Kenyamarie Mahone (PO ’23) After months of campaigning and punditry, Tuesday’s election brought a record breaking turn-out of nearly 160 million Americans. While much of the focus of this election season has been on the presidential race between incumbent Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, several citizen led ballot-initiatives made history this week.…
By Kenyamarie Mahone (PO ’23) Rap has always been protest music. Sprouted in the soil of the civil rights movement and War on Drugs, rap functions as a platform for African Americans to express frustration with institutional and interpersonal oppression. The caricature-like portrayal of black men in the music industry relies heavily on stereotypes of…
Rya Jetha (PO ’23) Racism and anti-Blackness have played a long and persistent role in the history of the United States, from its founding to the present. The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery—among countless others—as well as the national movement in response, demand our attention. This article is part…
By Kimberly Tuttle (CMC’19) On November 4, 2014, California voters passed Proposition 47, “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act.” The initiative reduces certain drug possession felonies to misdemeanors. It also requires misdemeanor sentencing for petty theft, receiving stolen property and forging bad checks when the amount involved is $950 or less. It was intended to…
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) The 1990’s in Portugal and the United States were similarly characterized by rapid rates of illicit drug use. Both countries took major action, but in starkly opposing directions. While the United States launched a second wave of the War on Drugs and devoted billions of dollars to the effort, Portugal decriminalized…
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) In July 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the landmark decision to permit gene therapy in the United States when they approved the leukemia treatment, Kymriah. The FDA’s decision to approve Kymriah both increases treatment options for many leukemia patients, and may lead to increased options for many others…
Gabe Magee (PO ‘20) Currently an opioid epidemic is ravaging the Northeast and Midwest areas of the United States, taking almost 13,000 lives by overdose in 2015, an increase from 8,000 in 2013.[1][2] This increase in deaths is part of a rapid and troubling upward trend — a 244% increase in deaths from 2007 to…
James Dail CM ’20 – The United States is in the midst of its worst-ever drug crisis. Every day 91 Americans die from opioid overdose.1 To make matters worse, the crisis is not affecting all facets of American society. Poor and working class Americans bear the brunt of the carnage.2 Unless viable solutions are devised,…