Race

After taking several tests to discover any hidden race biases, I recieved results that I feel truly represent who I am. My results classified me who is neutral and does not prefer one race over the other. When I was young I went to Tamarak Day Camp. I came home after camp and told my parents I met a new friend. They asked me to describe what she looked like because they wanted to know If I met Jasmine Jordan. They were being nice and had no intention of being racist, but were trying to ask me questions like "Did she have darker skin" to see if that's who I met. My response to them was, "She has a lot of braids." My parents to this day pride themselves on how they raised me to see how everyone is equal and I never judge or think less of anyone due to race or religion. I think this shows that from a young age I never felt that the color of ones skin defined them.

After closely examining some of the Black and White perspectives I see a lot of similarities to the packets we just read. Something that was mentioned in the packet but really expanded on in the articles I just looked at, was that there is a major difference in the amount of married black women to the amount of married white women. This was shocking to me. I would never have made that connection. In one of the articles a black lady was describing how black people tend to have many single moms.  She was explaining how she feels they are not raised and expected to be successful. This was very sad to me because everyone deserves a happy ending and an equal opportunity for success. There is also a much greater population of HIV and AIDS among black people which I thought was shocking. How does one's color affect the amount of people with a certain sexually transmitted disease? It just doesn't make sense to me.

In the white perspective there are many differences than I read today in the article. Today I read about a white boy hanging a noose outside a library and constant attacks of race. In the packet I read about how white people are aware of the past, yet they are trying to move forward past it. They did not want the guilt of their ancestors, but still did have sympathy for the black people. In these articles it seemed as if times really have not changed and improved much, which is really disheartening.

Susan Williams

In class my debate team discussed how the alleged rape of Susan Williams was one lovers word against anothers. It is hard to fight for one side when you want to protect Susan and other woman, but if this is not the truth you do not want to put an innocent man in jail or worse. We were chosen to defend Susan Williams against David Jones. Right before we were given this assignment we discussed how we thought that Susan could have made this into  way more than it was because she found a note to David that made her jealous the night she claimed she was raped. There is very little evidence to prove she was raped. On the contrary, there is also very  little evidence that proves his innocence. There are no witnesses. In defending Susan, and also acting as Susan in the case I became passionate in her case and putting Jones in jail where he could hurt no one else. While being examined I was surprised that I actually felt slightly emotional. We tried to take and emphasize every piece of evidence We don't know the results yet but hopefully after all our hardwork the jury will vote Jones guilty and we will win.

Revolution in Egypt

After 30 years too long, the government was turned over in January of 2011. Many were very happy about this and were given hope. Many felt they were freed. In hard economic times this gave them a bright future to look forward to. The government was put in control of the armed forces. Protests broke out. Much of the protests were peaceful and hopeful. Without a stable government there was a lot of unrest. Some of the protests became violent. In the slideshow there were pictures of the military relaxing because the protests were peaceful. I think that was interesting because normally in a situation this large I feel it is unlikely that the protests would be peaceful. The military was able to keep the protests under control for the most part. Also, in the slideshow I thought it was interesting that the day after the prtests there were many pictures of people working together and volunteering to clean up the area where the protests took place. I think that shows a sense of unity among the people. I also saw young people protesting and taking a stand.  In the video I watched people were raising there hands to speak and people were standing around during the protests. Once again that was surprising to me considering the government was just destroyed. I am scared that this unrest may negatively affect the US.

State of the Union

I think President Obama's State of the Union Address was most admirable. I thought the environment was very interesting and I appreciated the integration of the parties. The environment made the country as a whole seem unified and strong. Obama put much focus on education. He thinks education will put us back on top and help us out of economic troubles. He feels as a superpower we must be top five in education once again. He also felt health care is dominating much of our deficit and the health reform must remain passed. He spent a lot of time talking about the future and his bright plans. This gave the nation hope. I think freezing federal spending will help us out of the recession as well but may end up hurting many. I wish there was a way to help everyone and hurt nobody. He needed to focus more on how to help in the present but overall I felt his speech was very nice and reassuring to the US as a whole.

