Opinion: Different sides are vital and important to democracy.

Source: Conflict Research Group, Intl.

I've failed to realize until recently how absolutely disgusted people are with views that are different than theirs. Especially at my school -- where the progressive agenda is the most popular view -- people are literally mortified at the thought of someone having a different set of views than someone else.

Here's the thing. In a democracy, differing views are vital and the lifeblood. Without differing views, you have the epitome of group think, you have totalitarianism and a bunch of robots who can't think for themselves. You need differing viewpoints. You need people who think in different ways to bring things to the table.

I am sick and tired of hearing this mindset of, "if you think this, don't talk to me." I'm sorry, but who made your viewpoint the king of America? I understand saying that when someone condones murder or another clearly wrong thing like white supremacy, but when someone is in favor of same-sex marriage and you're not, you have no right to act like your view is the only view that should be heard and accepted.

What is democracy if not for sitting down with someone and exploring opposing points? What is democracy if not for having the ability to have free thoughts and emotions without government regulation? What is democracy if not for the ability to speak your mind, even if it's a minority opinion?

Minority opinions have made history people. Larry Flynt was a porn peddler, and he became a huge champion for the First Amendment. Lenny Bruce was a raunchy comic, yet he set the precedent for being able to use obscene gestures and language in comedy. Norma McCorvey became the pioneer for the woman's right to choose, even though she became pro-life herself later in life.

All of these people had staunch opposition against them, yet they took their minority opinion and made change happen. That's powerful. That's what democracy is all about.

Our society is becoming so increasingly progressive that the thought of anyone having even moderate views is totally unfathomable. Why is that? Why are people so afraid of the other side? It's all sides. I don't understand why everyone acts like the other side is poison. They are people. They have opinions. They won't bite you unless you bite them.

This country will absolutely go down the drain if people do not start crossing aisles and start listening to one another. Do me a favor; toss out your condescending and belittling language that you love to use when someone doesn't agree with your viewpoint. Stop being passive aggressive and actually listen to people. Stop using slurs and derogatory language about the other side and perpetuating that we cannot bridge this divide. We can bridge the divide. It's those who use these tactics that are throwing our country back, not those with the views differing from our own.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor Visited UAlbany

On the evening of April 4th, 2017, United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the speaker at the UAlbany Speaker Series. I was beyond excited to attend after reading her book, My Beloved World, the past summer. I have been fascinated by her early career, before becoming a Justice, as that was such a formative time. Her strength is incredible, which was even more evident last night.

Justice Sotomayor has continuously suffered from Type 1 Diabetes since she was a young child. She stated that her diagnosis and prognosis for a short life, as medicine was not as advanced when she was diagnosed as it is today, made her live every day to its fullest. It motivated her to take risks and push her limits to see what she could achieve. Personally, I beyond grateful that it did because she is an amazing role model because of it. Also, she is hilarious. She had all of laughing at her quips.

Not once, did she discuss her opinions on the election, even though many of us can imagine based on what she values most. She did speak often about her trials and tribulations as a woman in a male-dominated work-place; from being called "honey" to being asked to get coffee while being the only woman in an important meeting with other lawyers and judges. At this point, she reminded all of us women to demand the respect that we deserve and to not be discouraged, but to remember that we still have a long way to go before we will be considered equal to men. But it will happen.

I wish that she was able to talk more about her early career, but the interviewer shied away from those questions. But she did speak about her ever present love, the New York Yankees. Nevertheless, she was awe-inspiring.

My Side: Pro-Choice or Pro-Life

On such a controversial issue, that usually encompasses two opinions, mine is a bit more complicated than the typical "yes" or "no." If I were forced to identify as either pro-choice or pro-life, I would have to choose pro-choice, but don't let that deter you from reading this because you stand on the opposite side, or don't start pumping your fist in camaraderie because you think that you agree with me either; it is much more complicated than you think.

