Truthfully I Was A Bad Guy...Well That's Inspiring

            Teens are mostly interested in themselves, however, that does not mean they always act in the best interest of themselves. This has to do directly with drugs. Teens care more about how people perceive them then how they perceive themselves and James Frey has shown this in his book A Million Little Pieces. I admit that the book was unbelievable—literally—but it gave the wrong message to drug users. After being interrogated, Frey was asked by Oprah why he lied like he did. He responded, “"’I was a bad guy…if I was gonna write a book that was true, and I was gonna write a book that was honest, then I was gonna have to write about myself in very, very negative ways’” (The Smoking Gun). This isn’t exactly something Frey should be telling to an audience that is mostly made up of recovery addicts.

            The problem that I have with this book is that Frey wrote it partially to inspire others and make them believe they can overcome their addictions he did. If he writes about himself in such negative and vulgar ways, how are they supposed to feel inspired? They will think that they need to look at themselves as bad people in order to move on. Frey also said, “I am an Alcoholic and I am a Drug Addict and I am a Criminal.” I get that Frey is coming to terms with who and what he is, but that doesn’t mean that he is all bad. He fails to be able to meet his own eyes in the mirror and that doesn’t help anyone reading the book. They will see the shame he has in himself and start to feel the same way.

An article on teen abuse on drugs titled “Teen Drug Use” by Jennifer Kerr in the Huffington Post said, “abuse of prescription medicine…rate went from 5 percent in 2008 to 9 percent last year, or about 1.5 million teens toking up…20 or more times a month.” This number cannot be ignored and is encouraged by people like James Frey. He exxaggerated the amount of drugs he used which made teenage users believe could use more without consequence. Frey almost faced death, but that is overshadowed by the fact that he survived. Teens look at that and think they can do the same, but the fact of the matter is they can’t.



Huffington Post Article Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/02/teen-drug-use_n_1470151.html

"How Far Some Parents Go To Get a Job...For Thier Kids"

            I just read the article, “How Far Some Parents Go To Get a Job…For Their Kids” on the USA Today website. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. College Graduates apparently can find jobs after they get out of college, but are still having their parents pay for their phone, food, and electricity bills. And even worse, 1 in 50 graduates is relying on their parents to pay all their living expenses. One girl’s mother said, “The idea of living at home repulses her because of my cooking and her father's rules, both great incentives to finding her own way in the world.” So, begs the question, if college grads are so ready to be free from their parents, why are they still relying on them for basic every-day needs?

            However, some parents don’t want to have to pay these bills. Instead, they are treating college graduates, with degrees and plenty of experience, as children as they walk them to the door for high-paying job interviews. According to the article, 1 in 10 graduate’s parents take them to their job interviews. It is ridiculous; the lengths parents go to in order to get a job for their kid. “Three percent of recent college grads say their parents have actually sat in with them during interviews, and one percent claim Mom or Dad wrote their thank you notes afterwards.” When I wanted to apply for jobs, I looked up each business’s phone number and called asking how to apply. I then had my mom drive me to the store—I didn’t have my license yet—and walked into the store alone and asked one of the workers for a job application and stuck up a conversation with them. I filled out the application alone and went back inside to turn it in alone, asking questions about when I would hear back, etc. When I got called in for an interview, I picked out what I was wearing myself and went into the interview alone. Never in a million years would I have allowed either one of my parents to walk through that door with me and had they, I’m sure I wouldn’t have gotten the job.

            After I read this article, I asked my boss if she ever had a parent come into an interview. She said no and that if anyone ever did, I wouldn’t have to be worried about them joining us. She did tell me how parents call in some workers sick and that it really annoys her. If I ever get sick, the first thing I ever do is call or text my boss to tell her in case I won’t be able to make it to work. Unless I am on my death bead, my mother will not be calling my boss. Sadly, I can’t say that for the rest of America and, not to mention, our future bosses.

New Evidence that was Witheld in the Trayvon Martin Case

A new article came out today titled, “Run-ins with pitbull reportedly led Zimmerman, wife to get guns” on Fox News was about the case regarding Trayvon Martin’s death. Originally when I read about this incident, I sided with Trayvon, as all the evidence pointed to Zimmerman as a killer and not acting out of self-defense. New evidence has been brought to the table, such as a picture of the back of Zimmerman’s head after the attack. His head is bloody and they are not self-inflicted wounds.

