Day: October 25, 2021

Fifty years ago, in September of 1971, a revolution took place that would change the course of criminal justice in the American prison system as we know it. It would go down in history as the day that an act of desperation from the prisoners of Attica would serve as a wake up call about the conditions that prisoners all over America are subjected to. It is no secret that the conditions of prisons in the past were horrendous. Formerly incarcerated Tyrone Larkins spoke out about his experiences when he referred to Attica as “the roughest place I’ve ever seen in my life”. As a prisoner, you were stripped of your human rights and as a black prisoner, you never had any to begin with.

Officially having gone into effect on September 1, 2021, the new Texas abortion law, named the Texas Heartbeat Act, banned abortion past six weeks of pregnancy. More specifically, the act banned abortion once cardiac activity can be detected, which occurs arounds six weeks into pregenancy. The law allows for no exception for rape or incest, or if the pregnant person is a teenager. The only way to escape the ban is if the pregnancy causes severe health concerns of the pregnant person and may lead to death or substantial damage to body functions.

Lil Nas X seems to be on top of the world lately. Ever since the 2019 release of the record-smashing hit “Old Town Road,” Nas proved his mastery of media and kept all eyes on himself. When he had the #1 charting song in America, he had the courage to come out to fully express himself in his music. He created a buzz this year when he created a custom Nike Air Max 97 with human blood inside, and later when he promoted his debut album, Montero, in a photoshoot where he was “pregnant” with his baby (the album). Due to controversial choices like these, along with the fact that he is a Black queer man, he is often the target of bigots and pundits in the “culture war.” Although Nas has been extremely vocal on social media about shrugging off criticisms like these, on Montero we finally get a look at what’s going on inside Lil Nas X’s head.

To many, the United Nations is a seemingly distant organization with little impact on our daily lives. This year’s UNA-USA Youth Observer, Cynthia Yue, is trying to change that mentality.

Since the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine became FDA approved, one would expect less resistance to becoming vaccinated. With three out of ten Americans still remaining unvaccinated, and 14% staunchly against the idea of taking the vaccine, this is not the case. Some of these Americans give explanations as to why they don’t want to receive the vaccine, the major ones being that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus itself and that their religion is opposed to it. Though both of these have been dispelled, people still find ways to disagree and refuse the shot, being major contributors to the ubiquity of COVID.