Amputation in Sports

     Adam Bender is an inspiration to many; a sports prodigy in soccer and baseball and flag football, with  a great heart and a bright future. He also has only one leg.
     He was born with a cancerous tumor in his right leg. At a very young age, he had the leg amputated after numerous treatments failed to control it. His mother was originally depressed, but eventually it became clear to her that his spirit was not broken. He loves sports of all types, and is extremely good at scoring goals in soccer. Once, a coach discouraged him from joining the baseball team, advising him to join a league for kids with disabilities. However, he knew he was too good for that, and proved to be capable on the regular team as well.
     I think his story is one that anyone who is depressed because of a physical disability can learn from- instead of focusing on things you can't do, how about finding and pursuing something you can do.

Mind Reading

     Thoughts, plans, ambitions, opinions- we all take for granted that they are secret, alone to us when we want them to be. However, Functional MRI scans, as they're called, have been developed, which recognise the patterns of neurons firing in the brain, to recognise what object the subject is thinking of (for objects that have been tested), if you have been to a place or not, if you are familiar with something, etc. There is now a debate over the constitutionality of these machines- if your thoughts can be read, do you truly have the right to remain silent? Also, what about companies and marketers trying to use natural human psychology to extract more money out of their customers? Should they be allowed to use optimal advertisements to attract people?
    As for the genuine nature of the device, I believe the scientists and internationally acclaimed news service- their procedures for how the device operates seem sound and logical, and while I would like to think there is something special about consciousness that makes this intangible, brains and people and personalities are simply sophisticated and innovative computers.

D.J. Williams

    Many football players seem to have troubled childhoods. One among them is D.J. Williams, a star player originally from Texas, recently graduated into the NFL. He is wildly successful as a footballer, but he was not always so confident about his life and his future. His father, now residing resplendently in a maximum-security prison cell, is bipolar. He abused alcohol, cocaine, and his wife for many years, physically and verbally and in front of the kids. He was arrested for verbal abuse and served 90 days in jail, after which he started abuse again. One day he and D.J. were out fishing, and he presented the child with a gun, instructing him to shoot anyone who disturbs them. That experience almost drove him to suicide. He told his mother, who decided it was time to take the kids and leave. The next day, his father shot a man in frustration and was arrested for a longer period.
    D.J. is not sure where his future will take him. He decided to go to Little Rock, Arkansas and join the football team. He graduated and will join the NFL, for what team he is not sure.
    Wow, Texas. That's all I have to say.

Forgiveness

    Would you forgive someone who attempted to stab you in the face? What if they didn't remember doing it? What if they didn't remember it, but remember wanting to hurt someone else? The problem of forgiveness is a complicated one. Here is a story about a child who had to forgive a grievous injury.

     Deejay Hunter is a New York student with a talent for basketball. He is tall and spirited, but with a scar on his face hinting at a troubled past. Deejay's stepfather, Derick, is in prison, with a sentence of twenty years for two cases of attempted murder. He has, at Deejay's request and after a long legal battle, been allowed to contact Deejay for one day. Deejay will try to get his stepfather to realize his forgiveness, even though he must live with unsettling childhood trauma and a facial scar. When he was younger, a little younger than 10, his parents were locked in a continual feud. His mother put his alcoholic father down verbally almost every day, and his father retaliated until, one night, he had decided to kill. He grabbed a large knife from the kitchen and snuck down to her room. She immediately knew what was happening, and cried out "I love you!" to delay him. He ended up stabbing her, non-fatally, and he does not remember what happened next, being as he was in a drunken rage. Somehow, Deejay had entered the room and somehow he had gotten stabbed as well. A few years later, Deejay talked to him about what he had done. Derick admits he had intent to hurt his wife, but not Deejay.
    I think this story is a little sad, as it is a half-undeserved incarceration. It is also a heartwarming tale- if humans can forgive each other for stabbing them, what are the limits of human generosity?

