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Poverty in the World
In America, childhood's poverty isn't what you would have expected. Calculating all of America's children, twenty-two percent of children that have at least have a family of their own are below federal poverty level. This is horrible to find out about. It is even twice as worse when children are in their teenage years in the U.S. Before turning into an adult at the age of eighteen, nearly forty percent of children spent at least a year in poverty; according to a new study presented by the Urban Institute. Not only were other people surprised, even the Urban Institute. "It did surprise," (paragraph.4) stated an Urban Institute senior student and the leader of this study, Carline Ratcliffe. She stated, "When we look at the annual number of children in poverty, it's at about 20 percent, and we know children cycle into and out of poverty, so we knew it would be higher, but double is startling," (Paragraph.4). Children who have dealt with poverty would less likely be able to have chances of a successful future, like graduating college or finding a good job, unlike children who never had any type of contact with poverty in their life. Three-fourths of black people are poor in their teenage years. They are also most likely able to have to deal with poverty at least for a year in their life. Unlike black children, white children have a lower percentage than them at thirty percent of them having a chance to deal with poverty for a year. Then there are one in ten American children have fallen into the category what Ratcliffe's report calls it, "persistently poor". When it is viewed by race, black children suffer it more, being four out of ten children who have suffered. The children that have dealt with poverty and don't spend a lot of time in financial distress have a higher chance to graduate from high school unlike the thirteen percent of "persistently poor" children. Like Ratcliffe said, "There is a cost to poverty. When children don't do well and succeed, this ripples through to the next generation. We can pay for the cost of this today via investment or we can pay later with increased costs as these children move down the road and aren't successful
Melanie Lopez
Mrs.Todesco
ELA 8
December 8, 2016
Trump Softens at the Topic About Young Immigrants
On Wednesday, December 7, our new president seem to appear to soften about his opinion on to whether or not to deport more than 700,000 young people who illegally entered the country, but were permitted to stay by President Obama. Mr.Trump even stated, "They got brought here at a very young age, they’ve worked here, they’ve gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they’re in never-never land because they don’t know what’s going to happen," (paragraph 2). Mr.Trump even controlled some of his vows, including the one where he would not put Hillary Clinton to jail, he promised to stand a tougher stance towards illegal immigrants. He also still has the power whether or not to remove Mr. Obama’s actions, including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that was initialed in 2012, or DACA, which protected immigrants who were at a young age. This could be a simple move from our upcoming president, leaving Congress to address young immigrants, some lawmakers hoping to do next year. Or simply, leave it how it is now. It was on this Wednesday Mr.Trump and mayor of Chicago, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, had a meeting discussing about the immigrants. Mr.Emanuel also stated that he presented Mr.Trump a letter signed by fourteen other mayors who agree with Obama about allowing immigrants to be in America. During the campaign, Trump decided to get rid of immigrants, but Mr.Obama urged Trump to reconsider his decision. Even many of Trump advisors and cabinet members agreed with Mr.Obama with keeping immigrants. Last month in an interview with CBS News, Trump stated that his top priority would be deporting immigrants that are in jail or technically committed crime. After this, interviews with editors and reports that worked for The New York Times were with Mr.Trump who stated, "I feel very strongly about an immigration bill that I think even the people in this room can be happy," (paragraph 14). Because of this, any attempts to deport any immigrant will end up with intense political pushback.
A Wedding Disaster
Today is the day. The day were you would celebrate you and your future husband being married once and for all. Having fun throughout the day with those who you love and are important to you. At least, that was how it was suppose to turn out until they came. In the northern village of Baghdad on Wednesday, suicide bombers attacked and invaded a wedding day, killing at least twenty six people. Many were wounded by the first bomber and thought it might be over, but they were proven wrong. A second assailant barged in and blew himself just like his previous comrade further injuring many more. In total the attacked injured sixty-seven innocent people. We still haven't figured out who was the one responsible for this gruesome attack, but we are guessing it was the ISIS (Islamic State Group). This wedding party was being held for a family that had been displaced from Anbar Province, which is in western side of Iraq and is home to a tribe that does not agree with the Islamic State group. Back in the summer of 2014, Islamic State soldiers seized Tikrit during its bad time across Iraq. The in April 2015, Iraqi military drove out soldiers from the Tikrit; but Islamic State has continued to threaten the city with attacks within the city and outside the city. Over the past week, Iraqi forces have fought their way into the center if western Mosul, which is separated from the eastern section by the Tigris River, capturing a government complex and the city’s antiquities museum, where aggressive soldiers have destroyed priceless art works without showing mercy or second thoughts. Mosul also fell to the Islamic State in the summer of 2014, along with large parts of northern and western Iraq, but it is now the only significant urban area in the country under the group’s control.
