Tallula Pollard Mr. Moody ELA 8 R1 3/2/17 Child Soldiers War Victims Or Perpetrators Our world cannot simply forget about children who have been taken and made into soldiers. Child soldiers are children who have been taken from their beaten down homes from war. These kids want revenge, they want food, water, shelter, but they can’t do these things on their own because they are children. This might make them seem like perpetrators but don’t you think it is mostly our needs that they're looking for. We need to help them. Not seeking to destroy them or blame these kids for making a mistake or being flat out out innocent, but to free them. All they’ve ever known is “war”, “destruction”, “revenge” and “death”. I will not stand seeing these children hurt. We go to war with them and we think they're the bad people? Yes, we may get hurt but they are getting hurt as well. They have no choice, they're just kids trying to figure out “who they are” and “who will protect them?” Child Soldiers are victims because they are too young to make adult decisions. When child soldiers are recruited they are forced and don’t get the chance to really think about the decision because they are adolescents. Children are often recruited because they are easy to manipulate. When kids don’t do what they're asked by the adults they get punished and drugged so they cooperate. Kids, ages 17 and younger are usually recruited because they are not officially adults. People often portray child soldiers as perpetrators. They think regardless of the child’s age, or state of mind, they should be held accountable for what they did. But, they are children that should not be condemned for their actions if they are under adult influence and threats. Meaning they should know what they have done and learn from it, but shouldn't be blamed for their mistakes they made in the past that they were forced to do. They know they have to obey orders or they’ll get killed or tortured, so why should they be held accountable? “In the last ten years over two million children have been killed, over one million orphaned, over six million have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled and over 10 million have been diagnosed with psychological trauma.” The drugs and alcohol make the children become more enabled to commit acts of war which they never would have done before. Do you think children would waste their lives or hurt themselves on purpose during the war with their own free will? “Under drugs and many other manipulative things they would do anything even risk their lives because they can’t control themselves. However, once they are recruited the children become over reliant on their commanders for shelter, money, water, drugs and alcohol that they find an extreme difficulty to leave. Children at that young age will rarely ever have the same understanding as an adult.” Can you see yourself as a child soldier? Can you understand the pain they went through? Most of these child soldiers die before even getting released, and that’s a fact. After a rare occurrence that a child soldier is released or “set free” they feel foul maybe even upset. Some kids that have the chance to leave may miss the people who gruesomely punished them because that's all they knew at the time. All child soldiers after released and I mean all because they have nightmares about their life at these camps and regret the things they do, these nightmares never go away, I know this from watching a video about this child soldier telling the world about his experience and the nightmares and his regrets and how they're always there. Do you know the saying you are what your parents are? Like, these adults act, how they go to war all the time, these kids knew nothing else but war and punishment. That is why people have a misconception of child soldiers because they don’t know what they have gone through and what they had to do for themselves to survive. It didn’t seem like these children had a choice whether or not they go to war or not, if they didn’t they’d most likely get punished. Ishmael Beah, a child soldier who escaped and was set free. He lived through this incident first handed, he saw mothers, fathers holding their children and not knowing their dead. Ishmael Beah saw his mom, dad, and brothers, he was devastated. He was taken in by these commanders and was taught how to kill and how to use weapons. He was 12 at this time, he was fed drugs, and if he didn’t do as he was told he would be killed. He was scared and traumatized, all his human emotions change his mind and he ends up look up to the commanders as a father figure because he lost everything. He still has nightmares, he can’t forget what happen to him and live with it. He knows what it’s like to be unfree. He believed that “if you can’t forgive you can forgive yourself”. These kids cannot only be feared but fear for their lives. They are in constant threat because of the people who “own them”. If the don’t do anything or do it right they are threatened with their lives to teach a “lesson”. Child soldiers join for food, water, shelter that they will do anything for. Despite this, their kids they easily make mistakes when threatened. Everyone, even us make mistakes, We must help them. We will help them. We will save them. We will save them from their worst nightmare. We will, even if it means our lives. These children are our future even if their different skinned or live in a different country. We can’t see them make wrong choices without our guidance. By doing so their future will be better than ours. We must lead them through the right path, for all of us. Realizing what they are, are lost children who are afraid of what will happen. The children who were able to escape only fear their own nightmare’s. Don’t you think we need to help them? Once their grown up I can see them taking responsibility for what they’ve done in the past, but it’s in the past we let it go or they let it go. These children are victims whether people like it or not, it’s clear that you cannot blame them. Even if people were too that would be a mistake. These children had no choice they were drugged, tricked, beaten, and threatened what else can they do? Realize that we need to help them, these children are innocent. These children are the victims. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4yhPSQEzo
