By Meghan Daum
December 4, 2007
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-oped1204daumdec04,0,3374629.story
I wanted to do an opinion article just to do something different.
I thought this article was really bad. It was random. She started of the first few paragraphs talking about how the many people think the Red Cross is religious, but then connected back to that very briefly and not very well. She went on talking about how many of the presidents have left office, focusing on the latest president who was fired for having an affair with, i believe a coworker. It wasn't very interesting, and i didn't really agree with her opinion. She didn't really support it with anything.
The flow of the article was also really choppy and random. It made it uninteresting to read.
About Me
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
"Northwest reels from deadly back-to-back storms"
Article From CNN Dec 3, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/weather/12/04/northwest.storms/index.html#cnnSTCText
The Lead for this piece was very good and adressed the most important effects from the storms. The second paraphraph and following quote were good becuase it gave readers hope that officials are really trying to help people and are making a solid effort in trying to fix the damage as quickly as possible.
The rest of the story went on describing poeple personal experiences and the fear of such a horrible natural desastor. This worked will with the piece becuase it made it more personal from statistics of flood levels and damage estamates.
Although 5 people were mentioned to have died in the lead, not further details were given. It would have maybe been nice to mention them again. But the piece did flow well with out that information.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/weather/12/04/northwest.storms/index.html#cnnSTCText
The Lead for this piece was very good and adressed the most important effects from the storms. The second paraphraph and following quote were good becuase it gave readers hope that officials are really trying to help people and are making a solid effort in trying to fix the damage as quickly as possible.
The rest of the story went on describing poeple personal experiences and the fear of such a horrible natural desastor. This worked will with the piece becuase it made it more personal from statistics of flood levels and damage estamates.
Although 5 people were mentioned to have died in the lead, not further details were given. It would have maybe been nice to mention them again. But the piece did flow well with out that information.
Court Observations Revision
I went to the Kalamazoo court house on two separate occasions; I wasn’t able to see a good portion of a trial though. The first time that I went, I saw the very beginnings of a trial. A man, Irvin Davenport, was on trial for murder, and the part that I saw was the beginning of jury selections. There were about 50 possible jurors in the room. The judge asked the prosecutor and the defendant’s attorney to read off the list of witnesses and asked if any juror knew any of the witnesses and to say which witness they knew. The judge wrote down their names, and possibly the witness they knew. This was a very lengthy process since there were a lot of witness and a lot of jurors.
The judge then explained that this trial would last sometime into the next week, and possibly longer. She asked the jurors if any of them had anything that would prevent them from being able to make court. Several people stood up, many of whom just claimed that they had work and it would be in some way detrimental to patients, or coworkers for them to be absent. The judge wrote down everyone’s reason for not being able to attend court, and the dates that they said were not good for them. It was clear that there was no guarantee they would not be selected.
I left after this part of the process to come back to see part of the trial, but when I returned, the trial was not listed anymore. There were no other trials going on, so I went to hear arraignments. There were two driving violations; an assault a battery case where the man pleaded not guilty; a sex offender who failed to register his new address; meth possession with intent to sell. Everyone who pled guilty or not guilty was given a court date. For each person it was a very quick process of charges made against them, their plea, and a court date.
The judge then explained that this trial would last sometime into the next week, and possibly longer. She asked the jurors if any of them had anything that would prevent them from being able to make court. Several people stood up, many of whom just claimed that they had work and it would be in some way detrimental to patients, or coworkers for them to be absent. The judge wrote down everyone’s reason for not being able to attend court, and the dates that they said were not good for them. It was clear that there was no guarantee they would not be selected.
I left after this part of the process to come back to see part of the trial, but when I returned, the trial was not listed anymore. There were no other trials going on, so I went to hear arraignments. There were two driving violations; an assault a battery case where the man pleaded not guilty; a sex offender who failed to register his new address; meth possession with intent to sell. Everyone who pled guilty or not guilty was given a court date. For each person it was a very quick process of charges made against them, their plea, and a court date.
Immigration Profile Revision
Language and Culture
By Andrea Penick
Ajka Sulgavic, 19, of Grand Haven Mich, fled from Bosnia in 1993 before a war broke out. She recalls her transitions to a Turkish refugee camp and then the United States with pride.
