Nineteen Minutes: a lot can happen in nineteen minutes

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is a grim and startling story about the devastating aftermath of a small-town tragedy. Think of what can happen in nineteen simple minutes. Could you mow the lawn? Bake cookies? Fold laundry? Maybe seek revenge? Sterling, New Hampshire is an ordinary town where nothing ever happens. In nineteen minutes, Peter Houghton will shatter the town’s quiet haven. As the residents seek the answers to their question, they must come to terms about their possible role in the tragedy and seek justice from those who would turn their world upside down. Jose Cormier is the daughter of a local judge and one of the students injured in the tragedy. She would be the best witness to figure out what exactly happened; unfortunately, she doesn’t remember any details...or does she? As the trial progresses, the bonds between friends and family begin to crack. Who is at fault? Will the town recover? 

Nineteen Minutes takes a hard look at bullying and how we, as a society, respond to it. Ms. Picoult is an amazing storyteller as she writes a raw and honest look at every parents’ and community’s nightmare. Told in the straightforward manner that I have some to expect from her, she asks the simplest questions with the most complex answers. How well do you truly know your children? What does it mean to be an outsider in the social world of high school and society at large? Is there anything that could have been done to prevent such tragedies?  Nineteen Minutes was a very difficult book to get through. Ms. Picoult does not shy away from the difficult subject and offers an in-depth look into the hows and whys that are often asked. Even though it was not an easy read, it is a topic that we need to think about and be prepared to respond.  I highly recommend Nineteen Minutes. 

Nineteen Minutes is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook. 

Cancel culture: good? bad? ugly?

Over the past few weeks, after the news broke of SNL’s firing of Shane Gillis for making racist jokes against Chinese, I heard the term, cancel culture, more and more. I wasn’t sure what it was. When it comes to the massive world of social media, I’m somewhat of a novice. Yes, I’m on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram but I don’t follow of a lot of people or really pay attention to current trends. I decided to investigate and write about cancel culture. What I found was overwhelming and left me unsure of what my stance would be. So, my goal of this post is an examine of what cancel is and how people are using it, reacting to it and give my thoughts on whether it is necessary.

Cancel culture, as described by Wikipedia, is “a form of public shaming that aims to hold an individual and groups accountable by calling attention to behavior, usually on social media, that is perceived as problematic.” It is also referred to as call out culture or outrage culture. It is essentially a boycott of a person, usually a celebrity, when he or she has shared a questionable or unpopular opinion or has behaved in a manner that is perceived as offensive. The person is “canceled” when a large group of fans completely boycott the individual’s work causing loss of jobs, massive declines in the celebrity’s career and fanbase. For example, when Rosanne Barr made the racist comment about Valerie Jarrett, she lost her reboot show. This opinion, statement or behavior can be from the present; however, more and more celebrities are being canceled for things said and done in the distant past. Kevin Hart was canceled earlier this year, and lost his job hosting the Oscar because of a joke he made on Twitter several years before. However, canceling of a celebrity is rarely permanent. For celebrities like Taylor Swift, the offense was quickly forgotten and she’s back on top with a bestseller album. 

Some have called cancel culture an extreme form of the PC culture and the popular catch all to describe a social justice warrior agenda (Butler, 2018). One author from an online magazine makes the argument that we have always lived in a cancel culture (Semiramis, 2019) and various people from history as examples. Alice Bell, who developed a cure for leprosy has essentially been “canceled” since she is a black woman and her contribution has been hidden. Alan Turing invented one of the core concepts of computer science but since he was gay, his name lives in obscurity. Today’s cancel culture is simply the minorities, the oppressed, reclaiming their power and fighting back (Semiramis, 2019). Some have even claimed that a cancel culture doesn’t exist as some who have been “cancelled” themselves back in the public’s good graces as time goes by (Butler, 2018). Others have claimed that there is only critics of cancel culture because most “victims” are usually white men (Semiramis, 2019) and they aren’t used to being held accountable for their actions. However, more and more victims of cancel culture are minorities and women who don’t always follow the new PC culture.

There is an equal argument against cancel culture. According to critics, the problem with cancel culture is the methods used to cancel certain people and ideas. “A small number of online progressives have appointed themselves a moral vanguard” to expose a transgression and enforce a punishment through a “digital mob” (Linker, 2019). It is an attempt to police American culture, to draw a line on what is acceptable in life and especially comedy as seen in the outrage over jokes made by some stand-up comedians. The most current comedian to be in the spotlight due to cancel culture is Dave Chappelle after his Netflix special Sticks and Stones ignited a firestorm online. Taylor Swift, a victim of cancel culture, spoke out against it, saying that cancelling someone can send the wrong, even tragic, message. Dr. Pamela Paresky calls cancel culture apocalyptic. “An apocalyptic culture is not interested in wounded hearts. It wants to destroy, not heal. It wants retribution for moral impurities, not forgiveness” (Paresky, 2019). Cancel culture is born out of a knee jerk reaction instead of asking “why did he say that?” (Paresky, 2019). As Wesley Morris writes in this article, The Morality War, the intent is ignored and only what is said is what matters (2018).

