The narrative love letters is a very real and in your face kind of story. It is told by Megan Foss, a recovering prostitte and drug addict turned high school teacher. This stroy is so strong and powerful beacuse of the way it’s told. Megan let’s you relive her experiences as if you were there with her. She tells them in a real kind of way that you wouldn’t usually expect. This is a high school composition teacher telling a story about how she used to be a prostitute and a drug addict. I think Megan wrote this narrative exactly how she was hinking it. I think everything should be wrote like this. It shouldn’t be concerned about being politically correct or if your going to offend someone. If it is your stroy tell it like it happened not how it should of happened. I think Megan’s attitude in the piece comes from a professor she had that told her to write the way she spoke it. That’s exactly what Megan did. She took her experiences straight out of her head and put them directly on to the paper. I really feel like she came out with a great narrative including values in real life situations.
When I first started reading this narrative I was a little hesitant on weather or not I would enjoy it. I thought it was going to be another value packed story about a prostitute who ruined her life and the whole “look a t me now thing.” After staring to read it though I realized I would actually enjoy it. The way Megan spoke immediately drew me in. She spoke so real, and didn’t hold back on anything which I liked. Her story really surprised me I didn’t realize how much effort she had put in. She was at the lowest point in her life and it didn’t seem like she could turn it around. Looking at her now though she is a woman who knows the way of the streets yet she is a successful high school teacher that you would never know used to be a prostitute. I have a total respect for Megan and believe that she is a strong honest women.
Frederick Douglass’ narrative was a great read for me. It was only sections of his book but the sections I had the pleasure of reading were so interesting. Back in middle school and high school Frederick Douglass was mentioned but never gone into in depth. Reading this narrative was like seeing so much more about the man.
I learned a lot about the man that I had never known before. One fact that surprised me was the fact that his mother was black and his father white. I also found out that he had no feeling for his mother. He hadn’t ever seen her before because he was seperated from her at birth. He describes how slave owners use this tactic to break slaves. An example of this is when his mother dies he describes it as the death of a stranger. To me this is a horrible situation and I don’t know how he stayed so strong through it. Douglass also describes how the slaves were treated. He tells how slave owners would offer up little freedoms to the slaves in ways they would regret wanting freedom. One example of this is when he describes how the slave owners would get the slaves very intoxicated so they would never want to drink again because of how sick they get.
I thought Douglass’ narrative was very poweful for how much I had the pleasure of reading. He talks proper and is very well spoken. The way he talks gives me the feeling like he is saying too the rest of the world “See I can be just like you, maybe better.” Frederick Douglass was a very strong man for all that he went through . He was whipped beat and forced into labor from childhood. This man deserves all the praise he can get.
Duke lacrosse has always been a very well known program. They are an amazing athletics school along with an outstanding academic record. Last March 3 boys were accused of raping 2 strippers. They boys were having a party and hired the strippers for 2 hours. The story goes that the dancers stopped performing after only a couple of minutes after being threatened by one of the boys with a broomstick. The dancers both went into the bathroom while the boys banged on the door trying to make them come out. The 1 dancers say this is when the accused came in after the other dancer had left and sexually assaulted her.
In their first public talk on 60 minutes the boys tried to turn the story around. Both said that they had never assaulted this women and the 3rd said he regretted having the party. The boys seem to be getting the real story out. “I left soon after I saw them do their act in the room with everybody else,” he said. “I saw them leave the room. I never saw them again in my life.” This was a statement by the accused, Finnerty, 20, of Garden City. The boys said they never were in that bathroom with the dancer. Another reason the case might turn around is the statements by the 2nd dancer. Kim Roberts (the 2nd dancer) said, she walked out of the house to her car, leaving the other woman alone for five to 10 minutes. When the other woman joined her in the car, Roberts said, she did not indicate that she had been assaulted. She even suggested the two women go back inside to make more money.This doesn’t seem like something a rape victim would suggest a couple minutes after the action.
At first I wasen’t sure about these boys. I saw them as cocky assholes who were totally capable of what they did. After it was all over the news and such my friend another lacrosse player said he knew those guys and they couldn’t have done it. He told me they were down to earth normal guys who weren’t all hyped up on the fact that they were playing college lacrosse for a big time school. I started to doubt a little about the boys guiltiness and now this evidence has totally switched my ideas about these boys. I hope these boys make it through this case they have already been embarrassed and given a reputation they have to live with.
I enjoyed reading this article. I know that sounds kind of morbid considering it was about a soldiers funeral, but thats not why I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it because finally there was some respect shown. There is a group of people from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas who tour the country protesting at military funerals. Their belief is that God is killing young soldiers to punish America for tolerating homosexuality. I find this wrong and disrespectful. These so called people of God have no right to attend funerals of fallen soldiers they don’t even know and interrupt them. These soldiers were in other countries fighting for their rights to freedom and they’re going to disrespect them and their families. It’s one thing to have a belief against homosexuality, it is something totally different to disrespect mothers, fathers, children, and family members of these soldiers who had nothing to do with homosexuality. If God was so against homosexuality why would he not just whipe out homosexuals. I don’t usually tell people their beliefs are wrong but this organization has gone to far and their beliefs are outlandish. I call them an organization because they should’nt be considered a church. They have no right to say that God is killing these innocent men.
