Hi, I’m Melisa. I’m 13 and in 7th grade. When I was only 6 my parents died in a car accident on the way to pick me up from school on my birthday. I don’t remember them, but ever since then I’ve been moving from foster home to foster home. My life isn’t fair. Sometimes I feel so scared, lonely, and angry that I just want to run away to a different life. No one in my life cares about me; and everyone makes fun of me at school because my clothing has holes and my shoes are dirty.
Why me? Why can’t this happen to one of those mean kids at school? Sometimes I’m jealous of them, because they get to live in a stable home with people who care about them. They will sometimes tease me about that, also. A girl in the 8th grade will sometimes stand up for me, but she isn’t really my friend. The kids who don’t make fun of me, are too scared to stand up for me because they think if they do, people won’t want to be their friends because they stood up for me.
Now I am living in a small house with 5 other orphans like me and a mean foster mother named Viccy, who is supposed to be taking care of us. Why here? There was one foster house I did like . The foster mother taking care of us was named Sue. She was very nice and was like a mother to me. But she lost her job and and her house got foreclosed on when I was 10.  So,  me and the other children there – we had to be moved to other foster houses. But I always wonder why I couldn’t be moved to a house with a lady like Sue.
Why now? Why couldn’t my parents have died when I was over 18 so I wouldn’t have to live a life like this.  I would be able to have adult figures who wouldn’t just disappear when I needed them when I was a child. If my parents hadn’t died when I was young, I wouldn’t have to feel this great sadness and loneliness inside of me.
What should I do now? Should I try to get a job to buy clothes so I can make friends? Maybe I should try to make Viccy a mother to me. Maybe I should buy a dog, so I’m not so lonely. I should try to make life worth it!

Eat a good breakfast, don’t be late

Your mind is blank-you wish you were resting

Will  you do well?  It’s all up to fate

You are sitting in the classroom

Your  pencils  must be #2

Time is limited, and  you must zoom

The test begins-the minutes are few

Have no fear

How will you do?

No pressure here

It’s all up to you

On Shelfari, you can join groups and add friends. When you make your account, you search for the book you read or are reading. Tell all about it (which is the review part) and tag it ( which is when you recommend the book for an  age group it is perfect for and the type of book it is.) The “tag part” is very helpful to other people to see if they might like it and think it is appropriate for them. It can also benefit you, because  on the home page there are the most popular books everybody is reading, and you could check it out.

When our country was founded, our fledgling nation was at risk of falling apart. Debts from the American Revolution threatened to cripple us. Non-uniform paper money from the American Revolution had caused many problems with its rapid deflation. Two opinions emerged from within the Washington cabinet to solve these issues. In 1790, Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton submitted a proposal to Congress that would create a “Bank of the United States” that would pay off foreign and domestic debts. This bank would issue new federal loans to pay for these debts. The National Bank would be owned by private citizens, and had the ability to issue money, something that it should not be able to do under the Constitution. Additionally, the federal government had no Constitutional authority to create such a bank in the first place. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, among others, was fiercely opposed to this bill. President George Washington grudgingly signed the bill due to the desperate debt situation.

This whole bill really did not help us get rid of our debt. It only created a means to borrow money almost indefinitely. We still owed the same amount of money, if not more in interest. We just had a way to get a loan guaranteed from a central bank, it’s main purpose being to loan the federal government money and issue currency.

This entire system did not last forever; it has changed several times during our country’s history. You can see how we had problems with money even at the beginning of our history, and how conflicting opinions emerged that are still somewhat prevalent today. In following posts, I will describe the gold standard and our debt and its dangers today.

In 1960, Mr. Hurst was the president of the youth division of the NAACP at the age of 16 and during the time of Ax Handle Saturday. If you would have asked me a week ago what Ax Handle Saturday was, I would have shrugged and said, “I have no idea.” After researching Mr. Hurst and Ax Handle Saturday (for schoolwork), I knew nothing more than the general facts about what happened on that day.

From Mr. Hurst, I learned that the youth division of the NAACP participated in sit-ins at white lunch counters. They figured that since they were denied their rights, then the lunch counters should lose some money. On August 27, 1960, they were just sitting at another white lunch counter, protesting in another sit-in; but this time, while leaving they were surrounded by 200 white men with ax handles and baseball bats. Some of the men were Ku Klux Klan. The members of the youth group ran as fast as they could to safety. Some were more hurt than others, but I do not think anyone was killed.

Before last Thursday, I had assumed that Jacksonville, Florida was just another city in the South. I was aware that there was racism and segregation here, but I thought that was a “classic” description of any southern city. By 3:45 p.m., however, I learned how wrong I was. Jacksonville, Florida was extremely segregated and was home to many racist people. The papers covered it up; the city didn’t want the world to know what they had done. The only people who heard about it were other Blacks. It was vaguely mentioned in the part of the newspaper called “News for and About the Colored People”, a section of the Florida Times Union that was only delivered to the homes of ‘colored people’.Although he did not go into extreme detail, we were still able to ‘get the picture’.

But by the time Mr. Hurst left, I not only knew more details of the events of 1960, but I  had a personal perspective of what it was like. Rodney L. Hurst, Sr. was there; he wasn’t a by-stander. If he hadn’t run, he would have been seriously injured or worse.

Listening to Rodney L. Hurst, Sr. really made me open my eyes. I knew about racism and anti-Semitism, but I never knew how bad it was, especially in my home city. I know to be open minded and care for others- through learning about Jewish history-but now I have “seen” the result of what happens when people choose to be cruel to others. I don’t understand why people just can’t except each other’s beliefs or see past the color of their skin. When everyone learns to accept people for the person on the inside, not judge the outside, then our world will be in much better shape!

