Saying vs. Believing

 People might say society is developing.  They can all say society has risen above the fact that no matter how different we look, nobody shall be judged; however, society itself faces cases of murder, criminal behavior and social discrimination against various racial groups.  What I’m trying to prove is that there is a huge difference between worldwide agreement against racism, and personal values and morals. At the end of the day what you told people you believed in is no longer important to those who are being judged; it all comes down to what you –as an individual– believe and support.

On the night of February 26, 2012, a young African American teenager was killed. Trayvon Martin –only 17 years old– was shot by 28 year old, George Zimmerman. The young boy wore a hoodie and was leaving a convenient store with a pack of Skittles and Ice Tea. George Zimmerman was the neighborhood patrolman and according to his story, he thought Trayvon was suspicious. The bullet shot by George Zimmerman killed this harmless boy and no justice has been made. Police declare Mr. Zimmerman acted in self defense but all Trayvon did was walk around his own neighborhood wearing a hoodie. I’m sorry, is that considered suspicious behavior? What might this 17 year-old have done to a patrolman? Attack him with the soda? Maybe I don’t understand the new patrolling methods people use these days but to me, George Zimmerman wasn’t defending himself.

               

I want all of you to put yourselves on George Zimmerman’s situation. Why? Well because it’s easy for us to say he is racist. Easy to say he is prejudiced and easy to say he is the worst human being there is. But let me ask you a question. What would you do if an African American male, is wearing a hoodie, late at night and is walking around the neighborhood?  Would that seem strange to you? Maybe even, suspicious? This is where your morals come in. This is where everything you say to others stays at the door and the only thing left is you, and your beliefs.

           

To me, prejudice starts in you. It doesn’t start with you going against what others think is right, it starts with you thinking the same way all the time. I wish we could all say we never judge anyone by their looks but truth is, we do. Its human nature and nothing can stop us from thinking certain things when we see someone. Let’s start with 9/11. This tragic event did kill many innocent ones, but have you thought about how many innocent Muslims are being judged for the mistake of one? How many Muslims are looked at differently because everyone around him thinks he’ll blow up the place? The answer is many, and is not only against Muslims. It’s not only about 9/11. It’s about little things, little stories that go around forcing people to think the wrong things about harmless Muslims, Latinos, Asians and African Americans. Now, I’m not saying prejudice is wrong. Every single person in this world is entitled to their own thoughts and beliefs, whether they are biased or not.  What I’m saying is that prejudice will end up being injustice when you act based on what you hear. Prejudice ends up being injustice when everyone seems to be ignoring the fact that an innocent boy was killed and the killer is just walking around as if nothing had happened.

                

What society should do to help is start telling the truth. Stop acting like you know what happened because all you did was hear stories. Stop blaming it on the weaker man because everyone seems to be doing the same thing. People need to stop basing themselves on what they hear, what they think they saw, and start standing up for what’s right. Not for what people want you to do, but for what everyone should stand up for. Stand up to defend the morals of life, defend justice and leave the judging to the court. We have enough people out there that judge each other on a daily basis and what we need now, in order to help innocent people like Trayvon is a brave, strong society that is willing to stop the guilty from running away.

                

Along the same lines of judging someone based on something you heard there is fear. Now, I fear things like loss. Loss because I know what it feels like to lose something or someone you love. But what’s funny is that people fear of the unknown. They fear of a black male coming up to them and killing them. When all they know is that some black males have killed people. They now think every single black male is going to kill them. Why? Because that’s what we do. We hear things, we believe things. We say things, and we start to believe them. This issue has been discussed for as long as I can remember. The issue of people thinking and believing things that you have no idea about. When you fear of the unknown, you fear of the innocent. If you fear of the innocent, you are basically scared of everyone. Once again, you need to learn to stop believing everything people say and start analyzing the facts, start standing up for yourself and start thinking and believing in what you think is right. Not what others tell you is right.

