Child Soldiers

While looking at child soldiers for a while in class, I’ve decided that they are definitely victims. I think this because of all the evidence I've seen. For example they are kidnapped, taken from their parents or sold from their parents (because of how poor they are). Then they re drugged into killing in a suicidal war. I think that these children are not perpetrators in this situation. I think that the people who run the organizations and drug them with powerful medications and tell theme to kill, were the enemy in this situation

Th first piece of evidence that supports that they were victims. It happens in one of the worst places today called Myanmar  (Burma) has one of the highest rates of child soldiers recruitment. Thousands of boys, some as young as 10, are purchased, kidnapped, or terrorized into joining the country’s army. This shows that the people who run the army feel like they have the right to take helpless kids and put military grade weapons on them, and send them into a blood bath of combat. 

One other piece of information is that the runners of the army drugged these young boys so much that they couldn’t feel the pain of what they were doing. When the boys were rescued, they come out of the war with a serious drug addiction and sometimes even alcohol. In a short video we watched, a man named Ishmael Beahad been in a situation the same as many of his other fellow army-mates. He had been rescued, and had to go to a rehab center. It took him 8 months to recover and just to be able to sleep soundly without having murderous nightmares about the wars he was in. It took him years to become sober from the drugs he took (brown brown, marijuana, and cocaine). He couldn’t take a shower or see running water because all he saw was blood coming out of the faucet. People had said that they are less of armies than a drugged-out street gang with military grade weapons and 13 year old brides. That’s how bad it really was. 

In conclusion I think thßat child soldiers are victims of this horrible senereo. I think that they should be treated better than what they are being treated like now. They think that it’s “normal” to be killing people, but it’s not. It’s a murderous and heartless thing to be doing. They should not be drugged out and gang like that have weapons full grown adults can barely use. All in all I think that these minors are being treated unfairly as victims and this needs to stop soon. 

Gossip Girl

This book is about the social life of the highest class in Manhattan. It's about young adult teens who discover life with overwhelming amount of money and have to learn to grow up faster than normal middle class teens. There is a system called Gossip Girl, who focus on the 5 kids and follows them, tracks them, and makes statuses online about their social and personal life. Sometimes some it is true, and some may not be true. It is about loves, gossip and how much you can do without somebody knowing about your personal life in detail.

This book makes me think about the way gossip works. I personally think gossip is a controlling system that breaks friends and relationships. Gossip may not always be true though. Some people chose to believe the internet or somebody else, but not the person the problem is with. I think that gossip is a problems in our world. People talk about people behind their backs, when they can't defend themselves, and some people end up hating them for that. I think that this is an issue in our world that could be resolves easily if people talk about their problem with the actually person, without gossiping about them behind their back.

Beautiful Boy

Due November 3rd (computer not working)

I have finished reading the book called Beautiful Boy, by David Sheff. Thsi book was absolutely amazing. It was about the author's son who was a drug and alcohol addict. THrough his adolescent years he used marijuana and other drugs that got you high and made you numb to the world. BUt these drugs lead on to other drugs. He started leaving the house. Not showing up until every late at night. He also started to break in his father's house in search of money so he could buy new drugs. His brother and sister (because his dad had remarried), loved him so much, But three mom (Karen) and dad could never tell them where he was or why he wasn't with them. Every time Nic would call, his dad would plead for him to go to rehab. He would go through tech same routine, he would go to rehab, meet people who he has really good connections with, get sober for  a year, and then relapses and disappear for a month. He'd disappear and come home skinny, distressed, broke and in need of some serious help.

I think that this book teaches everybody a good lesson. Nothing I ever just one time. Nice had started with marijuana and needed up in the emergency room because he had overdosed on crystal meth. Everything led to it, and his dad knew it was coming. I think that this is an important lesson for everybody of all ages, but mostly towards teens. All the choices you make now, will affect the rest of your life for sure. Even if it's just skipping school a day to taking marijuana, it will all affect you in some way. I also think that people think little things are not a big deal, but you realize after reading book like this one. This boy started from being a smart well rounded boy who was social and had a bright future ahead of him, to a man of 25 with no future in the distance and in need of serious drug control. In the end he stays sober, but you know he will never be quite the same as he was before it all, because some drugs can change your life forever.

Beautiful Boy

Due October 28th (computer not working)

This story that I'm about halfway through with is told by a father with a son named Nic, who is, or is going to be a drug addict. This story starts with an forward with an overview about how the father feels about this whole situation, and how this happened. It starts out with his boy being born. He an his wife had gotten divorced when Nic was about 5. He starts to go on the airplane by himslef at the age of 6, and has more frequent flyers miles when he's at the age of 8, flying to Atlanat to see his mom, than a normal adult would ever have. IN his childhood Nic was an unusually irregular  child in the aspects of his mental capacity. He thought unlike any other 7 year old, and knew more things that normal 7 year olds would do. He was different from everybody else.

In the story, Nic's dad (the narrator) thinks that the divorce and moving around so much an feeling like you don't have a permanent home, may have caused Nic to start using. The stress of never being in the same place at once might've put too much on him that he went on to doing drugs. Or that it might be genetic because he as a kid had troubles using. But I think it's not anybody fault but the persons, and maybe not even their fault that they started using drugs. When you use drugs, you become another person. Drugs make you do things that you would never imagine that you would ever do if you were sober. It's the only fault of the person who chose to try drugs and let the drugs take over him. I think that the choices you make early in life about drugs and alcohol make a bigger difference than the choices you make when you are older, because you have already been immune to using, and at that point, you probably will never stop.

Shiver

(For computer not working on October 21st)

This book I read this week was called Shiver. This book was about a girl named grace who lived in Montana with he mom and her dad. She was a slightly quiet girl, with two best friends. When she was about three years old she was bitten by a wolf. They had pulled her off her her tire swing on the edge of the woods, and had stated to eat her. But a wolf had saved her, and strangely turned into a human while carrying her back home. These wolves Grace is very intrigued by. She also has her own wolf, named Sam. Suddenly he becomes part of her life. And them her love life. This book is about love and how to make it work when it's harder then ever. 

This book had a couple great lessons. I think that the most important lesson is that if you really love someone you should never give up on them. In this story, a werwolf only has a certain time  changing into a human. When it's warm enough they turn into humans, and when it gets to cold, they change back into wolves. Every year they need to temperature to be warmer and warmer until they don;'t change into a human at all. It is Sam's last year as a human,a and he's in love with Grace. They try everything they can and they never give up on trying to be together, forever.