"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.