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Checks and Balances
What happened on January 6th, 2021 never should have happened. However, it is an opportunity to make some significant, major changes. The separation of powers must be reasserted and maintained. A proper system of ‘checks and balances’ must be restored. Eliminate the electoral college. Every vote must count equally. The President should serve one…
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Thoughts from Barry: Time to Get Over It and Move Forward
The events that transpired in the Capitol this week only prove my point more that the Electoral College is outdated. The popular vote should be the only thing deciding this election. The act of certifying electoral college votes have no significance on the outcome of the election–the election was already decided. The nonsense that occurred…
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When Words Hurt Worse than Sticks or Stones: Confronting Our Unconscious Bias
We are all steeped in culture that embraces the inherent superiority of white people over all others and these beliefs unconsciously impacts our view of ourselves, others, and our expectations. Obviously hate crimes and acts of racist violence is damaging, but there are many ways racist ideology subtly harm people of color. The fact that…
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Call Them Victims, Not “Prostitutes”: The Increased Risk of Being Sex Trafficked as a Kid of Color…
In the 2008 blockbuster movie, “Taken”, a pair of unwitting girls travel to Paris, and make every parent cringe by giving men they just met their plans, place of stay, and confirmation that they’re traveling alone. They’re abducted, and Liam Neeson saves the day and his daughter. However, for the hundreds of thousands of children…
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Life in the Time of Covid…
In March, many of us took to our homes blissfully unaware of how long we’d be in the throes of a global epidemic. We believed our children’s schools when they said they would be closed for two weeks. We prepared for a short sprint, not an ultra-marathon, and we were “all in this together” …until…
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Are Children a Priority in the Pandemic?
The term “Pandemic” has come to mean the virus, the disease it causes, as well as the human response to its spread, linked together. Under this umbrella term, policy makers clear their consciences of the collateral damage that results from their decisions, including school closings. The negative effects of school closings on children can be…
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Implants: Keeping Abreast of All the Information
In America “The Bigger the Better” seems to be the motto behind most of our consumables; houses, cars, food portions, and unsurprisingly, breasts. America is leading the world in the number of people who have undergone breast augmentation (usually implants). Despite the numerous health consequences associated with implants (cancer, lymphoma, rupture, inhibition of breast feeding,…
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Vitamin D or Not to Vitamin D… in 550 words
Recent studies have spoken to the connection between Vitamin D and COVID: The fatality rate for COVID-19 is high in vitamin D deficient patients (21% vs 3.1%). Vitamin D levels in severe Covid-19 patients are markedly low. This has led to a 51.2 percent increase in overall vitamin sales as COVID-19 spread, but there is…
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The Case for Decriminalizing Drugs
Despite a divisive and contested presidential election, the U.S. experienced clear wins in drug reform this year. New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana legalized marijuana while Oregon took the brave, bold step of becoming the first state to decriminalize all drugs. Though legalization will come with its own challenges such as potential for increased…
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Child Sex Trafficking and the Hyper-Sexualization of Our Youth. Where’s the Line?
We have a complicated relationship with media and pop culture. While artists are shattering gender norms and empowering disenfranchised populations, more and more sexualized images are projected into the stratosphere, and young eyes are taking notice. The fallout from this phenomenon may be a factor that drives child sex trafficking, rape culture, and objectification of…
