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Jordan Davis was killed over loud music. Now his parents tell their story in a gripping new film.

31⁄2 minutes. That’s all it took for 45-year-old Michael Dunn to approach black boys listening to loud music at a gas station, shoot 10 bullets into the car of unarmed teens, and leave 17-year-old Jordan Davis dead. Those 3 1⁄2 minutes in Jacksonville, Florida, on Nov. 23, 2012, didn’t just end Jordan’s life. They sparked…

By

Erica Williams Simon

31⁄2 minutes.

That’s all it took for 45-year-old Michael Dunn to approach black boys listening to loud music at a gas station, shoot 10 bullets into the car of unarmed teens, and leave 17-year-old Jordan Davis dead.

Those 3 1⁄2 minutes in Jacksonville, Florida, on Nov. 23, 2012, didn’t just end Jordan’s life. They sparked a case (“the loud music murder”) that transfixed the nation. They added a landmark story to an ongoing movement about gun violence and the deadly impact of racism.

And those 3 1⁄2 minutes changed the lives of Jordan’s parents, Ron Davis and Lucy McBath, forever.

“31⁄2 Minutes: Ten Bullets,” the Sundance Award-winning documentary premiering Monday, Nov. 23 on HBO (three years to the day after Jordan’s murder), is an intimate look inside the courtroom of the riveting and at times unbelievable trial as well as an up-close and personal look at Jordan’s short life.

I had the honor of speaking individually with each of Jordan’s parents in advance of the HBO premiere.

I’ve shared my dialogue with them below, edited for brevity and clarity. At the end of the interview, Lucy gives a chilling reason why you — and everyone — should tune in and watch the film.

EWS: Why was it important for you to share your story, Jordan’s story, with the world? Why did you want this film made?

Lucy: Well, because we had paid heed to previous cases, specifically Travyon [Martin]’s case. We watched how Trayvon had been vilified and demonized as a young man of color who was up to no good, even though he wasn’t doing anything other than just existing. And so we decided very early on that our truth needed to be told. And it needed to be told by us, his parents. That we didn’t need anybody to speak for us. We would tell our story, it would be honest, and it would be raw.

We also wanted to prick the [consciousness] of those that are watching the film. We wanted to open conversations in people’s homes and in churches and in businesses and academia about implicit bias, Dunn’s racism, and gun violence. We knew that the only way that we could really elevate what we were trying to do is to expose ourselves as a means to motivate people to create some kind of change.

Jordan Davis. Photo by Cady & Cady Studios, courtesy of HBO.

EWS: So how did you know the time was right?

Ron: Very early on, people started approaching us about doing a film, and nothing felt right. But then my lawyer received a letter from Minette Nelson, the woman in charge of The Filmmaker Fund in San Francisco. In the letter, she told me how her son had a friend that was 16 years old who had been killed, and his name was also Jordan. An article about our Jordan in Rolling Stone touched him so much that he brought it to her and she read it and cried and said “Look, I’m going to try to reach out.”

When I read the letter, it was so heartfelt. It felt like this person got it. I picked up the phone and called her and we had a 30 minute cry-all conversation, both of us crying and I said, “You get it.”

“We decided very early on that our truth needed to be told. And it needed to be told by us, his parents. That we didn’t need anybody to speak for us. We would tell our story, it would be honest, and it would be raw.”
— Lucy McBath

EWS: How does it feel to go through such personal, emotional moments on film? Did you forget the camera was there or was it always on your mind?

Ron: Most of the time, we forgot the camera was there. You see my emotion at the table when I start taking about Jordan in the beginning of the film and just start crying. I forgot the camera was there then. I was just being emotional. Whether I was talking or swimming or crying, I was just living my life.

Ron Davis grieving and remembering his son at the cemetery. Photo courtesy of HBO.

EWS: There were so many moments like that one, that showed what it was like as a parent who has lost a child. Have you heard from other parents about that?

Ron: Yes. Not just other grieving parents, but also other parents who have experienced something similar. For example, we do work with the family of Oscar Grant [who was killed by a police officer in California and whose story is told in the film “Fruitvale Station”], his Uncle Bobby, his mother.

When Mike Brown was killed in Ferguson, I happened to be speaking at the United Nations conference in Geneva and I was the first person to talk to the UN about it as an example of racial discrimination in the United States.

Then I went to Ferguson and I welcomed Michael Brown’s father into a club that no one wants to be a member of, just like Trayvon Martin’s father had welcomed me into that club right after Jordan’s death.

