News for the Week of 4/12/15
1. Leelah Alcorn's Suicide
In a small town in Ohio, on December 28, 2015 during the early morning, a girl was was hit and killed by a truck on Interstate 71. This girl's name was Leelah Alcorn. She was a transgender high school student who was 17 years old, however she suffered from depression and felt this horrible loneliness from her parents not accepting who she was. Leelah had known she was a girl since she was young and when she found out that people like her were called transgender, she told her mom. She reacted saying, "you will never truly be a girl," and that "God makes no mistakes". This made Leelah hate who she was even more and she didn't have anyone to go to, even her own parents couldn't help her. They sent her to therapy to help with her depression, but in Leelah's suicide note she explains that they were all Christian therapies who were all very biased and didn't help much. Leelah finally decided to end her life, to stop her suffering once and for all.
Personally I believe Leelah was a very strong person for getting as far as she did. I read her suicide note on Tumblr the day she died and it brought me to tears. The fact that in this day and age, people are still not being treated equally gets me very angry. Transgender people are starting to become a regular thing in this society yet there are still people that discriminate against others because they are "different". And maybe people are tired of this, tired of others like me saying, we need to become more accepting of everyone, but it needs to be drilled into their heads that we are all one race, human beings and that just because you are transgender, black, overweight, gay, or any other minority that gets oppressed, there should be no hate if we actually want to fix this problem. Transgender suicides have gone up recently and it will only get worse unless we do something. Leelah's death wasn't the only recent one. Others like Blake Brokington (North Carolina), and Zander Mahaffey (Georgia) are also transgender teens that have committed suicide within the past couple months. Leelah's death will definitely not be in vain, I researched this news article not only to read her full story, but to educate others on how everyone must be "treated like humans. With valid feelings and human rights."-Leelah Alcorn. I still feel like I haven't said enough about this, but below is the link to the article I used and a link to Leelah's suicide note, please read it when you have the time.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/31/us/ohio-transgender-teen-suicide/
Fantz, Ashley. "Ohio Transgender Teen's Mom: 'He Was an Amazing Boy' - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 4 Jan. 2015. Web. 09 Apr. 2015.
http://lazerprincess.soup.io/post/514599457/Suicide-Note
2. Chapel Hill Muslim Shooting
A little after 5 in the evening of early February 2015, a call to the police was received, reporting that they had heard gunshots and screaming from a condominium complex near the University of North Carolina. The police arrived and found three dead, a newlywed couple, Deah Barakat and Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, as well as her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. Their neighbor was put under arrest and charged of murder. The accused's name was Craig Stephen Hicks, who was said to have shown hate towards all religions on his Facebook, and he also owned guns in his apartment. The police are saying that the problem came upon the neighbors about parking and how the Muslim couple sometimes had to use Craig Hicks side of the parking lot, making him angry. However they are still trying to figure out if this is a hate crime against Muslim religion. Craig Hicks wife tries to defend her husband by saying he shows no hate for religion and is also for right to abortion and gay marriage, however his Facebook gives a juxtaposed view of this.
In my opinion if you don't see this as a hate crime, then something's wrong. People don't shoot other people just because they don't want them parking somewhere. I also found out about this on Tumblr and I was instantly ashamed. This is going along the lines of my other article and how discrimination can go towards many types of people. These Muslim students that were killed were incredible people and probably had so much they could give to this world. In the article it says the police are trying to say that it was a series of many arguments that just got out of hand one day, however I don't think these students did anything wrong, they were probably trying to negotiate with their neighbor on what they could do about the small area of parking they had. Craig Hicks deserves to be accused with this sentence, and the fact that his wife is trying to defend him is irrelevant because she doesn't know the facts of this case. Again I did this article for recognition, people need to see things like this and say that we need to start changing this country for the better by first, stop discriminating against our fellow citizens.
Katz, Jonathan M. "In Chapel Hill Shooting of 3 Muslims, a Question of Motive." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/us/muslim-student-shootings-north-carolina.html?_r=0
3. Nigerian Girls Life After Escaping From Boko Haram
A teenage Nigerian girl named Deborah was one of the 57 escapees from the Boko Haram's attack on the girl's school in Chibok, Nigeria. She is now looking toward a brighter future and studying at the American University of Nigeria and hopes to become part of the United Nations so she can aid her own country as well as the rest of the world. The school is a good learning environment and all the girls are so thankful to go there. These girls could've had a worse fate by being involved in suicide bombings, sex trafficking, and rape of the Boko Haram. The girls feel like the men who kidnapped the 276 girls at the school should deserve mercy.
I am amazed and proud that these girls have such high hopes and dreams. The one girl Deborah wants to become part of the United Nations to help her country, that is truly a beautiful thing to do. It makes you wonder how many people in America want to become part of high government positions to change this country and other countries for the better. The fact that these girls are given the opportunity to a good school only after they are seen as victims seems a little unsettling to me however, because everyone should be getting good education from the beginning of their lives, not only after they have been through a horrible ordeal. These girls and women that were abducted by the Boko Haram have to stay strong, we must always cling onto hope.
Simon, Ben. "Nigeria Girls Who Fled Boko Haram Look to Brighter Future." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 11 Apr. 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-girls-fled-boko-haram-look-brighter-future-061623140.html
In a small town in Ohio, on December 28, 2015 during the early morning, a girl was was hit and killed by a truck on Interstate 71. This girl's name was Leelah Alcorn. She was a transgender high school student who was 17 years old, however she suffered from depression and felt this horrible loneliness from her parents not accepting who she was. Leelah had known she was a girl since she was young and when she found out that people like her were called transgender, she told her mom. She reacted saying, "you will never truly be a girl," and that "God makes no mistakes". This made Leelah hate who she was even more and she didn't have anyone to go to, even her own parents couldn't help her. They sent her to therapy to help with her depression, but in Leelah's suicide note she explains that they were all Christian therapies who were all very biased and didn't help much. Leelah finally decided to end her life, to stop her suffering once and for all.
