weneedtotalk

Every ten years, the United States holds a census, which counts the amount of people that live in the US, among other information such as where they live. One of the most important things the census helps us determine is districts. By knowing where people live in a state, politicians can divide up states into congressional districts, with each district electing one representative to the house of representatives. However, the district lines are often drawn unfairly. This practice is called gerrymandering.

In 2007, Oakland Police Officer Hector Jimenez fatally shot an unarmed 20-year-old man. 7 months later, he killed another unarmed man, shooting him three times in the back. Jimenez was rightfully fired, but reinstated quickly (Friedersdorf). In Pittsburg, similar fatal incidents occur routinely. According to Alex Zimmerman of the Pittsburgh City Paper:

Caption: Ou Hongyi sits on the steps of a fountain in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Apr. 19 to protest the criminal charges she and other protestors received for trying to prevent the Mormont hill from being mined for concrete.

What makes Brood X cicadas different from other cicadas is that they are periodical insects, they feed on plant fluids both below and above ground, and are the largest brood of 17-year cicadas. Brood X are found mainly in Indiana, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and northern Virginia.

On January 22nd, 1973, the Supreme Court decided through a (7-2) ruling that “unduly restrictive state regulation of abortion in unconstitutional.” This decision, known as Roe v. Wade, arose as a result of Jane Roe, a name used to safeguard the identity of the plaintiff Norma McCorvey, taking federal action against the district attorney of Dallas County, Henry Wade. Roe argued that the state laws regarding the illegal nature of abortion attempted to inhibit her right to personal privacy, which was protected under the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments. The Supreme Court decision was eventually made on the basis that the Fourteenth Amendment defends the right to privacy against the state, violating a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion or not. The case concluded that the state may not control a decision on abortion until the second trimester, in which regulations may be instituted on abortion that are related to maternal health – once the the third trimester has begun, the state may prohibit abortions entirely as long as the law contains exceptions for which an abortion is needed to protect the life or health of the mother.

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Please consider my generation and future generations, and know that we’re worried about our future on this planet, and we’re looking for adults to help,” said the 10-year old veganism activist Genesis Butler passionately near the conclusion of her TEDx speech. This inspiring speech took place in 2017, titled “A 10-year old’s vision for healing the planet.” In the summer of 2021, four years after the delivery of her TEDx talk, Genesis’s arguments for animal protection have only grown more compelling and inspiring for the younger generation to hear.

In the United States, many people over the age of 18 still harbor a level of resistance towards receiving the vaccine due to the fact that all COVID-19 vaccines are currently non-FDA approved. Following Pfizer’s announcement in May to seek approval from the FDA for their COVID-19 vaccines for ages 16 and up, Moderna has also announced that it will start the approval for people 18 and up. An approval could help bolster vaccination rates – according to Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest vaccine monitor report – due to the fact that nearly a third of unvaccinated adults are waiting for a full FDA approval of a vaccine before getting it. In an interview with ABC, Dr. William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, indicated that there are some caveats to waiting for the vaccines to become FDA-approved due to the “rigorous” nature of the approval process. The authorization process, in comparison, is shorter than the amount of time needed for approval (at least two months of follow-up data from phase 3 clinical trials), whereas six months are required for approval. But how has vaccine rollout been despite the lack of FDA approval?

Time and time again, capitalism, by nature, exploits marginalized communities by transforming them into mere markets, and selling them back to these communities as a commodity. Rainbow capitalism, the innate commercialization of LGBTQ+ movements, cheapens the meaning of pride month and the LGBTQ+ community. Many people are unaware of the hardships queer people of color went through in order to make pride month a reality, though this month is coincidentally meant to commemorate them. It has been found that an estimated 20 to 30 percent of the LGBTQ+ community abuses substances, compared to about 9 percent of the population as a whole and despite this, June is perhaps the biggest promotional season for the alcohol industry (“The LGBTQ Community and Addiction”).

The standard of beauty is produced by patriarchy and capitalism. The more difficult it is to reach this standard, the better for these two, because then we feel insecure with our appearance, we develop low self-esteem, submitting ourselves to aesthetic procedures as well as excessive and unnecessary consumption of a series of products. A conclusion that is practically instantaneous would be the description of the aesthetic qualities currently understood and extolled as beautiful, explained by the physical attributes of individuals considered beautiful by society in general, constantly conveyed by the media.

It has been over 100 days since Joe Biden’s inauguration into the White House as the 46th president of the United States of America. In the span of Biden’s presidency so far, a lot of changes have been made which anges from policy reversals, overturning Trump’s policies, to taking executive actions to further his own presidential agenda.