Ishmael Beah: A Child Soldier

A young author by the name of Ishmael Beah was once a child soldier. Ishmael grew up having the average childhood life. But by the age of twelve, Ishmael was separated from his family when the rebels attacked his town. His family had fled to another village that had been already destroyed. by the time Ishmael got to where his family was, it was too late because he saw death right before his very eyes. Ishmael then went to military base to find safety but ended up being recruited into war. he was forced to take drugs that would make him numb in order to kill others. Ishmael grew up with a very rough and tragic childhood life but he was later blessed with another mother who was glad to look after Ishmael.

Connection to previous learning: The story of Ishmael's life reminds me of a movie we watched last year called "Blood Diamond". In that movie, Solomon Vandy is captured by the rebels when they invade a small village in Sierra Leone. Solomon's son Dia, is forced into the rebels where he is eventually brainwashed to kill others. Ishmael was recruited by the rebels in Sierra Leone similar to how Dia was forced into the rebels. they both were eventually forced to kill.

Connection to "Teaching Kids to Kill": Fourteen year old Michael Corneal was involved in a school shooting but he had never before picked up a real gun in his life. Ishmael Beah was twelve years old when he first fired a gun. Both of these boys have one thing in common which is that they both learned to kill. While Ishmael Beah was brainwashed by the rebels, Michael Corneal learned it from video games and media violence.

Challenges: Although Ishmael Beah has wrote a book about his life, is he still engaged in the rebels way of life or has he put that behind him to start a new life?

Concepts: Some of the key concepts that I learned from the interview is that life can change with the blink of an eye. One minute you could be surrounded by the love of your family and the next minute you could be desperately looking for that love once again.

Changes: I think the changes that this interview suggests is that you should cherish the time you have with your loved ones because you never know where life can take you and every day may be your last.

Obama Uses Military Force Against ISIS

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fighting-isis-barack-obama-asks-u-s-congress-for-war-powers-1.2953245

This article is about the U.S. President Barack Obama, who wants to use military force in the campaign against ISIS. This reminds me about the time when we had a class discussion about war being justified or not. Many students believed that war is not justified for many different reasons while other students believed that war is justified for their own reasons. Prior to the class discussion, my opinion on war was that it is never justified. But after reading this article, I learned that war is justified under certain circumstances. For example, Obama wants to use military force in the campaign against ISIS. I believe in this situation, war is necessary because ISIS is a Militant Islamist Organization and they are threatening many nations. Therefore after reading this article, I came to the conclusion that war is justified for all the right reasons.