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From: Martinez, David <dmartinez80@cps.edu>
Date: Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 7:45 AM
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To: twinfrey2000.kennedykid@blogspot.com

David Martinez

Wrong color, bad timing

Living in a world where we can only wear black or white. Not being able to wear your favorite color just because you might get mixed up and shot. We teens live in a messed up generation in which we can't wear any type of color because we are too scared of the outcome. I've been in a couple of these situations, but the latest was the most terrifying since I had a gun pointed at me. I had just left a party in which my cousin and I were wearing baby blue shirts with black dress pants. We had barely finished pumping gas into his car when a black tundra just parked in front of us and a couple of people came out with guns pointed at us. This was all in pilsen and two weeks ago. Now imagine what has happened in the past years. There was a killing over wrong shoe color. On May 29, 2015 a special needs teen was shot and killed in front of his mother over shoe color. His name was Tavin Price he walked in into a store where he was approached by somebody who asked him to take off his red tennis shoes, assuming they were gang affiliated. Tavin walked out the store and told his mom in which she said lets go. Before they could leave a gang member approached them and shot Tavis in front of his mother. How sad is that the teen was shot only for wearing red tennis shoes.  When memorial weekend came there were 56 shot, and 12 killed. We cant have a peaceful weekend to remember those who gave their life for this chaotic city to go on. There have been 180 deaths this year only for Chicago. Most of the people that were shot were either blacks or Latinos. These gangs are taking over everything we care about. If they really want to kill or die they should just join the army since they have a opportunity to kill and die for their country, family, and friends. Many of these people rather kill innocent people to enjoy their lives not knowing the damage they do to the victims.  

David Martinez

Creative writing

Pilsen

My favorite place has always and will be pilsen. I was born there and have most of my family there. Pilsen has always been my favorite place to be, it always makes me calm down when Im having problems. The artists in this neighborhood are known for their murals and paintings. You can't go to one street without seeing a mural, painting, or tagging. The people there are mostly Latinos who are doing there best to make their kids have a better future and have more than their parent had, that's the goal of each Mexican parent. The only bad thing about this place are the gangs but where aren't there gangs to screw up everything that their generations before worked hard to built. That place is always busy, loud, and dangerous. There are many festivals that are made there which are pretty good. The many people that live there always wake up early since their jobs are mostly in downtown or in factories which start there day at five or six in the morning. The kids are expected to be more in life to later repay their parents for all their sacrifices that they have done to make a living for their kids. My grandma had to leave her kids back in mexico and didn't see them till they were fifteen or sixteen years old. Many families leave love ones back in their home country to come to this supposedly "land of money" which is all a hoex.

Kobe editoral

Violence in Chiraq

Why all the violence in Chicago? Have you seen people sneak dissing on social media? Have you heard about the gun violence and gangs in Chicago? Music in Chicago has a big influence on gun violence in gangs in the city of Chicago. Chief Keef a well known Chicago rapper who has put out music about gangs in Chicago. He also had beef with the late rapper little JoJo who was shot and killed for making a rap video that was dissing chief keef's gang. 50 to 80% of the murders in Chicago are gang related. Most of the reasons for them is social media. The only way to stop gun violence, gangs, and sneak dissing on social media is to bring awareness about these issues in the city of Chicago. The way to do this is by having marches and pep rallies. We as Chicagoans have to take action and let our Politicians know that we are tired of the violence in the city of Chicago. We have to make sure that we watch over our neighborhood carefully and closely. That we keep our neighborhood safe and secure for the little kids in the neighborhood. The killings in Chicago that happen are so stupid. It's these young teenagers and gangs trying to make a name for themselves and act tough to impress their peers. The sad thing about it is that they need a gun to do so. Once the parents start watching their child closely most of these immature killings and shootings happen in the city of Chicago. Some neighborhoods in Chicago are terrorized by gangs and gun violence that all the kids don't want to come outside and play. By all of this happening the teenagers between ages 13 and up are influenced by doing it. Only because their friends are doing it and they want their friends to think they are cool.   All in all I think the violence won't stop in Chicago until we take action. That we Chicagoans come together and keep each other safe. We must do this to insure that we live in a better city that is big and beautiful that is called Chicago and not chiraq. 

Is this really home? By Daniela Zepeda

Daniela Zepeda

Is this really home?

You hear about it all the time, in the news or the radio, a young boy was shot… mother wipes for her baby’s death… but you think to yourself “ that won’t happen to me.”