I also told him to find your voice. When these things happen, it’s hard to find your voice. That’s why you hear so many representatives — like the Al Sharptons and the Jesse Jacksons — because as a parent you’re so devastated, it’s hard to find your voice. But for me, I knew that no one was going to tell the story of Jordan right but his parents, because no one knows my son better than us. So I didn’t want anyone to speak for us.

EWS: One of the things that struck me about this case is that it got at the heart of so many issues — racism, gun violence, “stand your ground” — has the film been able to spark meaningful conversations around those issues?

Lucy: At a recent film festival, I had grown men coming up to me and crying, crying. Three of them. Two were young white males, millennials, and one was an older black male, maybe in his 40s. All of them bawling.

The older black gentleman said, “I know that this has existed, I know I’ve experienced it. But I have been remiss in not doing anything about it. And I’m a teacher. And I’m going to go back and have these discussions in my classroom. It awakened a sense of activism in me.”

“When you’re 17 and you see another 17-year-old get killed, guess what you feel? You feel like it could be you any day, any time. And I hate that. I hate that they have to feel their mortality.”
— Ron Davis

One of the young white men was sobbing and saying: “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry that my people have done this to you.” But beyond saying “we’re sorry for your loss,” people are saying something’s got to change and I’ve got to be a part of the change. And that’s what we need people to do. It’s like a spiritual awakening in a sense because we’re dealing with a heart issue, a moral issue.

People have the propensity to not be concerned about what is not their reality. But when you expose the reality to people, when you show them the truth, anybody that has a sense of moral fiber can’t go away from it not being affected.

Lucy McBath testifying before Congress against “stand your ground” laws. Photo courtesy of HBO.

EWS: During one of your prayers in the film, you say “I’m still human because I doubt.” What about now? Do you still doubt? Or do you have hope?

Lucy: Well, I have to have hope. You have to have hope to do this kind of justice work. It’s a very heavy mantle. Anytime you’re doing it, you have to hope that change is gonna come. Ron and I have T-shirts that say “Hope Dealers” because that’s what we want to offer the nation and communities that are disproportionately affected by the violence: a sense of hope.

We want them to know that there is an awakening happening now. You’ve got the Black Lives Matter folks that are mobilizing, you’ve got gun violence prevention advocacy, you’ve got mothers groups, grassroots groups popping up all over the country. People are definitely paying attention to what is happening, and that has to instill in you a sense of hope.

People do have to understand that this is going to be a long, long, long fight and battle. When you talk about how long it’s taken to build this culture of fear and implicit bias and racism and policing — these structures have been building for years, and you don’t tear them down overnight.

Anytime you change a culture — like with LGBT equality, like with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, like with the tobacco industry — it begins long before you see the victories in the newspaper or on TV. But yeah, there’s hope because it — protecting the sanctity of life as God intended for us — is the moral, right thing to do.

EWS: What message does Michael Dunn’s guilty verdict send to America?

Lucy: I don’t think the guilty verdict was enough. It offers some semblance of hope, but it’s not enough because we’re one of the only cases that did see justice. There are far more cases where they did not receive justice, there’s no indictment, there’s no conviction than there are cases like ours. So there’s a lot more work that needs to be done.

Police interviewing Michael Dunn after Jordan’s killing. Photo by Ana Hop, courtesy of HBO.

EWS: And to you, Ron? What did the verdict symbolize to you?

Ron: It said that this black life matters. Also, the state of Florida said that Michael Dunn was not right in coming into Jacksonville and killing one of its citizens. I wanted that validation from the state of Florida to say that Jordan’s life matters and that Michael Dunn had no right to kill him.

EWS: Aside from the obvious trauma of losing your son, how have you changed over these past three years? Do you see the world any differently?

Lucy: Like anyone else, when you’re working day to day and you’re trying to raise children and you’re trying to, you know, keep a roof over your head — trying to do all the things that you normally have to do just to exist — you hear the news, hear things that are happening in the country, and in some way you think: “Well, that’s not going to happen to me. That’s really not going to affect me.” And you kind of go on about your own reality and live your life kind of in a bubble.

I thought that this country was more “post-racial” than it actually is. Because to tell you the truth, we lived in an upscale neighborhood, and Jordan had access to good schooling. His father and I did well financially and have always been able to provide. We never struggled. So we were living in our own little reality. I did not really understand the depth of racism in this country until these cases like Trayvon and Jordan. I certainly didn’t understand how systemic it is.

