Water is essential to survival, and for most, it is easily accessed. In America, we have water to drink, to bathe, to use the bathroom, along with endless other amounts of use of the element. In my opinion, we tend to neglect the importance of water, as many people live each day struggling to find […]

36,383 Americans die yearly from gun violence.  22,274 Gun Suicides.  12,830 Gun Homicides 496 Law Enforcement Shootings 487 Unintentional Shootings 295 Undetermined For the first time since 2008, the Supreme Court is set to wade into a highly charged gun control debate. The court has firmly declined to take up any gun rights cases in […]

For this weeks passion blog, I am going to speak to issues that I find personal to me. I believe the nursing home system in America can be disheartening, as I had spent my last summer working in a nursing home as an activities director. Working so closely with those who live in these homes, […]

Substance abuse and mental illness have been a big issue within the United States for a long time. The National Bureau of Economic Research has reported that those who have been diagnosed with a mental illness will consume about 69% of the nation’s alcohol and 84% of the nation’s cocaine. These statistics, to me, are […]

What would you do if you were a young teenager within a poor country. In your neighborhood, profanities of gangs, sexual murder, and mass assassinations plague those around you. When will you come next?  One day, you are working at the corner convenience store, and a man with a black mask comes running in, targeting […]

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”   This is the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Now, most people associate this amendment with the […]

Have you ever thought about the media’s impact on how you view certain things? In the documentary Miss Representation, discussions are brought to surface about media’s impact on women, and how it can diminish women of power. Studies have found that on average, people are exposed to ten hours of screen time per day. With […]

I am sure that by now all of you have heard the news about the Amazon Forest fire. Images of black and tarred trees have been portrayed in almost every major news source. And, hopefully, most of you would agree that this is horrific for our world and environment. But, what I would like to […]

The Central Park Five is a heartbreaking story that speaks to the realities within our judicial systems. Just recently, Netflix has released a four episode documentary reflecting the lives of Kevin Richardson, Antron Mccray, Raymond Santana Jr., Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam. These five young men had been beaten, threatened, and scared to death in […]

Growing up in a family of three with only one parent, a core value of ours was to always lend a helping hand. I remember when I was just starting my freshman year of high school, my father picked up a few extra shifts at work. He would be gone from five in the morning […]