Sandy Elementary School Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut

In a recent article by N.R. Kleinfield in Los Angeles Times news entitled "Security Increased at Connecticut Schools as Investigation Into Shooting Continues," The shooting spree on Monday in a small town of Connecticut caused many heart breaks of those who were the victims of the shooting.

"The town of Newtown started burying the first young victims of last week’s slaughter at an elementary school on Monday," One of the young victims that was shot in the shooting was Jack Pinto, who was only 6 at the time of his death, along with Noah Pozner who was also the same age. It became unbearable for families to watch their boys get buried underground at the Sandy Hook Elementary Funeral.

"Investigators said it could take months to recreate a full account of the events preceding and during the killing spree on Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which has been sealed off as a crime scene." The state policemen had later identified the killer to be Adam Lanza, who them killed himself after the massacre in Sandy School. He was only 20 years old. He took 26 lives; 20 students and 6 adults. According to Law enforcement officials, Lanza had killed his mother at their home, not far from the elementary school.

"The guns were legally acquired and registered by Ms. Lanza, who had sometimes taken her son to shooting ranges, according to law enforcement officials and her friends." The gun that Lanza had used was legally bought by his own mother. The gun he used was a .223-caliber bullet which was a a small, high-velocity round that has been used by Western military forces for decades, in part because it inflicts devastating wounds. His friends later confirmed that his mother, Ms. Lanza had a developmental disorder.

I pray for those families that sadly lost their little ones with their short amount of time that they had in the world. This reminds me of many school shootings that had happened over the last few years. One specifically that had happened here in Arkansas in Jonesboro. I can only imagine the pain and suffering that they feel. All because of a heartless young man with an unknown reason to kill such young children.

The students of Sandy Elementary School.will now be attending a different building in a nearby community. On Monday of the shooting, the staff members had done all they could to protect the children in the building, but it broke all their hearts when they could not save anymore than they tried. The town of Newtown will forever remember the horrible tragedy of Sandy Elementary School.

Sandy Elementary School Shooting in Newtown, Connecticut

In a recent article by Wesley Lowery in Los Angeles Times news entitled "Family of man shot by sheriff's deputies calls for FBI probe," Lowery informs that an IngleWood man was shot down by a sheriff deputy this month, requesting an FBI probe of the shooting.

"Jose de la Trinidad, 36, was shot and killed by deputies Nov. 10, just minutes after leaving his niece's quinceanera with his older brother." According to the article, Trinidad had just left his nieces and was caught by police when he over speed after his brother had been pulled over by another cop. With the fear of getting in trouble with the sheriff, avoided any confrontations and fled as quickly as possible, but in the 1900 block of East 122nd Street in Willowbrook, he finally stopped.

"After police attempted to pull the older brother over for speeding, he sped off. After pleading with his brother to stop, Jose de la Trinidad was let out of the car in the 1900 block of East 122nd Street in Willowbrook, family members said." When he finally got out of the car, he was unarmed. Although he had no kind of weapon visible with him, he was shot to death by deputies. The police men thought that Trinidad had some kind of weapon with him when he aimed for his waistband and took a very risky action when they shot the man down.

"The slain man's family, however, said that a 19-year-old woman who witnessed the shooting from her bedroom window reported that she saw De la Trinidad with his hands behind his head before shots were fired." This was clearly sign of surrender, but instead they gunned him down. According to eye witness, Trinidad stopped at the scene, got out of the car, and moved his arms behind his head, not towards his waist. Deputies that were in the scene had forced many witnesses to change their stories.

It seems that there are many stories that I hear of like this when police men are not doing their job by following the rules that they are to abide to. I remember a story that I've heard of like this. A man was shot down just because they accused him of owning a weapon when he had no possesion of it.

Family and friends had set up a memorial for Jose de la Trinidad at Wells Fargo Bank. The father of two daughters will never have that father figure to help them grow up to young adults. The widow is very much upset and depressed that this had happened to her family but will continue to raise their children together.

Opener, Subject-verb Split, Closer.

