Juvenile Justice System

Judge to decide in May whether teen will be charged as adult in crime spree.

A 15-year-old teenager that was accuse in February of a crime spree, along with a teenager Sirquain Burr, 17-year-old, that has been charged of face murder, attempted murder and other charges. The crime was at the Brownsburg area, IN.

The crime was a multi-car accident that was the result of a police chase involving a suspect of a shooting earlier in the day.

The defendant was and still is 15-year-old at the time of the crime and at the time of the trial.

The charges that the 15-year-old teen is being charged for be accomplice of Sirquain Burr while he shot and killed Yingling, who was in the driver’s seat of his truck in the 3300 block of Babette Court.  Also for attempting murder of Rex Scouter, 64, who was shot while walking his dog near Dandy Trail and Ruthergien way.

No, there was no discussion in the article about the background/history of the defendants.

The parents of the accused did not say anything, or at least not in the article.

There will be a court of The three-day hearing starting on May 28 in the juvenile division of Marion Superior Court  where the Judge Marylin Moored will decide whether to tried the 15-year-old suspect as an adult like Burr, or tried him as a teenager.

There were four comments and all of them relate to each other, they said that the court (jury) should not think twice and prosecute both teenagers as adults; if they were willing to commit those crimes without thinking it then they are old enough to face the consequences of their actions.

The defendant will be sentence on the three day hearin that will begin on May 28, therefore the sentence of the Judge Marylin Moores will be known either on May 31 or April 1.

Well it is kind of difficult to know if we should take brain research into account in this case, “Judge to decide in May whether teen will be charged as an adult in crime spree”, since there is no background/history of the teens in the article we cannot tell if they had problems at home or if they were being physical/mental abused. I think we should not take brain research into account, if the other teenager, Siquain Burr, that killed one person and attempt to murder another one was tried as an adult then with the 15-year-old should the jury do the same, I mean at the age of 15 everyone knows the difference of right versus wrong, and they can take decisions on their own.

If the outlaw changed and juveniles would be trying as adults this case should not be longer a case, it will be already done and both teenagers would be in jail, charged as adults and with a sentence of death penalty.

If the juveniles at the crime time were adults the judge would not think it twice and immediately will give sentence of death penalty for the charges of murder, attempt of murder, possession of weapon and a stolen vehicle, plus other charges they can take account.

The sentence has not being said until May 31, but if I was the jury I would not think it twice and I immediately will try the 15-year-old as an adult charged him for being accomplice and suspect of attempt murder, and will give sentence of formal prison.

This case says that the juvenile justice system is not doing its job. They make a storm in a glass of water, instead of spending time whether to try a teen that commit murder, they should give immediately sentence of formal prison. If this case would it be about a Hispanic teen being the accomplice of murder then the jury automatically give sentence of formal prison without looking at the defendant background or try to find reason why he commit murder. What I will change is make a new juvenile justice system that really will do its job, they will give sentence if the teenager that are being tried are old enough to know the difference between right vs. wrong and can take their own decisions. Although there will be some exceptions looking into the background/history of the defendants and deciding whether to take make a brain research into account or just give sentence of formal prison.

Brain vs. Mind

There are many factors that a jury must consider before charging a juvenile as an adult. As the Atlantic Monthly article shows cases where the person that committed the homicide and/or murder have no control over their body and brain. In this article the author states that in court the jury must know whether the person committed the crime voluntary or involuntary, in a few words if the person was consent about what she/he was doing at the crime scene.

As is shown on the Atlantic Monthly article there have been research and studies made on the human brain that had proved that the brain can act by itself doing with the human body what he wants without even the person notices what she/he is doing. In the case of Charles Whitman; he killed 13 persons and injury 32 persons. On his suicide note he asked for an autopsy to be done on his body, he knew something had change in his brain and he only went to the doctor once; before he kill himself he already had problems and he suspected something was wrong with him that’s why he did what he did (kill people).

Also there have been studies made on the human brain that had shown that a person acts the way they do either because they have brain problems or mind problems. Two different types of problems. Brain problems are the ones that involve a functions and harms in the brain. Mind problems are the ones that showed that the person has psychiatric problems (psychopath).

Before judging a juvenile as an adult, first jury must know their background, their history, where they come from. Like this quote states “Don’t judge a book by its cover” you can be very surprised of the story that is written on it.

