Vamanos! Climb on Over!

This picture of Dora the Explorer and Boots standing by the wall on the Mexico, United States border, with many Hispanic people climbing over, I believe is very controversial. Not only because I have family that live in Mexico, but because I believe that nobody should be using children's TV as a advertisement. This image could be termed racist, ignorant, but also kind of funny. Saying that Dora and Boots are advocates for illegal immigration.

Using Dora the Explorer’s main phrase that she uses in the TV show, “Vamanos! Let’s Go! “ in this picture, isn’t a very good idea, because many small children watch the show, Hispanic, White, Black, Asian. So if children or parents saw this they might get very offended that somebody is using a little children TV character for an illegal immigration advertisement. Many people believe that illegal immigrants, should not be able to get green cards and stay in the United States, and that they should be deported immediately and ultimately should not be allowed to come back. People think that all of the Hispanic people are taking all of the jobs that they could be doing, especially now that we are in a recession.

What some people don't realize is how long it actually takes to receive a green card, and that many Hispanics are coming to the United States to work, to send money to their family so they can live a better life also. There is much more work that Hispanic people can get in the United States then they can get in Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, and all of the other Hispanic counties around the world. Many of the Hispanic people who are in the United States do the dirty work that nobody else wants to do, they do house cleaning, they work in construction, or even sometimes working in the sewers, Hispanic immigrants help us do the jobs that every other American doesn't want to do.

"Uncle Sam wants YOU! To join the United States Army!"

As I sat, looking at Eric, in his older camo army uniform, with his tanned brown skin, the gold, celtic design, wedding band on his finger, I wondered what all he had been though, in training, overseas, and now home. He had a look in his eye, like he had seen many things that he never wanted to see again, like he had been though too much for anything to be the same as it was before...

He turned and looked at me with his big brown eyes, that looked like they had seen the world, and started chuckling a bit, and asked “Are you going to ask me anything or just sit and stare off like I am?” I smiled and asked “Why did you decide to join the Army anyway?”. He looked off for a second, like he was trying to think, smiled and said “I wanted to do something good for my country, and to make people proud of me. Growing up in a small town, there is never much to do, so I got into a lot of trouble with the cops, I messed up football and basketball scholarships, because i got kicked off the team for drug possession, and I got my friends in trouble also, I decided that I didn’t want to be the one to be doing drugs and drinking my entire life. I thought that the army would be a good way to get myself back into shape and it would help get me back onto a good track for life. Even though I got in trouble a lot I always loved to help out around the community and I never felt like I could do enough, and then once my dad got remarried after my mom died, I knew that I had to leave the house, and the army was where I wanted to go.” “So it sounds you wanted to get away from your step-mom almost? and wanting to do something to help the country, well that meant that joining the army was one way to do that. How did your family feel about you going into the Army?” I asked him. He looked up for a second, as if he was looking to God, seemed to get a little bit more serious and said, “My dad and younger brother were proud of me, that I was finally going to do something that wouldn’t end in a police call to the house, and my younger sister was scared. She thought that I was just joining the army to get away from our stepmother. My girlfriend felt the same way as my sister did, she was very scared for me, but also upset that I would go join the Army, leave her, and obviously with a possibility where I might not come back home.”

Deciding that there wasn’t much else I could ask him about before he went into the army, or why, I decided to ask him about when he started his training, and how long he was there for. Once again he smiled when I asked him, like he was recalling fun memories from when he was in training, “I started my training at Fort Brag in North Carolina in the spring of 2004, I was excited to actually be there, even though I knew that it was going to be harder work then I had ever done before. My training was about two years, before I could go into active duty. I was in and out of training often though, and I was allowed to go see my family, but about once a month or once every two months my dad and my step-mom would come to see how I was doing.” Since he told me how much trouble he used to get in back home, I asked. “Did you and the rest of your friends ever get into any trouble like you did before you joined?”. He got a very serious look on his face and said “No! Definitely not! And we all learned quickly that it wouldn’t be a good idea to get into any trouble. Our drill Sargent would have had us cleaning toilets with toothbrushes until they sparkled. Of course we did little things to each other, like hiding personal belongings, or going to out bars and starting small fights with each other, but nothing that would get back to our Sargent. This one guy that I knew did get a Article 15, because his ex-girlfriend had been in the reserves, and came on base and for some reason, he grabbed her around the neck and started choking her, and then elbowed her in the face, after we got him off of her.” “An Article 15? What is that?” I asked, surprised that somebody who was in the army, and would have to worry about what they would deal with would actually do that. “It’s pretty much just like a slap on the wrist.” He told me, “Article 15 just goes on your personal record, so when he gets out of the army, and if he tries to get a job, it will show up that he tried to strangle his ex, but nothing really major happens.”