Dozens of homicides and about 80 percent are gang related. From month year old babies to teens who are being shot daily from a bullet that could have been prevented.

Is home really a home when your love one is gone? Think about it, can you really call a place home when you can’t even walk around your block without having the fear of getting shot? It’s the reason why so many families have been separated from their loved ones.

The quote “Don’t shot, I want to grow up,” is an example of how many gang related shootings involve an innocent child who was maybe on his way to school. A child that could have still been here and perhaps be able to graduate from 8^th grade.

In Chicago, according to ABC News there are 100,000 gang members but only 12,000 cops. Just in 2015 alone, since October 18, there are 419 homicides, more than the US soldiers in Afghanistan of 259 homicides. The murder rate in Chicago is 4 times higher than NYC and more than 2.5 times higher than Las Angeles.

Jonylah Watkins, a 6 month year old baby was shot on March 11, 2013 while her Dad, Jonathon Watkins, was changing his baby’s diaper in the passenger’s seat. Jonylah had 5 gunshot wounds and her dad suffered from several other gunshot wounds, but Jonylah died just a day later. Nine months to bring her in this world and 6 months for someone to open fire and take the life of an innocent.

How many more deaths does it take so Chicago can open up their eyes and do something about it. Nevertheless, it wasn’t your baby who was shot, right? And what if it was your child who died that gunshot? Its only when it happens to you when you decide to do something about it.

It’s scary to think that your children can be shot at any minutes in any place because even being in front of your house isn’t safe. But we tend to close our eyes to reality and act like it’s not our problem. It’s our home, the place you and your children grew up in and it’s definitely our problem.

We at least know one person who was shot from gang violence and died. If we don’t act now your son/ daughter could be the next victim on the news who has been reported dead from a gunshot. Like Dr. Sues ones said “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” 

Please don't kill me!

Please don't kill me

Don't shot I want to grow up! That's the posters around Chicago's neighborhoods to try to stop the violence. Without knowing we are so afraid of our little children to grow up in such a mess up world, where people fight to see who has more power. But by killing innocent children, killing others as well. As a matter of fact gangs have always taken a big part of Chicago's residents, ever since 1919 when the segregation started. Two different groups started fighting over territory over where they were supposed to be. Sadly this violence still happens until now, but now is not because of territory to see who has more power without caring about the ethnicity of the group. In 2014, on the month of July about 278 were wounded and shot and on August 54 murders. The rate of violence in summer is the worst; the gangs have no way to stop. Most of the murders also are students, innocent kids that might be playing outside their house. This innocent kids that are barely growing up seem to even be scare going home or on their way to school. Yet, these gangs take advantages of these kids and try to incorporate them into the wrong path. Chicago is known by "Chiraq" we can't call a place home after all this violence and killing. The killing of innocent kids, for example on a sunny afternoon more like a June day, Aliyah a 6 year old girl was killed, by several gunshots in her  abdomen. She later died at Mount Sinai Medical Center. No innocent kid should be killed; they don't get to choose their future. Later on, they had a memorial day to remember her, with lots of balloons and people saying the memories they had of her. But it doesn't stop there, more violence still happens.  Theirs more people kill in Chicago rather than U.S soldiers in Afghanistan. Violence is not going to stop ever, but what we could do is help those others that still have the opportunity to succeed. For example theirs this association that helps others, young adults and kids to feel safe to play in the park. Beyond the Ball for 7 years almost have try to get everyone out of the streets, by cleaning the community, doing art, sports, even some of them get to get jobs. It's just the effort you make to succeed in life. No other innocent people have to die, or be afraid of going out. This should be a safe country for those who choose the right path. Everyone has the right to live right and not to be afraid of the violence of "Chiraq's" streets.

 

 

 

Racism Can Kill The "Beautiful Game"

Racism and soccer cannot be one thing, soccer is the world's most played sport and racism being part of the "beautiful game" affects the way it is viewed. Will soccer players keep facing racism? According to fan's actions and comments it will continue. Mario Balotelli, the Liverpool striker, faces racism every so often. Each and every dark skinned soccer player gets racist comments yelled at them from the stands. All these bad compliments have made players walk out of the soccer field because of how bad they are looked down at. Another soccer player Gervinho, the Ivory Coast winger, faced a crucial racist assault at his game with his club Roma when a inflatable banana balloon was thrown at him and called a black monkey, the whole stadium started laughing at him because of that. These types of assaults are very offensive, therefore the fans should be fined or even banned from entering the stadium simply because racism shouldn't exist in a "beautiful game" like soccer. Another victim facing racism is FC Barcelona's defender, Dani Alves. An actual banana was thrown at him during a game, his response to this racial insult was to pick the banana up from the grass and took a bite from it. Another racial problem faced in soccer is a fan saying racial slurs to another fan. A white 8 year old boy turned to an opposing team fan and yelled, "black monkey!" Insulting a dark skinned fan once again because of the skin color, youths shouldn't be raised that way to put others down. People should educate their youth not to be racist since racism has been a big problem in soccer. Every soccer player, fan and people in general should be seen equally regardless of their skin colors because at the end of the day everyone is a human being with different backgrounds and cultures. Racism will never stop but if one wishes that it comes to an end then be the difference you wish to see in the world.  

