Hi Tomas!
This is such a interesting organization! I agree that to solve major issues such as racism, we, “have to stop it at its core – adolescence.” This concept reminds me of the phrase, “racism is not taught, it is learned.” I am interested to see if the children now reading the books produced by We Stories will have a different perspective on prejudice and discrimination once they are old enough to understand them. Along with children’s books, the wording and content of history books is crucial to a child’s awareness and premonition to racism. I think you would enjoy the following video by Vox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOkFXPblLpU. It explains how textbooks were written in the South after the Civil War. The video highlights The Daughters of the Confederacy and they kept the confederacy alive by teaching young children that the Civil War was not about slavery. It also touches on how the presence of Confederate Monuments impacts communities and social interactions. I would love to hear more from you on this topic!

I enjoyed reading this paper. I must disagree though as I think thoughts/prayers do not do much. They do bring awareness but usually in what I see action isn’t taken with or following them. It offers peace but it doesn’t offer a change so similar tragedy doesn’t occur again.

Dear Tomas,
I am persuaded by your essay, “The Mass Shooting Epidemic”, because it really opens my eyes about how the real world REALLY is. It shows me that life isn’t always rainbows and butterflies.
One sentence you wrote that stands out to me is: “Actually, in 2019 alone, there have been 283 mass shootings in the U.S. (according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (GVA)).” This stood out to me because it really shows how often mass shootings occur and it’s honestly scary.
Another sentence that showed how important this issue is is when you said: “That is more mass shootings than we have had days in the year.” This stood out to me because a year is 365 days and we’ve already had 283 mass shootings, that’s insane.
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next because you really showed how much you care for topic like this, considering this topic is very big and opinionated.

In the article “The Mass Shooting Epidemic” I learned that the United States is not surprised to hear the words “mass shooting” as it is something often done here. 2019 experienced approximately 283 mass shootings serving as proof and evidence of a much needed change in the U.S. The country needs to set forth stricter rules to prevent firearms getting into the wrong hands as it has led to the loss of many innocent lives. Other countries have done something about this problem and have highly benefited from such actions serving as a positive influence to those who are yet to do something about it.

I agree with the statements made in the article demanding change in the country. I really like how to the author of the article used examples and evidence to support their claims regarding the countries who have made a change along with the number of mass shootings recorded in the year of 2019. Reading such claims with provided evidence helped get me more into the topic and helped me make my own claims to demand change.

Would the US benefit more from creating a new law to take under control this current problem or would it be more beneficial to copy the strategies already being used by other countries?

#OCHS