James, May 2020
Over the past few months, we have all seen a drastic change in our day to day lives. Even those who don’t see the pandemic as a big deal are still affected. Businesses have been closed, the streets appear to be abandoned, and the only reason people seem to leave their houses is for food or to go on walks. Before the pandemic, I couldn't imagine spending this much time at home. I am the type of person who gets bored pretty easily, so at first quarantining was driving me crazy because there was nothing to do. Although, after a couple weeks, I began to adjust to this new reality. I’ve become very good at keeping myself busy, and it’s much harder for me to become bored. I do miss a lot of things from normal life though. I miss going to school and seeing all my peers, sports, seeing my friends on the weekends, going to restaurants/stores, and most things that normal life provides. I am excited for everything to go back to normal, but can’t help but wonder if everything will be normal again. Will the virus continue to come back? If so, how often? Will the virus ever be completely gone? No one knows the answers to these questions yet, and I guess it’s the thought of the unknown that bothers me. At first, it was supposed to be gone in a couple weeks, then a month, and so on, so who knows when it will stop. I never really knew a threat like this was possible in such a modern society. I thought since we have such developed technology and medicine that a virus like this could easily be prevented and stopped. At the beginning of the virus I also didn’t realize how easily it could be spread, and it shocked me how quickly the numbers went up. Overall, the Pandemic has changed life a lot, but I have adjusted to the current lifestyle and am doing well.
James, June 2020
What we learned in the second quarter about Black Lives Matter has allowed me to create strong, educated opinions on what is going on today in America. Here’s how I see it; the protests that are going on are great. They are spreading the news about what is going on in America, and why it needs to change. It has made it so a majority of the people in America know what’s going on, and has made it so people realize and understand that a change needs to occur now. As I said, this is great, but I don’t think it is enough. In 2015, the same type of thing happened in Baltimore, where protests and riots ensued. They called for change, and protested to try and make it happen. So then why did nothing change? What happened was those protests and riots lost steam, and everyone slowly went back to their normal lives and moved on. I don’t want to see this happen again.
I believe that we need to force the change. We need to call for the change of certain political leaders, committees and policies, and we need to do it now. Everyone has a certain type of fire and anger in them now, and we need to use it to our advantage. The first step is spreading the word about certain unknowns. Many people don’t know or understand that there are elected committees or leaders who oversee police departments. The turnout for these elections are pitifully low, especially in low income areas. If we can convince more people to go out and vote, then people like Derek Chauvin would have been stopped well before they killed anyone. Then, after these leaders are replaced, we must call for reform. We must create policies that will prevent these terrible actions from occurring. We need to make these things stop, and I don’t think that continuously protesting without a specific goal is going to change anything.
Over the past few months, we have all seen a drastic change in our day to day lives. Even those who don’t see the pandemic as a big deal are still affected. Businesses have been closed, the streets appear to be abandoned, and the only reason people seem to leave their houses is for food or to go on walks. Before the pandemic, I couldn't imagine spending this much time at home. I am the type of person who gets bored pretty easily, so at first quarantining was driving me crazy because there was nothing to do. Although, after a couple weeks, I began to adjust to this new reality. I’ve become very good at keeping myself busy, and it’s much harder for me to become bored. I do miss a lot of things from normal life though. I miss going to school and seeing all my peers, sports, seeing my friends on the weekends, going to restaurants/stores, and most things that normal life provides. I am excited for everything to go back to normal, but can’t help but wonder if everything will be normal again. Will the virus continue to come back? If so, how often? Will the virus ever be completely gone? No one knows the answers to these questions yet, and I guess it’s the thought of the unknown that bothers me. At first, it was supposed to be gone in a couple weeks, then a month, and so on, so who knows when it will stop. I never really knew a threat like this was possible in such a modern society. I thought since we have such developed technology and medicine that a virus like this could easily be prevented and stopped. At the beginning of the virus I also didn’t realize how easily it could be spread, and it shocked me how quickly the numbers went up. Overall, the Pandemic has changed life a lot, but I have adjusted to the current lifestyle and am doing well.
James, June 2020
What we learned in the second quarter about Black Lives Matter has allowed me to create strong, educated opinions on what is going on today in America. Here’s how I see it; the protests that are going on are great. They are spreading the news about what is going on in America, and why it needs to change. It has made it so a majority of the people in America know what’s going on, and has made it so people realize and understand that a change needs to occur now. As I said, this is great, but I don’t think it is enough. In 2015, the same type of thing happened in Baltimore, where protests and riots ensued. They called for change, and protested to try and make it happen. So then why did nothing change? What happened was those protests and riots lost steam, and everyone slowly went back to their normal lives and moved on. I don’t want to see this happen again.
I believe that we need to force the change. We need to call for the change of certain political leaders, committees and policies, and we need to do it now. Everyone has a certain type of fire and anger in them now, and we need to use it to our advantage. The first step is spreading the word about certain unknowns. Many people don’t know or understand that there are elected committees or leaders who oversee police departments. The turnout for these elections are pitifully low, especially in low income areas. If we can convince more people to go out and vote, then people like Derek Chauvin would have been stopped well before they killed anyone. Then, after these leaders are replaced, we must call for reform. We must create policies that will prevent these terrible actions from occurring. We need to make these things stop, and I don’t think that continuously protesting without a specific goal is going to change anything.