Blog #4: Writing A Memoir

Family; What Would I Do Without Them?

Memories are something that last a life time. Everything I have ever heard, seen, touched/felt, and smelled, I have a memory of it. Every relationship I have had, every friendship I have had, milestones and personal goals in my  life, it is all stored up in my brain. Personally, I am very thankful that I can experience things to remember later. Some things, all things, good or bad. One experience I have had in my life changed my life forever.

I was born to my mom and dad before they were married. We lived in a condo until the age of three and then moved into a house. When I was five, my parents got married. My mom was pregnant with my brother at the time and he was born three months later. Two years later, my parents separated and my dad moved out. It took 5 years for the divorce to be finalized. My brother and I shared our time between both parent's houses, through out the years. 

When I found out that my mom and dad had separated, I was very confused. I didn't know how to react. I thought they were separating and my dad was moving out because of me. I remember being really upset and I didn't know how to express myself very well.  My parents tried to explain it to me. I don't fully remember what the conversation was like but it probably went something like "Honey, we have something to tell you but we need you to know and understand that it is not your fault at all; this was our decision."  I still didn't fully understand until many years later. 

Through out those years that I went between my mom and dad's houses, our relationship stayed the same in some aspects but changed in some other ways. I wished for years for my parents to get back together for many different reasons but now that I am older, I can see why they divorced. In the end of it all, I understand that some things are just not meant to work out the way you want them to work out.

I have experienced many things in my 17 years in life; many fun things, many sad things, many things that just made me think. Since I am 10 years older than when i was when my parents separated  I have a deeper understanding about what happened and how it played out. It was for the best, in my opinion. But I do not live in the past though. I look toward the future; the brighter, exciting future, hoping that it has something for me to do that will change a person's life, in a  good way. 

452 Words

Blog 3: Writing An Editorial

Teenage Prisoners Describe Hurricane Horrors

By ADAM NOSSITER

Published: May 10, 2006

More than 100 teenagers were held in a detention center for days on end days after Hurricane Katrina struck. They were given to food or water to drink, causing many of them to pass out out from dehydration. They were roped together by plastic handcuffs and led in high water, to their destination. "The report described what happened after the storm as symptomatic of a juvenile justice system recognized as one of the country's worst, an outpost of a sprawling prison empire where more people were locked up, per capita, than in any other state." 6 years later, the Justice Department control passed a law that would not allow this event or any events of this likeness to happen again.

I strongly disagree with the fact that Louisiana waited 6 years after the hurricane to bring this horrible subject up again, in court and get something changed about it. I don't understand why it took so long for them to get a law made against keeping youth against their will in detention or prison cells, under any circumstance. I understand that Louisiana needed to do many investigations to be sure there theories were correct, but it shouldn't have taken 6 years. In the article, it states, "Several youth prisons in the state had achieved infamy as places of routine beatings and systematic deprivation, and federal authorities concluded that conditions were unconstitutional." Even federal authorities knew that the conditions that these youth experienced were terribly wrong and un-just.

My opinion about the whole article is that it was morally wrong to take these teenagers to prison and lock them up in cells. It was morally wrong to leave them stranded, in detention, standing in the flood waters for days, without food or clean water. When I hear stories about these kinds of things happening, I had a hard time comprehending it because it's such a shock to me that there are people in the world that would actually do that to teenagers. The youth were miserable; terrified out of their skin. It says in the article, "Kids were going crazy, shaking their cells for food and water." "We went five days without eating. Kids were passing out in their cells." Kids were dropping like flies there and no one seemed to care about them and their situations the slightest bit.

I believe that the people of Louisiana who put the teenagers in prison, held the hostage, and didn't let them have any food or water were morally wrong with with their actions. They were not thinking straight, in my opinion. They were acting out of the heat of the moment, not out of logical thinking. I believe that the state of Louisiana put into place a very good and beneficial law to ban holding teenagers and sending them to prison without further questioning those who look suspicious. I do not think it was a good idea to wait 6 years to put this law in place. Louisiana could have passed that law sooner, so it would take affect sooner.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/10/us/10prison.html?_r=0   -link to article

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