“People have the propensity to not be concerned about what is not their reality. But when you expose the reality to people, when you show them the truth, anybody that has a sense of moral fiber can’t go away from it not being affected.”
— Lucy McBath

I’m shocked because of my experience living in my father’s house, entrenched in the civil rights movement, and being hauled around in the car with him as children as he was speaking around the country. I have pictures of my father with Lyndon Baines Johnson as he signed the Civil Rights Act and Eleanor Roosevelt and Roy Wilkins and all the work that he did. And so I can’t believe that I’m still fighting the same fight that Daddy fought 50 years later.

EWS: What response do get from young people when they see this film?

Ron: They come up to me and most of them say, “I hope my parents are going to be this strong for me if something ever happens to me.” They feel their mortality. When you’re 17 and you see another 17-year-old get killed, guess what you feel? You feel like it could be you any day, any time. And I hate that. I hate that they have to feel their mortality. They’re supposed to be able to love and embrace life and live like they’re gonna live another 80 years, you know?

Young protesters outside the courthouse during Michael Dunn’s trial. Photo courtesy of HBO.

EWS: One of the most beautiful and unforgettable moments in the film is when you are watching footage of your son and bobbing your head along with him. What was going through your head in that moment?

Ron: I was remembering how Jordan use to hate riding in my car because I don’t have an MP3 receiver, so he used to listen to my Motown records. He knew all the Motown songs.

One of his favorite groups was The Brothers Johnson “Strawberry Letter 23.” He liked that bass. So I was thinking about that as I saw him dancing and listening to his music, and I said to myself: “I wish I had more days of listening to his music with him. I wish I had more days of bobbing my head to his music, even though I’m not into hip-hop. I would have loved to just one more time bob my head to his music while he was listening.”

And so I felt that kinship with him, and it made me smile. And cry.

Ron Davis and Lucia McBath. Photo courtesy of HBO.

EWS: What do you want this film to do?

Ron: It’s gonna reconnect the public with the families and victims. I remember thinking in the Trayvon Martin case, the jury was disconnected from him. They connected more with George Zimmerman. And this is a way to help people who serve on juries, people who don’t have exposure to young black kids or to African-Americans period, to see us.

They have to, some way, connect with what we go through and what these kids go through. Looking at this film, they’ll connect with us and say, “They look just like us, they have heartaches just like us, they doubt, they hope, and they look for the justice system to prevail just like we do.” So I want everyone to take from this film who we are, how much we hurt when we lose a loved one. And our humanity.

EWS: And why should people tune in and watch it?

Lucy: Because their lives may depend upon it.

“31⁄2 Minutes” premieres Nov. 23, 2015, on HBO at 9 p.m. ET/PT. It will replay on Nov. 24 at 3:05 a.m. ET/PT and Nov. 28 at 1:45 p.m. ET/PT. It will also be available on HBO Now and HBO Go.

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    Website lets users experience what it's like reading text when you have dyslexia. – Photo credit: Canva Photos

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    At first glance, Dyslexie doesn't look all that different from a regular font. By studiostudio graphic design – Fair Use

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    Update from the author: I wrote a follow-up to this article sharing a trauma-informed perspective of the activity. You can read it here.

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    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556881/original/Card_6.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    Japanese woman c. 1920

    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556882/original/Card_7.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    Gypsy girl with Mandolin c. 1911

    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556883/original/Card_8.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    Luzon Woman c. 1909

    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556884/original/Card_9.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    Nepalese lady c. 1905

    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556886/original/Card_10.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    Vietnamese woman c. 1908

    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556887/original/CArd_11.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    Vintage erotica  c.1919

    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556888/original/Card_12.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    Actress Anna May Wong  c. 1927

    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556889/original/Card_13.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    English actress Lily Elsie c. 1909

    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556890/original/Card_14.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    Two women from Bou-Saâda c. 1911

    Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/82293232@N03/">Flickr user Post Man</a> <a href="https://assets.goodstatic.com/s3/magazine/assets/556891/original/Card_15.jpg=s900x900">assets.goodstatic.com</a>

    This article originally appeared on 6.4.19

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  • Florida teacher fired for giving zeros to students who didn’t turn in their work
    Array – Photo credit: Array
    ,

    Florida teacher fired for giving zeros to students who didn’t turn in their work

    The lowest possible grade that teachers can give students is a 50, even if they don’t turn anything in.

