Ugly Reality

I believe that there really isn't a fine line for when children should know about things like this or be exposed to it. Children of today are already exposed to violent video games. The thing is, what you cannot prevent, you must educate over it. I guess these court cases would serve to educate them instead of having unmonitored amounts of violence drilled into their heads and desensitized via video games and television. These court cases are more educational than video games. The thing is that punishment is involved in these court cases, and could serve to prime up the child and shape them in ways which they will learn that violence and the such is wrong rather than learning that causing gratuitous carnage and massive amounts of bloodshed will earn you coins or tokens. Virtual coins and tokens, that is. By yesterday's standards, yes, it might be too early for kids to learn about these things - but today, it is not because children today are already exposed to things like this. Massive amounts.
This is why I believe that there should be a line, but it's inevitable that children will discover violence. So my point of view is that there should be no age limit for when children are exposed to these kinds of court cases. They're already controlling characters that steals cars and hires prostitutes, why not legal court cases?

Licked

What the book meant by "licked a hundred years ago" means that they had lost the battle in slavery a hundred years ago. Because racism had stemmed, rooted in the firm soil of America and had set its roots into the brains of the youth generation through generation. Because slavery and racism is a political matter, political socialization of political culture has a lot to do with it. In America, your parents (aka family in political socialization) has a lot to do with the way you vote or think politically. Political socialization plays a large role today in our country, too. Back then it did as well. But the fact is that these traditions and values have been passed down through generation, the thinking has been too, therefore that means the parents have been educating the children of these kinds of things, pretty much meaning that they had lost the sway of the people because the people are all already thinking in this preset idea that racism is good, black people bad, etc. Political socialization is a powerful tool, as we follow our parents, what they say. So what he meant by being licked a hundred years ago means that they had already lost the case a hundred years ago.

I Dare You

Dares are just a way for one to tempt another at doing something to prove nothing. Basically, yes, there isn't a better way to state what Mr. McCool had said in class today: it just proves you're easily manipulated. People who are easily agitated and give in to taunts and challenges are often easy to manipulate. You can basically say that you're incompetent if you can't do so and so, and they'll do it just to prove to YOU, the darer, that they can. This proves nothing, because basically it's just "okay, good job, you can do it. want a cookie?" and you had just achieved something while they had not.
Dares are good if you're the giver of dares, the darer, while they're not good if you're the one that's out there doing them. I was dared in outdoor school once in middle school to lick the wall of my cabin. I did it, because I wanted to prove to my new peers that I could do it. After I had done it, I realized: I had proved nothing. Other than my repulsive willingness to lick an old cement wall, I had accomplished nothing. After that, I analyzed anything and everything one step higher to see what can I really accomplish? Is it worth it? And then, I do not give into dares easily.
If doing a dare allowed me to embarrass someone, then yes, I would do it.
But of course, everything is situational.

Welcome Back

For break, I hadn't done much. I went to a party in Toufen the first week, and that was all that had went on. I ended up getting a bunch of stuff drawn on my face when I fell asleep, which was not a pleasant surprise when I woke up. After that, at the end of the week, I went to a birthday party in Taipei. It was pretty fun, a bunch of people and it was at this restaurant in Taipei. The restaurant name is Hooks, and serves western food. Pretty tasty, too. They had a Mexican hot dog, which was deceivingly spicy, caught me off-guard and made me sweat like crazy. My forehead was entrenched with sweat, and the brim of my beanie was getting wet. It was kind of funny, too, because I'd like to think of myself as having a high tolerance for spice - but maybe because I was sick that I had reacted so strongly. Or that it was like habanero or something. After that, I went to Derek's mini birthday party. We made a big pizza sandwich, by topping like fifty different kinds of foods and then finishing off with the top layer as pizza. It was insane, the abomination we had created. That was a fun night, too.
Then, going to the Taipei 101 to watch fireworks finished off my break pretty nicely with a decent ending. Although most of the time I was at home sitting, knowing that I had at least socialized once with my friends means I am not lifeless.

America

Everyone knows the American Dream. It is that everyone has an equal chance of taking root in the soil that is the Great Land of Freedom and flourish in the clean, crisp air that is in America by absorbing its everlasting and infinite nutrients by just working hard.

Well, the air's not so clean if you're not born white.

The fact I am basing this opinion on skin color is because in the past, white people have reaped this land of it wealth and fenced it and kept it to themselves, using others such as slaves, leaving them in the hole they are in now, Blacks, many of whom lack so many opportunities compared to the average white child.

Black people work hard, too. But the reason is that the youth are so misguided and cannot help themselves that they're left in the dust while others are far ahead of them, in a race called Life. 

Black people begin at a disadvantage, so do mexicans, etc, because white people have set themselves at such an advantage since the first colonies.

There are exceptions, however, but face the truth: it doesn't happen often. 

Even though the gap is closing (slowly), it is still apparent as the urban youth today can usually be categorized based on their skin color to correlate to success in the future.

Harsh Words

Words that offend people usually judge them greatly.
Firstly, we must look at when it is okay to use such words and when it's unjustified.
When a person cannot help it, such as being called stupid or based on the color of their skin, the discrimination here is unjustified.
When a person screws up due to his lack of attention or practice, it is justified.
The things we cannot help are thing such as appearance, etc. Also, when someone puts you in a box and judges you immediately without getting to know you, that's also something people get offended by. Me, personally dislike being put in a box. In high school, when people made racist jokes about my race, even if it was positive like saying I'm smart or whatever, I still found it offensive because it puts you in a box without getting to know you due to your race. Not seeing the individual for who they are.
When people make judgments about you, they're putting themselves in a higher place of power, over you, when they mutter those prejudice words. It is okay, because for me, I believe, they are not worthy of being in that place they have set up themselves and I generally view myself as superior to all others. So it is okay for people to insult me, because intellectually I can usually make the right choices to simply ignore it.

Mockingbird So Far

In the Mockingbird, we've learned that Atticus is a wise man. The neighbor is a strange fellow, who's actually quite nice. The two boys get along well and then the girl feels left out, so she makes friends with the neighbor lady. So far, they've been discovering things inside the tree outside of the strange man's house. They've also noticed that later, afterwards, that the hole that they were discovering things in ended up being covered up. The two boys, Dill and Jem like to mess with the strange neighbor man, Boo Radley. Scout, who is the girl, just talks about their short adventures. Also, her brother broke his arm.
From what we've been hearing, it seems like the children live in a kind and quiet place in the south, where everything is carefree and the children get a fulfilling childhood with friends and family regardless if they're in the Depression era or not. Their father is a wise man and they have a complete family with good morals at home and rowdiness when they're playing together.
Also, Dill seems to be the leader of the crowd. He doesn't talk much about his past. Also, when a kid in class was borrowed money from the teacher and couldn't return it, the teacher hit him. A kid named Boris shows up in class and he's dirt poor and the trailer trash of the most trailer trash type character in the story yet.