Why?

Author’s Note: I decided to write on this book and topic because I really like this topic and have passion for it. But I also wanted to show you the theme of the story.

According to CNN.com 49 % of people have had to deal with racism some way or another. Sadly Drew Lawson is one of that 49%.Racism is something nobody wants but will continue to happen forever and ever. It is horrible to judge someone on the color of their skin or their religion but people still do. This story will show the pain and suffering of racism, and how it affected Drew Lawson and his life in the book Game by Walter Dean Myers.

Although we know racism is horrible we still know it’s going to happen. Such as when Drew saw scouts were at his game he thought they were there for him. But no they were actually there for Tomas who happened to be the only white kid on the team. He wasn't even  that great. Tomas was getting scouted by Duke, Kansas and West Virginia all great basketball teams. The problem was Drew only had two offers from New York University and Depaul University both not very good teams. The only reason he wasn’t getting better offers was because the color of his skin. Which wasn’t fair at all. His response to it all was always the same "I know I got game" he would always say that to his coach and anyone who anted to know his opinion.

Secondly Drew and his team went to a tournament in Vancouver, Canada. People there were not the nicest to Drew. The media would  always go to their practice and only talked to Tomas and the coach. One day Drew asked one of the media “are you here to talk to me”  then they replied “No why would we be here to talk to you, we are here to talk to the star Tomas.” Drew used this as motivation and to make him work harder. Maybe that is why his team won the tournament, and he got tournament MVP? 

In addition to Drew having to deal with racism there are many other novels that have to deal with racism as well. Such as the books Glory Road and Danger Zone. In the book Glory Road  the University of Texas El Paso basketball team is verbally and physically beaten because of the color of their skin. They would travel to places and get robbed. One time they went to Kansas and they almost got stabbed in a restaurant bathroom. The reason behind all this was because they had the first ever all black starting lineup. Also in Danger Zone the USA under 18 nationals team went to Greece and in Greece they got threat letters that they were stupid white kids from the US and they were threaten to be killed. The reason behind that was because some people didn’t like the kids from the US

In conclusion to all this information it shows how racism does really affect people and especially Drew in the book Game. Please don’t make that 49% raise anymore. But also don’t judge people on the color of their skin or their religion or even where they live. I hope you can see it really hurts people. Just thinks of those people as you. So would you want to be treated like that?

The Jordan Brand

Authors Note: I wrote this because we had to use proper citation and bibliography so i decided to write on Jordan shoes because i have them and like them a lot.

In 1985 a man by the name of Michael Jordan created not only brand but one of the best selling basketball shoes ever. The best selling Jordan shoe ever was also the best selling shoe of all time even in front of the converse Chuck Taylor All Stars which many would have thought would be the number one selling shoe. But know the name of the number one selling shoe ever is the Air Jordan I. They have sold over a million pairs (Morrison).

Bibliography

Morrison, Dave. "Top 100 Basketball Shoes of all time." 25th October 2010. Bleacher Report. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/500756-the-top-100-basketball-shoes-of-all-time. 3 December 2012.

Game Winner

Author's Note: I decided to write a prediction to this book because i am reading it now and i am into the book a lot and i thought because i m not done it would be a great piece to do a prediction.

Creative Scene:

5,4,3,2.............1 The shot goes up and....errrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!! He got it a three at the buzzer to beat Bradley the #1 Team in the state. This was for the state title and Drew Lawson hit a game winner. This was by far the biggest shot of the young man's career.  After the game Drew got many scouts from colleges such as Minnesota, Depaul and Betune Cookman Which had a smoking basketball team. Although he got wonderful offers from all of those great schools he decided to go to Rutgers because he wanted to stay by his sister and mother because Rutgers University is right downtown.

Rationale:

1. The First Reason i beileve this will happen is because In the book on pages 170 and 129 There were scouts scouting him and one of those was from Depaul University. But not only but in the book Drew Says "I would love to stay close to home and play ball" to his mom. That is why I have him going to Rutgers which is really close to home.

2. When Drew hits the game winner i have that happening becuase in the story he passes to tomas and he hits the game winner and gets all the credit that is why in the end i think it will be Drew who gets the last laugh and make his own game winner. 

3. The reason why i dont think he should go to bethune cookman a smoking program is because the only reason was most great programs wanted only white kids then. Becuase this was taking place when race was a bigger problem

Change?

Did you know 78% of kids say their role model is their older sibling? Well that can be a good or bad thing. It is a bad thing though in “Night Hoops” By Carl Dueker.  Trent Dawson, a self proclaimed tough guy, isn’t the best kid in the world. But there are many ways that Trent Dawson changes throughout this novel and he impacts many lives by his changes.