Sulgavic’s family, along with many others, left the country to seek refuge in Turkey. They were there for two years before their papers came through allowing them to move to the United States where they had family. They immigrated to the United States ending up in Grand Haven when she was 7.
She remembers that it was easy for her to adjust because she blends in so well. Her olive skin and curly brown hair did not reveal that she was an immigrant. She also claims her transition was not difficult because she was so young and could quickly pick up language.
For her parents it was hard to learn the language, and after 12 years living and working here are not fully fluent but have gotten by. The language policy forcing all immigrants to learn English concerns Sulgavic because adults typically have a hard time learning a foreign language. She says with a laugh, “That’s what your hands are for: communication.”
She recognizes the opportunities she and most immigrants have here, which in Bosnia would not exist for her or her family. Sulgavic claims she doesn’t understand why the language policy exists.
“I don’t think we as a country have a right to deny people that opportunity,” Sulgavic said, “What is America made of anyway? It’s just a whole bunch of different people from everywhere in the world.”
--30--
By Andrea Penick
Ajka Sulgavic, 19, of Grand Haven Mich, fled from Bosnia in 1993 before a war broke out. She recalls her transitions to a Turkish refugee camp and then the United States with pride.
Sulgavic’s family, along with many others, left the country to seek refuge in Turkey. They were there for two years before their papers came through allowing them to move to the United States where they had family. They immigrated to the United States ending up in Grand Haven when she was 7.
She remembers that it was easy for her to adjust because she blends in so well. Her olive skin and curly brown hair did not reveal that she was an immigrant. She also claims her transition was not difficult because she was so young and could quickly pick up language.
For her parents it was hard to learn the language, and after 12 years living and working here are not fully fluent but have gotten by. The language policy forcing all immigrants to learn English concerns Sulgavic because adults typically have a hard time learning a foreign language. She says with a laugh, “That’s what your hands are for: communication.”
She recognizes the opportunities she and most immigrants have here, which in Bosnia would not exist for her or her family. Sulgavic claims she doesn’t understand why the language policy exists.
“I don’t think we as a country have a right to deny people that opportunity,” Sulgavic said, “What is America made of anyway? It’s just a whole bunch of different people from everywhere in the world.”
--30--
MMAP Youth Mentoring
KALAMAZOO- Mediation and Motivation among Peers (MMAP) is a service-learning group of Kalamazoo College students who spend each Saturday mentoring kids at a juvenile home providing a positive, reliable, support for the young teens, most still in middle school.
Arianna Schindle, the group’s coordinator, helped to start MMAP 3 years ago when they first began mentoring at the Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home. Unlike most other service-learning programs at K-College, MMAP has no faculty advisor; the program was started and is run by students.
Alison Geist, director of the service-learning institute at Kalamazoo College attributes all the work to the student founders of the program.
Geist says they made all the connections with the juvenile center, which, “helps them to incubate their own ideas.”
The group incorporates original ideas well by creating their own goals and lesson plans each week for the juveniles.
The group mentors young inmates every Saturday for few hours. They try to consistently go to the juvenile home because many of the kids have not had much stability so it is important to have MMAP as a reliable outlet and support for them.
Ed Kamar, a youth specialist at the home, expressed the juveniles feeling towards the program when he stated, “they love it, they like the one on one.”
Kamar explained that if MMAP did not come each Saturday, the juveniles would have nothing to do but sit in their rooms for hours. Most of them hate to be in their rooms which consist of one window, a bed frame, a thin mattress, and a small pillow. It is an escape to be able to interact with the group.
Kamar also explained that this gives the juveniles an opportunity to work with people who do not have authority over them. MMAP does not have to discipline the kids, which gives them the opportunity to connect on a more personal level. The juveniles have a group of positive students who they can look at as peers, which MMAP hopes will help in their rehabilitation process.
Frank Weichlein, the director of the center, strives for community outreach to the juveniles and said, “One of the biggest benefits of our partnership with Kalamazoo College is exposing our residence with a high achieving group of students.”
Weichlein explains that K-College represents a very diverse group of students, different then who the juveniles usually interact with. He sees great value in being able to expose them to as many positive community groups as possible.