This is a photo of Zimmerman's head moments after the fight

           This evidence, according to Florida law, was allowed to be withheld from the judge when they signed the affidavid for Zimmerman’s arrest. However, I think that it is very important in deciding the guilt of Zimmerman in the case. These wounds prove that Zimmerman was wounded during the struggle. However, that does not mean that these wounds are attack wounds, as they could have been self-defense wounds made by Trayvon. The clear issue at hand in this case is the evidence and the amount of time that this case has been going on for.

Other evidence, specifically pictures, has also been withheld from the case. I think that this shows the corruption of the judicial system. All evidence should be shown because all sides need to be considered in a court case. Had this picture been presented as evidence, Zimmerman may not have been given a bond. While I do find Zimmerman to be guilty, the issue of internal affairs in politics and in the court rooms needs to be fixed.

THE DEMONS MADE ME DO IT

           James Frey’s twisted re-telling of “life events” in his book A Million Little Pieces, partially took place in his hometown of St. Joseph, Michigan. Several police officers and locals who knew Frey are saying that many parts of the book were not factual. However, even after several investigations and news reports, only 2,000 out of the millions of buyers asked for and received full refunds from the publisher. It doesn’t necessarily bother me that Frey exaggerated events, as a memoir is told in the way one remembers specific events. The part that bothers me is that he completely exaggerated how much drugs he used. According to several doctors, there would have been no possible way Frey would’ve been alive after consuming all he had. It isn’t humanly possible. So, I can’t understand why he would exaggerate how much he used when, without exaggeration, the amazing story he had would’ve been enough.

            One article quoted Frey saying that the “Demons” that drove him to do drugs also made him lie in his book. I do not believe that for a second. Frey is basically claiming that he’s insane. But, no one who is actually insane would ever admit that they are. This shows how people are claiming they are “mentally ill” to get out of things. One law that drives me insane—no pun intended—is that people who are determined “mentally retarded” and “didn’t know what they were doing at the time” can get out of murder. It’s the same thing as Frey; they are using an actual illness to try and cover up for their mistakes. In my opinion, if someone is so mentally ill to the point where they are incapable of taking responsibility for their actions, they are dangerous and need to be locked up. The same goes for Frey. Frey lied and was well aware that he was lying, just as he was well aware that he was doing drugs.

The other thing that strikes me as odd in the book is his infatuation with a character named Lilly. If other parts of his book had been deemed untrue, how can we believe that there was a girl named Lilly who fell for Frey, with a huge scar across his face, yellowy-black bags under his eyes, and could barely get up without throwing up? It’s strange that the girl he was in love with basically didn’t exist before entering the rehabilitation center, has a dead grandmother as her only family member ever mentioned, and committed suicide as soon as she left the building. How do we know that she ever was real? While according to Frey’s Demon claim he could’ve imagined her, it is clear that he easily could’ve made her up like he did the rest of his book. Psychologically, this book cannot be defended. Frey wrote every word and the issue of people claiming this or that to cover up the truth can no longer be supported. The millions of readers who read and fell in love with this book are evidence of that.

Brides + Feeding Tubes = Not Good

            I just read the article “The K-E Diet: Brides-to-Be Using Feeding Tubes to Rapidly Shed Pounds” by Yunji De Nies. Being nice, I am completely disgusted. I do not think that women should use a feeding tube in order to loose weight before their wedding. Doing this is completely contradictory to the event in which they are doing it for. Marriage is the devotion from one person to another, saying they will love you forever no matter what. Marriage is about loving someone for who they are and women shouldn’t want to change their bodies for someone who loves them just the way they are.

            As a teenage girl, I am constantly exposed to a world obsessed with body and facial image. People no longer accept anything less than perfect and they expect it from everyone. Every month I get five magazines; Seventeen, Self, Teen Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Glamour. I read through them page for page and, as every girl does, wishes I was the Victoria’s Secret model in it. While Seventeen does a good job of making things such as “love your body” pages and specials on stars and what flaws they have that they love, they still have the ads of half-naked women photo-shopped posing with perfume bottles or makeup. We see the perfect bodies, perfect faces and look and the mirror and don’t get why we don’t look like that. It sounds stupid, but when you have pages and pages of girls looking perfect right in front of you, you start to believe that it’s how everyone else wants you to look, too.

            I believe that this constant exposure to fake advertisement of what our bodies should look like is what causes women to do things such as use feeding tubes to lose weight. Especially for the one person in the world who is supposed to love you no matter what you look like. It is that mindset that is causing girls to feel like objects, like their marriages are only for spectators and that true love is the talk of fantasies and not of real life.

