Standing up for Willa

                                                               Standing Up for Willa





In the book Friendswood, Willa is a 15 year old girl in high school whose life gets turned upside down when she gets rapped. Willa is a smart and nerdy girl who is not popular. She comes from a religious family. Willa likes poetry and her favorite author is Emily Dickinson. Willa was head over heels for Cully who is the popular high school football player. One day, Cully brings Willa to the Lawbourne’s house with a bunch of other guys and there were no other girls besides her. At the Lawbourne’s house, Willa gets drugged and then rapped. Willa was a virgin before this whole thing happened. When she woke up, she realized that she was all alone. She knew that she was being taken advantage of and no one tried to prevent it. Willa is traumatized from what happened to her.

There needs to be someone to bring attention to what happened to Willa and that should be her mother. Willa’s mother tried to help her without even know the full story. Her mother brought her to a doctors office to try and figure out what had happened over at the Lawbourne’s house. The doctor examined her and of course, she knew what had occurred just from the examination . She tried asking Willa if she knew who did this to her, but Willa claimed that she didn’t remember. Soon after the visit with the doctors, Willa had told her mother what she remembered and what she assumed to have happened. Her mother was there for her in her time of need.





For starters, her mother arranged for Willa to be put on home study so that she didn’t have to go to school and deal with all the kids there. A substitute teacher would come once a week to help her with assignments. Willa had no desire of going back to school. The book stated, “But Willa was glad not to have to go back to school, which seemed like a building full of booby traps catching those who fall through them in little, dark closets” (Steinke 162). Willa felt that school was not a safe place for her to be. Her mom is there for her in her time of need and will help her through this in any way possible.

In the end, Willa’s mother needs to speak up for Willa about the rapping. This is something that should not be kept a secret. Who ever did this to Willa needs to pay for their actions. They took advantage of a sweet, young girl. Her mother is the only one who really knows what happened to Willa. Her mother should bring this situation up to the police because nothing about this was okay. This is something that will affect Willa for the rest of her life. Willa’s mother already started helping Willa out in any way that she could. This should be made into a legal case because Willa was taken advantage of by older guys and then woke up not even knowing what had happened to her. Her mother should be the one to bring it up to attention.

To Lie or Not to Lie

To Lie or Not to Lie?

To lie, or not to lie? That's the question that will be focused on from reading the short story, The Necklace. People have different views on whether lying is the right thing to do. In The Necklace, the main character, Mathilde, was born into a family of clerks. Mathilde is also the protagonist of the short story. Mathilde was born into the wrong social class because she dwells about not being rich and being able to afford nice things. Mathilde was trying to become a different person for the night and it's just not reality. Mathilde was definitely not doing the right thing by lying to herself.

  

Being in a different social class made Mathilde try to be a different person for the night of the ball. She made her husband give her money so she can buy a brand new dress instead of the ones she already has. Then, she wanted jewelry and decided to borrow one of the nicest necklaces that her friend owned. It all went down hill when she realized she had lost the necklace. She should be a grown up and tell her friend that she had lost the necklace and couldn't find it anywhere. Instead, she bought a brand new necklace that was way out of her budget to give back to her friend. Lying about what really happened to the necklace, costed her 10 years of over working to recover from spending so much money. Not telling the truth to her friend wasn't the right thing to do because maybe if she would have told her friend, she wouldn't have cared or worried about it. It would of made her life easier by tell her because the necklace wasn't even worth a lot of money.



On the other hand, Mathilde was so worried about the necklace and just wanted to give it back. She was just trying to come up with a way to replace the necklace so her friend would never realize that it was lost. She came up with an excuse. Her excuse was to tell her friend that the clasp of her necklace was broken so Mathilde was having it mended at the jewelers.  But really, she went to the jewelers to go buy the same necklace to go return to her friend. Mathilde lied to her friend about losing the necklace at the ball. Mathilde had to work harder for 10 years in order to get their money back after spending it all on a necklace. Maybe if Mathilde told her friend the truth, she wouldn't have gone through everything she did for 10 years.