More than to the eye
For each story to read, a new lesson is learned in it. No matter if it is a long story, short story, novella, etc. Each one has a message behind it. Just like the short story, by Roald Dahl, it tells us about the murder that took place in a couple’s home. The wife, Mary Maloney who is six month pregnant, was patiently waiting for her husband to come home while knitting. Around five in the evening, her husband finally arrived home and later they discussed about breaking of their marriage. She was to shock to recover from what he told her and went downstairs to find herself grip onto a lamb’s leg. Mary then later killed her husband, but throughout the story you can tell she had a mental problem. Sadly, she was never found to be the murderer and got away with it. This story’s message was that not everyone that looks innocent isn’t innocent. This isn't the only time we have encounter a topic like this. There was also the sheet about sociopaths and how they are. You may think the person you know is sweet or friendly, but deep down they hide gruesome secrets. That’s why we even had or trial, to see if Mr.Reynolds was guilty for murdering some or for murdering some but was unable to control himself since he has a mental illness. Besides that, there was also the novel I read, Out of My Mind. Many people would judge Melody Brooks, who was born with cerebral palsy, and believe she was just idiotic or to dumb to understand what they would talk about. At the end, she was the smartest person in her school and was later honored. This world we live in is constantly judging one another for things society can’t stand. We need to stop judging by appearance and learn to understand the person more.
India attacks the africans
Imagine being attacked in your neighborhood that you have lived in for years? The sadness swallow you as people pop out of nowhere to attack you for no apparent reason. An African woman was just taking the taxi when all of sudden a small group of men pulled her out and beat her up. Later, a mob ran in the mall and attacked another two more innocent African students who were shopping. These past years recently, many attacks have been made against Africans and many of them are severely injured from it. All these attacks raised questions if there are racial behavior in India. Even a police of Greater Nioda, Abhinandan Singh, during a telephone interview explained that no African students have been involved with the death of a young Indian man, so there is no reason why Indians should attack. Over the years, many young African students have traveled to India to continue their education there. As more African students piled up, so did the attacks against them. At the New Delhi Train Station in 2014, another random mob onslaught three African students. A year later, a Tanzanian woman was stripped by a small group after accidentally coming across a crime scene. We still cannot pinpoint on to why Indians despise Africans so much. Abdou Ibrahim, a senior adviser to African students in India, said, “Indian society needs to look within and examine “why they hate Africans so much.” Police reviewed the recording of the mall incident and counted forty-four people attacking. They were only able to arrest five of them, going from 22-35 years old. The mob would use garbage cans or stools to hit the students with. Now, one of the two injured students was recently released but the other one is still in the hospital. Mr. Singh said that the one released from the hospital is “still in shock”.
Realizing what you'll loose
Helen Rossy came over to visit our school and spread news that we all should be aware of. Are you ready to give up your life, just to have sex? That was definitely one of the main things that we learned that day. Mrs. Rossy explained to us overall that once you are pregnant, your baby isn't just a tissue, but an actual living thing. Many ladies decided to have an abortion instead of giving birth to their own babies and later on regret what they did. After Helen Rossy gave her part of the speech, it was Kate’s turn to tell her story. Her life was one of the hardest to survive from. Kate lost her virginity to a quarterback in high school, had an abortion, and her mother kicked her out for that. Later, she met a man her age, who she described handsome, and what to hopefully have a sexual thing with him. Dean said that since he is a child of God, he believed that they should respect each others bodies. Now, its been 30 years and Kate is doing well and they haven't had any sexual activities. Kate’s overall message was that even though life is really tough on you, you can always come back stronger and overcome anything. Helen then took over once again and showed us a video of Hannah. Hannah had a boyfriend, both seventeen years old, and she was a senior. She was president of her school and the couple were elected king and queen of prom. Life for her was perfect, until she got pregnant. She was later banned from prom and the unborn-triplets’ father slowly faded from the picture. It was until she gave birth, loosing one child in the process, did he come back. Helen showed us videos of women who had abortion and later regret it, and honestly it was really depressing to watch. In the end, I knew I should wait for sex until marriage.