Frey = Fraud

            Stories have been a part of our lives since birth. Whether we watched TV shows or were read stories in bed, we have always been told stories. We learned to tell stories through writing and drawing. Some of these stories were about pets or siblings, while others were about dragons or princesses. Rarely was there a difference between telling a true story and a made up one, because at a young age both were thought to be true.

I read the book A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Frey’s infamous book has been read by millions. It was chosen by Oprah Winfrey to be part of her book club. It was an inspiration to all people, until Frey was discovered a fraud. The stories he told were exaggerated, some not even true. This was exposed six years ago, yet still people read the book fully aware that the author is a fraud, and believe every word. According to Anthony Quinones, the reason for this is, “facts tell, stories sell. It is easier to share life experiences because they come from within.” Books that touch people deep down have the most power, whether or not they are true. However, that does not mean that selling a memior filled with lies is the correct thing to do, because it’s not.

The Smoking Gun reported that Frey told Winfrey, "’I was a bad guy…if I was gonna write a book that was true, and I was gonna write a book that was honest, then I was gonna have to write about myself in very, very negative ways.’” However, Oprah wasn’t so fond of this method of writing and was clearly offended when she questioned him in an interview. The issue at hand is the ability for people to lie and have no guilt about it, and to get away with it so easily. At some points in her interview, Winfrey said that it was the publisher’s fault for publishing it as a memior. When the publisher was asked if she had read the book and answered yes, Winfrey didn’t understand how she didn’t know that it was lies. But we all read it, and never questioned it at all, so why would the publisher question it? In this way, even Winfrey shows bias in defending Frey and blaming someone else. The fact of the matter is that Frey knowingly lied to millions of people and whether it was out of self-pity or for sales, that fact remains.

Race, Tragedy and Outrage

                 This week I read an article titled “Race, Tragedy and Outrage Collide After a Shot in Florida” in the NY Times by Dan Barry. The article is about how a 28-year-old Hispanic man, George Zimmerman, shot and killed a 17-year-old black boy, Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch man in a housing development in Sanford, Florida. Trayvon’s father was in a relationship with juvenile detention officer Brandy Green. Green lived at the housing development and Trayvon and his father, Tracy Martin, would often stay at Green’s house. The night of the brutal murder, Trayvon was on his way back to the house with a packet of Skittles for Green’s 14-year-old son, Chad, when he was attacked. Trayvon had no history of violence and the night of the murder stayed home with Chad while Green and Martin went out for dinner.

                George Zimmerman was known to “show flashes of violence,” according to court records. When Zimmerman’s ex-fiancé testified, she told them how he had “smacked her.” One of his black schoolmates recalls when he tripped in middle school and Zimmerman said, “’Do you know how to walk, or did you trip over your lip?’” The student, Anthony Woodson, said that Zimmerman was bilingual and was clearly “comfortable in a multicultural world.” Teontae Amie is a 17-year-old African American who said that “’When you see him, (Zimmerman) you think automatically that he might try something.’” Clearly, Zimmerman had a history of being racist and was “always in the middle of things.” On the night of Sunday, February 26 Zimmerman saw a boy through the rain with black skin and in a gray hoodie and assumed that he could not possibly be up to any good.

                While there had been several burglaries in the past, Zimmerman had no right or reason to follow a 17-year-old boy with Skittles in his hand and his girlfriend on his phone. Zimmerman’s phone call to the police consisted of sentences like this; “there’s a real suspicious guy…up to no good…on drugs or something…he looks black.” So Zimmerman could tell from a distance and in the dark night with rain pouring down that a black boy with his hood up was on drugs and up to no good. He was walking close to the complexes and had his hood up because it was raining outside and he didn’t want to get wet, just like any normal person wouldn’t. When talking on the phone to the police, Zimmerman said this about the innocent black boy; “these assholes, they always get away.”

                When Zimmerman told the police he was following the boy on foot, the dispatcher told him that he didn’t need to do that. Zimmerman hung up the phone after agreeing to meet an officer in a specific spot. He then continued to follow Trayvon, against what the police told him. Trayvon’s girlfriend was on the phone with him the entire time. Trayvon had told her he felt like someone was watching him and then she heard shuffling and the phone was hung up. Zimmerman attacked Trayvon and while he had him lying face down in the grass, shot him in the back of the head. The only weapon Trayvon had was a bag of skittles for a 14-year-old boy waiting in the home he was welcome in.

                As soon as the police arrived, Zimmerman cried self-defense. Zimmerman knew to do this because he was studying at the Seminole County’s Community Law Enforcement Academy. He was well aware of the Stand Your Ground law and that since he was allowed to carry a weapon as the neighborhood watch. If you ask me, Zimmerman had a pretty well-devised plan.