Dumpster Diving

I don't think I will go to dumpster diving in any circumstance, even if I am struggling. I think that is unsanitary and I do not like those kinds of places, even if I have to go into those place and there is no other choice I would strongly denied. I rather find  a job, work and earn money then go into some dumpster and seek for food, going to dumpster diving it is an embarrass thing to do and not healthy at all, I would not do that even if someone pay me to do it. 

Doomed kids

Do you agree with the statics? Why or why not?
1.4 Mother and father and relative
4.5 Mother and father
5.3 Mother and step
5.7 Mother
6.0 Mother and relative
7.2 Relative
8.1 Other
11.0 Father
11.8 Father and step

In this case I must agree with the statistics because I know for fact and for experience that people get into drugs either because of peer pressure or some relative are into drugs, also because they might feel alone or have problems at home. Most kids now a days get into drugs because they have no choice, they have some much pressure on their shoulders that the only exit they see is throughout drugs. They need help but there is no one to help give that help they need. Some other kids just get into drugs because they are stupid, they think it is a cool thing to do. While people in other circumstances try to fight against drugs, other prefer to get into them because it's cool.

Magic Madness

I have never been at a circus, a magic show or at any place where the people does magic. I am a girl that come from a town that used to be little (not anymore) in Michoacan, Mexico; every year the circus would come to my town with all the little clowns, people doing exotics tricks, and the showing up the animals they brought with them; they always came every year with a different entrance. It never brought my attention to go   and visit a circus, even though my cousins and my siblings always got  free tickets to go in. I never presence a magic trick, or not a thing that I would call a "magic trick". I only have seen tricks not magic tricks. Since my dad  was a little kid, he will play cards and always win, he is the number one playing any "casino" games, any person that plays with him they always loose. He used to teach my brothers and I some of the tricks he used to win, they were not tricks to cheat. He can hide a card under his hand without people seeing, he can mixed all the cards and then find the for aces, he can tell what the next card will be, and many other cards tricks he does. This does not show that he is a magician, these tricks show that a person is clever and fast in doing things, also with practice you can do these tricks, although it would take you time and a lot of  patience. To be honest I do not believe in magic nor luck. Magic only involves a bunch of tricks a person does after practicing them a lot of times, and in rewards to luck; that is something only superstitious people believe on, it is not that you are lucky, that is how life is; you have ups and downs.

CAPÍTVLO PRIMERO DE LAS FIESTAS,PASQVAS

CAPÍTVLO PRIMERO DE LAS FIESTAS,PASQVAS

Basically, what the first chapter (CAPÍTVLO PRIMERO DE LAS FIESTAS,PASQVAS ) is about the Festivals (holidays) and the Easter season, people in Peru celebrate.  Around these times the people in Peru perform taquies dances of the Ingas and of the Capac Apoconas (powerful lords), and also dances from the main Yndios (Indians) of the kingdoms of Chinchay Suyos, Ande Suyos, Colla Suyos, and Conde Suyos sited in Peru territory. The dances and songs Peruvian people do at these festivals do not involve sorcery nor idolaters nor enchantment, instead they only involve joy and partying (celebrating holidays). If it wasn’t for the drunkenness the festivals would be better.

The taqui is the ceremonial dance, the cachiua is the song and dance they play in a circle, the haylli are victory songs, the araui is the song that girls sing and pingollo (flute) is the part of the song that the boys sing or play. Also in the festivals they involve the party of the pastors llama miches (flame pastors), the llamaya; the sing of the flame pastors and pachaca farmers, the harauayo (a chant) and the Collas’s Aymaras songs and dances; quirquina, collina, aymarana. In the pastors festival the girls sing guanca and the boys sing quena quena (Aymaras songs and dances).

              Each of these festivals possess ayllo and partiality of this kingdom, no one should say anything about these festivals nor judge them. Also no judge should worry this people by taking away their jobs and traditions that make them sing and dance among them.

Although Guaman Poma’s participation in the campaigns against religion, he argues in this chapter and on page 530 the right to keep the festivities, dances and native processions that have no idolized regarding religion.

          I chose this chapter because the traditions a town or a whole country has it is really important, not just because it is a fundamental part of the culture but also because it represents where do you come from and who you are.

