Author: J Elizabeth Mascoli

Rehab vs. Control

J Elizabeth Mascoli

Over 2.3 million people, adults and juveniles alike, are currently in some sort of correctional facility in the United States. Our country has the highest rate of incarceration per capita in the world, yet over the years, many have come to realize that our prison system does not work. The main source of this error is the prison system’s hyperfocus on punishment and control rather than the rehabilitation of its inmates. Prison itself should be a system of rehabilitation. Most people who go to prison do not go for life…

The Electoral College: Extinction or Evolution?

J Elizabeth Mascoli

The biggest news of the 2020 electoral season (so far) is the ever-growing pool of Democratic candidates whose progressive policies are ever more in the mainstream.  Recently, the senator from my lovely home state of Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, made a bold statement about abolishing the Electoral College.  Other candidates have also said they were open to the idea.  But what would abolishing the Electoral College actually mean for our country?   The idea is not new.  In 2000, Republican George W. Bush beat out Democrat Al Gore for the presidency…

“Pro Not-Dying”

J Elizabeth Mascoli

February 14th, 2018:  Nikolas Cruz kills seventeen people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. May 18th, 2018:  Dimitrios Pagourtzis kills ten and wounds ten in his own high school in Santa Fe, Texas. October 25th, 2018: Gregory Bush kills two black men in a supermarket after being denied access to a predominantly black church in Jeffersontown, Kentucky. October 27th, 2018:  Robert Gregory Bowers kills eleven people in the Tree of Life Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. November 2nd, 2018: Scott Beierle kills two women and wounds…

Pink, White, and Blue: The Most Recent Transgender Fight

J Elizabeth Mascoli

The LGBT community has made great strides in the past few years with the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage, as well as the growing visibility and awareness of LGBT issues.  However, the community does still face discrimination and ignorance, and the latest example of this is the reckless fervor with which the Trump administration is attempting to roll back rights.  The Department of Health and Human Services is currently trying to establish an “explicit and uniform” definition of gender.  According to a memo obtained by the New York Times that…