Roberto Garcia

Editorial

Violence in Chicago

The high number of killings and violence in Chicago have given it its nickname Chiraq. Many people feel unsafe to even go outside in their own neighborhoods because of this violent city. People say that this violence is due to high gang activity in the streets of Chicago. Mainly gun violence and gang activity has put fear into the lives of the people from the Windy City.

In the news story “5 dead, and 29 wounded in weekend shootings across Chicago” it says, “Five people were killed, and at least 29 others have been wounded including an off-duty Policeman, in separate shootings across Chicago.” This tells us that in only one weekend 5 people were killed, and 29 were wounded due to the violence in Chicago. Chicago's local law enforcement isn't even safe on these streets. These gangs don’t seem to care who they point their guns at.

From October 18, 2014 up to date there has been 419 murders caused by gang activity. This is more than twice of Los Angeles’s murders. We also have to take into consideration that LA’s population is a lot higher than Chicago’s. This high murder rate due to gang activity has claimed the lives, not only of other gang members, but of innocent people through Chicago. You see on the news of innocent kids being shot because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time. These gangs in Chicago are vicious and reckless.

Ultimately, it would take lots of time to cleanse these streets of such violent gangs but the best approach would be to reinforce law enforcement to areas high in gang activity and slowly regain our streets so people will stop being afraid to step outside their door. The numerous deaths caused by this violence is too high to go unnoticed and something needs to be done. People need to do something about this and act.

The Younger Gereration

I think the biggest problem in Chicago is how the younger generation acts. Nowadays it’s hard for many younger people to “fit” in or find the right place for them. The majority of the problems tend to happen in middle school and high school; maybe even elementary school. High school is a rough four years for many people.. Either going down the good or the wrong path. What happens to many people is that they tend to try and act like everyone else so they end in the wrong path. They start doing drugs or even gangbanging, but that’s not going to get them far in life. Everyday many lives are taken because of gang relation violence and the lives that are taken are sometimes the innocent bystanders. Not only the outside, but a lot happened inside schools too. Chicago Public Schools isn’t the best place to send your child to school. Not saying things don’t have in other schools, but students sell drugs, act out in class, and even start fights for no reason. For example students cuss out their teachers when they aren’t happy about their grades, but in all reality it’s because they don’t pay attention or try. Selling drugs have become easier to sell in school because they don’t have the police dogs come in the school and search around. In suburb schools the police dogs come in and check and when someone has drugs they get taken to jail. If that were to happen here in these schools they wouldn’t be sold as much. Also, violence in another problem. Fights over irrelevant drama happen often. So many things can be done to stop these problems from happening, but it’s almost out of control. This is partially the reason why the older generation doesn’t have respect for the younger gernations and judges everything they do.