Personally I believe Leelah was a very strong person for getting as far as she did. I read her suicide note on Tumblr the day she died and it brought me to tears. The fact that in this day and age, people are still not being treated equally gets me very angry. Transgender people are starting to become a regular thing in this society yet there are still people that discriminate against others because they are "different". And maybe people are tired of this, tired of others like me saying, we need to become more accepting of everyone, but it needs to be drilled into their heads that we are all one race, human beings and that just because you are transgender, black, overweight, gay, or any other minority that gets oppressed, there should be no hate if we actually want to fix this problem. Transgender suicides have gone up recently and it will only get worse unless we do something. Leelah's death wasn't the only recent one. Others like Blake Brokington (North Carolina), and Zander Mahaffey (Georgia) are also transgender teens that have committed suicide within the past couple months. Leelah's death will definitely not be in vain, I researched this news article not only to read her full story, but to educate others on how everyone must be "treated like humans. With valid feelings and human rights."-Leelah Alcorn. I still feel like I haven't said enough about this, but below is the link to the article I used and a link to Leelah's suicide note, please read it when you have the time.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/31/us/ohio-transgender-teen-suicide/
Fantz, Ashley. "Ohio Transgender Teen's Mom: 'He Was an Amazing Boy' - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 4 Jan. 2015. Web. 09 Apr. 2015.
http://lazerprincess.soup.io/post/514599457/Suicide-Note
2. Chapel Hill Muslim Shooting
A little after 5 in the evening of early February 2015, a call to the police was received, reporting that they had heard gunshots and screaming from a condominium complex near the University of North Carolina. The police arrived and found three dead, a newlywed couple, Deah Barakat and Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, as well as her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha. Their neighbor was put under arrest and charged of murder. The accused's name was Craig Stephen Hicks, who was said to have shown hate towards all religions on his Facebook, and he also owned guns in his apartment. The police are saying that the problem came upon the neighbors about parking and how the Muslim couple sometimes had to use Craig Hicks side of the parking lot, making him angry. However they are still trying to figure out if this is a hate crime against Muslim religion. Craig Hicks wife tries to defend her husband by saying he shows no hate for religion and is also for right to abortion and gay marriage, however his Facebook gives a juxtaposed view of this.
In my opinion if you don't see this as a hate crime, then something's wrong. People don't shoot other people just because they don't want them parking somewhere. I also found out about this on Tumblr and I was instantly ashamed. This is going along the lines of my other article and how discrimination can go towards many types of people. These Muslim students that were killed were incredible people and probably had so much they could give to this world. In the article it says the police are trying to say that it was a series of many arguments that just got out of hand one day, however I don't think these students did anything wrong, they were probably trying to negotiate with their neighbor on what they could do about the small area of parking they had. Craig Hicks deserves to be accused with this sentence, and the fact that his wife is trying to defend him is irrelevant because she doesn't know the facts of this case. Again I did this article for recognition, people need to see things like this and say that we need to start changing this country for the better by first, stop discriminating against our fellow citizens.Katz, Jonathan M. "In Chapel Hill Shooting of 3 Muslims, a Question of Motive." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Feb. 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/us/muslim-student-shootings-north-carolina.html?_r=0
3. Nigerian Girls Life After Escaping From Boko Haram
A teenage Nigerian girl named Deborah was one of the 57 escapees from the Boko Haram's attack on the girl's school in Chibok, Nigeria. She is now looking toward a brighter future and studying at the American University of Nigeria and hopes to become part of the United Nations so she can aid her own country as well as the rest of the world. The school is a good learning environment and all the girls are so thankful to go there. These girls could've had a worse fate by being involved in suicide bombings, sex trafficking, and rape of the Boko Haram. The girls feel like the men who kidnapped the 276 girls at the school should deserve mercy.
I am amazed and proud that these girls have such high hopes and dreams. The one girl Deborah wants to become part of the United Nations to help her country, that is truly a beautiful thing to do. It makes you wonder how many people in America want to become part of high government positions to change this country and other countries for the better. The fact that these girls are given the opportunity to a good school only after they are seen as victims seems a little unsettling to me however, because everyone should be getting good education from the beginning of their lives, not only after they have been through a horrible ordeal. These girls and women that were abducted by the Boko Haram have to stay strong, we must always cling onto hope.
Simon, Ben. "Nigeria Girls Who Fled Boko Haram Look to Brighter Future." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!, 11 Apr. 2015. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-girls-fled-boko-haram-look-brighter-future-061623140.html
What happened to the newlywed couple and the wife's sister is absolutely horrible and I agree with you that this is a hate crime and the fact that things like this are happening around the world to religious minorities every day is appalling. Hicks' boasting hate on social media is ridiculous and no one should be allowed to say anything like that for the public to see, and this also ties in with gun control because someone like Hicks with so much hate against discriminated people should not be allowed to have weapons in their house. I agree with you that events like these need recognition, and people need to realize that religious minorities and other such people are not even truly safe in society.
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree that discrimination still exists in the US. Last month, a Muslim immigrant was shot in Texas while taking a photo of his first snowfall. This man was discriminated against just because of his race and religion. Until prejudices like this end, events like this will keep on occurring.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/news/muslim-immigrant-shot-dead-in-dallas-photographing-snow/