Search Results for: BID

A weaponization of the Eucharist: When the Church authority rejects your access to unconditional love

Conservative Roman Catholic Bishops in the United States have voted on a new guidance for the Eucharist. The move could result in a ban of pro-choice Catholics, and specifically President Joe Biden, from receiving the Holy Communion. The further politicalization of abortion threatens to polarize an already divided Roman Catholic Church. When I first heard this news I was infuriated. Not because I am Catholic – I am not. And not because of my views on abortion. But because it reflected my own experience of being denied the Eucharist, a sting I still feel to this day. I moved...

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Understand White Rage: Why Republicans are desperately trying to keep voters angry

When voters elected Democrats to take charge of the national government in 2020, despite the efforts of some Trump supporters to stop that from happening, Republican lawmakers built on the anger the former president had whipped up among his supporters to impose a Trumpian vision on their states. They reworked election laws to solidify their hold on their state governments. According to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, so far 18 states have put in place more than 30 laws restricting access to the ballot. These laws will affect around 36 million people, or about 15% of all eligible voters....

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Preventable Deaths: Unvaccinated people now account for nearly all COVID fatalities in America

Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the United States now are in people who were not vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been and an indication that deaths per day, now down to under 300, could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine. An analysis of available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in May shows that “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of more than 853,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations. That’s about 0.1%. And only about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were...

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Storytelling, community, and grief: How theater can help people heal from the trauma of the pandemic

By Joel Christensen, Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University President Joe Biden began his presidency by memorializing the 400,000 American lives that had been lost up to that point to COVID-19. The ceremony, held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, was arguably the first official moment of nationwide public mourning in the United States. “To heal, we must remember,” Biden said. “It’s important to do that as a nation.” But how do we acknowledge our collective suffering as the toll of the pandemic continues to grow, with hundreds of thousands possibly undercounted? How do we talk about healing...

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Formerly incarcerated people are twice as likely to suffer food insecurity as the general population

By Margaret Lombe, Associate Professor of Social Work, Boston College; and Von Nebbitt, Associate Professor of Social Work, Washington University in St Louis Around 600,000 people are released annually from the United States‘s sprawling prisons network. Many face considerable barriers as a result of their convictions when it comes to essentials in life, like getting a job or a home. It can even be harder to feed themselves. Formerly incarcerated people are twice as likely to suffer food insecurity as the general population, with 1 in 5 ex-prisoners finding it difficult to obtain regular, nutritious meals. A 2013 survey...

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From chattel slavery to Jim Crow: Juneteenth is now an unavoidable reminder that reparations are due

Weeks after the last cannon sounded and the gun smoke cleared in April 1865, slavery in most of the United States had come to an end, unless you were an enslaved person in Texas. It was not until June 19, 1865, a full 71 days after the surrender at Appomattox and 37 days after the Battle of Palmito Ranch, that 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas, to announce that the Civil War was indeed over; and that all enslaved people were now free. In Texas, this was known as “Juneteenth,” and it marks not only the day...

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