Now, here is what I mean by complicated: I personally, would never have an abortion. My parents were 17 and 19 when I was born. My father didn't even think that I was his until he had me DNA tested when I was 2 years old, but he raised me. My mother wasn't ready but she raised me. My mother worked her ass off as a mom by day and bartender or waitress by night. My dad worked his ass off at three different jobs and a dad at all hours of the night, often not even sleeping before he had to be to work again. I could never justify myself having an abortion after all that my parents have done for me. I don't even know if I could justify myself participating in giving a child up for adoption. Hopefully, I never have to make that choice. Now, even though I would never have an abortion, doesn't mean that I am pro-life.

If my best friend were to call me saying that she was pregnant and needed to get an abortion, I would inform her of her other options first of all. I would. I would want to know that she knew that she had other choices. If she were to ultimately choose to have an abortion, I would take her. I would sit in the waiting room. I would go home with her and watch all the rom-coms with terrible acting and cinematography and eat lots of ice-cream afterward. I would make sure that she knew that I was there for her no matter what.

Also, if someone has a medical situation that is either going to cause the pregnancy to kill them or the fetus anyway, then yes, I would want them to have that choice. I would want them to feel that they didn't have to spend their entire pregnancy fearing for their lives or waiting for their fetus to ultimately die, be stillborn, or live a horrendous and painful life. I would support them also.

Now, onto the real controversy... Planned Parenthood.

For me, this is the most important part. Planned Parenthood provides abortions. Planned Parenthood obtains federal funding. That federal funding is not used on abortions! If you don't believe me, there is a ton of evidence to show you that I am right on this. Also, Planned Parenthood does so much more than provide abortions. Abortions are only 1% of their services. Planned Parenthood provides vital health services for both men and women. They provide STD testing, pap smears, mammograms, and so much more as little to no cost! They give birth control and condoms to those who can't afford it because they don't have insurance that covers it, in order for them to prevent pregnancy so that they don't have to have an abortion. BECAUSE NO ONE WAKES UP ONE DAY AND SAYS "LET'S GET PREGNANT SO THAT I CAN HAVE AN ABORTION, JUST TO SEE WHAT IT FEELS LIKE!!!!" But, people do wake up and say "I better go get some condoms" or "I better remember to take my birth control."

Now, if you are pro-life, that is absolutely your choice, but don't make people who are pro-choice feel like bad people, and vice versa. Also, if you are pro-life, support Planned Parenthood because they do 99% more than just abortions. They save lives! And one day, they may save yours!

Rest In Peace: Judge Shiela Abdus-Salaam

The first Muslim and first African American woman to be a judge in the New York Court of Appeals was found dead, floating in the Hudson River Wednesday, April 12th, 2017, after being reported missing, mere hours before. Police say that there was no foul play and investigation shows that it was seemingly a suicide, but the investigation will continue for certainty and clarity. Governor Cuomo said that she was an incredible judge with "an unshakeable moral compass."

Rest in Peace.

Opinion: Sean Spicer needs to step down.

Source: NBC News

Our wonderful press secretary has one again made a major flub.

Perhaps you remember Spicer's recent brush with reporter April Ryan, when he told her to stop shaking her head at answers and that she was writing stories solely to fit her agenda. On the first days of the new job, Spicer and company consistently pushed the narrative that Trump's crowd size was larger than Obama's, and used a picture to prove it. Truth is, I think the Trump cabinet were the only people who genuinely cared about the crowd size. The press kept reporting because they kept digging the hole. Or we can talk about the repeated pushing of an unsubstantiated claim that President Barack Obama had Trump Tower wiretapped during the 2016 campaign. No evidence has been presented, yet Spicer continues to push the narrative of the president and dismisses any concerns reporters have.

Today, Spicer was talking about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who recently attracted worldwide attention when he gassed his own people, causing over 1,000 deaths and even more injuries. This chemical attack caused the retaliation of President Trump, who decided to fire 59 missiles at a Syrian air force base where the chemical weapons allegedly came from.
Spicer said today, in trying to prove a point about Assad's brutality, that even someone as evil as Hitler did not gas his own people. He then said that he knew that Jews and other prisoners were transported to "Holocaust centers" where they were killed.

