Four Women Collegiate Athletes Killed By an Unknown Distraction

This past Friday, four women from a Texas Community College's softball team were killed when their team bus was rammed by a truck.  Russell Staley, 53, the driver of the truck, was headed Northbound on Interstate 35 when he got distracted and proceeded to drive straight through the median, collided with the bus and then continued on for another 300 feet even after the impact. "He (Staley) said he was distracted by something in the cabin,' said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Capt. Ronnie Hampton, who declined to say what the distraction was.  He said investigators don't necessarily agree with Staley's explanation." Investigators are still working to see if the brakes were applied by Staley, because as of right now nothing was wrong with the trucks brake system, but they are downloading the truck's data recorder, which would show if the brakes were applied. Below the picture shows the damage of the truck after it had gone barreling through the median and collided with the bus.

Damage to Staley's Truck

 It seems very cruel that four young college women lost their lives on behalf of a distraction in a car.

Distractions in cars are everywhere now, especially in this day in age with our technology.  For example, someone texting while driving endangers themselves with a chance that they are 23 times more likely to crash.  Some might say well obviously texting would create a bigger distraction, but phone calls would be fine. Wrong.  Talking on a cell phone while driving can make a young driver's reaction time as slow as that of a 70 year old. There are tons of things on the road to distract drivers and In 2012, 33,561 people died in motor vehicle accidents, the first increase in numbers since 2005. Clearly, drivers can get distracted very easily, causing many fatalities. Hopefully upon further investigation, the police will learn what the true distraction was and hopefully be able to provide some comfort to those who lost loved ones in the crash.  

Numbers Can Decieve

Growing up in the so-called bubble of the North Shore, I can't begin to imagine having to be scared of the possibility of being shot as I walked across my backyard. Unfortunately, 9 year-old, Antonio Smith, suffered this tragic fate, when he was shot in a backyard after running out of his home.  Allegedly, his mom had not allowed him to eat a cupcake he had asked for and, as any 9 year-old with a sweet tooth would do, he got angry with his mother and ran out of the house. As he was running from his mother, 4 men were driving around looking for rival gang members.  Just as the four men found two of their rival gang members, Antonio Smith was in the backyard of a house right there and he was yelling.  One of the convicted men, Derrick Allmon was ordered by another, Jabari Williams, to shoot the two men of the rival gang.  Smith started screaming to warn the two men of their attack and so he turned and shot Smith multiple times in the chest, wounding him fatally.  Derrick Allmon, 19, Jabari Williams, 22, and Michael D. Baker, 19, all face first-degree murder charges in the death of Antonio Smith.   After the shooting occurred, the hand gun that was used to kill the child was thrown into a sewer and his body was found a few feet away from a railroad track that has served as a boarder between the two gangs for years.  Unfortunately, this is not a super uncommon problem, but gang violence and all crime in Chicago is something that has caused a huge struggle for years. 

Crime in the city of Chicago has been sky rocketing in the past.  For example, the murder rate in Chicago in 2012 was almost four times higher than New York City and 2.5 times higher than Los Angeles.  To put in perspective, Chicago's population is nearly three times smaller than New York City's and almost half as big as Los Angeles's population.  However in recent years crime rate has gone way down, and the Chicago Police Department is taking drastic measures to try and keep it down. 

 This graph shows the continued decline of all crimes in chicago from 1993-2013. However, as this article goes on to point out, people capatalize on, wow, murder rates are down 18 percent and crime is down 23 percent in total.  However, people just tell them what sounds good.  In reality, we had more deaths in 2012, with 507 murders, than any other city in the nation. It is deceiving to look at the numbers because despite the fact that crime is decreasing, it is still a very pressing problem within the city. Hopefully something can be done to get these numbers and statistics even lower so kids like Antonio Smith don't have to be worried about being shot in the backyard. 

The Never Ending Cycle of Abuse

The horrors of coming from a family where the child is beaten unfortunately is not as uncommon as we would like to think. An incident of child abuse in the United States is reported every ten seconds.  Unfortunately superstar running back Adrian Peterson has joined the unsettling numbers of abusive parents towards their children. He follows the disturbing statistic that 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the appalling cycle of abuse.  Peterson turned himself in early Saturday morning to Montgomery County, Texas, authorities and was released about a half hour later after posting the $15,000 fine.  It was emphasized, "It is important to remember that Adrian never intended to harm his son and deeply regrets the unintentional injury." Child abuse is a horror that clearly is not right, but can we really blame Peterson if he was brought up with a stiff hand and that is all he knew? 