When it comes to your own beliefs and others beliefs, there are limits to speak your mind and thoughts about certain views that concern you or someone else, but what is the limit? In my opinion when your views or beliefs become threatning or destructing, it becomes dangerous. In our world today, radical Muslims force thoughts and ideas into many people minds, shoving there views into others, making them believe that their ideas are right. When convencing others about your beliefs, you can not just shove your ideas into someone else's throats and force them to think the way you do. Radical Muslims, making them a threat to our country, caused our country to change forever. During their lifetime, they were forced to learn about their religious beliefs, exposing the thoughts of America becoming a dictator to the world. There are limits to defending your views, but when you believe that others are wrong and you're right, you believe that their ideas do not matter, making it harder to except what others are saying.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower satisfied me with its memorable and hilarious story. This is a story of a young 15 year old boy named Charlie, who struggles to grow up into the real world and discovering new ways to enjoy life.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, ultimately draws you into loving the characters and their perky personality and wild adventures. With Charlie surviving his freshman year of high school, he meets his two amazing friends and begins to take on different experiences that will change his life forever. As the end of this story comes to a closure, you begin to learn life lessons: understand sexuality, finding love, horrible habits, and coping with death in the family. With Charlie's confusion about his friend's sexuality, he finds himself caught in the curiosity of his own self identity. He becomes instantly in love and experiences feelings about a young girl for the first time. Charlie goes beneath his influences and finds himself doing drugs while starting a habit of smoking.

Chbosky writes this story at a first person view. The style of it becomes very teen-like, as if a young 15 year old boy was writing it. This helps young teenage adults to understand clearly without the struggles of understand much more of the book. He writes this book in a letter form; giving a visual impact that this is just a book of letters from one particular young man.

The characters: Charlie, Sam, and Patrick come out as very believable characters. I could very much compare myself to them. These characters are reflections of teenagers in this century. Full of curiosity and self freedom. Charlie is a very curios, Sam is wild, and Patrick is open. All together, they become "infinite".

The setting of the story is very dark. It consists of high school, a party house, his own home, and everywhere else in a small town. The setting gives the characters freedom to do anything they want.

This book reminds me of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. A novel that I have read years back. It reminded me of their love of music and the setting of it was very much alike. With Charlie being sexually abused by her aunt, it creates many connections with children around the world who are currently being forced into things that they are not comfortable with.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone. It is an amazing book to read because of it's hilarious scenes, dramatic plot, and awful moments. With this book being a movie, you should definitely read it first before ever deciding to watch the movie.

Current Event 1: Panda dies.

Baby Panda Death

In a recent article by Michael Pearson in CNN news entitled "Cause of Panda Cub Death Still Unclear," Pearson informs that Washington's National Zoo had a very devastating death of a baby panda, six days after it's birth; not knowing the clear cause of death.

The cub was identified as a female and was not named yet. On Sunday, the panda was crushed by its mother, a big 14 year old panda named Mei Xiang. The necropsy showed that the animal had an unusual fluid in its body, and the investigators still don't know anything about the official findings. The initial exams still does not show a clear cause of the panda's death.

What a horrible death of a baby panda! Perhaps it's kind is one of the most loved, but I could be biased.

Pandas are one of the most endangered animal in the world. There is only a population of 1,900 of these animals left. Female pandas ovulate only once a year, which happens during the spring for a short period of two or three days. One in four males and one in four female pandas die in the year following their birth.

Reading this article reminds me of other animals that are endangered because of either their environment or  their natural habitat. Every year, animals are becoming extinct, and some are so rare, that almost no body even knows about that certain animal. I remember an article that I had read a few years about an endangered bird. It had such a low number of these animals, that it was almost impossible to spot one of them.

With the experts carefully investigating the sad and tragic death of a baby panda, a rare animal, they hope to learn from the death and help effort to preserve the species.

Rebuilding of the World Trade Center Inference

Inference: When building the new World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, they thought of the structure and protection of the building. This building was built to not only symbolize our country in some way, but to make it much stronger than the twin tower that was attacked by the Radical Muslims and to prevent the building from ever collapsing again.

Evidence: Although the building is higher than the previous World Trade Center, it is much stronger. It contains more than 45,000 structural steel, which is as much steel used to build the Eiffel Tower. With it's 71 elevators, 5 of them are high-speed; taking only 45 seconds to get all the way to the top of the building. This makes escaping easier when an act of terrorism ever occurs again.

Explanation: The World Trade Center was built with the strongest steel to keep the building from ever falling from to ground. It is to keep the tower and the people inside of it, safe. The high-speed elevators are to get anyone in the building out, as soon as possible in case an emergency happens.