    Kim Wong-Shing

    Upworthy Staff

    A Florida teacher has been fired for giving her students zeros for missing assignments.

    Diane Tirado has been a teacher for years. Most recently, she was an eighth-grade history teacher at Westgate K-8 School in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

    Diane recently gave her students two weeks to complete an Explorer notebook project, but several students simply didn’t hand it in. Since there was zero work done, Diane gave them zeros.

    She got fired for it.

    The elementary school has a rule called the “no zero policy.”

    The lowest possible grade that teachers can give students is a 50, even if they don’t turn anything in.

    A letter from fired teacher Diane Tirado
    A letter from fired teacher Diane Tirado Diane Tirado/Facebook

    It’s a rule that Diane, unsurprisingly, does not agree with. After she was fired for disobeying, she left her students a charming goodbye message on the whiteboard.

    “Bye kids. Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life. I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50 percent for not handing anything in. Love, Mrs. Tiado”

    The scale, as outlined by the school, reads as follows:

    A = 90 to 100

    B = 80 to 89

    C = 70-79

    D = 60-69

    F = 50-59

    Diane later shared the story on Facebook, hoping to spread awareness about the school’s policy.

    “A grade in Mrs. Tirado’s class is earned,” she said.

    “I’m so upset because we have a nation of kids that are expecting to get paid and live their life just for showing up and it’s not real.”

    Diane’s post has gone viral, and most commenters agree with her position – it’s not fair to hand out grades for work that doesn’t exist.

    “The reason I took on this fight was because it was ridiculous. Teaching should not be this hard,” Diane said.

    This article was originally published on 7.26.19 by our partners at Wimp.

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  • Tired of being humiliated, these girls fought the sexist school dress code. And won.
    Array – Photo credit: Deanna Wolf/Facebook
    , , ,

    Tired of being humiliated, these girls fought the sexist school dress code. And won.

    “In a way, you’re telling [a girl] that boys are more entitled to their education than she is.”

    Evan Porter

    Upworthy Staff

    Four middle-schoolers sat at the podium. Poised. Confident. Ready to challenge the Portland Public Schools board on its dress code.

    Four teenagers stand at a wooden podium at a school board meeting
    Four students from Portland, Oregon, testified in front of the board in May 2015 Image via PPS Communications/YouTube.

    AnaLuiza, a seventh-grader, told a story of a friend who was pulled aside one day for wearing a skirt deemed to be too short.

    The friend sat in the principal’s office for hours while the staff tried to get ahold of her parents. She missed important classwork, and worse yet, felt humiliated by the ordeal.

    “The only reason I go to school is to get my education,” AnaLuiza told the board. “When I get dressed in the morning, my intention is not to provoke or be sexualized. My intention is to feel comfortable in my own skin.”

    Sophia, also in seventh grade at the time, spoke last.

    “My problem with the dress code is that 100% of the students that get sent home are female. … In a way, you’re telling [a girl] that boys are more entitled to their education than she is. And I don’t think that’s acceptable.”

    They were absolutely right. Because if you’re a preteen or teenage girl in America, you can get a dress code violation for almost anything: showing your midriff, shoulder, collarbone, leg, bra strap, or, in some cases, for just wearing something as harmless as spaghetti straps.

    Girl with blonde hair wearing a tank top and sweater and jeans
    Stephanie Hughes of Kentucky was cited for a dress code violation for this outfit, which sometimes shows her collarbone. Photo by Stacie Dunn/Facebook

    Girls who violate their schools’ dress codes are accused of being distractions and are often humiliated in front of their classmates.

    They’re then either sent home to change (missing valuable class time) or forced to cover up with “shame clothes,” like old sweatpants that have been lying around the guidance counselor’s office for who knows how long.

    This has been a problem for years, and a particularly frustrating one to solve. Almost everyone agrees schools need some kind of dress code, but almost no one can agree on what that should look like.

    A girl at school wearing loose fitting shirt and black leggings
    Deanna Wolf of Alabama says her 15-year-old daughter missed an entire class period simply for wearing leggings and a loose-fitting shirt. Deanna Wolf/Facebook

    But now, thanks to these brave Portland students and a couple of key community members, we might finally be making some progress.

    The school board, to the surprise of many, agreed the dress code needed fixing. But that didn’t mean it would be easy.