Killing, beating, drinking  and smoking  all horrible things for a 17 year old kid to be doing but that is what Zack Dawson has been doing.  Although these are horrific, maybe the worst  thing is that he is his younger brothers role model.  Zack and Trent are only 3 years apart but they should not do the things they have done together. Such as killing chickens on a trail and stealing items from local convenience store. But the catalyst to Trent’s changing was when his brother shot Michael Ushakov.

Although, Trent is a horrible kid he changes a lot in the book.  The main part where I think he starts changing is when his brother Zack asked Trent if he wanted to go shoot down on the trail. That’s when Trent said no I’m playing basketball with Nick. Right after that was when Zack ended up shooting Michael Ushakov.

Change;  we all know it’s not easy. But  Trent Dawson persevered and changed throughout the book. Well he changed he also affected people’s lives.  The key reason why he changed was when his brother shot Michael. That was a crucial role of him changing. There were many great things that he also effected when he changed such as he changed the outcome of his teams basketball season. Know the self proclaimed tough guy has become a good guy.

Make it Right

Authors Note: This piece states how the constitution should be better. We made this piece as our Patriots Pen essay. 

There was 55 people who made the constitution. 39 of those 55 signed it. But yet we have had to make many changes to the constitution. Why didn’t we get it right the first time I wonder?  With 55 of the smartest men in the country making this why would we have had to change it. Maybe because there was only strict older men. No women no young people maybe that’s why. In this piece I will tell you some of the things that America has changed to the constitution since then and what they did wrong.

133 years that was how long it took America to pass the amendment to allow women to vote and have the same rights as men. Why is this important you might wonder this is important because women are a huge part of our society. They could have made the constitution much more far if they would have included women. Maybe if women were in the constitution they would have had different perspectives.

Although having women in the constitution would have helped a lot but also to make the constitution even better they also should have made a law or amendment that says that any person that is president should add something new to the constituion because then if each president adds or edits something to the constitution it will always be up to date and updated. I know that would help a lot, because I am sure there are some crucial laws missing or left out of the constituion.

With 55 people making the constitution why couldn’t they still get it right the first time? Well some of the reasons why were because women were not in the constitution and it hasn’t been updated that much since then. Just think maybe if women were in the constitution how much better it would be and if it was updated more often.  

Four!

Have you ever been golfing? Well the first time I have ever been golfing on the first hole I have to yell for. Anyone that has ever golfed  knows how embarrassing that is. In this story I will show you the  tribulations of a amateur golfer golfing for the first time.

The 1^st hole. We had a 4:45 tee time. I will never forget I get up to the tee.  Then I took some practice swings. Take a step closer to the ball and swing. Then I shanked it right all of a sudden I see the ball heading towards a cart. My dad yells…”Four”!!! they look and the ball bounces off the ground into the tire of the cart. It was so embarrassing.  I was so nervous know to hit the second shot. Because it was in the other fairway. When I got up to the ball I used my fairway driver. When I hit it, it was a ideal shot. I ended up getting a 7 on the hole which is a triple bogey.

The 6^th hole. The hole I will never forget I lost 6 balls in one hole. The hole was a par 3, 101 yards and 85 of those yards were over water.  My dad went first on the hole he uses his nine iron and lands within ten feet of the hole. It was a exceptional shot. Then I stepped up and hit the first five in the water with a 7 iron. Then I take  a driver and it over and into the woods. The last shot was with 4 iron landed it on the green.  I ended up with a par on the hole, not counting the balls I lost.

Lastly, after the sixth hole I didn’t do so bad. The best hole I had all day was the 8^th hole .It was a par 4  313 yards. On that hole I got 4 shot which is a par.  On the tee shot I shot it and about 175 yard into the rough I thought. But the ball bounced of  a hill and landed in the fairway. It went roughly 25 yards farther and landed in the fairway.  That hole was very exciting because it was a really cool to get my first ever par.  In the end I shot a 69.

In conclusion this showed the tribulations of a amateur golfer golfing for the first time. I faced a lot of challenges on that day golfing. Since then I have gotten a lot better and have scored in the low 50’s. which I a lot better. So if you haven’t been golfing you should try it’s really fun.

Facing Clemens ( Cause/Effect)

Authors Note: We had to do a cause and effect piece and i decided to do it about the book Facing Clemens By Jonathan Mayo because i like baseball. But i also like this book.

The cause in this book or what happens is people claim Roger of taking steroids. Some of the people that claim hi of taking steroids in the book are Brain his trainer. Brain claims that he injected roger with steroids for many years. Also Many of his former teammates alleged him of taking steroids. Such as Andy Pettitte. Andy is one of Roger's Teammates when he was on the Yankees.

The Effect of the people accusing Roger of taking steroids is that he had to be suspended from the MLB season and also had to go to court. But the worst out of all of these is that Roger wont be able to be inducted into the hall of fame is he is accused of this. Roger is a very good pitcher and if he isn't accused he should be a first ballot hall of famer