As I said earlier, this topic was very overwhelming. It took several days of reading article after article and gathering my own thoughts about cancel culture to be able to sit down and write this post. On one hand, it is important to call each other for things that are wrong and hopefully help them see the error in their statement. On the other hand, cancel culture really isn’t doing that. Cancel culture also doesn’t allow for a person to change their minds. Say someone made a statement twenty years ago and someone calls him or her out on it in the present, the outrage usually ignores any statement made since that clearly shows that the person no longer believes in the past statement. Cancel culture is essentially shunning, a Scarlet letter for the world to see. It is an extreme form of a boycott and in most cases, it is downright bullying. It’s one thing to call for a boycott to hurt a company or individual’s bottom-line, like the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1995-1956). However, it is entirely different to destroy their lives. Some in the cancel culture frenzy have called for the offender’s death and the death of his or her family!

In conclusion, the motives behind cancel culture is on the right track. We need to call each other out when statements or actions are made that are harmful. However, if I don’t something an actor, artist, writer or even politician has said or done that I don’t like, I simply stop watching their movies/TV shows, stop buying their music or book and I won’t vote for them for political positions. I will stop following them on social media. However, I will not call for them to be harmed or even killed. Cancel culture leaves no room for correction, no open dialogue. No opportunity to prove the statement wrong. It is essentially “I don’t like what you said, so you must disappear.” As you can see from the pictures I have found online, there are many in social media who question the firestorm of cancel culture. We can do better than that. Most of my research has shown me that there are plenty of people who are tired of the cancel culture and very few who see its merits.

References

Butler, Danielle. October 23, 2018. The Misplaced Hysteria About a ‘Cancel Culture’ That Doesn’t Actually Exist. The Root. https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/the-misplaced-hysteria-about-a-cancel-culture-that-do-1829563238/amp.

Linker, Damon. September 20, 2019. What is ‘cancel culture’ and its critics get wrong. The Week. https://theweek.com/articles/866329/what-cancel-culture-critics-wrong

Morris, Wesley. October 3, 2018. The Morality War. The New York Times Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/03/magazine/morality-social-justice-art-entertainment.html

Paresky, Pamela B. June 19, 2019. The Apocalyptic Cult of Cancel Culture. Psychology Today.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-and-the-pursuit-leadership/201906/the-apocalyptic-cult-cancel-culture.

Semiramis. April 10, 2019. The Untold Truth about ‘Cancel Culture’. Medium.  https://medium.com/@vcasaisvila/the-untold-truth-about-cancel-culture-3675cac983c3

On this day in 1985, Titanic wreckage was discovered

September 1, 1985 Dr. Robert Ballard, along with American and French researchers, discovered the wreckage of The RMS Titanic, 73 years after it sank. Of course, today everyone is familiar with the tragic events of the Titanic due, in large part, to James Cameron’s 1997 film, Titanic. More than 12,000 below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean lies the remains of the glamourous and reportedly “unsinkable” ship. One of the greatest tragedies of the 20^th century, it remains in our hearts and our memories. The RMS Titanic hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, 2 hours and 40 minutes later on April 15, 1912, she would lie at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The name, Titanic, is derived from Greek mythology and with her sister ships, Britannic and Olympic, were billed as the future of ships. Conceived by the White Star line with its chairman, J. Bruce Ismay and American financier J.P. Morgan, Harland and Wolff were contracted to build the three ships. With design by naval architect, Thomas Andrews. Titanic would have the designation as a Royal Mail Ship and would be 882 ft. 9 in in length and 104 ft. in height. Building began in Belfast on March 31, 1909 and launched on May 31, 1911 and finished on April 2, 1912. Her maiden voyage began on April 10, 1912 when she left Southampton. Titanic was designed with modern amenities and technological advances which boasted her as the fastest and luxurious ship on the sea. White Star Line, so proud of their new creation, called her the unsinkable ship. 

Titanic boasted some of the wealthiest and famous people of the early 20^th century. Among them were millionaire John Jacob Astor IV and his wife Madeline, businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, Isidor and Ida Straus, owner of Macy’s, and Margaret “Molly” Brown, who would earn the nickname, the Unsinkable Molly Brown. The official passenger and crew count claims 2,224 people on board the Titanic. 710 would survive including Millvina Dean, who was nine weeks ago at the time and the last living survivor. She died at the age of 97 on May 31, 2009. 1,514 people would lose their life in the sinking. 333 bodies would be recovered. Only about two-thirds would be positively identified and approximately 150 would be laid to rest in one of three Halifax, Nova Scotia cemeteries. While many were affected by this tragedy, none more than the resident of Southampton, England in which 4 out of 5 crew members were residents.

Almost immediately after the sinking, proposals were made to find the wreckage but were abandoned as the depths were too great for divers at the time. Many expeditions have been proposed and attempted without success since the sinking. Until 1985, the location of the wreckage was unknown due to conflicting coordinates reported. After a failed attempt, Dr. Robert Ballard devised new technology and search strategies in to order to find the wreckage. Using cameras instead of sonar, September 1, 1985 at 12:48 am, pieces of debris began to appear on the cameras screens, one piece being identified as a boiler. The following day, the main part of the ship was found. Titanic was discovered to be in two main pieces 370 miles (600 km) south east of Mistaken Point, Newfoundland. The discovery of two main pieces confirms some of the survivors accounts that the ship had broken in two, despite the official report claiming in sank intact.

Titanic has the legacy of man’s hubris and pride. To think that man can design anything to which nature cannot destroy. So full of confidence in their design and counting the fortune they would make, they failed to see the flaws in their design. The memory of the 1,514 lives lost is a testament that we cannot take anything for granted. We may try to build everything to last and withstand all the nature can throw at us but eventually the forces of nature will win. We must expect the unexpected. There are still many unanswered questions about Titanic but today in 1985, the one big question was answered.