Dorothy Day

We first see the young Dorothy marching with suffragettes during a rally for Woodrow Wilson. What are she and her fellow marchers demanding? What was the situation of women in American society of 1917? Which of society's dictates for women do we see Dorothy flaunting in the film? (Supporting herself outside the home; smoking; wearing her hair short several years before this became popular in the Flapper era; espousing radical ideas and demonstrating them publicly; flaunting authority, even the police, and later, the church; going to jail; free love; agreeing to an abortion; entering into a common-law marriage; having and raising a child as a single parent.)

Dorothy and her fellow marchers were demanding the right to vote, the right to be considered a citizen, equal rights as men, and overall, women's rights. Women in American society of 1917 were considered second-class citizens. They did not have the same rights as men, they could not vote, they were, looked down upon for working a job outside of the home, they did not have authority, their husbands were in control of their life and their children, the women did not have rights to their own children or they own property once married. Throughout the film Dorothy Flaunts several of society's dictates for women, including working for a newspaper, smoking, preaching radical ideas for the time, flaunting her authority, going to jail for her beliefs and demonstrations, free love, having an abortion, and raising a child as a single parent. Dorothy unlike women of her time worked a job for a news paper as a reporter, it was through this job that we started to see her trying to spread the injustices that were happening around her through the paper, espousing radical ideas against authority. Dorothy is also seen throughout the movie as a smoker, she publicly took part in this activity no seen as acceptable for women but a men's activity. Considered an anarchist, Dorothy preached radical ideas for her time and for a woman throughout her life, from preaching free love,birth control, and women's rights in the 1910's to against nuclear weapons in the 1950's. Dorothy also flaunted authority over the church and the police, she told the archbishop that she wouldn't take the word "catholic" out of the sign and she continued to go against his wishes. Dorothy was jailed in her protest against Woodrow Wilson and was one of the 168 women who were jailed for "obstructing traffic" who once in jail went on a hunger strike. She was also arrested for civil disobedience several times during her fight in her campaign against nuclear weapons. Dorothy not only at one point in her life preached free love but also took part in it resulting in two pregnancies, one that she aborted and the other she raised on her own as a single parent. Getting abortion was going against the catholic church as well as her participation in free love, it was also not something supported in society as we saw when she was taken to a back street apartment for the procedure. Raising a child as a single mother was also not seen as proper for women in society, going against another aspect of society. Overall, Dorothy flaunted the ways she went against society and the church but she made a huge contribution to reform and helping those in need.

Dorothy Day in the center with two friends selling the New York Call in 1917.

The High Cost of Low Prices

To me Wal-Mart is a good place in that it provides low prices that other stores cannot offer, Wal-Mart also provides an array of products from groceries to furniture all in one stop making it very convenient. Though it offers a wide array of products, shopping there it is at a cost. Wal-Mart puts smaller stores out of business, does not pay their employees overtime, leaves empty stores for rent when they have to start paying taxes by moving outside of city limits, hurts the environment, and disrespects their employees and does not allow them to unionize.

Wal-Mart's policies and strategies do not conform to the 7 principles of Catholic Social teaching.
1. Life and Dignity of the Human Person – Wal-Mart ignores the dignity of its "associates". The company tells its associates to go on welfare instead of providing them benefits like most companies.
2. Call to Family, Community, and Participation - Though Wal-Mart advertises a strong family like community, employees experience racism and sexism from their contemporaries as well as management.
3. Rights and Responsibilities - Wal-Mart does not allow their workers to unionize. Through a union Wal-Mart employees would be able to protect their rights.
4. Option for the Poor and Vulnerable - Working at Wal-Mart is an option for the poor, but the store pays low wages and does not factor in the overtime hours that are forced upon these employees. Essentially a poor person would remain poor if they worked at Wal-Mart because they would not have the options or the ability to fix their situation because Wal-Mart does not give any benefits, all the money Wal-Mart pays its employees does right back into the store.
5. The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers - see numbers 1, 2, & 3.
6. Solidarity – The associates and management are on completely different levels. Wal-Mart is not the family it claims to be.
7. Care for God's Creation – Wal-Mart is involved in several environmental lawsuits per year for their lack of care for God’s creation.

I would never work for Wal-Mart, the store does not offer good benefits and does not treat their employees fairly. If I were to work at a low wage job I would look into a place were I would be respected as a female, paid for my time if I worked overtime or not, and a place that allows unions so that my rights would be protected.

