A "quitter's" guide to maintaining your over-achievable New Year's resolutions.

The new year commonly sparks motivation and inspiration in all of us to set new life-stimulating goals and endeavours. As if the clock suddenly resets, we find ourselves immersed in spasms of enthusiasm, a chance to better ourselves and gain positive momentum for the exciting year ahead. These resolutions range from becoming healthier, being more sociable, attaining a higher standard of work ethic, or simply showing up on time. However honourable and gallant these resolves are, with the purest of intentions, many experience difficulty sustaining their resolutions throughout the entire year, and typically fall short in achieving whatever it is that they desire. 

Credits to Health Magazine

This procrastination, or some would call it a lack of long-term commitment, could be due to the fact that most of us set resolutions too drastically different to our current lifestyle. Yes, change is great; it is inevitable and it’s what the world runs on, from Winston Churchill’s “We Take Our Stand for Freedom” speech to Steve Job’s iPhone. But when change creates too much disequilibrium in our lives, chances are, they will have not enough authority to be sustained.

The answer is baby steps. To implement change and achieve success, one must begin somewhere...

1. If it’s to: “Go to the gym often”— Switch it up to: “Exercise more frequently”

Wording is everything, and the word ‘gym’ might frighten some while ‘exercise’ can be a little more forgiving. If you’re someone who hardly steps foot into a gym, barely lifts anything heavier than 45 pounds, or shivers at the thought of running for more than 10 minutes, a gym resolution will probably have a tough time sustaining itself. Because of the physical aesthetic expectations of today’s society, the fad is to be “fit and strong.” Sadly, some of us still can’t conjure up any real motivation to get off our warm couches. Some people are just not gym-junkies and that may be a fact of life. But we all still want to look great, feel good, and generate the confidence we all deserve. Implementing the word ‘exercise’ into this tiresome and draining resolution may be the answer to your “gymaphobia”. Accomplishing “more exercise” can be done anywhere: at home, in your dorm room, out on the street, at a park, even the gym! Doing some form of exercise, regardless of the length and effort, sets you well on your way to already achieving and feeling good about this resolution.

2. If it’s to “Eat Clean”—switch it up to: “Eat healthier foods”

If your diet at the end of a gruesome work day consists of carbs, saturated fats and a crazy spike in your glycemic index, it’s going to be close to impossible to switch to whole grains, leafy greens, and water for the night. We all love to just Netflix and chill with fresh baked cookies and honey barbeque chips. Comfort eating is a common enemy among us all, but this monster can be defeated; not by stopping the cravings completely but at least limiting them. Sure, have your cookies and brownies. But don’t drink the Coke too. Taking these baby steps in improving your diet won’t fix the problem over night, but it should make you a tad bit healthier as well as more confident in yourself to reach your diet goals.

3. If it’s to: “Read more”—switch it up to: “Finish the reading”

Nowadays, a healthy interest in reading does not always have to be limited to long extravagant novels of Dickens and Tolstoy. Modern-day articles and posts on the internet are growing in popularity, as well as significance. The world is slowly changing, and the Internet is becoming our main source of reading. If your resolve is to read more, but hearty books seem like a marathon, pick up online reading as a baby step. According to Nielson Normal Group, the first 10 seconds of someone visiting a website will dictate whether or not they stay to digest the content. It’s the colours, the images, and the positioning of the substance that is most important. Make it your job to devour an entire webpage, article, or link to the end; without judging the aesthetics of the page. A sad fact is: reading has become an ancient art form replaced by picturesque sites and the bustling demands of social media. Go halfway and bring it back with a modern touch.

4. If it’s to: “Get more sleep”—switch it up to: “Wake up earlier”

Our sleep cycles are generally black and white, without a grey area. If we don’t break the cycle, the sustaining habit will most likely continue to persist. To get more sleep as a resolve, your lifestyle must mirror it. Whether you are a busy college undergraduate or a chronic night-lifer, waking up earlier to spend longer hours awake may be just the answer. The baby step is a change in your body clock. Make it harder and more tiresome to stay awake in the early hours of the morning by cutting away the unnecessary hours spent with our night lights blazing watching new releases and texting. Before you know it, your wish to get more sleep will come true.

