Lately, there have been so many things going on in the world. We have had a lot more discrimination between races and persons with disabilities. There has also been more realization of how bad plastic is for the world, so people have been trying to do something about that, especially Starbucks.

About a year ago, there was an incident at one of the Starbucks stores in the U.S. that dealt with discrimination. I'm sure most of you have heard of it but if you have not then here it is. There were two black men who were sitting in the store waiting for a business associate to join them. He wanted to wait to order his drinks so they all order together so he did not buy anything yet. There was an employee who thought that looked suspicious so they called the police on the man. The police came and asked the man to leave and when he would not leave they arrested him immediately. This lead to a huge debate on whether this was okay or not: it was not. The way Starbucks handled this was the best thing they could possibly do. They apologized on live television and then a few weeks later they decided to close a bunch of their stores for one day so they can talk to all the employees about racial-bias training. They need to do this with any company that has this sort of issue arise.

One of the biggest problems in the entire world is dealing with plastic. There is so much plastic in the oceans that kill the animals that live there which could eventually lead to extinction. Nobody makes sure they throw the plastic in the recycling bin so it usually goes into the trash which ends up in the ocean eventually. One of the recent things that Starbucks has decided to do is ban plastic straws by replacing them with a better environmentally-friendly straw. The thing is that they may not help the environment too much, but it is still a step into the right direction because we know some businesses do care about the oceans and at least try to help it. Eventually, they may find a type of straw that is entirely environmentally-friendly and will not pollute the oceans or earth in general.

A little over a week ago, news had just come out about Starbucks starting their very first sign-language store in Washington, D.C. This store is going to open up right by a University that is the only university in the world for deaf students. There are many businesses and corporations that are starting to get more disabled people involved in the working force. We all want everyone to have equal opportunity in the work-force and this is the beginning of that. Having people create jobs for the disabled makes anyone feel like they are being treated the same as everyone else. The store will be employed with only people who are fluent in sign language. They are going to have the hand gestures on the menu board so that anyone will be able to order even if they do not know too much sign-language. This is going to be the start of something new in the world.

The fact that Starbucks is doing so much to help the world is amazing. They need to continue to evoke this positive change and get other people and companies involved. Every corporation needs to start following in Starbucks' footsteps by caring about other people and the earth more.