                

This might come out as a completely pessimist thought but I am going to be honest –this world is messed up. I am only 14 years old and I already live around people that judge you on everything you wear, you say, you think and you do. Everything. Sad thing is; it’s not our fault because we live around judgments. Kids judge, teens judge and even adults judge. It’s natural to fear of a man walking by himself with a hoodie over his head. It’s normal. What if that male was wearing a Ralph Lauren sweater and a pair of Armani shoes? Would he look, less suspicious? To human eyes, probably. But to eyes of justice he could be as dangerous or as innocent as anyone else out there. That is what stereotypes create. They create a layer of prejudice and fear in front of everyone’s eyes; and the only way we can stop that from intruding into our own beliefs, is to stop listening to other people’s definitions of guilty and innocent. What you think, is yours to believe and what you believe is what you should always stand up for. 

To Kill A Mockingbird- Chapter 8

For some reason, instead of spending weeks under the sweltering heat; we had snow. Considering that Maycomb was a small town, this was something bizarre for the elders. They all saw the change in the weather as a calamity, and knew the kids were conspiring chaos with all their misbehaving.

Despite Mrs. Radley’s death, Scout and I wanted to have fun before time elapsed and the snow melted. When we interrogated Atticus and asked him about Boo Radley, his attitude shackled the spark of interest and curiosity that had settled in me. Miss Maudie agreed to give us all the snow from her backyard and continued to lionize her plants. She said if the cold weather continued, it was imminent that her flowers would soon die.

Scout and I started to build a snowman with a dirt base – Scout called it a nigger snowman– and then we covered it with snow. I was very meticulous because my goal was to create a snowman that would look like our neighbor Mr. Avery.  When we finished our sculpture, Atticus was in dissension about the similarities it had with Mr. Avery and he lectured me on how it could hurt his feelings.  We ended up by putting some of Miss Maudie’s clothes on our snowman but I am still confused.  Miss Maudie said it looked like a Morphodite – something that to this point I do not apprehend.

The day went by very quick and thanks to the cold weather, our snowman assimilated in Maycomb County. I woke up to Atticus’ voice, telling me to get up. I knew something had happened. We awoke Scout and headed outside. It was a fire at Miss Maudie’s place. Scout and I waited across the street and tried to keep warm while all our neighbors –including Mr. Nathan– helped move all the furniture from Miss Maudie’s burning house.

When we got back to our house, Atticus asked Scout where she had gotten that quilt from. I was scared. According to Atticus, Boo Radley probably covered Scout while we were watching the fire and the thought of Boo being so close to us really freaked me out.  Although I wanted to tell Scout how scared I was, I knew I had to keep my composure. I had to act like a man.

We slept until noon, cleaned up our yard and returned Miss Maudie’s things. I thought she was going to be depressed but she was as happy as any other day. Sometimes I really admire her –even though she is pretty crazy.

Wordly Wise Lesson 6

Dear Lily,

            I don’t think you would ever expect this letter–ain’t like I planned on writing either. I hope… or I know you are doing fine. Assimilating you into their abode made me realize August and all those niggers might actually be nice. I’m kind of glad you’re gone—buying grits was not cheap. This is not one of those cheesy letters that fathers write to their long lost daughters so please don’t take it personally. I know how you like to think everybody loves you and will forever care about you.

             After I left you in Tiburon, I came back to town and all people did was talk about me. To be honest, this town is in a state of anarchy and people around here are goddamn dramatic. They say I was such a bad person, not only my wife but my daughter and maid abandoned me as well–ha ha ha–what they don’t know is what a pain in the ass you women were. But don’t think they lionize you here. When I came back, all they did was interrogate me about the day Rosaleen was apprehended. Thank goodness they didn’t go back to Tiburon to arraign you after all the calamitous problems you caused. I hired a lawyer that helped me get rid of all the shackles I was dealing with. Goddammit Lily, you and your stubbornness. The fact of writing a letter to you is bizarre, considering how mad I was–and still am– at you.

            I have no idea what conspiracy you had in mind but dissension keeps growing here. You were in the newspaper, and all the meticulous women that have nothing else to do but gossip, are well aware of what you did. I hope time elapses quick enough so they forget about everything that has been going on and I honestly hope those women don’t get tired of you and send you back. Don’t come here begging for forgiveness because all you’ll get is an hour of grits-oh, and I know how much you like those. Good luck and may your terrible behavior improve because if not, a person abandoning will be imminent. I should get going. The day is short and I have to walk all the way to the peach stand and sit on my ass all day –all your fault by the way. The heat is sweltering and there’s no one else willing to do the job, so farewell.