Utterly false and fictitious, Sean. Everything that you just said is complete garbage.

First off, Sean, those are not "Holocaust centers." Those are concentration camps. Say it with me Sean, concentration camps. Those camps aided in the systematic extermination of over 11 million innocent people during their time.

Second, have you ever heard of a gas chamber, Sean? A gas chamber is a chemical weapon. Gas was filtered into these airtight chambers via trucks and pellets and slowly suffocated the people inside of it. Yes, chemical weaponry was used. Gas chambers were one of the biggest killers in the camps because they could kill large groups of prisoners at once. Big camps like Auschwitz-Birkenau literally exterminated hundreds of thousands of people via gas chamber alone. When you use Zyklon-B gas to kill someone, it's using chemical weaponry. Mass murder via chemical weaponry.

Third, Hitler did kill his own people. In Hitler's quest for an Aryan race, nobody was spared that did not fit the mold he was looking for. German Jews, who were citizens of Germany up until Hitler revoked their citizenship, were murdered in these camps. So were Austrian Jews, who came from Hitler's homeland. Hitler showed no mercy to his own people. His own people voted him in, and then many of the same people who voted him in were sent to camps because they didn't fit the mold. Hitler was chancellor, and then fuhrer of Germany. Revoked citizenship or not, those were his people. When he took over countries like Poland and Denmark, those people became his people too. He murdered them.

Let's talk about the timing of this statement. We are in the midst of Passover, one of the biggest Jewish holidays of the year. We have Holocaust survivors that are still alive. We have family members of Holocaust survivors that are still alive. How could you be so dumb as to minimize the suffering of their people, especially during a holiday where it's time for them to celebrate their faith, so callously? It's an insult to the Jewish faith to act like Assad's crimes are worse than Hitler's.

There is no comparing the two because both are evil, brutal subhumans who take pleasure in the murder and torture of their own people and others.

It's time for Sean Spicer to step down as press secretary. The man repeatedly peddles fiction after fiction as fact. He tries to set policy in the briefing room for how reporters should be treating the president. He fights, argues, belittles, and disregards everything the press does.

The press is important in this democracy. Even though Trump won the electoral vote, 52 percent of the population voted for Clinton. Trump's approval ratings are dipping dangerously low for only being in office 82 days. The press' job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Do we baby the 52 percent of the population who did not vote for Trump? Absolutely not. But, we do listen to what that 52 percent has to say, just as we listen to those who did vote for Trump.

Spicer is a miserable failure. If he stepped down, the administration might actually have some room to work without having to wrangle in this man's countless errors. We already have a president that barely has a filter. This guy isn't helping the cause.

Opinion: It's not discriminatory to have preferences.

Source: cowgernation.com

Lately, I've been watching a lot of politically based YouTube videos. In my voyage across YouTube, I came across a channel manned by a transgender woman named Riley Dennis.

One of Riley's videos really stuck out to me. It was called, "Your dating "preferences" are discriminatory." In this video, Dennis goes on a rant about how if you wouldn't date someone purely because of the fact that they have genitalia you wouldn't find appealing, or they are trans, or any other factor, it's discrimination.

Being the loudmouth that I am, I wanted to expand how absolutely ridiculous I find these statements.

First off, let me preface this by saying I am a straight, cis woman. I know I have privilege. But, that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to have preferences.

When I am looking for someone to date, I want men. There is no situation, ever, where I would date a woman. I am not attracted to a vagina. I am not attracted to women. Dennis says that by only dating someone based on their genitalia, you are reducing them to their genitalia. So, Riley, you mean to tell me that because you are a lesbian, you are only reducing women to their genitalia? To their vaginas? Although the population of bisexual and pansexual people is increasing in the world, many still exclusively date one gender. That is not discriminatory. That is just preferences. That is life.

