Sympathy for the Betrayed in Politics

Elizabeth Edwards, the estranged wife of Sen. John Edwards due to his affair with his former videographer, died today after a lengthy battle with breast cancer.

An article on CNN.com was written shortly after her death telling a story of her life, including the time when she struggled with her husband's affair which led to the birth of a son by her husband with another woman.

Though her story is tragic, and her character was well known and well loved on the political scene, I can only wonder if I would have the same feelings reading this article if she had not been one of the many 'betrayed wives of politics'.

If she had just been any other wife to a senator who had lost a presidential campaign, would we, the public, recognize her as the moral hero that we do?

She was betrayed by someone in our public eye...someone who was hoping to lead our country.

The affair led to the couple's separation leaving the reader to feel even more sympathy for her at her death--she not only had to struggle through a long battle with cancer without her husband, but she had to die without him as well.

Elizabeth was certainly the one who came out "smelling like a rose" (so to speak) through all of this, and yet she is the one who is now lost.

We not only have sympathy for her at her death after her long fight with cancer, but we also have the added layer of sympathy for her after she was betrayed.

Rest in Peace, Elizabeth Edwards. I certainly hope that John realizes now, more than ever, how much you should, and will, be missed.

Read more...

Social-media trends with a cause

If you've been on Facebook lately, you've probably noticed some of your friends have turned into cartoon characters, by the looks of their profile pictures.

A recent Facebook trend is bringing awareness to child abuse. Facebook users are changing their profile pictures to their favorite childhood cartoons and updating their statuses to:

"Change your FB profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood. The goal? To not see a human face on FB til Monday, Dec. 6. Join the fight against child abuse & copy & paste to your status to invite your friends to do the same"

Many other awareness trends that Facebook has facilitated include breast cancer awareness and self-harm awareness.

I think these are refreshing and important ways in which social-media can and should be used.

Social-media is designed to connect people across the world and I think it's important that these devices are being used for good causes.

Although the help these trends are actually bringing to the problems they outline is unknown, the point is that Facebook and other social-media tools are getting the word out to the masses in the best way they know how.

A trend is designed to help people find out what issues are currently being talked about.

Other trends that social-media promote are trends in discussion. Twitter is especially popular in this respect and even has a "Trends" column that can include worldwide, national or local trends.

These Twitter trends change daily in accordance to what people are talking about most.

This article by Mashable outlines which Twitter trends were most popular for any particular week.

Social-media trends have a much more important purpose than to just give people something to talk about.

Trends inform people about breaking news, connect people across the world on the basis of a single subject and break down the bureaucracy of news coverage by giving everyone a voice on important issues.

Whether trends are bringing public awareness to an important issue or informing people about something new, they are always connecting people in ways that were never thought possible just a few, short years ago.

Read more...