Sexual Assault

Our society is very screwed up; many people that set awful examples are what kids look up to. Athletes are the center piece of bad role models. Many of them have criminal records, and think that they can do no wrong. It starts with scandals like Manti Te’o’s and criminals like Marshawn Lynch star running back for the Seattle Seahawks. Many people don’t understand that they are the center of attention, they are people that kids look up to and inspire to be. If they cannot accept this role then they should not be in the lime light. Personally I also believe that the media is to blame. They do whatever they can to take stories and twist them around. Kids see how stars are portrayed and accept and inspire to be them. The other factor to High School athletes miss behavior is the way they are treated in the community. For example Steubenville the town that had several student athletes of the Big Red sexual assault and under age drink promote the actions of the football players. They don't mind what is happening and support all the decisions they make. I don't believe that the issue is rape, because most High School students are not among the people that would rape, but if they are under the influence and see it as funny knowing nothing will happen to them they will take advantage of girls. The town and society expects them to drink and do things that they know are wrong. Knowing they cant get in trouble the kids take advantage of the situation. The problem is that people don't let this kids know that playing sports isn't something that is given to you, but it should be an honor. You represent not only yourself, but your school, and all the people that have taken the field before you. The alumni the town and the organization are represented by you and your teammates. Society lets people get away with whatever they want and when something so disgraceful happens they finally punish them.

Americas Killing Problem

The shooting at Columbine High School will always be a negative day in America’s history and something that will not be forgotten. America has had many awful massacres that we all wish we could forget about, and instead of figuring out what the problem is we continue to let these killing sprees take place. Why is it that no other country in the world has even close to as many killings as us? In the documentary Bowling for Columbine many people in America have a theory, for example many people said entertainment, video games, more guns, etc. The hard fact about all of these theories is that all the other countries have the same if not more guns video games, and many of the same exact entertainment. So if it is not the social media and the amount of guns what is it? I cannot give an answer to that but I believe it is a topic that our government and people in our country should explore. We have 10 times the amount of killings then most countries. Why is that? What can we do? The only reason I can come up with is the society we live in supports violence. The media is constantly covering negative things like killings, because it draws people in. Many role models are known for killing and doing illegal things. Many Americans see the way to resolve their problem is to kill. If we could figure out the reason of why we have more killings then our country would be a vastly improved.

Book Report 5

Chapter 10- Although I thought the end of this story would be uplifting I was wrong. The author lets us know the destruction it has truly had on him. Romeo said when talking about his sister, “She fought as a soldier bud died as a child.” He goes on to say, “I have witnessed the destruction of children who have been recruited as child soldiers not only the bodies of the dead but the living souls of these once children who have been influenced to commit such horrific acts.” Romeo is trying to say that even though these children have committed awful acts that no one an evil person could commit, they are only doing it to try and save themselves, and they don’t know the difference between right and wrong. They do what there expected and trained to do. When they get the great privilege of getting away they are already destroyed. Although this story is awful in its self the main point of the story is to help spread the word. At the end of this chapter he goes on to say, “Bring your new-found depth of argument to the political elite mous responsibility to protect, to assist, to intervene.” This was obviously an important part of Romeo’s life. Romeo is in great fortune that he was able to come out of this awful experience with a positive attitude. I enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend this to readers.

Book Report 4

Chapters 8-9- Like I said in my last blog these children will and are scared for a lifetime, but when you have to kill another child and are forced into it the child has no way of coming back. The mental scare’s it leaves on the children is just awful.  Romeo goes on to tell us his story; he was sitting doing his usual two hour stretch of sentry duty, when it started raining very hard so he went back to his tent, minutes later “rebels” had attacked his camp. When the rebels came running past him Romeo hide when he saw his chance he turned around and opened fire on them, only doing what he was trained to do. After shooting he hide until everyone was killed. Later Romeo went to check on who he had shot, it turned out to be a young teenager thirteen to fourteen years, and a smaller girl. It turned out that Romeo shot a girl dressed as a rebel acting as a warrior trying to protect the children. Romeo stated that he never wanted to shoot them, but it was what was programmed into him, he had to. It was either that or he would have to face awful consequences later. He did everything to try to tell himself it wasn’t him who shot them, and it wasn’t his fault, but whatever he could never forgive himself. He was paralyzed for a long time not wanting to talk or move, because he was scared for life. It is just heart breaking not only for the people around the child soldiers because they have to live in fear of getting killed, but also for the child soldiers. They are forced to kill innocent people, because awful men program it into them.