Frienemies

They Things They Carried

“The Things They Carried” is a book written by Tim O’Brien. The chapters in this book tell stories; some of them are true some of them are not. The author of the book mixed memories and stories that had happen to him and by that he makes his audience to wonder whether if the stories are true or just making up stories. “Enemies” and “Friends” are two chapters that can be compare and contrast by the irony that both chapters have. In the “Enemies” chapter two good friends, Lee Strunk and Dave Jensen, have a fistfight because of a missing jackknife and one of them gets injured. In the other hand, “Friends” is the chapter where Strunk and Jensen made a pact and become closer friends, forgetting everything about the fistfight.                

During the Vietnam War

Photograph:  0309.jpg 

A young officer uses a mud puddle as both sink and mirror as he shaves at the An Khe base camp of the 1st Cavalry Division. (Hodierne)

This photograph depicts the life the soldiers (officers) lived during the Vietnam War. It illustrates how this officer uses any resource around him to help satisfy his needs. As the photograph shows this officer uses the mud puddle water to shave himself and at the same time he uses the mud puddle as a mirror to look at himself and see how that shaving is going.

This photograph demonstrates that the life during the Vietnam War was not easy for the soldiers. In the photograph you can visualize the bad conditions they (soldiers) live at the An Khe base camp. Everything is muddy and I cannot imagine how they manage to live in those horrible conditions, every time they came out of their tents they get dirty, every time they go inside their tents they get dirty the things inside. Getting dirty is just one of the things I cannot stand, and to be honest I do not think no one stands being dirty all the time, especially if you are moving all around a place all day; first thing you want to do is get in the shower, but for these soldiers get in the shower was not an available option they only could use the resources around them like the mud puddle, even though the water in it was not clean.

Background info. 

Name: Jose Sanchez

Rank: Capt. First, three bars of the same length.

Location: An Khe base camp of the 1^st Calvary Division.

23 years old, been in the Army for five years. Capt. Sanchez is waiting to hear orders for the next move they will do.

What will stick with me about this photograph is that it gave me a chance to look back in the times during the Vietnam War and I get like an idea of how an Army soldier lives in battleship, although I already had kind of an idea but with this photograph I realize that now a days we have more technology and now the life of a soldier is a lot of different then how soldiers used to live during wars like in this case Capt. Sanchez that lives at the AN Khe based camp.

Being Brown and Proud

Jaira Ontiveros

Mrs. Guerard

Period 3 - XP

January 17, 2013

Being Brown and Proud

            White people judge me because I am brown, I am Mexican, and I dress like a “gangster” according to them. Every day I walk the streets, I do not like to ride the bus just because people look at you like a criminal or something; even they move to other sits in the front to be as far away as they can from you. When white people see a Mexican girl wearing black pants, black converse and a black hoodie walking down the streets of a white neighborhood is like the devil is coming. If they are walking on the same sidewalk I am walking on, they move to the other side of the street. If they are in a car immediately they locked the doors and everything, and I am like “I am not going to steal your car or shoot at you, I am just walking.” Even if they are inside their house they lock everything, you can hear when they closed the doors, lock the windows, and close the blinds. I just watch sideways and see a small space on the windows between the blinds, of course they are looking at me to see if I passed through their house or if I am standing outside waiting to do something. They made me laugh, I actually got use to this kind of situations, what I do is keep on walking with my head up to the sky, looking straight. Being Mexican is not a shame, being brown is a gift.

Racial Profiling

Racial Profiling Is Not Racist

• It's wrong, inappropriate, shouldn't be done." Said ex-senator John AshcroftCheney: "It's the sense of anger and frustration and rage that would go with knowing that the only reason you were stopped ... was because of the color of your skin....

• "Largest number of Americans angry about racial profiling are law-abiding black people who feel that they are stopped and questioned because the police regard all black people with undue suspicion. They feel that they are the victims of a negative stereotype.

• Categories "age" and "race" are both rather fuzzy (define "young") and are both useful predictors of criminality.

Arizona's ImmigrationLaw Is Not Racist

• To be racist, the law would have to specifically target one particular race of people. 
• No one can bear the intellectual responsibility of that argument because that's not what the intent of the Arizona legislature was and that's quite clear.It is an immigration bill, not a brown people bill or a Mexican bill.
  
