Donating During The Holiday Season

In a recent article by Raymund Flandez, titled " Most Americans Plan to Give This Holiday Season, Two Polls Find", he touches on how most Americans are still willing to donate to charity despite the financial issues from the bad economy. Recent surveys administered by the American Red Cross show that four out of five Americans plan to donate this holiday season to charities that focus on helping the poor and to charities that help people with specific diseases. I chose to blog about this article because I was surprised that many American are choosing to donate to in -store gift drives, or buy a discount card or coupon that supports a cause instead of donating to charities through social networks, such as Facebook, or going directly to a charity's website.

In my opinion I would much rather donate through social networks or directly through the charity's website. I guess because I am all about saving time. The most convenient way to donate is the best way to donate during the holiday season. Some interesting information that I learned from reading this article was that eighty-six percent of woman versus sixty-nine percent of men say that helping the less fortunate is very important during the holiday season. But only twenty-five percent of woman plan to give more than a $100 to charity and thirty-eight percent of men plan to donate the same amount. This holiday season I plan to donate a minimum of $200 to my charity of choice because the greatest gift for me this holiday season is knowing that I was able to make a difference in someone life.

Green Gift Monday

Cyber Monday, which takes place on the Monday after Thanksgiving, is very similar to Black Friday. Both days are all about shopping for a variety of different items for a low discount price. The only difference is that Black Friday is usually for in store shoppers and Cyber Monday targets people that choose to shop. This year The Nature Conservancy Group, which is one of the largest environmental groups in the nation, is trying to change Cyber Monday to Green Gift Monday. This day will still be about shopping for low discounts prices but it will help support Conservation groups and products that are made to help the environment.

One writer for the Chronicle of Philanthropy name Raymund Flandez a wrote a great article titled " Will Green Gift Monday Snare Cyber Monday Shoppers?" This article explains the transition from shopping online to shopping green online. It talks about the new web campaign that The Nature Conservancy has put together to help spread the word about buying environmentally friendly products as well as making donations to different Conservation Groups. I chose to blog about this article because "going green" is a major issue that needs to be addressed. I agree with buying environmentally friendly product because anything geared toward making the world better is a great idea. I learned a lot about online shopping form this article because I usually go in the store to shop. The information in this article is vital and should be shared with you friends and family. This article inspires me to start buying more environmentally friendly products.

Donations via Text Message? Good or Bad?

This blog is focused on a article that I read titled "Two Charities Test $25 Text Gifts", written by Nicole Wallce, a writer for "The Chronicles of Philanthropy". The article talks about a new test campaign to donate to a charity via text message. This holiday season the American Red Cross and the American Center for Law and Justice are coming together to start a campaign to see if donors would be willing to donate $25 via text message. After texting $25 to the American Red cross the donor will receive a link which will let them download a American Red Cross badge to their social network profile page to spread the news about the campaign. This will be a test campaign to see if the large donation of $25 will affect the cellphone carriers operations. The campaign will run through December 31.

I chose too blog about this particular article because The American Red Cross is one of my favorite non-profit organizations. In my opinion I believe that this will be a great way to give a donations. By reading this article I learned how donating via text message works and how the donations actually gets to the charity. Also I learned that donating via text message is very effective and is becoming more common. It is very important that my blog followers take this information and share with others.

The iPhone Donation Application

I'm blogging today about a article that I recently came across that caught my attention. The article is titled "Fund Raiser's Petition Apple to allow Easy Donating on iPhone", written by Raymund Flandez. The article states that Pay pal designed a application that made it easy for iPhone users to donate to a charity with just two clicks of a button. Two months after the application was available to all iPhone users, it was removed. The application had helped raise $10,000 before being removed from the iPhone. Now many non-profit leader are left wondering why this application was removed. A few of the non-profit leader have reached out to Apple and asked them to reconsider the policy, as well as created a online petition with hope to bring this useful Donating application back.

I chose to blog about this story because I was also left wondering why this application was removed. In my opinion I believe that donating through a application on my smart phone is a great way to give donations because it saves time and is very convenient. You will never have an excuse not to donate because its only two clicks away on your smart phone. Also I was very surprised that an application for donating existed. Its a great idea and just show you how the world is converting more and more to technology which is awesome.

