Good NEws Column
Follow Pooja Patel as she discusses some good news from around the world, including Women's History month and LGBT + news!
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Good news around the world
Good news around the world
By Pooja Patel
By Pooja Patel
Happy March, readers, and welcome back to the Good News Column. We have entered the month of good luck kicking in, so we have collected a few pieces of good news from around the world. Let us dive in and see what this month’s topics bring us!
Zara Rutherford set a world record as the youngest woman to fly solo around the world!
Zara Rutherford set a world record as the youngest woman to fly solo around the world!
As many of you might know, March is the month of Women’s History Month. This is a time dedicated to women from all walks of
life--celebrating all that they have managed to accomplish and showing support for all they will continue to achieve. With that, our first piece of good news is about 19-year-old Zara Rutherford, who has become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo! Rutherford completed an “...epic 41-country journey spanning over 52,000 kilometers and broke two Guinness World Records in the process,” according to CNN. Rutherford now holds the title of the first woman to circumnavigate the world in a microlight aircraft, while also being the first Belgian to fly around the world alone. According to Fly Zolo, she has managed to reduce the gender gap by “…11 years between the current youngest male record holder, Travis Ludlow 18 at the time of his record," and the previous female record holder, Shaesta Waez, who was 30 when she completed her "Dreams Soar" around-the-world flight.
Photo Credit: NY Times- Beatrice De Smet
Rutherford is hoping to reduce the gender gap in Aviation and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and encourage girls and young women to pursue their dreams. Rutherford is making all women across the world proud of how far they have come to get to where they are today. Rutherford continues to work hard and shine, proudly doing what she loves in a STEM field. This is the definition of girl power!
Photo credit: https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/kkk-series
The government is releasing information on Klan-related cold case murders.
The government is releasing information on Klan-related cold case murders.
The next piece of good news is a brave move by students at will release information on Klan-related cold case murders. In 2015, an AP Government and Politics class began studying cold cases involving Klan murders in the south. Out of curiosity, the students “filed a public records request with the help of their teacher, Stuart Wexler, to learn more about some of these cases” according to Daily Advisers. After waiting for a year, the classmates had received only a few documents that were heavily redacted of vital information. From there, the students “Embarked drafting a bill and a longshot effort to persuade lawmakers to turn it into a law.” Congress followed through in 2018, creating the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act, and now the law is finally about to be implemented. A few weeks ago, a Senate committee approved four nominees to serve on a national board tasked with reviewing and eventually relating to the public “hundreds of thousands of pages of FBI documents on murder cases from the civil-rights era.”
This is an incredible decision in an attempt to fulfill the hopes of historians, journalists and, most importantly, the victim’s family members, who are still looking for answers to unsolved homicides. Often, in school, when learning about the terrible experiences that African Americans faced throughout our history, we turn away-- uncomfortable to hear the horrid acts that the Ku Klux Klan did to them. However, the release of cold-case information is big progress towards wanting and needing to learn about the history of the long struggles that African Americans went through to get here today. Instead of turning away from the facts, we need to listen and face the truth, to be more understanding and acknowledging of their struggles. Who knows: maybe your Government class will also study the cases that the FBI released and learn something important about our history.
Chile's president has named a progressive, female-majority cabinet!
Chile's president has named a progressive, female-majority cabinet!
The next good news that I have is another win for women in matters of representation from Chile. According to The Guardian, “Chile's millennial president-elect Gabriel Boric, has names a progressive cabinet, with a ministerial team which for the first time anywhere in America is dominated by women.” Wow. This is a huge matter for all women. Chile now represents more of the female population and ideas. Boric gave a majority of the posts to women and several former student protest leaders. 14 of the 24 new ministers announced are women, including Defense Minister Maya Fernandez, who is the granddaughter of socialist President Salvador Allende, who was overthrown by a military coup in 1973. Boric is a president who claims to “...take care of democracy and not jeopardize it, a president who listens more than he speaks, who seeks unity…” according to UPI and, so far, it looks like he has done a phenomenal job bringing around representation and voices, including student protest leaders. The diversity and new voices of women that he has given a platform to will be a great example of how women’s place belongs in society and wherever she wants.
Photo Credits: Alberto Valdés/EPA
France will end their restrictions on blood donations from LGBTQ+ members!
France will end their restrictions on blood donations from LGBTQ+ members!
The third piece of good news is from France, and it is a huge win for the LGBTQ+ community! France will end their restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men! The country’s health minister has announced that “France is to allow LGBT citizens to donate blood without 'discriminatory' conditions,” per Euronews. Starting Mar. 16, 2022, all French people will be allowed to donate blood, regardless of their sexual orientation. "This is a huge step towards ending an inequality that is no longer justified," said Olivia Vera, of the Health Ministry. Not only France, but even other places, like Brazil, Italy, and Spain have lifted restrictions on blood donations based merely on the sexual orientation of a person. This ban was originally placed during 1983 at the start of the AIDS crisis, when very little was known about the spread of the disease. Even though the ban was adjusted and lifted in 2016, donors were required to adhere to a year of sexual abstinence before being allowed to donate, which was then reduced to four months in 2019, per The Hill. Imposing four months of abstinence on homosexual people who only wanted to give blood to help was ridiculous and discriminatory. The world needs more blood than any other time, and uplifting this ban and protecting this right for the LGBTQ+ community is huge progress in France and provides hope for all LGBTQ+ members globally. While changes might be slow, there is progress. France is getting somewhere in the journey to represent and give rights to all.
Congress passed a landmark #MeToo bill!
Congress passed a landmark #MeToo bill!
The fifth and last piece of good news that I have for you this month is that Congress has passed a landmark #MeToo bill! The Senate passed landmark workplace legislation a few weeks ago that, “Forbids companies from forcing sexual harassment and assault crimes into arbitration,” according to Axios. This is a huge deal because the secretive dispute resolution process keeps litigation out of the public eye and is considered to favor employers over workers. Lindsey Graham, the senator of South Carolina, tweeted, “The days of sexual harassment, and sexual assault cases are being buried in unfair arbitration clauses are now over.” Yes, they are, Graham! The bill is now headed to be signed by President Joe Biden. This bill is a result of the growing number of tech companies who have backed away from mandating arbitration in harassment and assault cases, including brands like Uber, Google, and Microsoft. #MeToo movement focuses on addressing sexual abuse and sexual harassment. Workplaces, including big companies that exploit their workers and where women are harassed, need to be held responsible. One fact that everyone in this world should know by now is that the days of silencing female voices are over. When women have the power and determination to have their stories heard, they will do so.
Well, that is all I have for you for this month, my fellow readers! This month is all about women’s empowerment and recognizing their progress in our society. I hope these five pieces of good news from around the world brought a little bit of happiness to your day and captured the progress that we are making as human beings. Thank you for reading and I’ll see you next month. Happy March!
Well, that is all I have for you for this month, my fellow readers! This month is all about women’s empowerment and recognizing their progress in our society. I hope these five pieces of good news from around the world brought a little bit of happiness to your day and captured the progress that we are making as human beings. Thank you for reading and I’ll see you next month. Happy March!
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