It’s no question that we live in a busy world. Everyday, weird, funny, horrifying, or interesting events occur throughout the world. Examples of these happen more frequently than you may think. For instance, just this month, several major stories dominated the news. In just September, Serena Williams cursed out the umpire at the final to the U.S. Open Woman Singles, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faced confirmation hearings and was accused of sexual misconduct, the Senate held hearings on bias against certain websites and viewpoints by Google, Facebook, and Twitter, and Hurricane Florence slammed into the Carolinas. Many of these stories happened in recent times, with major consequences as a result, and I’d like to give my views on them.
First off, we’ll go over the Serena Williams and the Hurricane Florence stories, the ones unrelated to politics. In my opinion, there is no question that Serena Williams was completely disrespectful and she got what she deserved: a hefty fine and a loss in the U.S. Open. Not only did she accuse the umpire, Carlos Ramos, of being a “thief”, which makes no sense at all, but she also attempted to make a wild claim of sexism on the part of the Ramos, and overshadowed the glory of beating one of the best players that her opponent, relative newcomer Naomi Osaka, should have received. Even if Osaka had been equal in skill or better than Williams, Williams should not have reacted in such a ridiculous manner. I feel like she showed unsporting behavior, and was penalized accordingly. The second story is about Hurricane Florence, which made landfall in the Carolinas in the early morning of September 14th. My prayers go out towards everyone affected by the hurricane, and I hope that you are all fine. I am glad that everyone was given advance notice so they could either evacuate the area or prepare adequately, which likely saved many lives.
In politics, one of the biggest stories was the hearings for the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to the Supreme Court to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired in July. Personally, I believe that Kavanaugh is well qualified for a seat on the Supreme Court. However, the confirmation hearings, which were repeatedly interrupted by protestors, including by actress Piper Perabo, were completely derailed when accusations of sexual misconduct emerged. California Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated that a professor from Palo Alto, California, a woman named Christine Blasey Ford, who was also a former high school classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Georgetown Preparatory School in Maryland, wrote her a letter claiming that she was nearly raped by a drunk Kavanaugh. While I thought Kavanaugh was a good pick for the Supreme Court, and still do, I hope that the Senate will find out whether or not this incident actually happened. The final story we’ll go over is the allegations of bias against certain viewpoints by tech companies. The Senate held hearings on bias present in Google, Facebook, and Twitter, including processes known as shadow banning(as seen back in July) or having a double standard altogether(as seen from the Sarah Jeong-Candace Owens situation last month). I believe that shadow banning is wrong, and while tweets such as Candace Owens’s are wrong, she was trying to make a point of how Sarah Jeong must also be banned, which I agree with.
That wraps up this news post for this month, folks! We’ll see you again soon.
The Freedom Flame 