+
upworthy
Heroes

If You Join This #UpChat About Cesar Chavez, You'll Do The World A Solid

Para leer en español, por favor haga clic aquí.Note: This #UpChat has concluded, but don't worry! You can check out our recap of the discussion below and here.I’ve been a longtime fan of Cesar Chavez — both his work and the man himself. We're having this little thing called an #UpChat on Thursday, March 27, 2014, at 4 p.m. Eastern so you can find out more about him, tweet some things you may already appreciate about his work, and spread the word far and wide (just like the GIF below) about the movie "Cesar Chavez."

(That right there? It's the Automatic Sprinkler That Shares IMPORTANT KNOWLEDGE all across the Internets! That's what you're going to help do during our #UpChat! Or maybe it's meant for irrigation in fields ... ahem.)

The short version: Cesar Chavez got a bunch of farmworkers to come together for fair labor practices because conditions were so terrible in that industry. And while there's still more work to be done, he essentially changed the game, empowering farmworkers to stand up for what they deserve. Yeah, THAT Cesar Chavez.


OK, Upworthy, where are you going with this exactly?

The folks here at Upworthy are joining forces with TakePart (the lovely people behind the film "Cesar Chavez," which inspired this chat) to talk about fair working conditions on farms with an #UpChat on Twitter.

Sounds great! But what exactly is an #UpChat? What's the aim?

Good question! An #UpChat is a discussion using Twitter where we talk about an important issue. This chat will be about how we get food from farm to table in a way that's fair to workers, and about how Cesar Chavez led the way for all of us. It will be with us, TakePart, and a number of other participants. We want to bring together engaging ideas and thoughts to help shed light on this underreported issue and discuss action we can take as a country.

Please come and add to the conversation. If we’re really lucky, #UpChat might become a “thing” on Twitter — and didn't you always want to be part of a "thing"??

OK, can you tell me what I can do now?

¡Sí, se puede!

The biggest, most crucial part of all this is to have people like YOU — hey, yep, you — join us and make your voice heard. Here are the three steps:

1) Tune into #UpChat on twitter on Thursday, March 27 at 4 p.m Eastern.

2) Follow @Upworthy and @TakePart

3) Come prepared with your brain and your thoughts about the issue. Then tweet them to us using the #UpChat hashtag!

4) Check out the awesome folks joining @Upworthy and @TakePart for the #UpChat:

BUT I JUST CAN'T WAIT UNTIL THEN, UPWORTHY. I NEED TO DO SOMETHING NOWWWW.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (see what I did there?), here are three other things you can do:

1) Sign a petition for a National Day of Service to be set aside in honor of Cesar Chavez.

2) Go watch the movie in theaters starting March 28. No, really. Go. Watch. The. Movie. More about that right here.

3) Check out the Equitable Food Initiative, which means better food safety, guaranteed fair conditions for those who work in the industry, and the assurance that pesticides are used appropriately — in ways that will not affect those who work among the crops or those who purchase them. In other words, win/win/win.

And for right now, here are two clips about the man and the movie. You're welcome!

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

Keep ReadingShow less

A nasty note gets a strong response.

We've all seen it while cruising for spots in a busy parking lot: A person parks their whip in a disabled spot, then they walk out of their car and look totally fine. It's enough to make you want to vomit out of anger, especially because you've been driving around for what feels like a million years trying to find a parking spot.

You're obviously not going to confront them about it because that's all sorts of uncomfortable, so you think of a better, way less ballsy approach: leaving a passive aggressive note on their car's windshield.

Satisfied, you walk back to your car feeling proud of yourself for telling that liar off and even more satisfied as you walk the additional 100 steps to get to the store from your lame parking spot all the way at the back of the lot. But did you ever stop and wonder if you told off the wrong person?

Keep ReadingShow less
Innovation

A student accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years

"This thing has been cycling 10,000 cycles and it’s still going." ⚡️⚡️

There's an old saying that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.

There's no better example of that than a 2016 discovery at the University of California, Irvine, by doctoral student Mya Le Thai. After playing around in the lab, she made a discovery that could lead to a rechargeable battery that could last up to 400 years. That means longer-lasting laptops and smartphones and fewer lithium ion batteries piling up in landfills.

Keep ReadingShow less
Health

8 nontraditional empathy cards that are unlike any you've ever seen. They're perfect!

Because sincerity and real talk are important during times of medical crisis.

True compassion.

When someone you know gets seriously ill, it's not always easy to come up with the right words to say or to find the right card to give.

Emily McDowell — a former ad agency creative director and the woman behind the Los Angeles-based greeting card and textile company Emily McDowell Studio — knew all too well what it was like to be on the receiving end of uncomfortable sentiments.

At the age of 24, she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkin's lymphoma. She went into remission after nine months of chemo and has remained cancer-free since, but she received her fair share of misplaced, but well-meaning, wishes before that.

On her webpage introducing the awesome cards you're about to see, she shared,

"The most difficult part of my illness wasn't losing my hair, or being erroneously called 'sir' by Starbucks baristas, or sickness from chemo. It was the loneliness and isolation I felt when many of my close friends and family members disappeared because they didn't know what to say or said the absolute wrong thing without realizing it."

Her experience inspired Empathy Cards — not quite "get well soon" and not quite "sympathy," they were created so "the recipients of these cards [can] feel seen, understood, and loved."

Scroll down to read these sincere, from-the-heart, and incredibly realistic sentiments.

Keep ReadingShow less
Health

This woman's powerful 'before and after' photos crush myths about body positivity

"Body positivity is about saying that you are more than a body and your self-worth is not reliant on your beauty."



Michelle Elman, a body positivity coach, helps people who are struggling to find confidence in their own skin.

After persevering through numerous medical conditions and surgeries in her own life, Elman realized a few years ago that body positivity wasn't just about size or weight. Things like scars, birthmarks, and anything else that makes us feel different of self-conscious have to be a part of the conversation, and she tries to make the movement accessible to everyone.

Sharing her own journey has been one of her most effective teaching tools.

Keep ReadingShow less
via wakaflockafloccar / TikTok

It's amazing to consider just how quickly the world has changed over the past 11 months. If you were to have told someone in February 2020 that the entire country would be on some form of lockdown, nearly everyone would be wearing a mask, and half a million people were going to die due to a virus, no one would have believed you.

Yet, here we are.

PPE masks were the last thing on Leah Holland of Georgetown, Kentucky's mind on March 4, 2020, when she got a tattoo inspired by the words of a close friend.

Keep ReadingShow less