When They Saw Them: A Show That Struck the Nation

       When we are young, we have zero cares in the world. We play with who we want without regard to skin color, gender, religion, and race. It's our own person who first introduces us to the pain the world has in store for us or vice versa they introduce us to the hatred that we will have for the world. If it is not hate for the world that a child of color has, then it is hate for the child of color that the world has. Our society needs change. And there was one show that touched the topic and opened the eyes of the nation. "When They See Us." This show hit nerves that no one wanted to touch. A woman, Linda Fairstein, made a mistake. A mistake that cost 5 boys their youth and their faith. She had no leads in a case and decided to pin it on 5 boys she thought, "were likely" to commit this type of crime. She saw the perfect opportunity in these suspects because they were readily available. Fairstein used a known broken system against 5 boys to benefit her. Instead of wanting to put a man away who had hurt several women before Trisha Meili, she wanted to win a case by any means necessary. These boys were coerced into admitting to a crime they didn't commit. "Why admit to it," many people said. These boys were afraid, they were afraid because they had been taught to be afraid when around law enforcement. Oprah was also touched by this show. Winfrey interviewed the cast of "When They See Us" and the actual Exonerated 5. One of the cast members, Joshua Jackson who played Mickey Joseph-the defense attorney for Antron Mccray, said in the interview, "What I did learn about the justice system, is that it's the wrong name for it." In our society, everyone is trying their best to do right. We simply can not try, we have to do. 

When I Saw Them: Trisha Meili

    In life, we take the little moments for granted. We never think that we might be kissing our mothers for the last time, we never think that we might be sitting in class hating every moment of it but still getting our education for the last time, we never think that this moment where we are just being teens messing around and goofing off for the last time. The Exonerated five took those moments for granted.

   April 19th, 1989 at approximately 9pm, a 28-year-old white woman was found beaten, raped, and unconscious. Trisha Meili. Trisha Meili was the woman who was used as a toy and left for dead. Meili was in a coma for 12 days, She suffered severe hypothermia, severe brain damage, hemorrhagic shock, loss of about 75-80% of her blood, and internal bleeding. Meili was so injured that the initial prognosis was that she would shortly die after being found or remain in a coma. As a result of Meili's trauma, she had no recollection of the attack or of any event up to an hour. She had no memory of 6 weeks following the attack.

  Patricia Ellen Meili returned to work just 8 months after being brutally attacked by someone sinister.

  The city of New York sought justice for Meili, they were blinded by the anger of what was done to her and 7 other women. They were so blinded that they so unjustly made sure Justice was served, even at the expense of five young men's youth, sanity, and faith.

First Impression: On Self-Reliance

• "Ne te quaesiveris extra."
• Belief in yourself is what is true for all people
• The belief is genius, not the thought itself
• Cannot be yourself and be someone else at the same time
• Toil= work
• Only champ in your life is you
• whatever happens in your life is a result of you

I believe that even though parents instill in us that they want us to be our own person, they are also instilling in us not to stand out. They don't allow us to wear what we want to wear, they want us to wear 'normal' clothes. I think Emerson's essay is trying to get us to understand that it's not the standing out that makes it incredible, it's the act of standing out. Me ka aloha, Cece.