Finally there has been some light in this situation. The group decided not to visit Pfc. Satieon V. Greenlee’s funeral. The church felt disrespected because of the fact that South Carolina had issued a law that there was to be no protesting within 1000 ft. of funerals and no demonstrations a half hour before and after the service. Security was doubled at the funeral and police officers were informed of the law and told not to let protestors near the service. Along with security 55 motorcyclists attended the service adorned with american flags ready to stop any protestors trying to make their way towards the service. ”He’s an American soldier. This is something that ought to have been done all along,” said Randy Stevens, 47, of Laurens, who organized the group. “That kind of showing of support is necessary for the families of fallen soldier to show that they are “not alone.” I totally agree with this statement and respect these men for what they’re trying to do.
I think that every state should pass this law and stop organizations like these from disrespecting the honoring of fallen soldiers. These men fought for our beliefs and should be treated like heros.
CBGB. Some people don’t know what it means but everyone knows what it stands for. It is the birth place of punk rock. CBGB gave first looks at such bands as Television, the Ramones, Blondie, and the Talking Heads. Prominent punk bands of today got there start at the CBGB venue. The bad new is that it will be closing. After 33 years of memories of thousands of deafening late nights, smelly and sweat-drenched T-shirts and beat-up combat boots CBGB will no longer exist in th Bowery. This is a sad day fro any punk rocker. If you like punk music you know about CBGB. It has been infamous over the years for giving big bands their starts, the Ramones being one of the more popular. The end has been a long time coming,” said Tom Erdelyi, known to the world by his nom de punk of Tommy Ramone, the Ramones’ first drummer and only surviving original member. “It meant a lot to me and the Ramones. It was the perfect place. It’s very sad. I’m sure that once it’s gone, there’s going to be a big hole in what once was”. Many feel the same way. Hilly Kristal the clubs owner has probably had the worst of it. It was supposively due to a dispute over the rent that CBGB’s was closed. Kristal says that he would rathe remember the good times then the bad. This is why he is planning a move. He wants to take CBGB’s into the sin city, Las Vegas. He says that the city has welcomed him with open arms as well as checkbooks. I guess this can be considered good news considering the legend of the venue will stay alive, but to me it is still a sad day when it is no longer a days trip to visit the most prominent punk rock club around, the birthplace of all that is considered punk.
The tragic event in today’s news caught many people by surprise. A plane crashed into an apartment building in the upper east on the upper east side. Many people, including myself, thought it was another attempted terrorist attack.
I walked into my dorm room after a class and was confronted by a TV screen filled with smoke from a burning building. I right away thought that we had been attacked again. I didn’t know what the building was all I saw was the headline: “Plane crashes into Manhattan building”. My roommate reassured me that it was not a terrorsit attack. His uncle had called him pryor to me returning to my room. His uncle told him that a private plane had lost control and crashed into the building. As I listened to the news more details were uncovered. It turns out an eyewitness had seen the whole thing. He said that he heard the plane start to sputter and then it started to shake. The plane lost control and slammed into the building. There was two casualties. As I watched on it was announced that the plane was registered to Cory Lidle, one of the Yankees relief pitchers. It was not disclosed at the time weather or not Lidle was in the aircraft.
Later on after returning from my last class I truned on the news again. They had found Cory’s passport on the plane and he was pronounced dead. Cory had been flying in for spring training. He had his pilot’s license for 7 months prior to the accident. He was accompanied by a flight instructor.
I don’t believe that the accident was Lidel’s fault. He had his pilot’s license for awhile and had gone through all the necessary training. He was also accompanied by a well trained instructor. It was a simple case of engine failure and that’s it. It was not anyone’s fault.
Cory Lidel was a good family man and an excellent athlete. He will be missed and God Bless his family
Live From Death Row
I found Live From Death Row quite disturbing yet very informative. I learned a lot of new things after reading this narrative. The lives of convicts on death row seem very morbid and very useless. The men on death row know their going to die in prison. This must be a horrible feeling. I am not sure if I would be able to handle the fact that I knew when i was going to die. Conditions in the jail do not help either. I was very surprised by some of these conditions. First they do give the convicts free time. They let them go for a short while to get away from the death row living. The convicts are allowed to watch TV but are not allowed type writers, which is wierd to me. I guess this is a safety precaution yet I don’t understand why they can’t just have supervised time on one. Another thing that disturbed me was the no contact rule. I don’t agree with this at all. A direct quote from the narrative is “The ultimate effect of noncontact visits is to weaken, and finally sever, family ties”. I think this is wrong and inhuman. To keep a man from seeing his family when the man knows he’s never going to be able to see them out of jail is wrong. These men are going to die by the hands of the prison system and they can’t even have contact with their loved ones.
I do agree with the narrative that for a bad enough crime a man should be put to death. This does not mean I agree with the inhuman treatment of that man until his death. This narrative is very one-sided and does not touch upon the other side of things.