• All Arizona is guilty of here is trying to deal with problems within its border, and trying to do so in a country in which the federal government has totally abandoned its responsibility to deal effectively with the subject of illegal immigration.

In a divided city, manyblacks see echoes of white superiority

• “No matter how famous/rich u r, ur still a 2nd class citizen if ur Black in Cape Town,'' Lindiwe Suttle. 

• Cape Town is an indelible symbol of the beauty and promise of post-apartheid South Africa. Beyond its gorgeous scenery and great wines, its very logo -- an outline of majestic Table Mountain superimposed over a rainbow -- emphasizes its historic mix of races and cultures, and its most famous resident, Desmond Tutu, is revered as a symbol of tolerance, inclusiveness and forgiveness.many black South.

• For many Africans, this city represents something very different: the last bastion of white rule.

Conclusion

Do not judge a book by its cover. Racial profiling is racist, is illegal, is inappropriate, is wrong and it should not be done. When you judge a person based on their appearance, look or on the outfit they have on, you are kind of stereotyping that person; you are not giving her or him the opportunity to express or explain their style. Just by looking the outside of a person does not mean that you already know how they are; you do not know what their life is, or what reasons they have to dress or look like that. Although, people should not be judging others based on their race, that is not fair, because we do not choose if we want to be Mexicans, Asians, Jews or African-Americans; we are born this way, and we cannot change who we are. Racial profiling is the action that most violates a person’s civil right, and ironically members of the government, and  police officers, are the ones that violate those rights, I thought their job was  make sure that everyone has the same rights, liberties and options; but no, they judge a person just based on their color, their outfit, their image. This is not okay and it is not fair, because everyone should have the same rights and the same liberties. People should learn to be more tolerant especially in this country, because this is a multiracial country where you can find every type of people.

Freedom Writers is a Movement

The Freedom Writers Diary

In Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are valuated to separate trials. We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war. Another main conflict of this book “The Freedom Writers Diary” is how people are being separate and judge for the way they look their color for their raze and where they grow up at. But at the end they realize that all of that don’t matter and what really matter is what that person is capable of doing. Don’t ever judge someone without knowing them good enough because you might have a fake opinion about them. The Freedom Writers formed a family that knows no color lines and only sees what lies deep within the heart. “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

This is one of the fragments from the book Freedom Writers Diary that really got my attention. “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. A truly self-reliant person finds his weak link and strengthens it." This was what the boy that wrote about his brother’s murder trial wrote on another diary entry. After the attorney sentence fifteen years to life in prison to his brother he get back to what he used to do (you know what I mean, illegal stuff). Mrs. Gruwell gave to her students the assignment to do a self-evaluation, he gave himself and F, and he automatically failed himself. Then Mrs. Gruwell asked him “What’s this? Do you know what this means?” then she added “FUCK YOU! That’s what this is! It’s a fuck you, and a fuck me, and fuck everyone who’s ever cared about you!” This was a pep talk that he never thought he would have with his teacher. Also this "pep talk", teacher to student,  in somehow inspires me to not give up on things,  to fix what it has to be fix and to learn from my own mistakes, as the phrase says "A truly self-reliant person finds his weak link and strengthens it." I'm going to find my mistakes, learn from them and correct them. These words, the way they use writing to express their thoughts, their feelings, their stories to the world around them makes me get excited and reflect on their stories to change communities like their, where everything was gang violence, even one of the Freedom Writers wrote that every night were guns shooting at the hood that he get used to it, it became his lullaby. 

Freedom, being able to make choices. Performing an action of your own choosing without limitations. “You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."(Malcolm x) The Freedom Writers Diary is an inspirational, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students. The Freedom Writers is a movement. 

Conflict in the Freedom Writers

In Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are valuated to separate trials. We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war.

I think that the main conflict of this movie is how people are being separate and judge for the way they look their color for their raze and where they grow up at... But at the end they realize that all of that don’t matter and what really matter is what that person is capable of doing... Don’t ever judge someone with out knowing them good enough because you might have a fake opinion about them.

      The conflict of the movie freedom writers is to create change to many students that is having trouble in there life also it is for people to think positive and not negative. what this means is the teacher MS.G became the teacher and found out what was each student struggle and changed them and made each student unite and relate to each other. this action called freedom writer helped gain and start off a new society furthermore, the students who perceived school as they don't need it realized they did need it and it is important. this movie also changed the racism act and made African Americans and white people relate and connect with each other. what this whole paragraph demonstrates is there was a lot of changing occurring. RACISM & GANG VIOLENCE.

