Beyond the Cat Dome: News from the World Around Us

History was made on January 20, 2021, Inauguration Day, when Kamala Harris became the Vice-President of the United States of America. Kamala Harris is the first Black American and South Asian American woman to be elected into this office. Due to this fact, Harris inspires countless women and girls around the world.

Throughout Harris’ main campaign, she was known to pay extra attention to the little girls in the audience. She would sometimes even give the girls some advice on leadership.

In March 2019, at one of Harris’ many campaign events in Hemingway, S.C., Jasmeen Coronado stood up amid a sea of grown-ups, and quietly asked the candidate this question: "Is it possible that if I try hard enough in life that I could become president?"

"Absolutely! Absolutely!" Harris responded. "There is no question."

"Here's how I think about it," she told Jasmeen. "We are all born as leaders, and it's just a matter of when you decide to activate that. ... Leading up to you being president, understand every day of your life you have an opportunity to lead. Today, tomorrow, every day of your life."

During Biden and Harris’ inauguration, thousands of little girls were looking up at their screens seeing themselves. It’s important for a majority of young females and people of color to see themselves represented. Representation does matter, and it can change thousands of lives.

Source:

https://www.npr.org/2020/11/12/934158680/shell-look-like-a-boss-vice-president-elect-kamala-harris-inspires-young-girls

On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol building was breached by a group of rioters.

These people were enraged by Donald Trump leaving office, which they believed was unjustified, resulting in them taking their anger to the U.S. Capitol building.

Planted pipe bombs, pro-nazi memorabilia, Molotov cocktails, and terrorist watch list members were just a few of the obviously dangerous components that made it inside of the Capitol building that day.

It is estimated that thousands of individuals had made it inside the Capitol building. During the breach, they took part in vandalization, endangered government officials, and looted their offices. The entire situation has been an embarrassing security failure due to the number of people who illegally entered and the severity of the damage they caused.

The extent of the violence that was displayed on the sixth and continuous threats after the fact provided ample reasons for an increase in security and safety measures for the individuals who were present at President Biden’s and Vice President Harris’s inauguration---which was scheduled only two weeks after the incident at the Capitol building.

The National Mall was closed to the public, 13 rail stations within the security perimeter were closed, 3,000 to 4,000 local law enforcement from around the country were present, and anywhere up to 25,000 National Guard members were deployed as well.

These particularly serious precautions were successful in making sure that all government officials and guests who attended were protected at the inauguration. There were no significant protests or attacks at the inauguration itself or in the Washington D.C. area.

Sources:

www.npr.org

www.washingtonpost.com

www.cnn.com

thconversation.com

I’d like you to imagine you have a small brother or relative. As most children usually do, they believe Santa Claus is real. Now you, being a sane adult, know it’s not true, but you ponder to yourself: what’s the point of telling the truth? Little Timmy could learn his world is a lie here and cry, or slowly realize it’s impossible, or you could actively help the lie, pretending for his small little fragile heart Santa is real.

Whether you think it’s not a big lie or it’s just playing with your brother, it’s a lie nonetheless. Lies are usually one of two things: ways to escape punishment for a misdeed or a way to comfort somebody, since you know if you tell the truth there could be negative consequences. The art of lying is a skill many in politics have, whether it be the politicians or the people who report their wheelings and dealings. That’s not to say all of them are huge liars or there aren’t clean hands in the political sphere, but there are people who have metaphorical blood on their hands.

Being a journalist, you must follow the code of ethics. One of the points in the code is slander and/or libel considerations, meaning you should always make sure what you write is true and not slanderous, lies whether purposeful or out of ignorance for the sole purpose of being harmful. Apparently, there is no code in politics because lies are as frequent as getting bribes from dictators.

Take, for example, the series of lies involving the Inauguration Day of the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump. Then I’ll explain why this one simple mistruth is indicative of the problems with lying.

On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump became the 45th president. During his inauguration, it rained. Why do I know this? Because I saw the droplets of H20 come from the sky with my own eyes in the video of the inauguration and looked at the forecast of that day and what do you know? It rained. Although, to the president, it didn’t rain. He explained during his ball the day after:

"The crowd was unbelievable today. I looked at the rain, which just never came, you know, we finished the speech, went inside, it poured then we came outside," he said. "The helicopter scene was an incredible scene, and then, amazingly it rained—like God was looking down on us."

He also said consistently (along with Sean Spicer, White House Secretary at the time) that it was the biggest inauguration even though the official count of people at his was 600,000 and at Obama’s 2009 inauguration the count was 1,800,000 (a pretty big difference). Another inaccurate numerical statement was Spicer's claim that the largest audience ever tuned in was proven wrong as Nielsen (the Neilson refers to the Nielsen rating system that measures viewership of shows) reported 30.6 million viewers across 12 networks while Obama had 37.8 million and Ronald Reagan 41.8 million.

“Now Shawn, why do a couple of lies four years ago matter when it wasn’t about anything serious?” you may ask and I'll tell you why. Here’s why it matters. What may seem like just inflation of a crowd to make it seem bigger than it was just to make someone feel better is indicative of politicians’ inability to not purger themselves in front of the entire nation expecting everyone to drink the kool-aid. A politician in the face of facts will lie and say that those facts are fake news and deliberate attempts by their enemies to sabotage them. Defenders of these lies will throw terms like” alternative facts” which are not facts. It's just another way to not use the word that we use for that behavior, a LIE.