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By: Cassie, Tallula and Janki It’s the 1960’s and political correctness is nowhere near correct. People of color were treated discriminatorily. The people have little to no aspiration to have the subject resolved. That is, besides Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Speaking out against the discrimination, they aspire to discover the solution.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X have corresponding and opposing viewpoints. They both agree that people need to be treated equally. That African Americans are treated inequitably. However, they both take a disparate approach on the matter. The issue is they both want equality for every race, but wish to achieve the upshot in different procedures. The speeches “I Have A Dream” by Martin Luther King Jr. and “Address to a Meeting in New York, 1964” by Malcolm X indulge similar opinions. For example, they both included quotes in their speeches to epitomize indignation and imprisonment. “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of negro slaves who had been seared in the flames withering injustice”, a quote in which Martin Luther King Jr. detailed how African Americans were situated into the roles of poverty. “He makes the mistake of charging the one who awaken him with having set the fire”, Malcolm X attributes the fury that he had towards the topic. They both concur to the rage that happened to transpire with their position in society. Along with their similarities, they have opposing point too. Malcolm X conjectures that African Americans should do whatever they need to to get where they need to be. “He continued to criticize white institutions that hindered social equality and he argued that blacks should use any means necessary to gain justice”, Malcolm X dives straight to the focus of fighting for their rights, while Martin Luther King Jr. compels people to hope and be patient for their rights, as detailed in the quote, “In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred”. In conclusion the attitudes of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X expose their hatred for black and white segregation. Both desired freedom and were determined to achieve this goal. Malcolm X by any means wanted to get segregation extinguished forever. Martin Luther King counted on “hope” and “speech” to achieve this goal as well. The two believed and felt many things, things they wanted to fix or dissolve because they were speaking up for others without voices. Malcolm X stood for the civil rights movement which helped him get his rising conflicts to dissolve. Martin Luther King certainly thinks that many things need to stop, but he believed doing this in a more peaceful way, a peaceful transition. He was hoping others would speak up like he did. A day at Con
By Tallula Pollard Lolli woke up one morning and said to herself, “I should go to a con, but what would I cosplay as?” She scheduled the next con on her calendar. She asked her friends if they are going and what she would wear. “We should dress up as the crystal gems, I can be Stevonnie and you can be Pearl”, her friend said. “Sure, good idea.” They decided to go as crystal gems. Lolli choose to be Pearl and her friend Isabella chose to be Stevonnie. The next day she drove to Joann’s to get fabric. She needed to get a yellow star to sew on her shirt of light blue that was the spitting image of the sky. She sewed the star onto the shirt herself, she admitted that the shirt was very comfortable. She got her pants, socks, shoes and wig styled and ready in just a week. She made her weapon out of air dry clay, it felt like was melting which felt very strange. She painted the staff the same color as her shirt.\ She took hours getting the wig to defy gravity. Her wig would have to be above her head. Her pants fitted her well and she was about ready for con. She forgot to make the gem though so she made the gem out of air dry clay and put it on her forehead. She didn’t know if it looked right so she asked her sister Tallula to see if it looked ok. Lolli was ready for con! She looked exactly like Pearl which she was hoping for. So elegant and graceful. She was very prepped and ready. *** It was the day of the con. She met up with more of her friends that decided to go. Her friends outfits are so amazing , they had props that made their outfit look even better just like Lolli. They were a bit early to con because they got there at 9:00a.m. Honestly the con was breathtaking to see although it was like a gathering of nerds. While they were there they made friends that liked the same tv shows as them as well as anime they both enjoy. They took many pictures with people, so many people wanted pictures with Pearl A.K.A Lolli. Although Lolli had to ask all the spidey people to take a picture with. They got people to laugh and smile because they have a good sense of humor, they realized that meeting new people and socializing is so much fun. Which also gives them the benefit of getting a laugh too. |
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March 2017
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