Like they said: “ Don’t judge a book by its cover”

Senior Project Update #3

  

My research paper will be on how to become a ranch owner, the steps that a person takes in order to become a ranch owner (rancher/farmer). Some of the ideas that I have are working at a ranch to get experience, live what a rancher lives, and do what ranchers do; how to manage a ranch, what it takes to build a ranch. The ranch where I am going to work is either at a ranch in Michoacán, Mexico or at a ranch here in California. I am looking forward to work the lands of my beautiful Mexico but if its impossible for me to travel during the next five months I might do my hours here at California or Texas. The resources I hope to use would be a ranch, obviously, the ranch owner to give like an idea of what is like to be a rancher, effort and time.

First I want to say that everything in my senior project has changed, or at least for the part of completing the 20 hours of service. So, last week while my family and I were celebrating Thanksgiving someone called our house and on the TV screen appeared a private number, I was like “who the hell calls on private number during Thanksgiving, “at the time the phone was ringing we were in the middle of eating pozole, because we; Mexicans, or at least not us eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day, we eat everything but turkey, well the point is that the phone rang and we were eating and for Mexicans when we are eating is like our holy time, we cannot get up of the table until everybody is done eating, so we let the phone ring and ring, until it stops ringing. Twenty minutes later the phone rings again, lucky for the person who was calling we were finish with dinner but not with desert, but we made an exception. It was someone from México saying that we have to go to México, right now (Family Emergency). I don’t know if that call changed my project for good or for bad, but what I certainly know is that I am living to México next week.

Fortunately, I think 80%-90% I’m done with my research paper. I told my sister if she could help me correcting my research paper or if she knew someone that could read my paper and correct it. Lucky for me she has a teacher or counselor that helped me with my research paper and I am done with it. I just need to turn it in on time and wait for what the people that checks all the research papers will say about my paper. I hope all the hours that I spent writing it is worth at the time they check my paper. For my senior project, the actual project, like I said on my last senior project update I am planning to do a model to scale of what includes a basic ranch. What I’m doing right now is drawing some sketches of how my scale model will look like, where the things that I recently bought are going to be located; technically the sketches are like the planes so to say. And now that I know that I’m going to México, my brother told me that the best base for building a scale model is like a board made of a pretty hard material called plywood. Plywood is a very good material not just for building furniture but also for doing models to scale, like in this case is my ranch model to scale. I already told my brother if he can obtain plywood for my project and some little things that my model-to-scale will have. Well, I think that's all for now.

Sentence Fixes

Mrs. Guerdard here is the Sentence Fixes document that I had to do for my conference on Thursday November 29.

"Diarios De Las Calles" - Su Historia, Sus Palabras, Su Futuro

 “Diariosde las Calles”- The Freedom Writers Diary with Erin Gruwell. I read the first pages and I was like “Damnnn!!” There are no words in my vocabulary that can describe my thoughts so far about this book, it’s a pretty amazing book that can change someone’s way to think, someone’s perspective of life, and even someone’s life. You have to pay really close attention to the words these teenagers used on their writings, the way they write on their diaries is like if they are narrating you their story, the way they live, and specially the war they face day by day and that they hope one day that war will end.

 The book is about how a 23-years-old English teacher uses the techniques of reading and writing to change 150 teens and the world around them. Ms. Gruwell was a student teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.  Long Beach was dubbed the “gangsta-rap capital” by MTV due to its depiction if guns and graffiti. Ms. Gruwell was given the group of the “un-teachable” students as the others teachers refer to them. This group was form of Latinos, Asians, Blacks and one white boy. They lived in the projects, the so called “hood”

The book takes place in Long Beach City "gangsta-rap capital" or L B C as the rappers refer to it, at Woodrow Wilson High School located in a safe neighborhood. Its location and reputation make it desirable. So much that a lot of students that live in the hood take two or three buses to get to school. Students come from every area of Long Beach; rich kids from the shore sit next to poor kids from the projects. There's every race, religion and culture within the confines of the quad. But since the Rodney King riots, racial tension has spilled over into the school. Over 120 murders in Long Beach in the months following the Rodney King riots. Gang violence and racial tension reach an all time high. The cultural influences of the Freedom Writers Diary are that in Long Beach it all comes down to which you look like, it’s all about color. If you’re Latino, or Asian, or Black; you can get blast at any time you walked out your door. Schools are separate by sections; "Beverly Hills" or "Disneyland" where all of the rich white kids hang out, there's "China Town" where the Asians hang, the Hispanic sections is referred to as either "Tijuana Town" or "Run to the Border", then there's the Black section known as "Da Gueto".  We kill each other over race, pride and respect. We fight for our America! We are on war. Those were the words a Mexican girl said. 