God bless you and please Lily, be a good girl.

Your father,

T.Ray

The Problem We All Live With

This picture is called The Problem We All Live With and it is a painting done by Normal Rockwell in January of 1964. It features a colored girl, Ruby Bridges, on her way to school, surrounded by white guards.  What I think is so great about this picture is Ruby’s naïve image. Back then she was just a six-year old girl, on her way to the first day of school at William Frantz. This scene originally took place on November 14, 1960 and Ruby’s brave image can be seen in this painting. Even though segregation was cruel during that time, Ruby Bridges was only thinking about school. While people think about her being the only “colored” girl, the only “black” girl in William Frantz, it was only a school day for her.

Ruby Bridges had to be escorted by the Federal marshals that day and that’s whom the white bodies represent. The wall behind Ruby has two important signs, details that Norman Rockwell added in order to make this scene extremely shocking and signs that one might not see.  First of all, there is a huge graffiti saying NIGGER and Ruby Bridges is walking right across it. On the top left corner of the painting there are three K’s, the initials of the racist group Ku Klux Klan. Lastly, there is a tomato, lying on the ground after hitting the wall behind Ruby. This tells the viewer that the crowd was trying to hit Ruby but missed and instead, hit the NIGGER sign.

Like I said before whoever sees this painting is well aware of the situation surrounding Ruby. You can see the demeaning words, a thrown tomato, and the federal government guards escorting this little girl during her first day of school. You see how cruel segregation was and you feel sad for how gruesome it must have felt to be Ruby Bridges. Now, that is a completely different perspective than what Ruby saw that day. During her interview at the White House she said, “The girl in that painting at six years old new absolutely nothing about racism. I was going to school that day”. She also clarifies that over time, she learned that hatred is passed on to us when we are children and that no one, should be judged by the color of their skin. This really changes the perspective from the viewer (us) and the protagonist (Ruby). It shows how innocent a child can be while the rest of the world is only spreading hate.

Every person sees things differently. What I think when I see the picture is probably different from what you thought when you saw the picture. Our eyes see different things, find meaning in objects the other might not see, and feel sad about scenes the other might not recognize. Therefore, it is impossible to know exactly what Norman Rockwell was trying to imply when he drew this painting. Norman Rockwell was known for drawing scenes about the normal, common American family. I can’t imagine what people thought when they saw the picture on January 14^th, 1964. Because Norman was known for his conservative paintings this meant he really wanted to make a point. I think he was simply trying to show people what was going on. Segregation had gotten to such a level that even six-year old girls were involved. It got to a point were not even colored children could peacefully walk to school without having to see what the world was becoming. What Americans were doing was inhuman, and to him, it made no sense that this poor girl couldn’t even walk to school without seeing racist signs and being discriminated by the crowd around her.

The first thing I see when I look at this painting is Ruby. No matter what, I see her. She’s so present, with her head held high, her school books in her hand, her white dress, and her ribbon. I think this is why Norman Rockwell decided to crop the guards’ faces. He wanted everyone to see Ruby. I like the way Ruby is looking ahead, with her right foot stepping forward, not caring about the signs or the guards in front of her. Her white dress gives me the idea of pureness, innocence. That girl is only worried about school. The next thing I see is the NIGGER sign, and the tomato. As you see these things you start to realize what the whole scene means. I see how the tomato hit the wall, a missed attempt of hitting the poor girl. The graffiti on the wall inmediately creates a bravery image for Ruby. I see her expression, the way she is not even looking back at the wall. The Federal marshals are part of the painting but I don’t think it’s what Norman really wanted us to see. It is just a detail to remind the people of that day, the day the African-American girl was escorted to school by the deputy marshals. The three K’s was definitely the last thing I saw, after looking and scanning the picture for more details. It is there for the viewer to discover, a tiny detail. So that when all the demeaning signs around it have sunk into the viewer’s heart, the three K’s will show up, reminding us all, of the world we live in.

