"Aliens or Citizens?"

They sit in your class-

Unseen to you and others.

They walk among us-

Undetected by many.

They aren’t homeless,

Rent snatches up every penny.

They make countless sacrifices-

Choosing between food and bills.

We encounter these Americans daily.

Some notice their hardship

The concerned offer a dollar or two.
Or cut eyes at them like razors

We shop at the mall

They search through piles at second hand stores

We enjoy fast food and hearty meals

They wait in line at local soup kitchens

Do you continue to ignore them?

Do you stop to let them know you care?

Do you make a meager contribution?

Or will your paycheck be their beacon?

They provide the questions,

We refuse to answer.

The Wanabe

          In John Steinbeck’s historical fiction novel, “Of Mice and Men”, Curley is the typical “boss’s son.” His character is arrogant and feels entitled because of who his dad is. He is made out to be a rude over protective husband; although Curley seems tough and independent, he is really just insecure about his relationship, and himself. Ultimately Curley wants to be one of the guys.

        Newcomers get the vibe that, “Curley ain’t givin nobody a chance,” including his wife. Curley has an issue with demanding to know where his wife is. He never gives her “a chance” to be her own person, and limits her to doing only certain things. Curley doesn’t let her hang around the guys because he feels that she is going to fool around with them. He is so insecure about his relationship that he doesn’t trust his own wife. Due to his insecurity in his relationship, he is always wondering if “any of [the] guys [has] seen a girl around.” This leads Curley into believing he can’t have a normal life style, because “he has married a tart”, unlike the other guys on the farm.

       Curley’s exudes arrogance even when he is desperately trying to fit in with the farm hands. He tries to play in their horseshoe games, and also jokes around with them. It seems though that every time he opens his mouth it comes out haughty and overconfident. The workers don’t see Curley for the man HE sees himself as. To them, he will always be the brash, “son-of-a-b****,” “boss’s son.”

        Curley is a short, stalky guy who is “always pickin scraps.” And it seems like he is always picking on “the big guys.” Curley was trying to talk to Lennie, a mentally challenged GIANT, and George, Lennie’s friend, answered for him. This made Curley mad, which made him reply in a harsh tone with the comment “let the big guy talk.” Curley seems to try to make himself seem tougher then he actually is, by pushing people around. He wants the guys to know he is tough, and it doesn’t help that he is well, undersized.

        In this story Curley is just trying to find away to fit in with all the guys. He ultimately just wants to be recognized as the masculine man he thinks he is. Curley is a insecure, misunderstood, “boss’s son.” Who thinks it’s okay to boss around his wife, and pick on men taller than him. One day, Curley will understand that if he wants to be one of the guys he is going to have to be a better human being.

Barn, Sweet Barn. By: Jocie Baker

Photo courtesy of Google Images.

The barn used to sit on the most pristine point of the two fields, with the water trough glistening in the sweltering sun. The horse would gulp the lukewarm water as the hawks labored in the sky. The antique basset hound rested in the month old pile of hay; long abandoned by the horse. Birds pecked away at the day old grain, but would swiftly skitter away; because of the wrinkles of the old man coming to feed the horse, who was followed by his grand kids stomping through the thick grass.

The aged barn now slumps in the pasture with grass engulfing its walls. The young woman stands from the gravel road staring at the hut; remembering when she use to follow her grandfather to the barn to feed Pepper, watch Oliver droop toward his pillow of hay, and gaze at the hawk soar in to the fluffy clouds.

Can we "forgive and forget?"

      Can we forgive the terrorist group that was responsible for the attack on our countries twin towers, otherwise known as 9/11? I personally believe that anyone that can attack us with “deliberate and deadly terrorist acts,” shouldn’t be forgive for “these acts of mass murder [that was] intended to frighten our nation into chaos .” “Our country is strong” but not so strong that “our fellow citizens…[and] our very [own] freedom [can be] under attack” and we forgive them for it. That doesn’t seem possible that our nation could even think to begin to forgive the people responsible for “terrorist attacks” that caused our “great nation” so much grief.  “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me” this Bible quote explains our country so well, even though “worlds have been shattered” by this terrible act of terrorism “America…will never forget this day” we will “go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world."

"I Am..."

