My Comments :]

Shayna

I can't stop thinking about Brother Tyreak when he sat us down to teach and speak about his religion. I too liked the way the Brother approached us. Like you said, he wasn't at all intimating and he was very easy to listen to. I was actually interested in what he had to say and i learned a lot from him. The Brother was an interesting person to listen to and learn from.

At one part in his "speech" he mentioned how you can't base a relationship around love. Even if you have all the love in the world for a person, it may still come apart at the seams. I have been thinking greatly about what Brother Tyreak had said (and now that it's down i think i will blog about it later lol) but i felt it related to my situation with "the boy". I felt that what Brother Tyreak said to us during the field trip wasn't just some little speech that we will just toss away in a few days, i feel that everything he said was reassuring and like you said, the minute i walked in i felt welcomed and respected by the Brother. 

great blog...it got me thinking :]
- gabrielle

March 9, 2009 6:28 AM

Shayna

This really was an interesting blog to read because of how personal you made it. I respect you so much for sharing this. I think a majority of someone's life is written down, except the ending to all the experiences. I believe it is the way that person acts towards what is happening to them or to someone close that ends that part of the story. For example, although it was a really hard and terrifying time in your life, your sister's, parents and brother's lives, i believe that you all decided to learn from this illness your sister had. Your didn't let it destroy your lives. Each and everyone of you learned from it and grew as a person. Each one of you grew stronger from this unforgivable illness that changed all of your lives. Although no one deserves to get sick, i think one reason a force pushes illness on someone is so that person and the people around them become stronger and closer to one another.

March 1, 2009 2:15 PM

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Kimberly

I too wrote about how reading can change or even save a person's life. And Jodi Picoult is life. She has taught me so much through reading many of her books. When I'm down in the dumps, annoyed, or frustrated, I always open up one of her books because my worries at the current moment get drowned out by the words that sit on the pages of Jodi Picoult's books.

March 1, 2009 2:47 PM

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Angel

i too also get mad at malcolm x when he generalizes whites into the one basic group. It really ticks me off because not all whites were like that; not all whites think black people are terrible people. I also agree with you when you say that depending on where someone grows up, it determines how they view other races. Like you said, the south still hasn't moved away from the past; they still discriminate against people who are of a different skin color and that bothers me immensely because how is someone going to judge someone based on their skin? How can a white person stand there and judge a black person mainly on their outside appearance without getting to know them and the person they are on the inside? They can't; people can't pass judgment on someone they haven't met because all they would be doing is making an assumption. I find it mind blowing that if a person was to grow up in a different section of new jersey, or even a different part of the united states, they wouldn't be the same person they are today because of how the people around them have different beliefs and views.

March 1, 2009 2:40 PM

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Jaime


I really enjoyed reading about how you view people as ignorant. I agree with that statement as well. There are many things people can be ignorant towards such as different religions, races, political views, and so on. But one thing that most people can admit to being ignorant towards is definitely other races. Like you, i haven't truly been exposed to other races as much as others have. I myself was actually ignorant towards the Muslim religion (so i learned on the trip to Harlem). However, by sitting and listening to Brother Tyreak, his words made me open my eyes to many more new thoughts and ideas. I feel that people should go out and meet and learn about other races in order to open new vistas in their lives. Great Job blogging. (i couldn't open up the link, but it seems interesting but at the same time shocking and upsetting).

March 10, 2009 6:25 AM