Helpful ATM Safety Tips

It is very important to be cautious when using a automated teller machine (ATM). You should always keep your information confidential. In the article titled "Tips on ATM safety", by Lawrence Henry, Union Bank,N.A., Senior Vice President and Regional Manager explains that most people are unaware of their surrounding when using the ATM. This article caught my attention because I use the ATM frequently and these tips are helpful to me. One thing that I learned from this article was the "skimming scam". Criminals put a skimming device on the ATM and place a hidden wireless camera that will capture your pin number when you place your debit card into the machine. This article is very important to read because you never know when you may fall victim to fraud or have your money and belongings stole while visiting the ATM. Knowing theses tips could prevent that from happening.

Living in Poverty

In the United States(U.S) poverty rates have climbed to the highest level since the 1960s. The U.S. was abruptly hit with a recession, leaving one in seven Americans without jobs, money or health care. African American and senior citizens suffered the most from the recession. Although congress passed a health care bill addressing the increasing number of uninsured people, changes will not happen until 2014. An article titled "1 in 7 Americans now living in poverty" explains in detail Americans struggle with poverty. The article was written by the staff of Black Voice News(blackvoicenews.com). This article caught my attention because it tells the severity of the recession.
I agree with the author of this article because poverty has become a problem in the United States. In this article it states that most of the people lose their health insurance because most businesses can not afford to provide their employees with the insurance. Also in my opinion many Americans are unemployed because of the high demand for work. In other words to many people and not enough work.
I learned from this article that homelessness among children is growing very quickly in the United States. I encourage that everyone read this article because it will give you a since of whats going on in the world around.

Ethinic Beauty

In the entertainment world Ethnic Beauty is becoming more and more popular. Women are not forced to be a size zero with long hair and a Caucasian complexion anymore. Instead woman are able to have curves and brown skin tones but most importanatly women are able to feel beautiful inside and out. " Women who desire a more "exotic" appearance are looking to the fashions world's growing multi-culturalism for inspiration" says Liane Membis specialist for CNN and author of the article "Is ethnic beauty the new "it" factor." This article gives a great explantion about the sudden change in the beauty industry. This article caught my attention because it shines light on the celebrities that aren't afraid to step out of the box and be diffrenet for a change. This article is very inspirational because it lets the reader know that every shape,color and size is beautiful and that NO ONE should think anything different.



I agree with Membis when she states that as the American population change the standards of beauty change as well. Before this trend began, if you weren't a certain way you were looked down on. For example if you didn't have thin lips you weren't considered pretty. But in 2010 many woman are turning to plastic surgery for the " full lips" look. In my opinion I feel like everyone should be looked at as beautiful reguardless of shape, skin tone color or size. Also I feel that a woman should not focus on her flaws, instead they should look at there flaws and embrace them because thats whats makes them different and being different is beauty in itself.



Reading this article really gave me better understanding of the beauty industry and makes me more intune with myself and the way that I look and it also shows me that not everyone wants to be apart of that " thin is in" look. If you don't remember anything after reading this blog please remember this LOVE YOURSELF FOR WHO YOU ARE, FLAWS AND ALL.

saggy pants fashion trend in Memphis Tn

The Saggy Pants Era, How it is affecting the Memphis area

MEMPHIS (TN)-Dating back to the early 90s the saggy pants look has become a setting trend in the Memphis area. Young men starting as early as 11 years old wear their pants below the waist showing there under garments. “Over half of the young men in the Memphis area wear their pants below the waist”, says Cymon Miller, 22, resident of the North Memphis area.

(R&B singer Trey Songz performs in the Memphis area)

“The low-slung trousers trend id adapted from the unbelted and sometimes oversized look of prison uniforms”, according to Mark-Evan Blackman, who heads the menswear department at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology

“Many of the young men who sag their pants don’t even know where the trend began and how they are badly representing themselves”, says Danielle Williams, 22, resident of East Memphis area.

(Young man of the Memphis area who fell victim to the saggy pants fashion trend)

The Saggy Pants trend is believed to have originated from the United States prison system. When prisoners are admitted to prison they are given uniforms that are usually too big in size. Also belts are prohibited from the prison because of safety issues. In prison belts are commonly used as weapons in physical altercations between prisoners and used to avoid suicide attempts by using the belts to hang themselves.