In the reports the child had cuts and bruises all up and down his legs, allegedly from a tree branch that Peterson had used to discipline his four year-old son. The picture shows the police evidence of the beating of Peterson's son. "He used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child growing up in East Texas. Adrian has never hidden from what happened." He never knew anything different, and only was carrying on what he learned from childhood.  I am not suggesting that this is right in any way shape or form, no child should have to go through being beaten, but it is a controversial idea that if maybe he had been taught differently, he would not resort to inflicting the beatings upon his own children.  Apparently Peterson sent a text saying, "Never do I go overboard! But all my kids will know, hey daddy has he biggest heart but don't play no games when it comes to acting right." It seems very ironic that Peterson was beating his child when trying to teach him to act right.  Last time I checked, beating a child doesn't qualify as "acting right." Now we create the potential problem that his child will one day continue the vicious cycle of beating his own kids to teach them how to act right. 

The Cuts and Bruises Caused by Peterson's Abuse

(What) Would You Rate Yourself?

Today I had a huge wake up call that really got me thinking about society and judgement when my soccer coach was very unhappy with our team's performance. Instead of screaming at us at the end of the game, he took a pen and a piece of paper and wrote down every girl's name and gave them a number and a comment.  Each girl received a number on a scale from one to ten that rated our individual efforts with a comment beside it, mostly saying what we had done wrong.  Receiving a five meant that you were at your average ability of play; one girl received a five, while only one other received higher than a five.  Needless to say, it was not the best showcase of our abilities. Many of my teammates were very clearly upset and there really was not any chatter as we all walked off the field, lost in our own thoughts.  Everyone I'm sure, was going over every last detail of the game and thinking about how they played and what they could've done to make a greater impact on the game. Being presented with those numbers and few words, made me wonder about why we judge and rate ourselves and others.

Not only did what my coach did get me thinking about myself, but it also got me thinking of others on my team.  It is so interesting to see how quickly people turn to judge others.  Especially in a group of 20 or so sixteen year old girls, I am sure there were plenty of negative thoughts and feelings of resentment for some girls who thought they should have received higher scores.  It got me thinking that people don't take judgements into consideration to see if they can change or improve, instead they ball it up inside and get angry about why they were judged.  I wanted to be able to take what my coach said and try to improve my game, instead of being angry or bitter about it.  However, in true teenage girl fashion, it is very hard not to be offended when someone says something negatively towards you.  It is much easier said then done to just brush it off and pretend like the words don't have any impact. So naturally, the easiest thing is to point the finger and put the blame on somebody else and say, it's her fault that we lost.  But in reality, we are just targeting those others, to cover up for our own mistakes or maybe even guilts.

I thought that this was very similar to how we objectify celebrities.  Celebrities are constantly in the spot light and always have a camera pointed their way, or somebody trying to get the dirt on them. We point the finger at them and emphasize what they have done wrong. Recently, Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton both had nude photos hacked from their own personal devices.  The media has exploited them and are even going to such sickening extents as to put them in a life size exhibit.  However, what most of the public seems to be obsessing over is the fact that they even had these photos in the first place.  Why would they take that picture and have it on their phone? They know they are celebrities, they should be way more careful with what they do. "Dear Ms. Lawrence, its your own stupid damn fault."  The judgements are brutal and they are endless. But as that second article goes on to say, celebrities are human, too.  They just have more eyes watching their every move so that the second they make one mistake, everyone knows it.  The title says it all; Why Do We Consider Hurting Celebrities 'Fair Game'?  Is it really necessary that the hackers expose these personal photographs and create even more controversy and judgment that these women will have to deal with? The media is fueled by judgements and gossip from the mistakes celebrities make.  But we are all human, we all make mistakes.  Is it possible that we could be projecting our feelings of guilt or hiding our mistakes in the wake of those who are more famous? Could we be judging our celebrities and putting the blame on them, just the same as my teammates judged and blamed one another after the game?

Thinking back on my number, I was upset at first.  I thought it was so dumb and I questioned why would my coach ever give us those ratings and comments. After thinking a lot about it, as much as it seemed obnoxious or rude, all of it was true.  Having someone else rate me got me thinking, it really caused me to reflect and think about what I would have rated myself.  Now I am curious to see if others would reflect on their judgments and their actions and learn from it, or if they are hiding behind the truth.  What would you rate yourself?