To maintain New Year’s resolutions one must maintain the motivation and purpose of those resolutions. By changing the phrasing and being slightly more forgiving to yourself for reaching your goals, success will be right around the corner!

The Rothschild Dynasty: were they actively involved in the forceful removal of 16,000 Native Americans?

In May 1830, the Indian Removal Act was signed into law by Andrew Jackson. This chain of events began a trail of terror resulting in a series of human exterminations. In a time period of just two short months, over 16,000 Native Americans living east of the Mississippi River were removed from their homes and forced to hike through Tennessee and Kentucky, past Illinois and Missouri, ending up re-settling in Oklahoma. Some however, took up to four months to complete the trek, according to the National Geographic. Many fell ill to the harsh weather and treatment conditions that befell upon them along the way. A majority of Cherokee tribes, and an overall number of other tribes making up a population of Natives in the east struggled to make the trek alive. 

Credits: CNN.com

Americans justified this betrayal of treaty by calling it at the time an act of “relocation.” Relocation or not, an estimated 2,000-6,000 Native Americans perished during this deceitful trek. Whether President Andrew Jackson’s intent was to relocate these natives or exterminate them, the Cherokee people and other eastern tribes in the area lost lineages of families in a short space of under a year.

Credits: The Boston Globe

Why was there even a need for relocation in the first place? 
Well, there was a high demandfor gold in the mid 1800s, and rumours were that the Gold Rush was booming around the regions of Georgia at the time. Native American lands and long-time tribal grounds, however, either blocked passages to these gold caves or were smack in the middle of all the natural wealth. Men like Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, a man known for power, militia intelligence, and an eye for wealth, could not have gotten access to those lands without brutal force. While some tribes went in peace (those mostly located in the west) and adapted to the wishes of the settlers, other tribes decided to retaliate in an act of war.

Andy White Anthropology

The first documented evidence of the Rothschild family being involved financially withAmerica came in the late 1820s and early 1830s. The gold rush may be a plausible explanation for the sudden Rothschild interest in the country, as well as for the need to evacuate 16,000 Native Americans in a gold-infested area. According to Snopes.com, the Rothschild family currently own approximately 80% of the world’s total wealth, and have a net worth of around $500 trillion. They have also been frequently associated with financing wars, linked to theories about the Illuminati, the New World Order, and other money groups that have a hand in the world’s governments. There is no secret that the Rothschild family single handedly controls the majority of the world’s powers and wealth. The law records of Andrew Jackson's presidency, according to Veteran's Today, illustrate a magnificent influence and control of Rothschild wealth and power in the American economy as early as the late 1780s but it was not until a little later that the family name became renowned in America.

According to the Washington Post, the U.S. Treasury is the department that decides who is depicted on American currency. For a while, Andrew Jackson was the face of the $20 bill. Many have questioned the treasury’s intent for attributing such a face to American identity, yet this may again be directed related to Rothschild’s influence with the country, as they entered on President Andrew Jackson’s veto on the renewal of the licence for the “Bank of the United States” in 1983, according to BibleBelievers.org. 

Credits: HumanAreFree.com

With this potential sense of power and influence in America, the Trail of Tears paved the way for the public’s gold rush, which occurred from 1848 to 1855. However, there may be evidence that the Rothschild involvement during the time of these historic events could explain the need for such an excavation. Of course, the natives were not interested in such economic trades, and could not be bought with money. They were concerned with culture and way of life.

Around the time that sparked the dreadful Trail of Tears event, as well as the need for gold, international investments began from overseas powers. Though, too much has been covered up by power and money, and questions may never truthfully become answered, but perhaps these connections have controlled the direction of society in some way. Laws were broken and promises were violated, and native American’s history has found the standard it has within modern politics that ranks their people as minorities of a growing technological world. According to History.com, before any removal act was signed by Andrew Jackson, even though treaties were signed, invaders still brutally went into encampments and brutally ambushed and murdered families for territory.

Credits: Lumpkin City Historical Society (depicted: the gold rush in Georgia).