I feel that if I was in that situation, I would want someone to tell me the truth. Doing the right thing is not to lie because it can hurt you in the end. Honesty is the best policy. But, there are times when lying is okay to do in certain situations. In Mathilde's situation, she decided that the best thing to do was to lie.  Lying made her life more difficult because she would have never had to pay as much as she did for the necklace in the end. The Necklace should teach the readers that lying doesn't get you anywhere.

Taking a Knee on the Football Field

Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, started contraversy in beginning of the 2016 football season. Kaepernick was kneeling during the national anthem before every game and people were not very pleased with him. Many people thought that Kaepernick's little stunt was considered "unpatriotic". On the other hand, people stand with Kaepernick's actions. Within weeks of Colin Kaepernick's first stance, athletes throughout the country have followed his actions and have taken a knee during the national anthem.

Many people against Kaepernick's actions have considered his actions to be inappropriate. It is disrespecting our flag and national anthem. There are people out there who are deployed and fighting for their lives in other countries. Kneeling during the national anthem is just not okay. Kaepernick is getting paid to play football and not to disrespect our country. Refusing to stand for the national anthem shows disrespect towards the flag and the members in the military who are proudly serving our country each and every day. The national anthem pays respect to those who have risked their lives or died from defending our country. Some fans who do not like what Colin Kaepernick has been doing, have started burning his jersey to show how they feel about him. People feel very strongly about how his actions are unpatriotic.

On the contrary, people like what Colin Kaepernick was doing last football season. They thought that he was doing the right thing for standing up in what he believes in. In Time Magazine, there's an article on Colin Kaepernick's actions and it says, "But really expressing this First Amendment right this choose to sit or stand, I think that was him showing how much he loves America.". His fans think that expressing how he feels on the football field, shows how much he actually loves this country. They think that he is brave for doing his protests right on the football field when he could do it where ever he wanted to. Michael Bennett is another NFL football player that supports what Colin Kaepernick was doing. Bennett is a defensive lineman for the Seattle Seahawks. Michael Bennett just wants to be able to use his platform to be able to speak about injustice.

The right thing to do in this situation is not to take a knee for the national anthem because there are people in the military who are fighting for your freedom to be in America. Disrespecting our country by kneeling during the national anthem is just rude. A lot of people thought that Kaepernick's behavior was unpatriotic. People feel offended by Kaepernick taking a knee during our country's national anthem. But, on the other hand, Kaepernick's supporters love what he is doing by standing up for what he believes in. Here is a quote from Colin Kaepernick from Time Magazine on about how he feels about not standing for the national anthem.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football, and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

Heres an interview on Colin Kaepernick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wr3IYwojT8

Do the Right Thing

The role of violence in social movements and protests has been debated by some of the most prominent American activists, most notably Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. While Martin Luther King, Jr. argued, "..... Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys a community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality the destroyers." Martin Luther King explains that violence is never productive. Violence just destroys communities and tears people apart. On the other hand, Malcolm X insisted, ".... I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self defense. I don't even call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence." Malcom X was a little different from Martin Luther King. Malcolm X thought that violence was not a bad idea and he was for it. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X both have different views on violence. These two quotes connect to doing the right thing because Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X both had different views on what they think is the right thing when it came to violence.

In the script, Do the Right Thing, the characters deal with violence and controversy within their community. One of the characters, Buggin' Out, is very open and will say what ever he wants. He does not care what anyone else thinks besides his own opinion. Buggin' Out is like Malcolm X in that way because Malcolm X didn't mind violence and he thought that it was good for self-defense. In the script, Buggin' Out stated, "Put some brothers up on this Wall of Fame. We want Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Michael Jordan tomorrow."(Lee, 15). Buggin' Out was always starting up some trouble at Sal's pizzeria. On the other hand, Da Mayor was like Martin Luther King, Jr. in many ways. For example, they both did not approve of violence. Da Mayor is a very wise person and he didn't want to start any trouble. In the script, Da Mayor said, "If we don't stop this now, we'll all regret it." (Lee, 81). Da Mayor and Buggin' Out are two very different people and has different views on what they thought was the right thing. Doing the right thing connects to the quotes above and the script because violence caused people to be for it or against it.

Link for a scene from Do the Right Thing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ4y7GPeFBY