       "I always thought that "odd" was a three-letter word; but today I found out it has seven, and they spell G-r-u-w-e-l-l." (Freedom Writers)

Who Would You Blame?

Who would you blame?  
Red Code, the United States has been declare a State of Emergency, childhood obesity has going beyond the limits. Like Uncle Sam would say "I want you, parent of family to take charge of your children's health!" Parents need to develop a routine of exercise and a balanced diet  for themselves and especially for their children, they are the future of our nation.

Making Progress

So far for my senior project is going pretty good. I have almost finished my research paper. Right now, I am just checking for grammar error on my paper and I had ask my counselor, Sandra, to help me on reducing paragraphs or sentence that are unnecessary on my research paper because the document is too long, is about ten pages long, including the work cited page, I looked up on the Napa High web, where are all the Senior stuff and it says that the research paper has to be 5-6 pages long including work cited page, so I just need to fix it and make it fit all in 5 or 6 pages.

On my senior Project what I am planning to do is to build a ranch model to scale. I already bought some of the equipment that are in a ranch, and have some supplies to build it. I found this big ass red agricultural tractor that when I saw it, literally I fell in love with it haha and I bought it. Then I bought a seeder, two little John Deere tractors, two cargo trucks, some animals and three trucks. I just need a barn, a warehouse, make some stockyards for the livestock (bovine, porcine, ovine, and poultry) and also make some stables for the equine livestock. What I am still thinking is how I am going to put the crops in the model, I do not know if I will draw them or make like in 3-D.

For my hours, I had contact some ranchers I am going to be volunteering at a ranch in Mexico. I am planning to go to Mexico on January so I can do my hours over there. From what I know that I am going to be doing at the ranch in Mexico is shadowing the ranch owner and the workers at the fields, watch and pay close attention to the duties they are going to be performing at the crops, pulling fertilizer, harvesting, all duties they do, and I may be able to drive the vehicles they use, like the tractors, the seeder, the thresher and hopefully the cargo trucks. But first I have to learn how to drive, I remember I drove like two three times on the fields but that was when I was like seven or eight; it is been so long, almost ten years, I think I already forgot what I learned L. That is for the part of Agriculture, and for the other part is the livestock.  The duties that I am going to be doing in the ranch with the livestock will be: feed the animals, clean the stockyards and throw their excrement, milking the cows, among other duties.

And that's all what I had been doing so far.

Just Like Us

Dear Rifkin

            I had read your article “A Change of Heart About Animals” and I’m totally agree with your point of view. Our fellow creatures are like us in many ways.  Animals have feelings just like us, they feel our actions, even do they don’t express themselves in a way that we humans understand but if one as a human pay close attention to our fellows then we’ll be able to understand or at least get an idea of what animals feel. Just by looking at their eyes you can imagine how they feel. Like those commercials that are on TV that put those pets that had been abused and they want a home where they will receive love, just by seen those looks I got that feeling of feeling sorry for those poor animals, that cruel people that abused of them have a rock instead of a heart, how can people abuse of those creatures that are the best friend of a the man. Animals can defend themselves against the people that abuse them, but they don’t do it, why? because even do the treatment they receive is not okay they don’t defend themselves just because they love their owners.  

            While I finished reading the letters to the editor in response to your article "A Change of Heart About Animals" I was laughing at the last paragraph of the second letter in response; "...vegan or vegetarian lifestyle. Meat eating and animal abuse lead to spiritual disturbance and physical disease."  I mean it is understandably what he/she is saying, but don't expect people do that, I don't think anyone will stop eat meat and start to eat vegetables, from my perspective I'm not going to do that, I'm Mexican, I like meat and I don't like to eat vegetables. What I'm trying to say is that humans will continue to eat meat and products that come from animals just because that's how the food chain goes. Don't expect a person that eats meat two to three times a week become a vegetarian from one day to another. I never met a person that just eats vegetables, I don't even knew the definition of "vegetarian" until I came here, to the United States. 