The name, The Problem We All Live With sums up the entire point of the painting. We live in a world where everyone judges their neighbor, their friend, the stranger passing by. A world where the last thing we think about is how the other might feel. And to me that is the so called “problem we all live with”. The problem of discrimination. Whether it’s toward African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, or just discrimination to that one person we don’t like. This is our problem. Judging people just because we feel like it, just because everyone is doing it, just because our first impression of them wasn’t good enough.

Travel Journal- OMG...one more day

I wish boring things were over instantly. And I wish vacations lasted forever. But then, life would be too fair, and too good. This week went by so quickly and it seemed unreal that I'm back at home. Seems like 2 days ago I was leaving Panama, not IN Panama. However I did do lots of things. I read a lot, which is my new goal for 2012. I read this amazing book in Spanish about a girl getting kidnapped by the FARC and all that she went through. It was a diary and it made me cry. I got to spend some more time with my family, especially my grandma that is now 90 years old. She's really sick now and it breaks my heart to see her cry when I leave. I also ate like crazy. This is a picture I took of a little pastry called miloja. Its really good.

Today I was in the waiting room thingy on the airport and I saw Angelica. Turns out we were on the same plane. My mom and her mom sat together, and I sat with her.We caught up and talked, then we played who wants to be a millionaire (again) and then we saw this funny show. Of course we had to take a picture and look bad. 

Now that I'm back home, I feel weird. I'm excited I'm back and you kind of get used to your house, your stuff and your home. I'm extremely sad as well because I love my family, my sister , everyone and I miss them so much. Tomorrow is my uncle's birthday and they're throwing a surprise party.Friends and family will be there. And I won't. 

Travel Journal- Starting To Feel Like The Real Thing

So my vacations so far have been interesting and considering the vacations I've had for the past 14 years, its really, really weird. Vacations for me are like, not moving, sleeping, bed, TV, those kind of things. Long story short, today I went to my uncle's apartment, where my dog (ex. dog you could say) lives. We had lunch, and oh god, I ate so much. You guys, have NO idea. Then, my uncle took out this old chest with about 253729458734907 pictures of when everything was old, and the pictures were black and white, and...you get it. Then grown ups got boring so I decided to read The Secret Life of Bees (that by the way, turned to be really interesting). Then, we came home and I started writing this and thought how cool it would be to show you guys a picture of the funny looking thingy mo-bobs were my uncle puts his pictures in. So I asked my mom what they were called, and we couldn't find the name. So we decided to look at some of my grandma's things to see if she had one and found something even better. So instead of describing it, I took some pictures:

We found this funny looking thing. So you put the negative in the little screen, kind of were my finger is...and then you look through the magnifying glass and BAMMM you see the picture. It was amazing. Funny how this is extremely old yet so incredible to my clearly-not-so-smart-self. :)

My mom and dad. My dad is clearly using his guitar playing skills to captivate my mother.Maybe that is why I love guys...that play guitar.
Hahahaha look at her face. She's like <3

Travel Journal-Wonders Made in Sand

Whenever we come to Colombia...we just stay home and do nothing. But for some strange reason, my parents decided to actually take us places. Anyways, first of all we went to this little town called Zipaquirá. That's where my parents met and we got to see the actual hospital where they used to work on. Then, we went to the Catedral de Sal which is like a big deal here. I think its the 11th wonder of the world or something. Its pretty cool. People think its made of salt because its called the "salt cathedral" but its not. I mean some parts are but it is basically an underground tunnel that was made into a museum. 

Next day we went to this center they have here in Bogotá. Its a tour that comes from all over the world were artists build the wonders of the world in sand. I thought that was really lame because how could you make a solid, detailed sculpture out of sand? Made no sense. But  when we actually saw it...OH MY GOD. The detail and how real they looked, its amazing. Like I can't even describe how awesome the sculptures looked! 

Today I just went to a mall, and... yeah. My dad is leaving the 8th, hes going back to Panama but my mom and I will stay here until the 14th. I hope you are all having a great time and...yeah. :)

   That was like, the worst scultpture ok?