"So you started training in 2004," I said, "so that means that you should have been deployed, in mid 2006 right?" "Yes," He answered, then paused, stopping to take a drink of water that was on the small, mahogany, coffee table in front of him, "my deployment date was June of 2006, but I didn’t actually get deployed until October of 2006. They had moved our deployment date back some any ways, but I had just recently gotten married and Lisa was pregnant, so I was allowed to stay in the States for a little while longer." Eric sat and looked at me, drinking his water, while I was thinking up something else to ask him, "So when you did get deployed, were you stationed in the Middle East?" I asked. "No I wasn’t, I was stationed in Germany, that’s where I had wanted to go. I wanted to see where my mother was from, and I had a lot of family that I had never meet that lived in Germany, so even though I was in the army, I got to learn about my heritage and more about my mother." He told me. "Because you were stationed in Germany, did you ever get to see the front line of battle?" He looked at me, with sad, but relief filled eyes, "Also no, I didn’t ever see the front line of battle, we were the back-ups in case we were needed in Iraq, or Afghanistan, during the new elections. It was hard being over seas, even though I didn't have to deal with hand on hand combat, I saw many of my friends come back in body bags, killed in action, or soldiers that were no longer fit to be fighting, either PTSD or a loss of a limb. Even some people who deserted. When you see people that you would never think would break, going crazy because they have seen to many people shot, or to horrific things to say, it makes you break down, I often questioned why I had ever wanted to be in the army, but always made myself think of my wife and baby daughter at home, to help keep me sane."

"After two years of active duty, when you could finally come home and be with your wife, and daughter that you barley knew, was anything different for you?" I asked. Now his mostly smiling face, turned extremely serious, like no more laughing was going to happen, "Everything was different, I was slightly paranoid, Lisa almost left me because she said that I wasn’t the same person that I used to be, that i had changed to much for her to still love me. I couldn’t be friends with anybody that I grew up with, because they didn’t know anything, nothing that I had seen. People told me that I was a coward, that I was over-reacting about things, that I probably hadn’t seen anything as bad as I said, because I wasn’t on the front line. People don’t realize that even though, soldiers who aren’t on the front line, don’t always see hand to hand combat they still see what happens to the people who are on the front line. Out of everybody my sister was the most supportive and the best listener when I got home, she told me I was different, that I had changed a lot, but for the better, but she always would listen to what I said, and never judged me."

I looked down, thinking on everything that he had told me, and I saw scares on his arms, "How did you get the scares? If you never saw the actual combat?", I asked, "O these" he started laughing a little bit, like it was amusing, and said "I got some of these before I joined the army, either from fights or getting attacked by dogs, and some I actually got during training, I don't have any major battle wounds, because like I said, I never saw the actual combat."


“I got no badge for bravery, I didn’t get recognized, I joined the army to help out my country when it needed it, and even though I never saw the front line I still believe that I helped, and did a good dead.”-- Eric Marshall

"Coffee and Gas in the Morning"

