman donning a green shirt at a Starbucks in the aforementioned Central Florida college town ripped into Scott after she saw him standing in line to suck the blood of the barista. (Or he might have been getting “coffee”. Sure.)
“You cut Medicaid so I couldn’t get Obamacare,” Jennings yells at Scott in a video that is quickly going viral. “You’re an asshole. You don’t care about working people. You should be ashamed to show your face around here.”
After an aide failed to calm Jennings down, Scott and his merry little band left the store without him even getting his coffee.
It is perfect.
WATCH:
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Cover Photo Credit: stephen bender/ Youtube (Screengrab)
Today, Sept. 21 marks International Peace Day. And while it may be hard to imagine a less peaceful time in recent global history, it is still important to mark the day as a moment for hope.
To celebrate the day, scores of street artists from around the world have painted beautiful murals in their home countries.
The mural paintings are being organized by the non-profit International Alert.
Our #DRC team celebrating #PeaceDay and our new logo in Goma! #HandofPeace #ART4PEACE pic.twitter.com/dd8BTVfoxb
— International Alert (@intalert) September 21, 2016
Murals are being painted in the following places:
Berdyansk, Ukraine
The ‘Harbour of Peace’ mural in full flow in #Berdyansk today, where artists & locals have been hard at work across #PeaceDay #ART4PEACE pic.twitter.com/npozlFqnhs
— TalkingPeaceFestival (@TalkPeaceFest) September 21, 2016
Beirut, Lebanon
Davao City, Philippines
Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
London, UK (at House of Vans, Waterloo)
Kampala, Uganda
Some other pics from around the world:
Peace Day was also marked by the United Nations Secretary General.
To inaugurate the International Day of Peace, the United Nations Peace Bell is rung at UN Headquarters in NYC. #internationaldayofpeace pic.twitter.com/6LGSZJ3L2m
— UNA-NCA (@UNANCA) September 21, 2016
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
Photo Credits: International Alert
By Julia Fox
While a major hurdle for LGBT rights in the western hemisphere has finally been overcome in the past few years (legalization of gay marriage in both the United States and the United Kingdom), it looks less and less hopeful that same tolerance can be achieved globally.
In former communist bloc countries, the period for modest LGBT freedoms was brief, and homophobia is still widespread. Homosexuality is often considered an abnormality and in some cases, prosecuted under the criminal law.
These countries have a vast population of LGBT members who have lived in the closet for most of their lives while obliged to form traditional families. Spending the majority of their lives attempting to pass as heterosexuals to gain social approval and often engaging in secret same-sex relationships, these gay men and women end up with irreversible damage to their physical and mental health.
‘Coming out is no longer a matter of popular debate, but a matter of public health,’ claim scientists from Louis H. Lafontaine Hospital in Montreal.
But for some who spent most of their lives in the closet, it might be just impossible.
Whether it is the fear of being rejected by their now grown children, being criminalized by the homophobic society or ostracised by their own community, or the strong belief they would be unable to rebuild their lives with their new identity, these men and women are too broken to start anew.
Here are the main ailments that are likely to develop if you are forced to keep your sexual identity a secret from society and often from yourself:
My relationship with a closeted gay man, Sasha (who was actually my husband’s lover years before I married him and I chronicle in my memoir And Then There Were Three: Sixty Seven Letter to Sasha) opened my eyes to the many aspects of homosexuality and the life paths that LGBT men and women choose in the parts of the world where homosexuality is still considered an abnormality.
The freedoms that sexual minorities enjoy in democratic countries today are precious and unheard of in such places as Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia, Azerbaijan and other post-Soviet territories. Giving American LGBT members a glimpse into the lives of those who are less fortunate and still struggling for their rights will be an eye-opening read for many.
Julia Fox immigrated from Russia in her late teens, settling in the United States in the early 90s. She published two books of poetry before leaving her home country, both in Russian, and published two more in English language after immigrating. And Then There Were Three: Sixty Seven Letters to Sasha is her first autobiographical memoir.
For more information about And Then There Were Three: Sixty-Seven Letters to Sasha, you can visit Julia Fox’s website, Facebook and Twitter pages.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. Anyone can write for us as long as you are fiercely interested in making the world a better place.
Cover Photo Credit: Carlos Luz/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
Students at Emory University in Atlanta woke up to their campus defaced with pro Donald Trump chalkings and graffiti.
According to multiple students, the chalkings were reported all over the campus and are suspected by some to be racially motivated.
According to Emory student Zoe Lampru, some of the chalkings were found on each step leading up to the office of the newly created Centro Latino, which according to its website seeks to “provide inclusion for the Emory community and support the intellectual, personal, leadership and social development of the [email protected]/Hispanic community at Emory.”
Showing how widespread the chalkings were on the campus of the small private university, the Tab reports that the graffiti was located on every title surrounding Asbury Circle, another gathering place.
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican Presidential nomination has come to the political fore in part by inflaming racial divisions in the country and by attacking Hispanic Americans, Muslim Americans, disabled Americans and women among other groups.
Photo Credit: The Tab
Emory is not new to controversy on matters involving race.
The university’s President James Wagner is still not trusted by many minority students according to Lampru because of the 2013 research paper he authored that included a section lauding the Three-Fifths Compromise in the Constitution that relegated slaves to sub-human status for matter of census counting.
Wagner thought the Compromise was a good example of how to work towards incremental change.
A screenshot of an Instagram video showing the amount of pro Trump chalkings on the stairs leading up to the Centro Latino office on the Emory Campus. Photo Credit: Jonathan Peraza/ Screengrab
LatinAction, a grassroots student activist organization at Emory issued a statement condemning the university for allowing the chalkings to happen.
“Throughout campus, Black and Brown students, and other affected student populations, have spoken out in outrage and distress,” the statement reads in part. “We NEVER get to have a break. We NEVER get an escape from the daily violence and marginalization that we consistently experience on campus.
“And now we are being attacked by the very real danger we feel of a Nazi reincarnate potentially rising to power in this country,” the statement continues. “We are outraged and distressed with this rhetoric and these attacks on minority students at Emory. Therefore, we at LatinAction stand in solidarity with the NAACP and the Black, Latinx, Muslim, Jewish, and disabled communities who are affected and face consequences with Trump as a presidential candidate.”
Kainath Merchant is a Emory student who came upon the chalkings this morning on her way to class.
Photo Credit: The Tab
“At first I didn’t pay much attention to it because students frequently write messages on the ground in chalk to advertise events or organizations, but when I paid closer attention, there were messages that said “TRUMP” or “TRUMP 2016” or “TRUMP FOR PREZ” every five feet,” Merchant said in an interview with RISE NEWS. “They were on benches, sidewalks, and even on every single step going up the the Dobbs University Center. I was so furious I felt myself trembling.”
Lampru said that she was disappointed that the university didn’t respond to the chalkings and believes that it “has selective ways to react” when dealing with racial issues on campus.
“We are angry and determined to bring to light the violence that we experience,” the statement from LatinAction reads. “We are demanding that Emory University speak out and act on this attack on students and the vandalization of our university. We will not be silent. We are here and we deserve to feel safe in this institution of learning that claims to uphold the values of diversity and inclusion. Emory, your call. #EmoryYourInnerRacistIsShowing #StuckIn1836 #EmoryAgainstTrump #EmoryAgainstRacism”
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RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us!
Cover Photo Credit: The Tab