“Not everyone agrees on where the baggy pants' fashion in men's and boy’s wear first originated. One popular opinion is that when men are arrested and put into prison, their personal belongings are confiscated from them, this confiscation included their belts. Once their belts had been taken, their pants ultimately began to sag and bag. To cover their embarrassment, the men began to strut and swagger-proving that they were too tough to care that they were loosing their pants and leading young people to believe that baggy pants made them look manly and cool”, says, Sandra E Graham, writer of the article titled, “The Origin and Purpose for the Baggy, Saggy Pants (Men/Boys Fashion) which was posted on her column titled “Grannys Front Porch”.

Other theories suggest that the saggy pants trend came from the hip hop culture and the skateboarder’s lifestyle. For example, Dewayne Carter a rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana that goes by the stage name “Lil Wayne” and skateboarder Robert Stanley Dyrdek from Kettering, Ohio are influential men that have a major impact on the young men of the world. Who both participate in the saggy pants trend. The saggy pants look has always been their trademark in fashion.

“ I sag my pants because I think that it makes me look cool” says, Joseph Gossett, 22, Resident of the South Memphis area.. When asked if he knew where sagging pants originated he replied,” from the hip hop culture”.

Rappers and skateboarders both give off the image that they are cool, manly and won’t live their lives following the rules and young men relate to that and want to be just like their favorite entertainer and it starts with the way they dress. Even some R&B singers take part in this trend.

“ I recently saw R&B singer, Trey Songz in concert this past weekend and even he sags his pants and that was very suprising”, say Chontel Miller, 20, resident of the North Memphis Area

(R & B singer Trey Songz)

Many young men sag their pants to feel manly and to be considered cool because they see their favorite rapper or favorite skateboarder sag their pant. In reality the trend is very distasteful and needs to end. The saggy pant has become a major issue in the Memphis area and the people of the community want to see a change.

In March of 2009 Memphis State Representative Joe Towns Jr. and Senator Ophelia Ford both proposed a bill that would make wearing your pants below the waist illegal. The bill was called “Pull up or Pay up”, it says that if your underwear are showing while in public your pants are to low and if stopped by the police you could be subject to a fine or community services. All the money that is collected would go to schools for school activities.

Although, this bill was proposed it was never passed because some citizens of Memphis felt that the bill was not necessary and that there were more important things going on than “saggy pants”. The bill may not have been passed in Memphis, TN but other states across the United States felt that “Saggy Pants” is a major issue. For example, Lynwood, IL a small suburban neighborhood in Chicago passed a bill on July 20, 2008 stating that anyone caught showing 3 inches or more of their underwear in public would be given a 25.00 fine. This well praised law was put into action by the city Mayor of Lynwood, Chicago, Eugene Williams.

Also a very controversial bill was passed in Flint, Michigan called crackdown on indecency. Chief of Police, David Dicks, states that if you are caught with your underwear showing you could be subject to a fine and or even jail time. This law is very unique and different from laws passed in other states because there are three different stages of this law. The first stage a “warning” a warning may be issued if less than 3 inches of underwear is showing. The second stage is called “disorderly conduct”, more than 3 inches of the underwear is showing and the pants are below the buttocks. The final stage is called “indecent exposure”, when the buttock is completely exposed. The punishment for both stage 2 and 3 of the bill can result in 93 days to a year in jail and 500.00 in fines.

Although saggy pants are becoming somewhat normal to see in everyday life many people are still against the trend. “ Some people might not want to see your underwear. I’m one of them,” President Obama told MTV News.

“The saggy pant look is a continuous trend that is slowly spreading across the world. Young men will always be looked down upon for participating in this trend that handicapping the young generation. They will be denied jobs, education, and will never be taken seriously because of this sad fashion trend”, says, Kandace Hankins,19, Millington Resident.

Links

Chicago laws passed banning saggy pants http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/928852-lynwood-sagging

Flint Michigan law passed banning saggy pants http://www.joeydevilla.com/2008/07/09/flint-michigans-crackdown-heh-on-saggy-pants/