When deciding who to donate to, reflect for a moment on which social issues you really care about. You can always donate food and resources to various shelters in Fresno. For example, Poverello House is currently in need of poultry spices, chicken broth, pies of all kind, canned whipped cream, frozen turkeys, canned vegetables, canned sweet potatoes, instant mashed potatoes, gravy packets, and cake and brownie mixes. Donating goods to charity is a great way to make a positive impact on your community if you do not have the time to volunteer in person.

Once you have identified what social issue you most care about, find a chapter in your community that you can volunteer in. Research on the websites for these chapters for when the volunteering orientations are. Most shelters require you to bring an adult to supervise you if you are under 18. One way to volunteer at a homeless shelter is to serve at its soup kitchen. While this is more ideal for a group of 10 to 15 people, it is a great way to give back. Another way to bring holiday cheer to the underserved is to use your musical talents. Visit homeless shelters or senior homes with some of your fellow musician friends, and sing carols for them or perform pieces on your respective instruments. 

While you may receive an abundance of presents during the holidays, others in the community may not be nearly as fortunate. Give back to your community during the holiday season, whether that means donating to charity or volunteering at a shelter. Evaluate what social issue is most significant to you, and find a charter that correlates to solving this issue. Use your skills and talents to bring joy to the underserved, elderly, and/or homeless. Make lives merry and bright. Make a difference in the world.

• One thing I’ve learned from this next story is to be more careful about what food I secretly toss to my dogs from under the table. Reddit user baserith shares their story of when their grandmother put the turkey on the ground with the intention of leaving it there for three seconds while she cleared up some counter space. Earlier, she had tossed her dog a giblet as he had been following her around the kitchen all day. Yeah, huge mistake. The “treat” ended up upsetting the dog’s stomach and “He [defecated] all over my grandma's leg, the floor, and freshly-cooked turkey in one explosive two-second blast of fiery diarrhea.”

• Having a mini family reunion during this holiday doesn’t seem like a bad idea. Nevertheless, we all know it can lead to some problems, usually involving a lot of arguing over pretty much anything and it seems as though nothing is off the table, especially in this story shared by Reddit user Bazookanick13. They describe the time that their family was arguing over the death of their grandfather, more specifically about his will and his money. What was even worse, was that the said grandfather was still alive and sitting at the dinner table as well. “He was still alive and in the middle of the conversation and it felt kind of awkward.” Let’s just all agree to add talking about an alive person’s will with politics and religion as topics to not talk about over Thanksgiving dinner. 

• Speaking of respecting your elders, Reddit user terycrewsleftpec got to witness what happens when someone upsets their grandmother during one entertaining Thanksgiving. According to their story, their older brother had been antagonizing all day and his bad attitude was enough for his grandma to choke him out right before they were about to say grace. The woman grabbed a cloth napkin, went behind him, and started strangling her grandson. It ended up taking three people to pry her off of him but, it is safe to assume that this young man definitely learned his lesson.

Yeah, maybe not celebrating Thanksgiving “traditionally” isn’t so bad after all. Although the stories shared here are, for the most part, light-hearted fun, it is also important to note that there are some real dangers that can occur as well. From food poising to house fires to car accidents, there are some safety factors that need to be accounted for during this time of festivities. Especially when it comes to car accidents, Thanksgiving has been deemed the most dangerous time to drive as a lot of flukes do, unfortunately, happen. Remember to stay safe and hopefully, you won’t experience mishaps like these during your much-needed break. 

IS THANKSGIVING GIVEN THE GLORY IT DESERVES?

Sela Pattillo 2021

I needed some things at my local Dollar Tree a few days ago, and in the featured items aisles in the front of the store, holiday/seasonal items that are special or recommended to buy.  For some random reason, I thought that that particular day would be a great day to check out what really was in those aisles. To my surprise, I found that the majority of the merchandise was Christmas stuff or Christmas-y items at first glance.  This piqued my interest even further to take this mission to the next level by checking, to the greatest extent might I add, if there were any items that had anything to do with Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, there was a very limited stock of Thanksgiving items or things associated with Thanksgiving.  Now a huge question popped into my mind: What is the reason for the low inventory of Thanksgiving items?

Did I bother asking any employee of the store why there were few Thanksgiving items in this section? No, but I figured soon that the reason for this was that Thanksgiving, is ultimately underrated.  