Second, many people do not date transgender people simply because the trans population tends to stick to itself? Even so, I want to have children someday. A trans person could not give me a child. Hormones and the steps that trans people go through to achieve their transformation often sterilize the person, hence why children are often not allowed to transition until they reach adulthood and can understand the impact of the choice they are making. It's not discriminatory to want a partner that can someday give me a baby. If someone is okay with going through a third party service to have a child, that's fine. I personally think adoption and other alternative methods are beautiful, but at this point in my life, I want to have a child with my future husband. Again, not discriminatory. It's a wish.

Dennis ends the video by saying that she's not here to tell people that they need to like everyone. No, she's not, but essentially what the video is doing is telling you that if you aren't attracted to every single person under the sun, you're bigoted and participating in discrimination.

If someone is willing to date both genders, or is willing to date a trans person, or is willing to date a frog for all I care, that's fine. Quite frankly, what people do is none of my business. But, what grinds my gears is when SJWs like Dennis claim to be open to everyone, yet they basically talk down to you if you do not share their exact same mindset. No matter what dictionary definitions you throw at me, or what scientific studies you cite, it doesn't change the fact that humans are BIOLOGICALLY wired to have preferences that they find attractive in another human being.

Save your soapbox and your inherent biases for someone else, Riley.

Opinion: Rachel Dolezal, you actually need help.

Source: vibe.com

We are all familiar with her; Rachel Dolezal, the Spokane, WA woman who was a head NAACP figure before she was outed as a white woman who has been passing as a black woman her entire adult life by utilizing spray tans, weaves, and ethnic clothing.

After her humiliating outing by none other than her white parents, Dolezal faded into obscurity. Now, she's back in the spotlight. She's claiming she's broke; a month away from homelessness, on food stamps, and cannot get a job due to her controversial name. She is releasing a book, "In Full Color," detailing her life as a black woman soon. She's even changed her name to reflect her inner self: Nkechi Amare Diallo.

Now, I sympathize with anyone who is running on financial hardships. My family has been through those murky waters many times. However, Dolezal's situation is entirely on her.

Dolezal's entire identity was based on her assumed skin color. Dolezal was born white as snow and used skin darkening techniques like spray tans to appear like a light skinned black woman. She accepted scholarships, took positions, and became a powerful executive at the head of an organization that is literally for the advancement of black people.

If Dolezal had done all this while disclosing that she was a white woman, it wouldn't have been a big deal. She would have been seen as an ally, and she could have been extremely instrumental in forging the bridge between blacks and whites for the NAACP. But, she chose another way. She chose to assume the identity and the skin color of a black person, which is called blackface, and rallied that way. And it worked, except when it all came crashing down and she was exposed as a fraud.

I see so many people on Facebook saying that this woman is no different than someone who identifies as transgender. A transgender person chooses to identify as a different gender and we don't ostracize them, so why are we ostracizing Rachel Dolezal for identifying as a black woman?

The difference is transgender people do not deny that they were born the opposite gender. I have never met a trans person who says, "I was born a female. I've always been a female. I did not have the surgery, I did not take the hormones." Or vice versa if they are female to male. Transgender people also do not capitalize on their situation (for the most part) like Dolezal does and then deny it ever happened.

Dolezal outright refused to admit she was once a white woman. Dolezal is a white woman. Now she admits it, but the damage is too drastic. Both liberals and conservatives alike are DISGUSTED with how this woman chooses to blatantly disregard how others keep trying to tell her that what she is doing is not okay.

Is it cultural and racial appropriation? Probably. Quite honestly, I'm not well versed on those topics. I could not give you a definitive answer. Based on what I've seen, though, I'd say yes. Rachel Dolezal epitomizes what is wrong with American culture in the sense that she takes what she wants and refuses to understand why it is wrong.

I'm all for living the life you want to live as long as that life does not infringe on the rights of others.

The point is, though, that Rachel Dolezal is penning a memoir that is not rightfully hers. She is penning a narrative that she doesn't fully understand the implications of. She is committing actions that she doesn't understand the consequences of.

She needs help. She needs to speak with professionals. Not because she wants to be something that she isn't, but because she refuses to see that she wants to be something that she isn't.