    A committee was formed, including Sophia (one of the girls who testified in front of the board), parents, teachers, and other community leaders. Lisa Frack, president of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization of Women, and a parent, was one of them.

    Frack said some issues were easy to fix, like the ban on spaghetti straps. That was quick to go. Others? Not so much.

    There was plenty of back-and-forth. Are short shorts OK? How about cleavage? What about all of the subtle (and not-so-subtle) policies that unfairly target students of color?

    A girl in yellow shirt smiling at the camera
    Marian Wilson-Reed of Texas says her 9-year-old daughter was pulled out of class because school administrators thought her natural hairstyle looked like a mohawk, which was against the rules. Marian Wilson-Reed/Facebook

    Then there was the issue of enforcement. Although hopefully, with the new dress code, there would be fewer violations, the committee wanted to find ways to eliminate shaming and missed class time for students who broke the rules.

    Despite debate on some of these specific issues, Frack said, the conversation always came back to the same basic point.

    Some board members “felt like they wanted a little line in there reminding everyone that this is a learning institution. But that’s exactly what we’re trying to get away from,” Frack said.

    “We don’t want to link clothing and learning. … You can’t learn math better or worse whether you have a tie on or a collared shirt or a tank top.”

    “We’re going to basically have people covering what you have to do to not be naked.”

    The final approved dress code, one of only a few like it in the U.S., was a major improvement. But perhaps just as important was the conversation sparked by the process.

    Gone was phrasing that specifically targeted bare midriffs, “plunging necklines,” or “sexually suggestive clothing.” The new, gender-neutral code essentially asks that students wear a top and a bottom (or a dress), and that their clothes not show profanity or reference drugs.

    It’s pretty simple. But the conversations that led to this point were anything but.

    “It raised the issue of people’s discomfort with how girls are objectified in this country. Is it a solution to tell them to cover up?” Frack said. She even recalled some of the adult members of the advisory committee having trouble talking about things like breasts and sexuality with a straight face — which, she said, is part of the problem.

    For now, though, Frack just hopes this code can serve as a model to other districts looking to get with the times. Portland just rolled out the new policy in the fall of 2016, so it remains to be seen how it’ll fare — especially when the weather gets hot again.

    But so far, Frack said, all she’s heard from parents is how happy their kids are to be free to be themselves without judgment.

    This article originally appeared on 9.1.16

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  • Immigrants explain why they personally celebrate the Fourth of July each year.
    Some different perspectives on the American experience. – Photo credit: Photo collage created from Pixabay
    , ,

    Immigrants explain why they personally celebrate the Fourth of July each year.

    This is what patriotism is all about.

    Upworthy Staff

    Some 300 million people live in the United States. And over 40 million of them are immigrants.

    Now, some people might have you believe that too many immigrants might cause us to lose our identity as Americans or that we ought to be fighting and clinging to “the way things were.”

    But if you look around, you’ll see that more than 1 in 10 Americans were born somewhere else — meaning they have their own unique set of amazing experiences to share and their own amazing stories about why they’re here.

    They each have their own ideas about what being an American means to them, too. And they each have their own reasons for celebrating American independence on the Fourth of July.

    So if you want to feel proud, excited, and maybe even a teensy bit emotional about being an American, this one’s for you.

    Meet five immigrants from all over the country (and all over the world!) who are showing their American pride in many, many shades of red, white, and blue this year.

    Mexican American experience, traditional, celebration
    Traditional food the celebrate the Fourth of July. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@briewilly?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Chad Montano</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a>

    1. Nayeli Ruvalcaba’s Fourth of July is full of traditional Mexican food and mariachi music.

    Ruvalcaba, who was born in Mexico but moved to Chicago when she was 4, spent her early childhood in a mostly caucasian neighborhood called Lakeview. There, she says the Fourth of July was pretty much what you’d expect.

    “Everyone would be making ribs and burgers and mac and cheese. And my dad would be drinking Budweisers and Coors Light,” she said with a laugh.

    Nayeli with her parents.

    But when she was 16, she moved to a more diverse area of the city filled with families from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Poland.

    There, she says, their holidays are much more vibrant. Neighbors gather in the alleys and share their customs and cultures with one another. They sing along with music (her boyfriend, who is in a mariachi band, often gets the party going). They play games. And then there’s the food: Nayeli says she loves to chow down on delicious Fourth of July dishes like arrachera (a Mexican skirt steak), polish sausage, guacamole, and, of course, burgers.

