Just because these topics have nothing to do with catching Pokémon or collecting pokeballs doesn't mean they are not important. Most of these issues have disappeared from Buzzfeed playlists and headline news. They are still relevant, they are still happening and they still need to be acknowledged and addressed.
1. #SyrianRefugees
According to Worldvision.org, currently 6.5 million Syrians are refugees, 4.8 million of those refugees are displaced within Syria and half of those affected are children. Yet, only 2,290 refugees have been accepted and housed within America’s borders.
2. #BringOurSoldiersHome
The war in Iraq and Afghanistan could be termed as America’s forgotten war. As of March 2016, the Washington Post reports that there are still over 5,000 service members stationed in Iraq. Let us not forget that CNN has reported there were still 9,800 American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan at the start of 2016.
3. #BelowTheLine
According to the latest Census Bureau’s report, more than 45 million people living in America are below the poverty line. That is roughly 14.5 percent of all Americans.
4. #UtahTeenSuicide
As of 2015, Utah was ranked the fifth state with the highest teen suicide rate. Nearly 40 teenagers kill themselves every year in Utah alone and more than 200 children between the ages of 10-17 are hospitalized yearly for attempted suicide. Whether this has to do with being a state along the “suicide belt,” or if strict religious beliefs, mindsets and practices play a role, why is nobody talking about it?
5. #MississippiBackwardsAF
In April of this year, Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, signed into law a bill that allows businesses to refuse services to gay couples based on religious objections. The law allows business owners the ability to deny bathroom and dressing room access based of off “anatomy at time of birth.” This bill also states that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that couples – straight couples of course – should only have sex after marriage.
6. #UtahMinimumWage
Utah has yet to act on raising minimum wage from $7.25 an hour. An annual salary at Utah’s minimum wage, working full time, is only $15,080. As of January in 2016, the Utah Judicial Council published new poverty guidelines stating that, for a single adult person caring for no one other than themselves, making anything under $8.54 an hour – or $17,820 annually – is below the poverty line. Why then, doesn’t Utah raise minimum wage to meet the poverty line, instead of having people start below it?
7. #StudentLoans
According to Student Loan Hero, Americans owe $1.3 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among 43 million borrowers. The Huffington Post reports that the graduating class of 2016 will have $37,172 in student loan debt per student.
8. #BoysLikeToRape
One in three Utah women will experience some degree of sexual violence during her lifetime. Eight hundred and ninety five rapes were reported in 2013, and hundreds more went unreported. Although an exact number is not available, between 17,000 – 32,000 rape related pregnancies occur every year in America.
9. #ZikaVirus
The Center for Disease Control recorded in July of 2016 that in the United States alone, there have been 1,305 travel-associated cases of the Zika virus. There was one case recorded from being in proximity of the virus in a laboratory. There have been 14 cases of the virus being transmitted through sexual contact and 5 births with Guillain-Barré syndrome; the disease children are born with if the mothers contract Zika during pregnancy.
10. #NoChildGoesHungry
Worldhunger.org estimated that globally in 2013, 161 million children under the age of five had stunted growth due to undernourishment. In America alone, 16.2 million children do not have the means to get nutritious food regularly.