Survivors
As I grew up over the years, I didn’t hear much about the holocaust. All I was informed was that an army filled with Germans, who were called Nazis, were led under the control of Hitler and they would kill many Jews. I heard that Hitler didn't like the Jews due to his religion. Now that we began to read the novel, Night, by Elie Wiesel the author gave a greater depth on how it was actually like to be overruled by Nazis. Elie was just a fifteen year old Jew who was containing peaceful life with his family. His father, mother, and three sisters. Two being older, while one was younger then him. That’s when they crashed in.The Germans came in and took control over his hometown, along with his life. Wiesel and his family were later separated by gender, but sadly, he never had the chance to see his mother and sisters for the last time. Wiesel and his father then ended up at a consecration camp at Auschwitz. It didn't feel long, but later Wiesel’s father passed away when a soldier beat him to death while he was sick. At the end, Wiesel was the only one in his family to survive this gruesome event in history. Elie Wiesel isn't the only survivor that we still have today, we also have Gerda Weissmann Klein. She too experienced this harsh event in history and lost her family to it. Gerda is also the only survivor of her family and has a successful life so far. The only reason why she was able to survive and be alive today is thanks to her husband, who was a soldier and a Jew. He told her to come with her, she was confused, and then survived. They have three children and eight grandchildren. So far, Im learning more and more about how the holocaust was and I can’t wait to finish the novel, Night.
Deaths from Storms
Nature itself is responsible for many deaths throughout the centuries. On Thursday, many people were attempting to restore their homes or business stores from the powerful storm, making water seep through numerous buildings. Several days later, taking place from Texas to Michigan, the weather became more punishable as ever causing at least twenty deaths. After Thursday and moving to Friday, the storm headed towards eastward going from Tennessee, Ohio, the Carolinas, and into Canada. As a result from the harsh weather, various of roads were closed off and few cities were hit the hardest. You can only travel by boat to some of them. Besides in those areas, in the Pocahontas, Ark, The Black River over flooded at twelve feet above the level stage. It was also recorded the highest level record ever. Also at the Meramec River in Eureka, it rose twenty-seven past the flooding stage, setting another high record. All the people who live in Eureka worked all day by trying to not have any water seeped into their buildings. A boat would attempt to bring sand bags to those who really needed them. One time it was so dangerous that in a store in Pacific, Mo, firefighters checked one store to see if the structure is still stable to be in. Sometimes, the weather isn't to harsh in our world. Like in St. Louis, where tarps were spread throughout the Busch Stadium and the Cardinal's game was canceled on Wednesday due to the rain. While on Thursday, the game was delayed several hours later. I feel bad knowing many people in other places have to put up with the dangerous weather, which caused twenty deaths in one place. I know that here we complain it's hot or too cold but at least we don't have floods here in California, hopefully those people could find peace one day.
The Chinese Revolutionary War
It was when we came back on Monday when we were assigned a ponderous group project. From our Night packet, there was a list of mass killers who killed millions of innocent people. In my group, it consist of Kiana, Sophie N., and I. Luckily, we were able to attain the one we asked for. His name was Mao Zedong, who was a certified teacher and a founder of People’s Republic of China. Mao was born on December 26, 1893 in Shaoshan, China. As a young child, Mao grew up in the Qing dynasty (they still had classes) as a peasant. At the age of fourteen, his was offered to be in marriage, but he denied the offer. When he was old enough for college, he applied at the Beijing University. Unfortunately, he was denied even after applying twice and was mocked for it. Mao was then forced to be a cloakroom attendant by the teachers there. That was when the Chinese Revolutionary War began. Mao believed that China was taking a wrong turn by judging and naming people by class so he decided to take it upon himself and help “improve” China. For his army, Mao turned the teenagers against their teachers and used them for his army. He later gained some control of China’s government as the chairman of the People’s Republic of China. Creating labor camps, Mao forced people in them and tortured them to no end. One would be forcing teachers on all fours and commanding them to bark like a dog then beat them to death. It wast until 1949 when the Chinese revolutionary war came to a stop. Mao passed away in September 9 of 1976. Overall, this project was actually interesting to work on because my group and I found someone else killed more than Hitler himself. I am also surprised that not many people know of Mao, too.