    “I know it’s an American holiday,” she says. “Buteveryone has their own culture. You just mix it in with what everyoneelse does.”

    Nayeli and her boyfriend in full mariachi get-up!

    watermelon, English tea, mishmash of culture
    Celebrating with a U.K. twist on the Fourth of July. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@cajugos?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Caju Gomes</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a>

    2. Johanna Dodd and her family celebrate their Fourth of July the “old fashioned way” but with a small U.K.-based twist.

    A one-year work contract for her husband brought the Dodds to Connecticut from the U.K. years ago. 12 years later, they’re still here.

    The Dodds!

    On their Fourth of July, she says, “We tend to do what everyone else in town does. We’ll head to the fireworks display with our cooler packed full of food, and, occasionally, we’ll sneak in some alcohol.”

    Sounds pretty American to me!

    Johanna’s young daughter watches the fireworks.

    “The kids run around, there’s lots of glow sticks, lots of football (both kinds) being played, lots of fun stuff happening. As it gets darker, there’s the national anthem, and then out come the fireworks.”

    But there is one slightly British twist to the Dodds’ holiday: “We don’t really do the tailgating thing. We bring what we would call ‘an English tea.’ There’s watermelon, yogurts, cheese sandwiches. Kind of a mishmash of both cultures.”

    grilling, fish, Liberia, American experience
    Bringing home country traditions to the American experience. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@clintbustrillos?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Clint Bustrillos</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a>

    3. Martin Matthews says he never misses a Fourth of July parade and for a powerful reason.

    Matthews was 8 years old when he first came to America to escape a civil war in his home country of Liberia. One of his first memories? A huge Fourth of July parade in New Jersey.

    “I had never seen anything like that. The flags, the drums, everything. I remember watching in awe.”

    Martin with his wife.

    He returned to Africa later on but came back to live in America again when fighting broke out in his home country. And when he returned, that big parade stuck in his memory.

    “I always loved that about America. It was a place I could be safe. A place I could enjoy freedom,” he said. “To celebrate the independence of the United States holds a deep place in my heart.”

    These days, Martin is big on having barbecues with friends to celebrate Independence Day. There are a lot of burgers and hot dogs, but he’ll sometimes mix in traditional African dishes, too, like African-style kabobs, to introduce his friends to his heritage.

    “It’s a big thing in Africa for people to put fish on the grill, like the whole fish,” he added. “You put the whole thing on there. It was the first time some of my American friends had ever tried fish on the grill that wasn’t salmon.”

    But his favorite thing about the holiday is still the parades. “We get there early and wave our American flags. Every year I always wear some kind of American shirt. We sit there and watch everything. It’s my way of saying thanks to my adopted country.”

    cricket, India, celebrating holiday, University of Michigan
    Changing the rules to make it work. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@alken?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Alfred Kenneally</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a>

    4. Jay Pockyarath mixes cricket with an American-style barbecue on Independence Day.

    “Ever since I was in eighth grade, all I wanted to do was come to the United States,” he told Upworthy. After finishing college in India, he finally got the chance when studying nuclear medicine at the University of Michigan. From there, he married an American woman and started a family.

    “The thing that works [in America] is that it’s a meritocracy,” Pockyarath said. “July Fourth is a celebration of that, in my mind. Of independence. Of the freedom to succeed.”

    Jay, who was born in India, proudly flies an American flag outside his home for July Fourth.

    Pockyarath has lived in the United States for over 40 years, so it’s no surprise that his holiday celebration looks pretty familiar: steak, hamburgers, and hot dogs on the grill. To him, what’s really important is spending time with family.

    “Usually we make up games,” he laughed. “We play cricket — not the way it’s supposed to be played, but with a tennis ball. We make up our own rules.”

    American flag, Fourth of July, friends and family, decorating
    Embracing the traditions and bringing your own flare to it. Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@genefoto?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Gene Gallin</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=RebelMouse&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a>

    5. Natalia Paruz is originally from Israel, and she decorates everything in red, white, and blue.

    Natalia is now a musician in New York City.

    “First I came here with my parents [about 20 years ago] for a year. At the end of the year, they went back to Israel, and I wanted to stay here,” she told Upworthy.

    Now she works as a musician in New York City. And she absolutely, positively loves the Fourth of July.

    “It’s a really fun day. It’s a day where you can put politics aside. It’s a day for celebrating the joy of this country.”