The Trail of Tears is a famous Native American tragedy nicknamed so by the Cherokee people, due to its “devastating effects” on those whom lost their families and loved-ones, according to PBS.org. The gruesome trail stretched beyond 1,000 kilometres long, and even though there were once photographs depicted of the journey, government officials ordered all visual accounts to be destroyed.

President Andrew Jackson at the time came into office in 1829, and according to The Hermitage, was known to be a military man, somebody to be smart with money. He was tough, and knew how to conquer an enemy. His strong presence in America’s history demonstrates his cruel gift for war, where no ordinary man could have matched his succession in forcibly pressing 16,000 Natives out of their homes to trek across a continent. 

Credits: History.com

“Government officials forced this [trek] upon the Natives [Americans]” said Bruce Hicks, History professor at the University of the Cumberlands, “many died of starvation or exhaustion.”

Unfortunately, war materializes everywhere, destruction occurs on all continents, and thievery of land has become a common feature in heroic war history. The world just so happens to be cruel in times of possession and war, from the roman conquests, to the Viking raids, conquering territory is just a part of human dominance and civilization. However, the issue that Native Americans are facing today is a different sort of destruction. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Native American tribes today are facing poverty, social challenges, extreme drug issues within their communities, and a growing number of unemployment. Contrary to their white neighbours, the Native American society parallels the likes of black history and Latin-American difficulties facing immigration and citizenship today, and unlike their white neighbours, they are victim to biases and racial discrimination throughout their own homeland.

The African American’s past could neither escape white America’s bigotry; as white men took black people as slaves. Nor were they able to run from racial injustice for at least some time after that either, with the civil rights movement and much of the racial segregation that occurred in the nation’s past. Women, too, have barely surfaced the water to take a breath in the race of inequality in the eyes of society. Perhaps they have been purposely separated, but Native American injustice is hardly heard on the news, there is much talk about minorities have blacks, Asians, Latin-Americans, and even old people. The public have accepted this injustice as the natives themselves have bent over and taken the toll of how history has stepped on their homeland.

In a one-on-one interview, Hicks talks about how modern day America still experiences a massive divide of inequality between Modern-American living and Native American living, within a reservation.

“Many of these reservations are self-governed, you can enter them, but they do not receive much help from the outside government,” said Hicks, “that’s why you see many of them opening up casinos now to compensate for their small economy.”

Hicks believes modern America has pushed native living to the curb. Because the tribes have wanted extreme independence from the current government, they now struggle to keep up with the growing demands of the technological world.

Native Americans choose to live on reservations to preserve their culture and unique lifestyle “Conditions in these tribal lands are poor, because they are a separate economy to the rest of America,” said Hicks. By choosing to preserve culture and lifestyle, could some native Americans be sacrificing their equality?

According to USA.gov, the economy is federally run and funded, therefore natives who choose to be separated and live on lands granted by the U.S. government to various tribes, have a right to become separated. The only problem with this separation results in a lack of funding, support, and therefore a lack of standard quality living conditions for native Americans. 

Credits: YouTube

As of today, the unemployment rate for native Americans is over 10 percent and according to ThinkProgress.org, that number has been steady for the last nine years. If separation and segregation continue to persist, then these numbers will never rise.

“I wonder what will become of their fate if [Native Americans] continue to be separated from society in poor quality reservations,” said Hicks. According to MPR news, Native Americans in low income reservations are currently confronting a water quality problem.

The problem is nobody ever writes about Native American issues in the news, or even reports on livelihood of the original settlers of this country. Just because inequality was carried out in the past, does not mean that separation and injustice should continue to prosper in a country that constitutes freedom for all. More should be done to combat the issue of segregating Natives, and more must be done on their part to contribute their culture to society, so they too can be incorporated within the integration a new America.