Thanksgiving, the holiday where most schools get a full week off, a day of sharing what everyone around the table is thankful for, and the holiday that gives the excuse to eat whatever you can stuff inside your belly is underrated?  Not only have I used this evidence I have discovered at my Dollar Tree to come to this conclusion, but also because it is pretty much a part of the American history but slightly exaggerated and glorified as most understand the story.  The real story is commonly known as an ally between English colonists and Native Americans who banded together to defeat other tribes and the French in some battles, was romanticized for younger children to think that there was peace between Natives and English, which technically only lasted for a short time.  Then, they gathered around a table and had a big dinner together to celebrate. Although people may believe that the romanticized version of the story is real, there isn’t necessarily any proof that those people of the time actually did anything such as getting together around a table in perfect harmony. 

1. A shorter but equally traumatizing story comes from Reddit user boogergurl (okay). She shares about her time when she worked at a Hot Topic when they were having a huge sale on t-shirts. Hot Topic shirts can be pretty pricey so it comes as no surprise that the line waiting to get into the store when all throughout the mall and this girl went above and beyond to hold her spot in line. “... a girl got to the counter to pay and she had vomited in a large styrofoam soda cup and asked me to throw it away for her... I did not.” Yeah, she does not get paid enough to do something like that. At least she didn’t vomit in the store like the woman who made herself projectile vomit in a dressing room because she couldn’t get an extra discount. 

2. I’m sure we’ve all seen the videos of people fighting in stores on this day but in this story, we get 2 for 1 with fighting and stealing! There was a fight that broke out in a Walmart over a bike. There were several people, several punches, and several drops of blood littering the floor. The fight eventually ended when one guy managed to get a hold of the bike and rode it out of the store to get away from the people that were chasing him. Needless to say, he didn’t get a chance to pay for the bike. 

3. Speaking of fights, this one is even more outrageous. This happened at, say it with me, a Walmart! Two women were fighting over who knows what and one of the women ended up flipping the stroller of the other that had a child still in it! The store manager came over and helped the child. The child was fine, physically at least. The fight was eventually broken apart and it turns out that the women actually knew each other and I guess the middle of a Walmart on the busiest day of the year was the perfect time to settle their dispute?

Welp. Remember to be safe if you're going out shopping this Black Friday and always be UHS. 

The action, too, is a work of art. Overall it isn’t a modern style action film, with dialogue being more influential to the plot, but there are a number of scenes featuring daring chases and escapes made by the hero and villians. The action that is presented though is beyond the bland fight scenes that frequent the theater today. Unlike most films which have action for the sake of action, character is built through these scenes, without one-liners or narration. Battles are fought with anxiety and passion as everyone is at risk of death. 

Finally, the philosophy of Blade Runner is an integral part of the storyline. Like many films, different versions were made when the film was taken from the theater and put onto VHS tapes and DVD disks, but Blade Runner has had 8 different versions, or cuts, which the general population has watched. These different cuts invoke different philosophical conundrums depending on the viewing, specifically the “Director’s Cut” and the “Final Cut”, which is the superior one in my opinion. Anyway, the main philosophical question which is asked is “What qualifies something as a human/person?” The main antagonists are a band of genetically engineered humans called “Replicants”. These replicants come in different versions which have increasingly more human tendencies. Thus, what are people? Are they defined by the process by which they were made, or their conscience, or their emotions? As these Replicants become more advanced, they begin to act less like robots and more like people. The question continues as some begin to question their humanity because they are so similar to beings which are supposed to be devoid of feeling, yet have more emotion than they do. The definition of man and the value of life are explored more often as the movie continues, climaxing to a legendary speech, which I dare not quote, for I don’t wish movie spoilers upon my worst enemy. To any gamers who read this, this is similar to the game “Detroit: Become Human”, if you haven’t yet assumed.

Some of you may be wondering why this is in the November Issue of Post. If my aspirations haven’t inspired you to watch this film for any other reason, watch it for the hilarity of how the ‘80s thought that the future would be like. Like Back to the Future: Part 2 four years ago, Blade Runner takes place right now. At the beginning of the film, a text scrawl, akin to Star Wars, giving a brief explanation of Earth and states that the film takes place in November of 2019. This movie takes place in Los Angeles as this article is being written. Now is the time to compare the world society thought would exist as opposed to the reality we have now. It would be great to have flying cars, don’t you think? 

This film is a modern masterpiece which I think many here at UHS can empathize with. Deckard’s life is monotonous with work cluttering his day to the point where he becomes disillusioned with society. He is almost zombie-like in his behavior, working only to complete one day and continue onto the next. We question our own lives and its meaning when we’re not working on yet another assignment or studying or planning our futures. I know many who question the point of all this work, whether at UHS or otherwise. If we spend all of this time now worrying about the future, will we be able to appreciate our past?