This week, the Cause team is discussing a variety of topics including Supreme Court case Snyder v. Phelps; cyberbullying; our celebrity cause of the week, Tony Danza’s Teach; and we talk to Arabella Santiago of JustGood.tv.

Issue #1- Freedom of Speech and the Westboro Baptist Church protests

Funerals are typical private services, and the protests outside the Westboro Baptist Church made its way to the Supreme Court. Jonathan’s initial reaction is it’s not the right thing to do morally, but legally it is. Christina informs us that as long as they’re peaceably assembling, they have the right to be there. They may, however, be violating other laws and inciting violence, which is obviously illegal (and so not cool). This brings us over to hot issues including gay rights and cyberbullying. Does the court have the ability to limit what is said because it’s not what the listeners want to hear?

The hosts agree that if Glenn Beck thinks someone is a terrible person, it’s pretty widely agreed upon that they probably are- after all, it is Glenn Beck.

Next up, Cyberbullying

The group that protested was really a twofold issue, as they were protesting gays in the military and Proposition 8 and ‘‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’‘, which brings us to our next issue: cyberbullying. There has been a trend, whether you consider it a media or real world term, of gay students committing suicide due to cyberbullying. Christina brings up the point that we haven’t seen teen suicide as a major media issue, especially gay teen suicide. Is this a new epidemic, wonders Jonathan? While it might not be a new epidemic, the media and the forum in which the bullying occurs, publicly online, are bringing more attention to this cause.

The Trevor Project is a groundbreaking new non-profit, the first ever 24 hour hotline dedicated to working with LGBTQ youth. The celebrity-sponsored ‘It Gets Better’ campaign, is dedicated to bringing awareness to this cause. Let’s face it, high schools tough and many children feel like they don’t have anywhere to go or anyone to talk to. Jonathan and Christina discuss the challenges new technology causes with being constantly connected; there’s never an escape for those being bullied. Jonathan poses the question, ‘how do we make an effort to help children through the growing process if we can’t protect them?’

And in the news, have you heard about Millenial whiners?

According to Paul Carr, the current young professional generation (born from 1980-1993) is a bunch of whiners. This leads to a discussion about generation gaps and ‘why can’t we all get along’? Every generation has a cross-section of slackers, ambitious types, and the in-betweens, but it’s the slacker types, or whiners, in our case, older generations target. What are your thoughts on the millenial generation? Are we generous and ambitious or inherently whiny? Weigh in below in the comments section, no matter what your age. Christina mentions there are so many other issues to tackle, why is there such a focus on age? If it’s another technology-focused issue, let’s drop it. Or talk about it. Basically, we want to talk about dropping it because there are far more important causes to worry about.

Footnote from Jonathan: He is DEDICATED to the Cause show at least an hour a week so don’t call him lazy and whiny (insert sarcasm here, our cast and crew obviously works very hard and is the exception to Paul Carr’s rule).

Celebrity Cause: Teach: Tony Danza

So Mr. Danza is now spending his time living out his dream career, had he not become a famous actor and all. He wants to teach- and so he is. The reality series follows Danza as he teaches at an inner city high school in PA. The series focuses on a cause platform through the use of celebrity and reality TV. Do you think Danza is qualified to teach? He actually does have a degree in English, so technically, yes. The larger issue is, what can we do to fix our educational system. If nothing else, Teach literally teaches us that something has to change.

Social Enterpreneur Check-in: Arabella Santiago of JustGood.TV

JustGood.TV is a Web TV Network for nonprofits, social entrepreneurs, and responsible businesses that have an impact on the world. They provide original programming, conference coverage, and live webcasts. Arabella started a blog about businesses and social impact, and has moved on to covering cause-related conferences and speaking with non-profits about how they get their story out into the world. JustGood.TV hopes to help non-profits get the word about their organizations and make an impact for social good.

That’s it for episode #12 of TWiCause. Let us know- what do you want to see? Who would you love to hear from? Leave a comment below to share!