Book Report 3

Chapters 5-7- The last three chapters were heartbreaking it talked about the training the children go through and the way child soldiers are made. There are over a quarter of a million child combatants in wars around the world. The author, Romeo stated that the thing that struck him the most was that the place they were taken to was so beautiful with flowers mountains and a beautiful landscape, but the hardest part was accepting that this beautiful place was a place where children were abducted and trained to fight in a battle that wasn’t there’s. In the community that these children were forced to live in you most likely had a family member actually at least one in five kids were there, and for all those five at least one would die at birth. Then within years another one would die from either HIV/AIDS or a sickness that was never treated because the leaders didn’t care about treating the kids. Romeo states that the easiest way for these  leaders to get the kids to participate was not using a bribe or anything that would make the kids happy, but was fear. A small child is not going to be able to say no to a gun or a man that could inflict a lot of pain on them. Unlike a traditional route of training soldiers that helps develop skills and experience the children are forced into trying things. The training is grueling and inhumane it was designed to separate the strong from the weak, using the weirdest ways. They would take the shortest time to assess the kids and not give them any back round on what they were doing, hitting and beating them while they do it. Chapter 7 is called “How to Unmake a Child Soldier” It is very sad to begin with the amount ok kids that die threw the long process is awful, considering no one has a any record of how many kids were abducted, how they died or if they even are dead. Parents and loved ones are left wondering how there kid is doing. Also by the time they get away or are set free they have all kind of diseases and are scared for life. No one can come back from a awful experience like that.

Book Report 2

Chapter 4- In the last few chapters we learned a lot about main character Romẻo. He has many responsibilities he has to take care of his sister Kesi, and his neighbor and friend Jacob. Romẻo is the most mature of the three and was expected to look out for them by his father. Romeo and Kesi’s father was a hard man to please. He was one of those parents that pushes and doesn’t really allow the children some down time. There oldest brother Mosi was someone the whole town inspired to be and Romeo couldn’t live up to the expectations. He was a good looking kid worked hard and was smart. He did whatever he could and made people proud. When Kesi and Romeo would play games there father would always yell at them saying things like, “You play these games to much, and don’t do your chores.” They had enough chores to last five men days. Later on the kids were at school when they heard shots fired Romeo grabbed Kesi and held her as the teacher protected the door. When there teacher was shot falling into the classroom. All of the students started to cry. The people who had shot there teacher will child soldiers. Mosi Romeo’s and Kesis brother Mosi was running towards the classroom when they had escaped when running towards Mosi the child soldiers talked both of them holding a gun against their heads telling them to sit so they responded. The soldiers tied them up and threw them on the back of a truck and took them away.

NHL is Back

Recently the NHL lockout was uplifted and made the hockey world happy. As a huge fan of the game I was happier than anyone to see the season start, but at the same time I am disappointed. In case you didn’t follow the lockout the players who were in the NHL formed a group called the NHLPA, national hockey league players association. They formed this group because they didn’t want to lose money that they thought they deserved. The NHL has had the biggest increase of profit in its history the last 3 season. The players felt that they were getting cheated out of money and the owners wanted more money to. The part I don’t understand is that these players are getting paid millions of dollars to play a game they love. Many of the owners were only making small profits last year due to the players making more money than ever before. The players described it as this, “Imagine you helping a company make more money than they have ever made before, and the owners taking that money that you earned for them.” Although true the way they described it sounds like every business. Employees work for businesses and bosses the bosses are always going to get a large profit of the company’s success, it’s how businesses work. I’m just happy to say hockey is back.

Book Report

Chapters 1-3: In the first two chapters of my book They Fight Like Soldiers They Die Like Children, the author introduced us to his life as an early teen. His destination was set his father was a military veteran and a hardworking man that worked for everything he had. The same way he wanted his son to be. The author tells us that he had no choice he was going to have to train to be a soldier. He connects it to the children soldiers who were called Hutu youths. From what I understand the author was saying although he was not excited about what his father was putting him threw he could find things to enjoy, things that could still put a smile on his face unlike the Hutu youth. The children of the Hutu youth spent their days  nights and morning standing on corners of a poverty stroke community. When growing up the author was taught to be mature. He said, “the gallant old soldiers who taught me as a boy created a learning atmosphere that was serious yet very considerate, very human .” he goes on to tell the readers that this is completely different, “The children soldiers under the gun of inhuman adults see no end in sight.” The children are abused and the way they treat them is comparable to nothing it is just awful what the military soldiers make these young innocent children do. I was outraged that the men who throw these children into to war don’t have the guts to fight. The whole reason they have these kids fight for them is because they don’t care about their lives. The value of one of these kids’ lives is nothing to the war lords. If a kid dies it doesn’t affect them, they have thousands of more kids to fight their battle. It’s still early in my reading and I’m upset with what the people do to these kids.