Anthony Gonzalez CW Final

Anthony Gonzalez

Period.1

CW Final

Police Brutality

        Police Brutality is a problem that has been going on for decades in America. The problem is that police have too much power and they feel the need to abuse their power instead of protecting the people. Not all police are bad but a majority of today's police take advantage of what they have. Instead of serving and protecting the nation they're hurting the nation and many cases show that. Recently what's been going on with the news is police officers have been seen and recorded arresting civilians and trying to calm down crowds. The problem with all this is they're not only arresting people but they're brutally arresting them with excessive force and very unacceptable behavior. There has been unfortunate events where the police think it's okay to gun down civilians because they're "chasing down the suspect" and as they proceed to gun down victims they know before hand that the victim either didn't have any weapons, the victim wasn't resisting arrest, or the officer was well aware that excessive force was being used during the procedure, but as police officers they believe they have every right to "do their duty" and harm and or murder the victim. This isn't right what so ever. Not only are the police killing civilians but they're affecting the victim's loved ones. In recent time riots have broken out for cases like Freddie Gray in Baltimore who had his head smashed into a car by police, the teens who were arrested with extreme force in Mckinney Texas, and for teens who were shot dead by police in Chicago. Another major problem with all this is that most of the time it's a white police officer who commit these unjust crimes on African American civilians. The black community hasn't taken things very lightly and neither have other concerned American civilians. Protests that lead into riots goes to show how much the people are willing to take and that isn't much more. Anarchy is no answer to anything but a sign of horrible things to come if the police don't quit their non-sense. The people of America have more reasons to not feel safe on the streets and that new reason is that civilians don't want to be murdered because police officers feel it's the right thing to do. Officers that commit these crimes rarely receive the justice they deserve and it sickens many people. This proves that these specific police officers are the real criminals. Keep in mind not every police officer is bad because that's not true at all but many officers are just as bad the "criminals" roaming the streets and the only difference is that officers are protected by their badge and their gun. All in all the main problem in America is police brutality and the only way for things to get better is for the government to demand that all police officers have cameras in their cars and uniforms to ensure that only the real criminals serve time and not defenseless civilians.

Hailee Fitch

1st period

June 9, 2015

Socially Awkward

 As I'm writing this paper about 32.7 people may be raped.

  " Rape: the crime, typically committed by a man, of forcing another person to have sexual intercourse with the offender against their will."

   683,000 American women are forcibly raped each year. 56,916 per month; 1,871 per day; 78 per hour; and 1.3 per minute. 

  "Don't tell me how to dress, tell them not to rape."  This quote along with many others are carried around on posters around the world, yet no one listens. Girls are judged by what they wear, called sluts, whores, etc and because of this boys think it's okay to rape because their clothes "provoked" them.  Girls nowadays can't wear what they want or what they at one time felt combatable in because they have to be worried about being sexually attacked.

   Being sexually attacked can cause so many problems physically and mentally. Almost one-third (31%) of all rape victims developed PTSD sometime during their lifetime; and more than one in ten rape victims (11%) still has PTSD today.  PTSD is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Which means each day they relive the trauma of having part of their innocence torn away from them.  Rape victims will attempt to avoid thoughts, situations, or people that are reminders of the trauma. Their anxiety will increase so much most of them will be on medicine for it (not including the medicine for depression). Being constantly on guard for danger, and being easily startled is their natural reactions to everything.

  Men need to start understanding the word no.  Men need to understand that when women are raped they are never the same after this. The girls feel as if they are worthless. Most women who are raped usually go through serious social withdrawals, depression and most of the time substance abuse. The social part is because she doesn't want to be put in the same situation that got her raped in the first place. From the research I have done, it seems like many women feel "dirty" and like they did something wrong to deserve being raped. The rape makes them feel like if they can be used like that they aren't really worth anything. Drug abuse is fairly common since for most women it can be an escape from the feelings they have

  Now let's take a moment to pray for the 32.7 people that were possibly raped while I was writing this paper.

Jenessa Martinez
March 4, 2015

Short Story

A beautiful young women named Diana Rodriguez was only 17 years old she was born in Guadalajara Jalisco she moved to Chicago when she was only 4. She lives with her Mother, Adela and her 3 Sisters, Rossie, Alex, and Veronica  and her 3 brothers Armando, Jorge, Juan Carlos out of the 7 brother and sisters Diana was the baby. One night her Mom and her sister Alex decided to to the bar they wanted to take Diana for the first time, but the problem was that Diana was only 17 years old, her mom said " Diana let's go you don't have to drink any alcohol we just want to go because theres this really cute dj who plays really good cumbias and other types of songs" Diana said " Are you sure I can go I'm only 17 and it's my first time going to a bar" Her Mom said " Yes I'm sure, let's just go for a bit and come home right away" Diana said "Mom but what about my ID, don't I need one Just in case they have to see how old am I?" Her Mom said "Don't worry we will get you in some way" Diana said "Okay". Diana, Alex, and her Mom were getting ready to go out. Diana decided to wear a nice black dress with a bit of sparkles above the waist with a nice pair of black open toe high heels. In less than 30 min they were all ready to go out.It was only 9:16pm they were on their way to the bar called "Mexico Moderno" the bar was only 15 min away. Diana was a bit excited about going into the bar for the first time . "Hey Mom are we almost there" Diana asked. "Yes we're almost there" Diana's Mom said. In about 5 min they finally arrived to the bar. Dianas Mom parked behind the bar since there was a parking lot there. All of them got off the car and started walking to the bar. " Hey Diana are you excited or what?" Alex said. "Yes I am just  abut nervous" Diana said. 