    Natalia and her husband host friends every year for a big meal. “I love decorating the house for the holiday with the flags. There’s always a big flag hanging from the flagpole. In the back, that’s where I really go all out. Every tree gets some kind of decoration!”

    “We make hot dogs, hamburgers — how can you not?” she said. “We also make tahini, which is a traditional Israeli food. It’s made of sesame seeds and it becomes a paste and you spread it on pita bread. Our friends here love it.”

    Natalia says an overabundance of food “as if you’re going to entertain a bunch of soldiers” is a nod to her Israeli roots.

    This year, she’s going out with friends to watch fireworks. “I wear a T-shirt that has an American flag on it and a bracelet with the colors of the flag. If you’re celebrating, you might as well go to the maximum.”

    It turns out, celebrating America means different things to different people. And that’s kind of the point.

    In my mind, the only thing better than a Fourth of July party filled with burgers, steaks, beer, and fireworks is a Fourth of July party filled with all of those things plus Mexican food and African music and “English tea” and tahini and mariachi bands and more.

    So whether we choose to embrace the “American way” of celebrating Independence Day (red meat and fireworks) or to use it as a chance to celebrate the unique melting pot of culture that is our country today or something in between, I think we can all agree that the America we have now is already pretty great.

    This article originally appeared on 07.01.16

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  • A shelter made online dating profiles for 22 animals. The results are adorable.
    Array – Photo credit: Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash
    , , ,

    A shelter made online dating profiles for 22 animals. The results are adorable.

    Anyone who’s ever been on Tinder knows having a cute animal in the photo is usually a big hit. But what if Tinder profile photos only featured that cute animal? And what if, instead of a millennial would-be hooker-upper, it was the adorable dog or cat itself looking for true love? That’s an idea some…

    Upworthy Staff

    Anyone who’s ever been on Tinder knows having a cute animal in the photo is usually a big hit.

    But what if Tinder profile photos only featured that cute animal? And what if, instead of a millennial would-be hooker-upper, it was the adorable dog or cat itself looking for true love?

    That’s an idea some animal shelters are toying with.

    “We are always trying to come up with … creative new ways to get our shelter dogs out in front of potential adopters,” says Karen Hirsch, public relations director at LifeLine Animal Project in Georgia.

    Animal Profile created by Mark Wales Photo from Pixabay

    And experimenting with online dating for dogs and cats might just be working.

    The harsh world of pet adoption is extremely competitive: About 6.5 million dogs and cats enter U.S. shelters every year, each seeking a good forever home. It’s too big a need for shelter operators to just sit back and hope they all get adopted.

    That’s why you see adorable dogs on display outside the grocery store, partnerships with Uber that will bring puppies directly to you for playtime, and aww-inspiring social media campaigns like dogs in pajamas.

    An estimated 50 million people worldwide use Tinder. So LifeLine and other shelters and rescues figure why not give it a shot?

    After all, people using online dating apps are already looking for love and companionship — just maybe a slightly different kind.

    Hirsch says they recently created profiles for 22 of their dogs and cats.

    Animal profiles are also showing up on Bumble, which is home to another 20 million users or so.

    Like sweet Duke here.

    Animal Profile created by Mark Wales Original photo from Pixabay

    Each pet is assigned to a volunteer who creates the profile and handles the conversations after a match

    “In a crowded shelter, pets often get overlooked, but on a dating app, the animal becomes an individual,” Hirsch says. “People learn about them and form a ‘virtual’ attachment.”

    Plus the witty banter is oodles of fun.

    For LifeLine, the experiment is still new. But Hirsch says people are responding to it incredibly well so far.

    At the very least, Tinder and Bumble have proven to be great for word-of-mouth awareness-building on the importance of adopting shelter pets. The animals are getting dozens of matches. Hirsch says there have been more than a few online adoption inquiries, as well as people coming into the shelter to meet their “match” in person.

    She also notes that one of the matches even became a regular volunteer at LifeLine.

    This new animal dating idea has another upside for apps — and the people using them, too.

    Dating experts are finding that people are getting burned out by online dating. Between “ghosting,” “cushioning,” “the slow fade,” and a bunch more of those annoying slang terms, humans out there are wondering if dating apps are even worth the effort.

    For romantic love, who knows?

    But now that you might just meet the dog or cat of your dreams, that’s not a bad reason to keep on swiping.


    This article originally appeared on 01.10.18

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