Weichlein and Schindle both emphasized the importance of the home to be an attempt at a “restorative” approach of prison compared to the “retributive” adult prison. The retributive system, punishment based, is hard on adults, but even worse for children. When basing the prison system on punishment instead of rehabilitation, few are able to change their harmful ways and stay out of the system.
The home attempts to allow juveniles to express themselves freely in a “healing circle” process which Weichlein explained, “boils down to not finding blame, but finding solutions.”
If the home were not an option for them, many would be sent to adult prison along with the many other children charged as adults in court.
Schindle, who has spent a lot of time and energy researching and trying to understand the system, suggests that housing child prisoners in the adult system has very harmful effects.
Schindle states, “At age 11 if you put them in with adults you are conditioning them.”
Instead of being nurtured at such a young age, the only role models the juveniles have are adults who have been in and out of the prison system. In turn they become repeat offenders and follow similar paths as the adults they are housed with.
Erin Mette a sophomore at Kalamazoo College, now in her second year volunteering with MMAP, says that she hears some of the juveniles in the home claiming that this just prepares them for the real thing. Because many of them have faced time in prison before, and been in and out of the juvenile home, they have already become conditioned into the mindset that this is the only life for them.
Many of the juveniles in the home come from very rocky backgrounds, suffering from undiagnosed mental health problems, and a family history of drug and alcohol abuse. Mette shared a similar opinion with the MMAP team when she said, “To what degree is a 13 or 14 year-old responsible for their mistakes?”
Mette said that most of the juveniles she has worked with have dealt with more than she ever will have to and says that mentoring has been more challenging than she expected.
“It takes a lot to teach a kid to step outside that framework” said Schindle.
After kids have been in the system it is hard to help them survive outside it. It has become too easy to just ignore the problems in the justice system and cast these young children aside.
As Weichlein claims, “They have been dealt such a rotten hand in life. It’s no wonder that they are here.”
The staff and faculty at the home want to be able to provide a positive safe environment for the juveniles. While the home is not able to change everyone for the better, many leave the home and do not return. With the help of community groups like MMAP, through their one on one work with the juveniles, they hope that many more will not return to the home.
The MMAP group has been working with quotes during their recent lessons to encourage self-esteem for the juveniles. They use common quotes from hip-hop artists and other noted speakers and writers.
One project revealed to the juveniles words from a Tupac song, stating,
“We wouldn’t ask why a rose that grew from the concrete has damaged petals, in turn we would all celebrate its tenacity, we would all love its will to reach the sun. Well, we are the roses, this is the concrete, and these are my damaged petals, don’t ask me why, thank God, and ask me how.”
--30--
Arianna Schindle, the group’s coordinator, helped to start MMAP 3 years ago when they first began mentoring at the Kalamazoo County Juvenile Home. Unlike most other service-learning programs at K-College, MMAP has no faculty advisor; the program was started and is run by students.
Alison Geist, director of the service-learning institute at Kalamazoo College attributes all the work to the student founders of the program.
Geist says they made all the connections with the juvenile center, which, “helps them to incubate their own ideas.”
The group incorporates original ideas well by creating their own goals and lesson plans each week for the juveniles.
The group mentors young inmates every Saturday for few hours. They try to consistently go to the juvenile home because many of the kids have not had much stability so it is important to have MMAP as a reliable outlet and support for them.
Ed Kamar, a youth specialist at the home, expressed the juveniles feeling towards the program when he stated, “they love it, they like the one on one.”
Kamar explained that if MMAP did not come each Saturday, the juveniles would have nothing to do but sit in their rooms for hours. Most of them hate to be in their rooms which consist of one window, a bed frame, a thin mattress, and a small pillow. It is an escape to be able to interact with the group.
Kamar also explained that this gives the juveniles an opportunity to work with people who do not have authority over them. MMAP does not have to discipline the kids, which gives them the opportunity to connect on a more personal level. The juveniles have a group of positive students who they can look at as peers, which MMAP hopes will help in their rehabilitation process.
Frank Weichlein, the director of the center, strives for community outreach to the juveniles and said, “One of the biggest benefits of our partnership with Kalamazoo College is exposing our residence with a high achieving group of students.”