Sadly big retail stores are of such huge convenience with the wide array of product they offer and the low prices on said product that I will most likely continue to shop at the big retail stores. Personally I have never been to a Wal-Mart but I have been to a Target and Costco, and the convenience of buying items in bulk and at low prices tend to out weigh the bad practices of the companies. Also the fact that most big retail stores do not follow just business practices does not leave a lot of options. I will think twice of buying items from big retail stores though, because after finding out that sometimes the low prices that these stores boast are not always the lowest price an item is offered at I am skeptical about if they really are the best option.

Nicki Minaj

This weekend at the Grammys, Nicki Minaj offended a lot of people. To start of the night Minaj showed up on the red carpet at the with a man dressed up like the pope. This was just the start of her mockery of the Catholic Church. Her performance began with a mock confessional skit, followed by a video that depicted a mock exorcism. All during this performance there were stained glass windows in the background. Minaj appeared again later with choir boys and monks dancing on stage. The most vulgar part and to me the most offensive part was the scene of a scantily clad female stretching backwards with an altar boy between her legs in praying. At the end, “Come All Ye Faithful” was sung while a man acting as a bishop walked on stage.

Watching Nicki Minaj’s Grammy performance offended me greatly as a Catholic. I felt that it was absurd that she was allowed to preform such a vulgar mockery of the Catholic Church. She would not have been allowed to mock Islam or Judaism, or make fun of any minority, yet she was free to make fun of the Catholic faith. I think it is ridiculous that there has yet to be an apology as well. Also the fact that she does not care about what she did and who she offended makes her actions and the allowance of her performance to be a representation of the double standard that has grown in our country. By her twitter comments Minaj clearly does not give "a single F***," she knows what she did and she does not care. The double stander is shown in with the fact that if this happened to any other faith people would be up in arms over it and it would have never been allowed to happen, but they are not because most people are ignorant of the Catholic faith and do not understand the symbols used in her performance that are sacred in the Catholic faith and why the performance was offensive. What really offended me was the sexual dancing and innuendo around the praying at the kneeler. Every week I go to church and I kneel and pray to God at a similar kneeler, to me this is a sacred and private moment between God and me and she ridiculed it.

She also used the song “Come All Yee Faithfull” which is a song that I have grown up hearing in Church around Christmas time, a significant time in any Christian’s religious year that is now associated with, in my mind, Minaj’s offensive performance and mockery of the Catholic faith. What possessed her to do this? The song and performance in general were not even good, and she obviously knew what she was doing in this performance so why would she do it? I have lost respect for her and will never look at her the same way. To me Nicki Minaj has ridiculed my religious practices and my faith. And for that I feel that there needs to be an explanation as to why she was allowed to perform that at the Grammys and an explanation as to why she thinks it was okay to make a mockery of the Catholic Church. I feel that the Catholic League is right in its position on her performance. Overall, what bugs me the most is the ignorance of the people in this country. A lot of people did not get why her performance was so offensive, they would have if it was about another religion or a minority or about their faith. People need to realize that the actions that they use affect other people and that everything is not just about them and their alter ego, Roman.

Apple

Apple products are a huge part of my life and until reading the New York Times article on the blood and sweat that is behind the making of Apple products I had no idea of the working conditions that the assemblers of Apple products experience. I think it is appalling that a company can get away with using this type of labor because they are such a high profile company. Other manufacturing is watched very closely, such as pharmaceuticals, companies involved in these endeavors go through tons of procedures to ensure the well-being of their workers and their buyers. Why can’t other industries be watched the same way? Right now Apple is the richest company in the world. The company is sitting on $100 billion in the bank. The suppliers of Apple products would change everything if Apple told them they didn’t have another choice but obviously Apple has not done so. Apple is manufacturing these products in China for a reason, it is cheap labor and the government does not have the strict laws on labor that the United States and European countries have.

This article has not prevented me from using my apple products because it is not just Apple that is using the cheap labor in China, it is all of the technology companies. Apple products are still the best on the market, in my opinion, and it is going to take a lot more to prevent people from using their products. Though I feel that even if Apple had to raise prices in order to use better working practices then I think people would still pay.

My consciousness has been raised about this issue. Before reading this article I did not know what was going on in Foxcon and in other suppliers' factories. I think people need to be aware of what is going on so we can successfully change the working practices in these companies in China that make Apple products. Recently I did sign two petitions on making a more ethical iPhone 5. More people need to be aware of what was sacrificed to make their electronic devices that we take for granted.