Other links of Rothschild suspicious involvement in native american genocide:

nodisinfo.com
https://foolscrow.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/andrew-jackson-the-man-who-killed-the-bank/
https://whitewraithe.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/poisoners-of-the-wells-the-jewish-role-in-the-native-american-genocide/

Beauty and the Beast: A Timeless Classic

Emma Watson, a United Nations ambassador for women, former child actress in the Harry Potter films, and spokesperson for HeForShe.org (a foundation for gender equality) stayed true to her famous human right's persona as she brought back to life Beauty and the Beast’s ‘Belle’ from Walt Disney’s timeless classic. Director Bill Condon adapted his take from the original 1991 Disney animation, turning the well-known story into a new-aged, life-like, on-screen musical equipped with humans, talking candle sticks, and much of the original song and dance (music produced by Alan Menken) seen by its cinematic predecessor over two decades earlier.

Credits: Walt Disney Motion Pictures

As Watson sang her way through the first scene, (with the song titled “Belle” created for the 2017 version which aired on March 17 in theatres), what became evident was how the movie still targeted children, yet was made adaptable enough so parents could still sit through the scenes with enjoyment (or at least as they reminisced about their childhood days).

“If you ask me to sit through most musicals I would say no,” said Ariez Heshaam, University of the Cumberlands Alumni, “but this one was really nicely done and I quite enjoyed watching it.”

Credits: Slash Film

With having worked on other renowned films like Gods and Monsters (1998) and the musical Dreamgirl (2006), director Condon was able to make Beauty and the Beast (2017) general enough for all ages, which was an impressive touch. He succeeded, as well, in creating a remake rather than a brand new collaboration, as there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary from the original apart from a place here or there. Compared to the old 1991 animation, much of the costumes (designed by Jacqueline Durran) and even down to the hairstyles of the remake were identical to years earlier. As much as being reminded of the past was sweetly nostalgic in many ways, admittedly, the lack of a difference in “flavor” from past Beauty and the Beast adaptions perhaps made the film slightly duller to those who were well-oiled with the story. However, having the human touch of real actors as well as a few specks of high-tech animations here and there were a major, major bonus. And as Watson charmed viewers on the screen, her acting was dramatic, intense and trusting.

Credits: Vanity Fair

Dan Stevens played the role of the Beast, and while viewers excruciatingly admired him from afar for most of the movie, the soft and kind demeanour he portrayed made him into more of a pet bear rather than a feared and grotesque animal. In many ways, Luke Evans terrified onlookers more so in his role of the bad guy: Gaston. He was fearsome, ruthless, and mean; perhaps doing well to teach children the moral of the story that looks are not everything in this story.

Cogsworth (Ian McKellen), Mrs. Potts (Emma Thompson), Chip (Nathan Mack), Lumiere (Ewan McGregor), and Madam Garderobe (Audra McDonald), were all important characters showcased also. Unchanged amongst these characters were the famous chore song “Be our Guest” as they sang along a welcome for Belle (Emma Watson) at the beginning of her journey in the film.

Credits: Movie Pilot

In many ways, Walt Disney’s classics are meant to be timeless and unchanged which is what is seen in the majority of this new adaption. However, slight cultural adjustments were made in this 2017 version of Beauty and the Beast as a “gay moment” was introduced, and was the first of its kind ever to find its way into a Walt Disney film. 2017 seems to be a drastically transformed year in outlook, especially for Disney with having intentionally put forth in the past some controversially questionable standards to children (what with skinny princesses and the expectations that all good men must be handsome, muscular, or in one shape or another: a prince). LeFou (Josh Gad), who is Gaston’s (Luke Evans) right hand man in the story, was the random character chosen to contribute this milestone of an acknowledgement to the LGBT community.

Director Condon spoke to Attitude Magazine saying “LeFou is somebody who on one day wants to be Gaston (Luke Evans) and on another day wants to kiss Gaston.”

Casts members felt it important to add a slight alteration to LeFou’s character, according to The New Zealand Herald, as earlier animations depicted him as a fool. Actor Gad spoke to producers saying, “We gave him something that he doesn’t really have in the original, which is a conscience. He doesn’t have the blind faith and he starts to ask himself – without giving away too much – is the beast the one with the fur or is it the one that looks like everyone else?”

Classics never go out of style, and each Walt Disney recreation brings fans back to the fantasies and stories of their youth. 2017’s Beauty and the Beast is a bitter-sweet love story worth savouring over and to remember decades past – with family, friends, and loved ones.