Cold and alone… again

Now it’s slowly tearing me apart

Grey would be the color if I had a heart.

This place where I sought out to hide

Screaming outward to shoot me back inside

Where death is all I see

It’s just a fading reminder of how I used to be.

Rodney L. Hurst, Sr. Speaks to MJGDS Middle School Students

On Thursday, April 22, 2010,  I had the honor of meeting and listening to one Rodney L. Hurst, Sr. – the author of the award winning book, It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke. A civil rights activist since joining the Jacksonville Youth Council NAACP at age 11, Mr. Hurst participated in the 1960 sit-in demonstrations in Jacksonville, Florida. I was invited by Mrs. Judy Reppert (social studies teacher extraordinaire who, daily, makes history come alive in her classroom) to join the entire MJGDS Middle School student body to hear Mr. Hurst’s personal account of the times and events leading up to and including Ax Handle Saturday, a bloody August 27, 1960. What follows are my impressions of his visit.

Rodney L. Hurst, Sr. is a dynamic man. He exudes passion and conviction when he speaks. There is a kindness about him, a sensitivity to the needs of others, and a twinkle of humor; yet, one is aware of a layer of steely strength and courage that has allowed him to survive the senseless hatred of segregation and tell its story.

Rodney L. Hurst, Sr. is a ‘teacher’. He shares his knowledge and experience with others and we, in turn, learn lessons of humanity. Mr. Hurst, like many Holocaust survivors, also is compelled to correct the history books and teach the truth about the horrors, the indifference and, subsequently, the heroes spawned from bigotry and injustice. To quote his website, “Most Black and White citizens of Selma, Birmingham, Memphis, and Atlanta are acutely familiar with the violent civil rights struggles that occurred in their cities. Though the struggles in those cities may be more familiar, Jacksonville was not immune to the same type of cruelties. Ax Handle Saturday…a facet of Jacksonville’s history very few are willing to discuss, let alone embrace…the eye-opening details, when synthesized, provide a remarkable history worth telling. The peaceful protests of teenagers who dared to challenge segregated white lunch counters is not a myth or an urban legend. Nor is the attack by more than 200 whites with baseball bats and ax handles on 34 Black NAACP Youth Council members on August 27, 1960.”

Rodney L. Hurst, Sr. is a ‘preacher’. He has a message that the world needs to hear and he is prepared to shout it from the rooftops, the classrooms, the meeting rooms, the libraries, the book shelves. “The civil rights movement in the late fifties and early sixties is a history of brave and unselfish Black leaders fighting against racism and segregation, and for the equality of all people in the United States. Today’s generation must understand the circumstances and the times that led to this racially explosive and violent day in Jacksonville’s history. Regardless of what you have heard or seen about sit-in demonstrations, it was never about eating a hot dog and drinking a Coke! It was always about human dignity and respect.”

Rodney L. Hurst, Sr. is the personification of human dignity; he has gained both my respect and my admiration. Kol hakavod.

To learn more about the 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the 1960 Sit-in Demonstrations and Ax Handle Saturday, in Jacksonville this August, see Mr. Hurst’s blogspot.

Special thanks to Ms. Kim Glasgal for arranging Mr. Hurst’s appearance.

In the United States every year, there seems to be some major event that leads to violence. The death toll rises each year, and some of these victims are innocent juveniles. Acts of violence include: violence in schools (such as fighting and bullying), violence on the street (robbing and murdering), and, lastly, threats (to people or even to schools). When these events occur in public, onlookers run away in fright, but the truth is they should tell someone. All of these acts can lead to serious injury and trauma or death. Violence is the expression of physical or verbal aggression; when something little can lead to something very big in a short time. Violence leads to more violence, and violence is NEVER good.
Ten years ago yesterday, two high school teens ran through their high school killing 34 students and themselves. This was an act of violence, but could there have been steps done to prevent it? First, a closer look on how things were done in the school. The question around schools all over, is whether cameras should be allowed in schools to keep violence from occurring. The truth is, at first glance this seems like a good idea, but it is a controversial idea. If anything was to happen, the cameras would catch who did it, and the problem is solved – but not so fast. Some students may argue that this is a privacy issue, while others may say that it does not matter, because their input will not even be taken into consideration. In some ways they may be correct, but the question is always going to be controversial.
Second, think about the possibility that the school could be threatened by students or people in the area. In the case of the 2 teens’ killing spree, on April 20, 1999, Columbine High School was in danger. Dylan Klebold, 17 and Eric Harris, 18 had been planning the massacre for over a year, including collecting semiautomatic guns and homemade bombs while drawing up plans and maps of the school. They planned to commit suicide. The students were known as the school bullies, wearing all black trench coats, and being feared by most all teens at Columbine High. They were soon named ” The Trench Coat Mafia “. Their plan was to kill every student, including themselves, and blow up the school. On the morning of the planned attack, at 11:30 A.M, they ran through the school hiding weapons in their coats. They succeeded in killing 34 people including themselves. This was a real act of violence, and more and more people started wondering how these kinds of weapons could get into a teenager’s hands, or for that fact, anybody who would want to do this type of thing. At Columbine the answer was simple; they got somebody to help them – Eric Harris’s girlfriend. When all was said and done, everybody was more cautious about who they hung out with, and people were being more observant of their surroundings.
Just a mere month ago, there was another incident a block from where Columbine High School stands. A man walked onto the property of Deer Creek Middle School and casually asked the children he saw if they went to school there. When the children responded yes, he proceeded to shoot at them, for no apparent reason. When he needed to reload his gun to shoot some more, the teacher of the students, a former college basketball player, jumped on top of the shooter, and was able to keep him from shooting until authorities arrived. This shows us that violent events do indeed exist in 2010, a decade after Columbine, and we should never let our guard down.