Weichlein explains that K-College represents a very diverse group of students, different then who the juveniles usually interact with. He sees great value in being able to expose them to as many positive community groups as possible.
Weichlein and Schindle both emphasized the importance of the home to be an attempt at a “restorative” approach of prison compared to the “retributive” adult prison. The retributive system, punishment based, is hard on adults, but even worse for children. When basing the prison system on punishment instead of rehabilitation, few are able to change their harmful ways and stay out of the system.
The home attempts to allow juveniles to express themselves freely in a “healing circle” process which Weichlein explained, “boils down to not finding blame, but finding solutions.”
If the home were not an option for them, many would be sent to adult prison along with the many other children charged as adults in court.
Schindle, who has spent a lot of time and energy researching and trying to understand the system, suggests that housing child prisoners in the adult system has very harmful effects.
Schindle states, “At age 11 if you put them in with adults you are conditioning them.”
Instead of being nurtured at such a young age, the only role models the juveniles have are adults who have been in and out of the prison system. In turn they become repeat offenders and follow similar paths as the adults they are housed with.
Erin Mette a sophomore at Kalamazoo College, now in her second year volunteering with MMAP, says that she hears some of the juveniles in the home claiming that this just prepares them for the real thing. Because many of them have faced time in prison before, and been in and out of the juvenile home, they have already become conditioned into the mindset that this is the only life for them.
Many of the juveniles in the home come from very rocky backgrounds, suffering from undiagnosed mental health problems, and a family history of drug and alcohol abuse. Mette shared a similar opinion with the MMAP team when she said, “To what degree is a 13 or 14 year-old responsible for their mistakes?”
Mette said that most of the juveniles she has worked with have dealt with more than she ever will have to and says that mentoring has been more challenging than she expected.
“It takes a lot to teach a kid to step outside that framework” said Schindle.
After kids have been in the system it is hard to help them survive outside it. It has become too easy to just ignore the problems in the justice system and cast these young children aside.
As Weichlein claims, “They have been dealt such a rotten hand in life. It’s no wonder that they are here.”
The staff and faculty at the home want to be able to provide a positive safe environment for the juveniles. While the home is not able to change everyone for the better, many leave the home and do not return. With the help of community groups like MMAP, through their one on one work with the juveniles, they hope that many more will not return to the home.
The MMAP group has been working with quotes during their recent lessons to encourage self-esteem for the juveniles. They use common quotes from hip-hop artists and other noted speakers and writers.
One project revealed to the juveniles words from a Tupac song, stating,
“We wouldn’t ask why a rose that grew from the concrete has damaged petals, in turn we would all celebrate its tenacity, we would all love its will to reach the sun. Well, we are the roses, this is the concrete, and these are my damaged petals, don’t ask me why, thank God, and ask me how.”
--30--
"Serving Life for Providing Car to Killers"
By Adam Liptak in teh Dec. 4th New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/us/04felony.html?th&emc=th
Wow! this article is crazy. A really messed up story.
The lead was good. It was really interesting but didn't really address that 5 w's. The following i thought was really well written. After each paragraph i read i had a question in my mind, and it was immediately answered in the next paragraph. The author made the piece very interesting and I thought that it was really good that he included how the laws in other countries have changed to prevent things like this from happening.
i though that i was interesting that the prosecutors main arguement was "No car, no crime". Yes crime if no car. I think they probably had the intent to steal wheter they had his car or not. And it isn't as if they ran the woman over to kill her using his car. It just took them to the place where they chose to commit their crime.
This article was upsetting, but again very interesting and well written.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/us/04felony.html?th&emc=th
Wow! this article is crazy. A really messed up story.
The lead was good. It was really interesting but didn't really address that 5 w's. The following i thought was really well written. After each paragraph i read i had a question in my mind, and it was immediately answered in the next paragraph. The author made the piece very interesting and I thought that it was really good that he included how the laws in other countries have changed to prevent things like this from happening.
i though that i was interesting that the prosecutors main arguement was "No car, no crime". Yes crime if no car. I think they probably had the intent to steal wheter they had his car or not. And it isn't as if they ran the woman over to kill her using his car. It just took them to the place where they chose to commit their crime.
This article was upsetting, but again very interesting and well written.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)