The Drugs, The Money, The Guns

By: Shaniqua Brown

There are so many youth in the community that’s dying everyday over some non sense. They get killed over something that they weren’t involved in so the end results are death. Everybody has something to say but hold their true feelings in because they figure that if they say anything they might get hurt or they might say something like this “I have to live in this community and they might find out that I said something and then it’s my life on the line.” So why do you think that so many youth are dying over non-sense?

Now in the lives of children/ teens the drugs are the things that start the violence off, and this is because the drug leaders have these teens that have the slitess idea about what is going on and what they are getting themselves into in the streets selling the drugs.

Next the money, because once the money comes up missing or short, then everybody gets hurt, because the child is running around trying to find out how to get the money and winde up getting hurt or killed over money.

Last the guns, this is the one that every teen that’s in a gang has or are afraid of because of what they saw happen with it. The guns are used on these teens once again because they don’t know what they have got themselves into, and they running around hiding from something that’s bound to kill someone that they know because they have got themselves into something that they weren’t ready for. So many people are killed by what you call guns because they look like someone or because they are in the same family as the person they are looking for. Also because they are into the gang life and they are at war with the other gang and by stray bullets flying nameless.

I interviewed some adults and students/ youth that have experienced this in their life.

“Well I think that the youth are being killed because they are family of someone who is related to someone that they are looking for,” said Tiana Miller, an adult in the Austin community. “And also they because they are at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Deandre Stackhouse, actually experienced a personal loss due to gang violence.

“Well I really don’t have too much to say because it makes me very emotional,” said Stackhouse. “I think that it’s unnecessary to have gang violence because I lost my brother to gang violence so I don’t recommend anyone to be in gangs or to use gang violence in something that you can talk out.”

“I think that every youth has something that everybody can use first off,” said Joyce Matthews a freshman student at VOISE Academy. “But at the same time there are people who hate on someone that have something that they don’t have and that’s pentiful because that person may can help you and give you something that can help you out but they’re gone now.”

Stop Treating The World Like A Garbage Can!!!!

By: Ericka Richards

The environment is in extremely bad state. There is pollution and the wasting of natural resources. People every where are littering and not cleaning up after themselves. They are treating the world like a garbage can..
When you are walking down the street, like Madison Street for an example, it looks like people don’t even know what garbage is.
“It seems like people don’t care about the place they live,” said Tiara Bell. “They treat it as if they have more than one world and like they can’t a new one.”
“If everybody gets up and helps clean up the environment we would have a good environment,” said Lazarick Coney. “But it seems like people don’t care.”
My opinion is people need to stand up an help out the world. Nearly all of the world natural resources are being wasted because of not recycling reused product.
It takes more energy and more resources to make new product form new resource than it does to make a new product form recycles. If everybody pitch in and did something to help better the environment then it would benefit it.
For example the whole in the o-zone does not need to be made bigger, but people can do thing as simple as taking the train or bus instead of polluting the air with millions of cars. The environment is precious and does not need to be ruined any more than it already is.

Costly Perscription

By: Shanell Harmon

My auntie Claira Morris is a seasoned woman who is usually calm and quiet, but seemed stressed when we talked about how much her prescriptions cost.

“Whenever I walk into a pharmacy it leaves a feeling of grief; because after paying for medication there is no money left,” she said. My auntie is on a fixed income and lives in a retirement center and on occasion has to choose between getting a prescription filled and replenishing her refrigerator. And she is not alone. The battle between major pharmaceutical companies and American consumers has left the U.S. paying the highest drug prices in the world, according to Richard T. Evans, senior research analyst of global pharmaceuticals at Sanford C. Berstein & Co. This puts Americans in a crucial situation. This is not fair. No one should have to feel like my auntie. The Government and the pharmaceutical companies need to work together in order to find a solution. The Government is responsible, therefore they are the ones that have complete control.It’s hard to manage when the source that one depends on seems to be working against any chance of progress. In this case the government is the source.

However, the government is not completely hanging the people out to dry. Recently, the government has been giving more information about generic drugs. Generic drugs are supposed to be cheaper and deliver cures to an illness. It has been proven through research that generics are better then name brands. But this is not enough.

Government should work with insurance companies so they are able to pay more of a percentage of prescription drug costs. If the government and insurance companies decide to work together, individuals like my auntie won’t have to worry about the price of getting well.