Let’s look at Joe Biden's inauguration. Now granted it would be even harder to sit if you had a huge inauguration when your crowd is inanimate flags because of a pandemic. But the biggest story to come out of it was Bernie sanders choice of mittenaere.

These inaugurations are 2 sides of a coin, one a normal respectful ceremony and one that was laughed at with so many false claims to bolster the idea that a president that won the electoral college but didn’t win the majority vote has the most people there to watch him talk about his renovations plans for the nation. But in four years maybe Biden’s will be looked back as the worse of the two. It could be remembered as the day a president said nothing but false promises because in the end lying is a crime that seemingly in the world of politics doesn’t even deserve a slap on the wristlet alone ostracization. Politicians lie, and that’s the nature of the beast, and sadly that can never change. At the end of the day, there is only one way to find the truth, do your research. Now I’m not talking about going on a Reddit board for four hours and falling down a rabbit hole that ends with you raiding the capital, but finding I sources. Scientists. Honest reporters. And remember just because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean it’s not true.

Now if you remember our previous episode of B.B.O we couldn’t figure out what our catchphrase was and stole Walter Cronkite’s. Well, I believe we have found a suitable sound-off.

And that ends this edition of B.B.O. and remember even in the darkest days there is light, there is truth, there is always hope. Have a wonderful day.

COVID-19---Coronavirus disease 2019---has been wreaking havoc on the lives of people around the globe for months. Mainly characterized by fever, cough, difficulty breathing, body aches, loss of taste and smell, and fatigue, it is not to be underestimated. The worldwide death toll is hovering around two million, a more devastating loss than many world tragedies. Although some people might be experiencing mild symptoms and recovering with ease, the long-term effects may still be drastic and it should not diminish the seriousness of the illness.

Due to the severity of this disease, the FDA has recently issued an emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccination. Healthcare providers, the elderly, and other high-risk groups have been the first to receive the vaccination. General access to the vaccine by the public is expected anytime from the spring to the summer of 2021.

Extensive research has been done on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccination. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination has proven to be 95% effective at preventing the infection of Coronavirus in individuals who have not been previously infected. This is astounding compared to the 40%-60% effectiveness of most Influenza vaccines.

Skeptics have been fear-mongering and spreading harmful misinformation about this vaccine. This has caused a significant number of individuals to be wary of receiving it, which will do nothing but prolong the pandemic.

The vaccination transmitting COVID-19, causing infertility in women or issues for already pregnant women, or triggering Bell's Palsy, are all factors that are commonly mentioned during discussions about the safety of the vaccine. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination is not a live vaccination---making it physically impossible to transmit the disease. Also, there is no current data showing infertility in women and there is no known risk for pregnant women. It is actually encouraged by some professionals for pregnant women to receive the vaccination.

In regards to concerns over Bell's Palsy, the data from the clinical trials is on par with the regular statistics for individuals who will develop Bell's Palsy. Therefore, the FDA does not consider it a symptom or effect of the vaccine.

However, there have been rising concerns over the vaccine being ineffectual in preventing new strains of the disease. Studies suggest that it is possible that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccination can prevent developing mutations. It may be less effective, but the data is too insufficient to proclaim anything as fact either way. As more variants appear, we will learn more and more about how we can protect ourselves.

Getting the COVID-19 vaccine is the right thing to do. It is a giant step in slowing the pandemic and getting our lives back. Consider not only yourself and your loved ones, but people around the globe.

Sources:

www.scientificamerican.com

www.uchicagomedicine.org

cdc.gov

hopkinsmedicine.org

Amanda Gorman is a 22 year old activist and the first National Youth Poet Laureate. Her writing often includes the topics of “oppression, race, feminism, and African diaspora.” Some of her works include The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough, Change Sings, and her most famous piece of writing, “The Hill We Climb”, which addresses the fact that if Americans put their differences aside and work together, they can make the country a better place.

Gorman’s writing career began in 2014 when she became the first Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, but before that, she decided she wanted to become a United Nations youth delegate when she watched a speech by Malala Yousafzai, who is a Pakastani Nobel Prize laureate.

Before “The Hill We Climb”, Gorman has created many pieces of writing in the past years. A few more of her works include: “In This Place: An American Lyric” (which is displayed at the Morgan Library Museum), two children’s picture books, as well as a tribute to black athletes.

Gorman has achieved many things outside of writing as well. She is the Library of Congress’ very first youth poet to open the literary season, chosen as one of the “Young Futurists” by The Root, the founder of One Pen One Page, and a Harvard graduate. In the future, Gorman plans on running for president in 2036.

Topics such as the oppression of marginalized groups, race, feminism, and African diaspora are often included in Gorman’s writing as these are topics that she is very passionate about. These topics and others similar to it are very important especially in a country like the United States. Not only does write about these subject matters, but she also believes that it’s important to take action about these topics and any issues surrounding them (racism, sexism, etc.)

“Seeing the ways that I as a young black woman can inspire people is something I want to continue in politics. I don’t want to just speak words, I want to turn them into realities and actions.” Gorman said in Glamour magazine’s 2018 “College Women of The Year.”

Amanda Gorman has achieved many great things in the past years, both in and out of writing. She is a passionate, intelligent woman who is an inspiration for many and it is clear that her path holds even more success for her in the years to come.

Amanda Gorman reads “The Hill We Climb”:

https://youtu.be/Wz4YuEvJ3y4