I am athletic, and musical.
I wonder if there will ever be a cure for cancer.
I hear clocks ticking down, to something im not sure of.
I see the basketball bouncing, endlessly.
I want to fulfill my goal of becoming a basketball star at Duke.
I am athletic, and musical.

I pretend to fit in.
I feel left out somtimes.
I touch my grandmothers heart.
I worry about my grades.
I cry about my friend Brylee..<3
I am athletic, and musical.

I understand I won't get everything I expect.
I say life is short, live it long.
I dream about people that are not exsisting today.
I try to do my best in everything i do.
I hope I meet everyones expectations of me.
I am athletic, and musical.

To Convict a "Mockingbird"?

When scrolling through the “approved list” of books, I was thinking to myself, “I guess I’m just going to read Dracula”. When I told mom what I was planning to read for my assignment, she assured me I was not going to read Dracula. I then relentlessly chose, Wuthering Heights. As I progressed through the book, I just couldn’t bring myself to finish it. I explained to mother my predicament, and she suggested To Kill a Mockingbird. I continued to argue my case and insisted that I was not going to read this book either, simply because it was going to be exactly like Wuthering Heights-DULL. She pungently told me about the plot and setting. She mentioned that the book centered around a trial; I was instantly enthralled. I have always dreamed of becoming a lawyer like my aunt Mary. When she told me that the father of the main character, Scout Finch, was a lawyer; I decided to settle for the book.

I buried myself in the book; I became fascinated with “The Radleys”. Like Jem Finch, Scout’s big brother, I had to know more about Boo Radley, the mysterious neighbor with a mental illness shunned by the town of Maycomb. Their friend, Dill, who visited from Mississippi each summer, was also very persistent in investigating Boo. It also caught my attention that Scout, and Jem called their father by his first name, Atticus, and not papa, dad, or father. Atticus, though, advises his children to call him by his given name. This was because of equality, and he wanted the children to think of the family as equals- a novel idea- that would never fly in our house. In today’s society, we would think of this as disrespectful, but in the south, it was the proper thing to do. Equality was a huge societal issue; racism was very prominent in the book.

Judge Taylor assigned Atticus the case of Tom Robinson. Tom, a black man, walked to and from the fields every day stopping to help Mayella Ewell, a young white woman, with her household chores whenever she asked. Tom was accused of raping Mayella . Mr. Ewell labeled Atticus as a “nigger lover” and tried to bully him out of defending Tom. When the case came to trial, Atticus had Mr. Ewell right his name to prove he was right handed. Atticus also had Mr. Ewell say which side of Mayella’s face was bruised the worst. Mr. Ewell said Mayella’s face bruised on the right side and her neck had also been wrangled and bruised…but the bruises were all around the neck.  “Tom Robinson’s left hand was injured badly in a cotton gin when he was twelve”; Tom cannot move his left hand what so ever. Atticus questioned the jury how a one handed man could injure not only the right side of a face, but also wrangle the neck and bruise it 360 degrees around. He was an ingenious lawyer- I loved his style and demeanor in the courtroom.  I just know one day I will be sifting through evidence and proving the innocence of my own clients one day.  Well- I hope to anyway.

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy... but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Atticus says this to his children when giving them their first guns. If you think about it, Tom symbolizes the mockingbird, never doing anything to anybody. Tom’s life could have been saved if the jury hadn’t convicted a “mockingbird”.

Amazing to me, this book written so long ago, still applies today.  Unfortunately, the innocent continue to be proven guilty and their appeals hang in the courts for years. What a ridiculously horrible fate-death and the conviction of the innocent man.  Humanity must see through the hate.

I'm a Woman...W.O.M.A.N

Listen to this link before reading post(:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjdw9krFJcI

Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Be Proud to be a Woman!

   
Girls are treated differently around the world, and in almost, every country women are thought of as lower than men.

    Like African Americans, women had to gain their rights, which they did through the Suffrage Movement of the 1950’s. Yet, we continue to deal with inequality today. I feel it shows up mostly in job opportunities and salaries for the adult women.

    For teenage girls of today, it means we have to fit the "top model" mold of society. Not everyone fits in the size 2 jeans or the small v-neck tees. Some girls are shoved to the side of the in crowd and made fun of throughout their middle school and high school years. Many are content with their laid back life, out of the spot light of the "plastics", but some long to be in the beloved group.

