"A Brother's Murder"

     After reading “A Brother’s Murder” by Brent Staples I thought about all the crime rates that have happened throughout the country. A lot of people believe that they are safe in their neighborhoods. But you never know what can happen. Just like in the story, Brent’s younger brother, Blake, just twenty two was shot and killed by his best friend. All because of a fight over a girlfriend. Usually fights and murder occur because of pointless reasons like, girls, drugs, money, a pool game, etc.
      I grew up in a bad part of Pawtucket and it was scary. Hearing fights in the street in the middle of the night, hearing gun shots quiet frequently, people getting arrested all the time for drugs and stealing. It wasn’t a safe environment to live in. Especially with young kids. My family was up and out of there once I got a little older.
      Kids and young adults should stop turning to drugs and violence. All it is doing is ruining their lives. If they don’t stop they will either be next victims of murder or spend life in jail.

Dear Dads: Save Your Sons

     After reading "Dear Dads: Save Your Sons" by Christopher N. Bacorn. I started to think about kids in todays society growing up without fathers. It's sad knowing that children without dads turn to drugs and violence. Just like the boy in the fifteen year old boy in the story. His father left four years ago, and the boy turned to alcohol, gangs, failing school and violence. His mother, heartbroken, tried to get him help from a professional. But the boy just turned everything down.
      I feel if more children turn to professionals and listen to what they have to say, and try their suggestions maybe they will get back on track with their life. It's hard to say when you grow up with a father figure the problems you'll be stubling on.
     This article gave me an idea of what some kids go through. I have always been really close to my dad rather than my mom. And I can't imagine going through life all that pain without my father to be there to support me in every way.

The Flip Side Of Internest Fame

    I knew internet harrassment was one of the huge problems in this generation of kids. But after reading "The Flip Side Of Internet Fame" by Jessica Bennett I didnt realize how many kids lives were being tourchered by the internet. By reading this article it has really opened my eyes. Just by posting a video so minor and so innocent, can lead to harressment and tourcher. Just like Ghyslain Raza from Canada. Filmed himself making a Star Wars reenactment and a bunch of kids added music and special effects to his video. It got posted all over a bunch of different websites. Ghyslain Raza got badly harrassed by kids.
     I liked this article. It brought a lot of attention to me. I know quite a bit of people who video themselves doing stupid or funny things and post it on youtube.com and other websites where people can get a hold of them.
      Over all I think more kids should read this article to help them see the danger and damage that other people and the internet can do to a person's life. It's really not worth trying to impress other people by posting videos of yourself becuase it can lead to harrassment.

Hunger

   When i first read the title "Hunger" by Nilsa Mariano. My first instinct was that the story was about poverty in third world countires. But as I read I realized the story was about a women named Taina and she was an insperational speaker to children. At first the story had no interest to me. But as I read on it kind of hooked me.
    The story is about children who hungered for exceptance because of their nationality. Tiana talked about no matter what nationality they are, that they were beautiful. At first the children were shy about their nationality. But as soon as Tiana mentioned she was spanish, the children became more lively.
    The story was kind of confusing at first, I didnt really understand what I waas reading. The story was confusing because it kind of jumped around and had some random thoughts in it that shouldnt have been mentioned. Over all the children felt excepted about their nationality. Because of Tiana the children feel more confident about thenselves.