In the four blog posts I have to write, I decided to write about four different stories that David Chura wrote about in I Don't Wish Anybody to Have a Life like Mine. The first story I wanted to write about what called Prison Birthday. The students name was Ray. It was Ray's twenty-first birthday. He came to class very excited about this man who gave him a bag of Oreos, to them this was one of the nicest things a person could do for someone. Ray began to tell his story to Mr. C. Ray never had a father and his mother was constantly messed up on drugs, his childhood was spent moving in and out of different foster homes. After one too many moves, the courts decided he was not fit for a family so he was put in and out of detention centers. He described him in his childhood as "I was afraid a lot because I didn't know what was happening to me" (22). When he was eleven and in a detention center he was raped which lead to depression, drug abuse, and severe mental damage. The summer before Ray was sent to lockup he was living on the streets in an abandon car. This is when things changed for Ray. He father had found him, and now he had a family. As soon as Ray had hope to a good family and a good life, his father left. He was stuck with his aunt who used to lock him in a room with nothing but a small amount of water and a bucket, much like a cell in prison. Eventually his aunt, the only family he had left, kicked him out and put him back on the streets. That's when Ray met a drug dealer who took him in. He treated Ray like family and fed and clothed him. The drug dealer even had a little son named Joey that Ray treated like his little brother. Joey looked up to Ray, but Ray told Joey "You don't want to be like me, little bro. You want to be better than me. I'm nobody" (25). Ray left the house one day to go run errands and when he returned everything and everybody was gone. He said that his family left him because they did not want to get hurt, but Ray said that he still hurt. Ray began to be desperate for money so he could eat, be warm, and live. He started to rob people and stores, that is how he ended up in lockup. Ray knows when his life is going to end, when he gets out, there is nothing left for him to live for. His words to Mr. C were "I just hope God gets a light at the end of the tunnel for people like me. I don't wish nobody to have a life like mine. I don't wish that on nobody" (26).
Ray's story really bothered me. Nobody has a perfect family, nobody. Ray's family exceptionally imperfect. His family failed him, and because of that he was put into foster care, but then foster care fails him? Our government fails to protect our kids? And that is the kid's fault? This is the start of the issue. Our government just gives up on our kids. Foster families failed to meet his needs, so the government decides to put him into a detention center, they are handing him failure. Of course these kids are not going to succeed or be a value in community because they government is preventing them from doing so. If the government did not fail underprivileged young people then many issues in education, crime, and the econmic state of the country would be solved. There is no second chance for these kids. They are bound to fail, because if they have no support from their family or government, no proper school to attend, no money, and no place to stay then how are they supposed to be a successful part of our country? If a child grows up with their parents and everyone around them doing drugs then how are they supposed to not? There are always exceptions, occasionally there will be one strong person who can break away from this life style, but what about all the people that cannot? Do they not deserve to be happy and to succeed in life?
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