Mary's Reading Bucket List

1. Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles: This has been one of my "have-to-read" books. Rules of Attraction is the second book of the Perfect Chemistry novel. This was recommended to me by Felisa Ruiz, the person that has begged for me to read this book. I have read many positive reviews on it, and I am very interested in reading this romantic comedy.
2. Room by Emma Donoghue: When I was first informed about this book, I became instantly in love with the plot and story. I discovered the book when I was surfing through the recommended books on the Internet. It is a very dramatic book, and I feel as if I could really get into reading it.
3. 50 Shades of Gray by E.L. James: Although this book is a very explicit. I am looking forward to reading the material. I have heard that many women from across the country has came to love it. Even my fellow co-workers were obviously obsess with this book; constantly discussing about it. I may not know what the book is all about, but I cannot wait to start reading 50 Shades of Gray.
4. Catching Fire by Suzzane Collins: This book is the second book to the Hunger Games collection. I have read the first book and I loved it. Since I have started the first book, I figured I should continue on with the trilogy and finish the whole series. I have started a few pages of it, but I never had the time to finish. I am hoping that this year, I will be able to finish this book.
5. Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling: I have heard many amazing reviews about this series. I was constantly recommended by all of my close friends, but I was never really interested into reading the books, since I have already seen the movies. Although every single one of the books are very thick, I had a change of heart and decided to start reading the books. I already know that the books itself are going to be better than the movie, therefore I am very excited.
6. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: After seeing the movie trailer for this book, I was absolutely certain that I was going to read this book before ever seeing the movie. I have never heard of this book before until a group of my friends started reading it. This was also on the "top 100 books to read" list that I came upon when searching through the Internet. It looked like a very interesting story to read, and I already have myself set to reading this book.
7. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lorien: When I had already seen the movie, I had found out that this was also a book. My English teachers has always told me that the book was better than the movie, so I am planning to read the book as well. I loved the movie when it came out and I can't wait to read it through a book.
8. Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs: After seeing the book trailer of this story, I was instantly drawn to how mysterious this story was. I loved what the story was going to be about and I absolutely have to read this book before I die. Mysteries and horror stories are my absolute favorite and this book just stuck out to me.
9. Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles: This is the third book to the Perfect Chemistry series. I want to continue reading the books by Elkeles. The plots of her stories are very interesting. This book is all about romance and I'm crazy about these books. It just doesn't make sense to start a series and not finish.
10. Dreamland by Sarah Dessen: Sarah Dessen has been one of my most favorited author. I once read one of her books and I instantly fell in love. I was recommended by a friend to read this book, and when I discovered that it was written by Dessen, I just had to read this book.

I will not forgive.

I, as a survivor of the titanic, would and cannot forgive the awful Captain Smith, for endagering thousands of lives. I could still hear the horrible screams and the sight of humans fighting for their lives as the boat sinks into the icey cold water in the middle of nowhere. It was almost like yesterday. How can a man be so stubborn? Why could he not warn us sooner and tell us that we had to act quick before the ship sank? I loathe the fact that he did nothing to prevent harm to the passengers and crews, and I cannot forgive this man who ignored the fact that we all had little to no chance of living. Children, men, and women were suffered and tortured all because of him. I watched as my mother and brothers slip away from my fingers. I was the only survivor of my family. I could never forget how terrified i was, and the scars on my body remind me everyday of it.

Pity For This Man?

In my opinion, a man who had killed thousands and thousands of innocent men, women, and children, do not deserve pity from anyone due to the fact that he was a volunteered Nazi of the SS. In the passage it qoutes "When the war broke out I volunteered, naturally in the SS"  If he felt so horrible for the actions that he made when he had killed helpless Jews, why would he be in the SS for just the adventures? He knew of what was to come, and he knew that he would have to kill thousands of people. "We heard screams and saw the flames eat their way from floor to floor... We had our rifles ready to shoot down anyone who tried to escape from that blazing hell..." He watched hundreds of Jews burn and cry for help, and yet he just stood there waiting to shoot anyone who dared to escape. He does not deserve pity from another Jew who have watched him kill his kind.

Shall He Be Forgiven?

A man that executes his best friend in order to save him from an angry mob, should be forgiven. In order to keep him from suffering, he kills him painlessly. He was not selfish, because he thought of his friend first before himself. Like in the book Of Mice and Men, George had killed Lenny because the mob of men were going to make him suffer, and in the end kill him. He knew that the best way was to just shoot him, because it was better that way than making him feel the pain.