Prejudice

          America is, in some cases, not living up to its reputation as a composite culture where everyone works as one. Prejudice, the unjustified assumptions we naturally make about people different from us, is still corroding away at the American dream. Historically, it has been blacks and Japanese, traces of which linger today. Once, prejudice was against the French nationality, resulting in French fries being renamed "Freedom Fries", although ironically the food actually came from Belgium. Now, with conflicts in the Middle East, the Muslim religion and people is the main target of primitive hostility.

         An experiment was conducted in which two actors were to appear inside a bakery in Texas. One of the actors was to stand behind a counter and serve goods to people. The other was a woman wearing a burqa, who was to walk into the restaurant and attempt to order something, at which point the first actor would put her down and say "We don't serve your kind here" as well as an assortment of racist epithets. The whole thing would be filmed, and the camera would catch bystanders' reactions to the situation. There were a decent number of cases where bystanders, Muslim or not, would retaliate emotionally and inspiringly. There were a few sad cases where the bystander would agree with the first actor, giving him a thumb's up for patriotism. However, the vast majority of bystanders did nothing at all, which is perhaps more disturbing than the prejudice itself. Tolerance of intolerance is indirectly intolerance itself. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

Jordan Burnham's Story

      Every two hours, a person under the age of 25 dies by suicide. There are, however, some people who attempt suicide and are lucky enough to barely survive. One of these people is a young man named Jordan Burnham. As a student, he was always very good at sports--baseball, basketball, golf--but he was depressed for various reasons after failing his driving test and seeing his grades drop. He felt increasingly like he was a disappointment of a son. One day, his father uncovered the bag of alcoholic beverages he had been hiding to quell his anger. Racked with dejection and guilt, Jordan fled to his room and barricaded the door. His mother stood outside and tried to console him, but he was not consoled. That is the last thing he remembers before he woke up in a hospital ward with severe wounds to the everything. He asked his family what had happened to him, to which they responded, "It was a suicide attempt. You jumped out the apartment window."
    It took months of slow rehabilitation and physical training, counselling, a few surgeries and gradual transitions between modes of transportation, but he is finally able to walk with the assistance of a cane, talk, and even play golf. He now works as a motivational speaker at schools, telling kids about his experiences and urging them toward telling someone if they are in a similar situation.
    I feel this story shows the incredible instability of a job relying on an aspect of you independent of your personality- for example, a sports player, a child actor, etc. This allows you to be a complete jerk to everybody and still command respect and high wages because of your physical talent. It also means that if you're a person of great generosity, but a mediocre sports player, or one that used to be great but became physically incapacitated in some way, you can be spurned by your former devotees just because you can't play as well, while remaining the same at heart (so to speak). If you have prepared your whole life for a sports career and suddenly have that opportunity closed, you may find options of things to do with your life become very scarce.

Charlie Wilks

    The blind and other physically impaired people of the world face nearly insurmountable limitations in their journey to achieve their dreams. However, some are fortunate enough to have natural talent, motivation, and acceptance of others on their side, allowing them to pursue their life's ambitions to the maximum extent their bodies will allow. One of these people is the football player Charlie Wilks.

     Charlie Wilks was born with sight. However, as he got older, about the age of 5, it became apparent that his vision was getting worse and worse. As it turned out, he had a large brain tumor which was severing his optical nerve. After 3 painful surgeries, he was left safe but blind. Around this time, he realized a passion for football. He had a family history, too- his grandfather played for the Chiefs in the very first Super Bowl. He would obviously have some challenges to overcome before he could realistically play. After training, he proved himself to be a talented tackler, knowing the right direction to push at the start of a play, earning him the respectful name of  "The Beast". He can make his way easily in middle school football, but his relatives are skeptical of his ability to compete at the high school and college levels. But he has gained fame as the blind footballer, and continues to work toward his goal of being the first blind professional football player of all.