     Maya Angelou's poem Phenomenal Woman and Jerry Lieber's song I'm a Woman both explain what it is to be a woman. Maya explains that she’s phenomenal because she's a woman. She says women are phenomenal because of the way they carry themselves. Jerry says a woman "can wash out 44 pairs of socks and have 'em hangin out on the line" then "starch & iron 2 dozens shirts 'fore you can count from 1 to 9" he portrays us as superwomen!

    The poem and song speak to me, saying that all women need to accept themselves and own their looks. I agree that if we all just accepted each other for who we are and celebrated our uniqueness, people would be happier with themselves and the world would be a better place to live in.

    Don’t let society bring you down and be proud to be yourself!

Casey Anthony...murderer roaming free?

“Casey Anthony Jurors Discarded Common Sense”

Wednesday, 13 Jul 2011 03:43 PM

By Ronald Kessler

Alex Ferrer, a former criminal judge in Miami, said on Fox News that when jurors deliberate, they sometimes leave behind their common sense.

As a judge, Ferrer said he has seen many not-guilty verdicts when it was clear to him that the defendant was guilty.

So it was with the verdict in the murder trial of Casey Anthony.

Comments after the verdict by jurors and an alternate juror suggest they had no idea what their job was. They said the prosecution had not shown exactly how Caylee Anthony died, where she died, or when she died. That was not their obligation. Their obligation was to determine if Casey Anthony had killed her daughter.

Often defendants are convicted of murder even when a body is never found. In those cases, no one knows how they died. The state medical examiner in the Anthony case testified that the presence of duct tape around Caylee’s nose and mouth and the fact that she was found discarded in plastic bags clearly indicated she had been murdered. She ruled the death “undetermined homicide.” Yet the jurors disregarded that and insisted on speculating that Caylee could have drowned, as the defense proposed.

Drowning in swimming pools “is a major way that a lot of children die down here in Florida,” the jury foreman told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News, as if that was relevant.

As for who did it, Casey Anthony’s failure to report the death of her daughter for 31 days, her lying to investigators trying to find her, and her obvious jubilation after the death of her daughter are as compelling as any DNA evidence.

The fact that multiple witnesses, including Casey’s mother, smelled what they described as a decomposed body in the trunk of Casey’s car nails the case shut for me. On top of that, Casey’s computer showed searches for information on chloroform. An expert from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee testified that “shockingly high” levels of chloroform were found in a sample of carpet from the trunk of her car.

Many commentators have said we must respect the findings of the jury and not second guess their decision. That is pure baloney. If we are to maintain our system of laws, we should respect the jury system. It is far better than carrying out lynchings in banana republics. But as demonstrated when juries convict people who are later exonerated by DNA evidence, juries are far from perfect. We have no obligation to pretend that they are by saying we respect their verdict however mindless it may be.

In the Casey Anthony case, the jury failed at its job, and a murderer went free.

Casey Anthoy...murderer roaming free?

Everyone has at least heard about or even watched the Casey Anthony trial on television, so this murder is not new to anyone. The trial has consumed several hours of my summer. If you have not been keeping up with the story, the verdict of the trial was that Casey, mother of young Caylee, was found “not guilty of first-degree murder” and found guilty of 4 counts of “giving false information to authorities”.

                In my eyes, the jurors didn’t fulfill their job duties, their job consisted of finding if Casey killed Caylee or not, they insisted on deciding how she died. I know that the prosecution has to display evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, and that is hard to do when there were only two people on the scene, and one is presently dead. I do understand that’s the law, and we need to abide by it.

It just appears that the defense asked the jurors to ignore their common sense, and they did. The part that bothers me the most is that people need to do their job to the fullest of their ability. The jurors stayed at the trial for nearly 90 days, and I do know they were tired, but if I were them I would have wanted to finish my job, so that my time would not be wasted. I figure they just wanted to collect their money and go home, but why wouldn’t you want to set an example for other mothers out there. Now, all mothers, in Florida and all over the world, think they can murder their child and get away with it.

The trial was entertaining, and I learned a lot about our court system. Although I have always been interested in government, this trial and the jurors made me rethink everything that my career interest was based on. Maybe one day, I will be the one that passes a law that says “When all the circumstantial evidence points to the CRAZY mother. She could be convicted as the murderer!”

Annotated Photo.

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