Tweak Conclusion

Nic battles his intense relapse all throughout the book. He had times at his ultimate low hurting everyone he loved and addicted out of his mind as well as times of subtle improvements. It wasn't until the end of the book when I saw a true dramatic change in Nic's life. He was finally in the right recovery program for him. He loved the people there because they supported were him and could relate because many were in the same boat as him. At the end, his parents and family come for the weekend. At first, his dad says he loves his son but he doesn't know if he could ever change. It wasn't until they did drawings as a family to express themselves that his dad saw the his son had made a change. Nic's drawing repeatedly had written all over it how sorry he was. They hugged and a ton of mixed emotions filled Nic's head. His dad apologizes too and truly believes in his son again. Nic feels like he can finally live and be an independent person. He was making a very solid start and was definitely comitted to recovery this time around. The book closes with him feeling normally, laughing, and living.
This book was a rollercoaster to read. It started out really slow and all about him doing drugs. Finally, he went through ups and downs. I felt attached to his character and wanted to help him. The ending warmed my heart. I felt so proud of Nic and happy that his family had given him forgiveness and everyone loved each other once again.

Tweak #5

Finally, Nic gets help. He is prescribed on medications to help some of his illnesses going on mentally after talking to a doctor for only fifty minutes. He ended up taking medicine for depression and being bipolar to help treat it. His family is away together and Nic was on his road to recovery. It warmed his heart how his siblings looked out for each other. It also warmed his heart when his brother explained how he was scared Nic was going to change but he was the same old Nic. It gave Nic a sense of normalcy that he enjoyed. He was still not completely back to normal but his siblings helped a lot. He still felt he had to distance himself because he got really annoyed with little things and he did not want to ruin any relationships. While on the beach with his family Nic describes the improvements in himself he is starting to feel from this getaway even knowing that the reality of LA will set in the next day. He  described, "Watching Karen, Daisy, and Jasper making pattens out of shells in the shore break, my dad reading farther back underneah a tree, I feel a certain calmness...In the past there's no way I would have been able to pull myself out of that spiral of negativity, anger, and hopelessness...Something has changed" (Sheff 204). He felt comfort again and not stuck living his life as a drug addict who is constantly battling to find his place and be happy. He was playing with his siblings on the beach and was telling them how happy he was to be back with them again. He tells them with tears pouring down his face how he is so happy to have escaped the depression he was stuck in. This part made me so happy and thankful that he was able to recover. When he started crying as he was playing it warmed my heart and was by far my favorite part of the book. My brother is my best friend, and I can't imagine being absent from my family for as long as he was. This part of the book is full of love and really appreciating the good and life itself.

Tweak #4

"I stole from my grandparents. I stole from my aunts, uncle, and friends. I stole and justified it and stole more. I feel sick being on the other side of it. I feel unsafe, violated, and out of control." This quote struck me. This shows just how strong an addiction can be. He was now stealing from the people he loved the most in order to get money to support his drug usage. This is truly really sad. The fact that he was convincing himself it wasn't bad of him to do makes it even worse. Stealing is not okay not matter what and there is no justification for it. He was well aware of all he was losing yet, his addiction to meth was too strong to stop. When he was younger he always thought him doing drugs was harmless. He could stop when he wanted and control his usage without getting addicted. This book tells about his violent relapse in which he was no longer able to stop. Everyone sober around him wanted him to stop but he was incapable. He was in too deep with his addiction and even involved in selling. These drugs got him involved with the wrong people  and doing regrettable things that he would not do sober. His friends were ripping people off when selling drugs and coating them with things to make them more addicted. To them it became all about the money and there was no trusting anybody. Nic was losing all his morals. He was not only stealing, but he was having promiscuous sex and bringing others around him down with him. His father knew his life had been changed and harmed when his parents got divorced, but he hoped and prayed that he could help his son. His son's reality was a nightmare. Nic thought he was invincible before his relapse. He would never become one of the addicts and he would never get caught doing drugs. He again was wrong about himself. 

Nic is very similar to young drug users around here. Around here in the north shore, people think they are invincible. There are people who do a ton of drugs and think that they will just be able to quit when they want and they are not ones to become addicts. Many think they will never be caught yet, most of them do get caught. Drugs are dangerous and it truly feels like that is down played by teens. Once one gets addicted it is extremely hard to break it just as Nic is experiencing.