            Animals have abilities that humans could never imagine. They have an intelligence that is pretty impressive as they been animals. According to some studies made in animals, the dolphin has been declare the most intelligent animal, well after the chimpanzee. “Equally impressive is Koko, the 300-pound gorilla at the Gorilla Foundation in Northern California, who was taught sign language and has mastered more than 1,000 signs and understands several thousand English words. On human IQ tests, she scores between 70 and 95.” For me this is very impressive since I think I don't own several thousands words in English as the gorilla, and also score 70 out of 95, that's a good score for someone that it's not a human, it's an animal. 

           Also I was very surprise when I read the sentences "Strangely enough, some of the research sponsors are fast food purveyors, such as McDonald's, Burger King and KFC. Pressured by animal rights activists and by growing public support for the humane treatment of animals, these companies have financed research into, among other things, the emotional, mental and behavioral states of our fellow creatures." It was like a "what?" in my mind, I never thought fast food restaurants would be purveyors to finance the research into the emotional, mental, and behavioral states of our fellow creatures.

         All they do is give love and security is that a bad thing?

          Sincerely,

          Jaira Ontiveros

Ranching Life

My Senior Project is...

       

Basically what my senior project will be about will be on ranching and my research paper will be on how to be a ranch owner/ what it takes to be a rancher?  My end product will be a scale model of what is a basic ranch and will take me approximately more than a week to build it, and the time that will be take on the ranch will be approximately one month if I do it in Mexico, but if I do it here in the USA provably will take around twenty weekends. I am 90% sure that I am going to be doing my hours in Mexico, but i am not completely sure because of some stuff that my Mom and I have to do before going to Mexico. I am really looking forward to do my service hours in Mexico, not just because I want to step in Mexican territory again but also because the ranches in Mexico are much better than the ones in here (no offense). In Mexico are two types of lands, so to say, these are "Ranches" and "Haciendas" they are almost the same, the only difference is that the Hacienda is a lot of much bigger than the ranch is. Some ranches just focus on the raise of livestock of a certain type,cattle, pigs, horses, sheep and/or goats, but an Hacienda raise all these kinds of animals, cattle, pigs, horses, ducks, gooses, goats, sheep, turkeys, rabbits, etc. I already have talked with some people in Mexico that owns lands, raise livestock and works the lands to give me the chance to let me work with them or at least shadow them on what they do for my project. I am sure that I am not just going to be shadowing  I am going to be working really hard, because in Mexico you do not just go and stand around just looking, you got to work.

Without a Trace

Into the Wild is the story of a young boy named Chris McCandless. Chris became fed up with the society, he traveled the country without any money, and made a trip to Alaska without any gear.

Chris McCandless made lots of mistakes before going to his trip, heading Alaska.  Some of his mistakes were that he did not tell anyone that he was leaving, he did not say a word to any one of his family. He was not prepared well enough to make this trip, he did not have any idea of what he was going to live. He did not pack any gear, enough clothes and blankets, a “good” map, tools, etc.  Also, he did not accept any help at all, people offered him some blankets for his trip to Alaska but he left them under the sit of the truck. McCandless did not take any precautions for this trip, he just left.

McCandless’s decision to leave his family without a word was NOT justified because he worry their parents a lot by don’t saying anything about he leaving, also by his actions (donating all his college money to charity without telling anybody) it was NOT a justified action he brought pain to his family.  McCandless discovered something that he did not know about his father, he was infidel to Chris’s mother, by discovering that Chris became like a whole new person, it had a great impact on McCandless’s life.  At first McCandless was all nice and stuff with his family but once he left no one heard from him again.

The significance I attach to the note left on the margins of Dr. Zhivago “Happiness only real when shared” as he neared the end of his life is that he felt like he did not shared enough time to spend with his family, his last days he spent them far way from them, he die by himself; alone without anybody there to be when he need it to. It was kind of ironic how McCandless left that note and he was not with his love ones to share happiness. He realizes that all the people that he met he did not have chance to say good-bye and at the end he did not spend time with his love ones.