jackie

It's always going to be my family over anything and anyone. Even though we fuss and fight with each other and argue. My mom can be annoying to me at times but I know it's only because she cares. But there was one day. A day where I didn't know why I was acting the way I was. I was surprised, everyone was. My mom and I had gotten into an argument over something so small. Many kids parents let their children be out late and they don't have curfew. While on the other hand my parents are nothing near those parents. My parents are stricter. So one day I had asked my parents permission to go out with my friends. My mom said I had to be home at 8:30 because it was a school day. So I had went out to enjoy being my friends for a little while because I really don't go out. My friends and I had went to downtown. I remember that we went to the ice skating ring, we went out to eat and we went to the water tower. It was a pretty good day. I had totally forgot about the curfew. I forgot that I still needed to take the train back. It was 8 and I was worried. I told my friend that I had to leave already. So we left the water tower since it was the last place we were at. Then to make it even worse nobody knew how to get back to the train station in downtown we spent at least one hour trying to figure out where it was. We asked people for help but they weren't being specific enough. I was really worried because I knew that if I didn't make it back to midway by 8:30 my mom would be really mad and I wouldn't be able to go out for a week or two. My mom was already blowing up my phone. She was really mad. By the time I got back to midway I was in trouble. My mom was cursing me out she said my stepdad was mad at me. She told me she was trying to cover up for me and lied to him. After I heard that my mom and I started arguing to the point where I was going to leave my house. My stepdad and her argue because of me. So I thought it was the best if I left. But I realize that the only reason I get yelled at all the time is to learn my lessons. If you want to earn your parents trust you have to follow their rules. It's always for your own good not Thiers. Their always going to be your real friends and stick by your side through thick and thin.

Hailee Fitch

Winfrey 1st period

Food memory

Dance girls

My favorite food memory is that after every dance competition my dance team and I would go eat at portillos. After a long weekend of only being able to eat healthy we got to go and eat the food we actually wanted to eat. It is such a good memory because we would all go together and pretty much take up the whole place. We would push all the tables together and make one big one. We would order so much food it looked like thanksgiving dinner. We would sit around while waiting for our food talking about the weekend and how great we did. Once we all got our food we would say a prayer. It sounds cheesy I know, but we were so grateful for us being able to dance and how good we did over the weekend. We had to do it every time. It was one of the biggest traditions we had. After we prayed we all ate and the whole place got so quite. We were so excited to finally eat something unhealthy nobody talked. All you heard throughout the whole place was chewing, crunching, slushing, munching, gulping, and swallowing. This is such a great memory because these girls and boys will forever be my family. Being able to all sit down and enjoy and amazing meal makes me very happy. After a long, crazy, scary, and emotional weekend I knew we would always come together and be happy to hangout as the big family we were.

David Martinez

Creative writing

May 14, 2015

Dear mom

You will always be there for me, there’s no one in this entire galaxy that  can take your possession as my mom from you, you’ve showed me everything I know this day , I will always be grateful to God that he made me your baby, I don’t care if your dropping me off at school and people see me give you a kiss and call me a mama’s boy, I will say call me whatever you want because that’s a title I’ve earned by being your son, thank you for being there whenever I needed you even if it was for the good or the bad you always stucked by my side. Mama I LOVE YOU!!! I’ve seen you grow older and I pray to God to leave you here with me a while longer, but we all know God sooner or later takes his children back and entitles them eternal life, I will always appreciate you for taking me to church and showing me the bible, I have learn so many things from there, made many friends and also learned to teach on the front and to do a prediction on what the story is going to be, I will ALWAYS be your baby mama never forget that. If you ever need me I will be there and won’t care if I need to go across the world to be with you because I would do it in a heartbeat. You will always be the queen of my world and no one can take that title from you mom, I know I sometimes get you mad by doing my stupid stunts, but it’s just that I have to learn sooner or later right? And I rather learn it from you since you’ve been the care taker of this stupid little boy who likes being hurt or learning the hard way, I’m sorry if I ever made you cry, its hard for me to see you cry. I always feel like someone shot me or even broke my heart, but in the end you’re my jefa and the best person I’ve ever known. I love your personality and the care you have given us. You’re the one who knows my struggles and knows from past experiences on how to help your little stupid boy, I know you really care about me since you always tell me to cover up or to have food on the table, just by seeing your smile makes me feel a lot better. I will never forget your smile or laugh. Now you got me crying by making you this little note full of memories that I just can’t explain since I’ve had so many with you.