UP:

Thumbs up to the Elkhart School District for partnering with the food rescue group Cultivate. They plan to recycle unused food for the kids who survive on school meals to take home during the weekends, when some children do not eat at all. This is a necessary reform to how schools deal with cafeteria food that should be replicated nationally.

Thumbs up to the Navajo Nation, which this month voted to pursue eco-friendly energy alternatives in place of acquiring a coal-fired power plant. US energy producers and First Nations energy should take note from the Navajo and transition to cleaner sources of energy production.

Thumbs up to IKEA for developing GUNRID, an air-purifying curtain made out of recyclable materials. Air pollution, especially in urban areas, is a major problem indoors and outdoors. The development of technology like this is crucial to quality of life and needs to be further researched and produced.

DOWN:

Thumbs down to Brunei’s new law that now legalizes the death penalty for adultery and homosexuality charges. It is 2019 and as a global community we should be past barbaric practices like this.

Thumbs down to the Broward County Sheriff’s deputies who brutally beat a black teenager outside of a Florida McDonald’s after the teenager went to pick up the cellphone of a boy being arrested. One of the deputies repeatedly slammed the boy’s head into the asphalt parking lot. We cannot allow the authorities, who are supposed to protect all of us, terrorize the few.  

Thumbs down to Trump for not releasing his tax returns. It has been a presidential tradition ever since Reagan’s first election in the 80s and has helped the American public see transparency about the money around the candidate they prefer. Trump is continuing to destroy presidential tradition and government transparency.