Always the place that you don't want to end up at in the morning, but always do, the gas station, if it is either to get gas or a quick breakfast. So as we drove around looking for a place to stop to observe the people around us, I saw the yellow and red, and I knew that's where we should stop. So ending up at Sheetz early Thursday morning, wasn't a surprise. A gas station is the perfect place to observe the way people act in the early morning.
As I got out of Zoe's green Ford Explorer, I immediately smelled gasoline, coffee, and cigarettes, three smells that remind me of a truck stop... or a bar. As the cold breeze went right threw my sweatshirt, all I wanted to do was go inside, to get out of cold and get away from the truck stop smell. As I walked inside, I heard the oldies music over the sound system, and the smell of the delicious coffee and Kirspy Kreme donuts, which immediately made me realize how hungry I was. Looking around a little bit more, I saw that all of the bright colors, from neon blue, and green, to the traditional yellow and red of Sheetz. Then combined with how nice and bubbly the employees were being, to everybody, gave it a very welcoming feeling, almost as if you were being greeted when you walked into a house.
As I was standing around, just looking at everything, I couldn't help but notice that many of the people walking in, looked very tired, probably coming to Sheetz for a quick cup of the delicious coffee before heading off to work. As the Doritos guy walked in the door with his big, gray dolly full of boxes of blue Doritos, red Doritos, Cheetos and Lays, I realized that I was probably in the way, so I walked outside to sit. While sitting at the little red table outside of Sheetz, talking to my other classmates that were with me, I looked around and noticed that most of the cars that were in the parking lot, or getting gas, were older cars. Either large SUV's like the gray, Chevy Blazer with a dent in the bumper, or the small beat up, blue, Volkswagen Golf. It was odd, that all of the cars were older, but with the economy down, not a lot of people can afford to buy new cars, so it made sense.
While I was sitting, with the cold, blustery wind blowing at me, making me want to get in the car, a state trooper pulled up, probably stopping for a early cup of coffee and donuts, I could hear the distant, but distinct calls over his radio, domestic violence here, speeder there, and robbery, of course the normal calls you would hear coming from a police car.
As a convenience store and a gas station, Sheetz was surprisingly very clean, and very well organized. Everything had a place, and nothing looked cluttered, with a lot of open space to make the area seem larger then it was. The bright lights woke me up a little bit more, and the cheery employees made it welcoming. Being surrounded by many businesses, like BB&T, and a shopping center and then fast food, such as Taco Bell, Roy Rogers, and Wendys, is helpful for business, because after everybody gets food, they get gas.

"The Wedding"

When I found out that my mom had asked for a ring for Christmas, and gotten it, from her long term, long distance boyfriend I couldn’t believe it and thought that it was the end of the world in my 13-year-old mind. My mom was so happy, all of the years of me growing up it had only ever been her and I, and now she was going to add somebody to the mix that was supposed to be like the father that I never had. I liked him, Keith, he was nice, he got me cool presents for my birthday and Christmas, and he knew about pretty much anything that I had a question on, but they weren’t married yet, he was supposed to suck up. The day that my mom turned into Kathleen Collins instead of Kathleen Ruiz, drastically changed my life, it added a supposedly “fatherly” figure into my life, the rules were changed and it moved me half way across the country.

They got married in August of the next year, on the beach in Ocean City, I was the junior bridesmaid. It was a small wedding, only about 20 people were there, most of the family was from my mom’s side; siblings, parents, friends, and then some relatives of Keith’s also. As I was walking down the sand I could smell the salt from the Atlantic ocean, feel the way the rough, hot sand felt against my feet, and I was happy for a moment, thinking that my mom had finally found somebody that made her happy. When my mom walked down the beach to where the wedding was being held, I could see how happy she looked, the way her eyes were gleaming, but it was sad for me to think that one chapter of our lives was ending, and a new one beginning. Once the vows were said and the rings placed, everything already seemed different.

I moved to Maryland 5 months after they got married, and things were already changing for the worse. I started getting yelled at for every thing, things that I didn’t do, and things that I had never gotten yelled at before for. This ‘fatherly” figure was starting to be mean, hypocritical, and use harsh tones with everything that he said to me. He did not treat me like a daughter, but almost like a slave, if I didn’t do it exactly right I had to completely re-do it, I cleaned the house, I mowed the lawn, my mom would help, but he never did anything. This wedding was starting to seem like it was possibly going to ruin my life, until I could move out that is.

My mom had a good set of rules down in the house, but I could pretty much do what I wanted, as long as I checked in and she knew where I was, I could watch TV, get on the computer, and be on the phone, whenever I wanted to. Now there were many new rules, stupid rules, now I could never go any where, the TV and computer had to be off exactly at 9pm every night, I couldn’t be on the phone past 9, and they would no longer buy me anything, except food. If any of the rules were broken, I was grounded, from everything. All the rules he made, made sense, making me pay for everything would help me manage my money better, but as a 13-year-old, I didn’t have funds to buy anything. Being off the phone and TV by nine would mean that I would get a good nights sleep, because I wouldn’t be on the phone all night, but when all of my family lives in a different time zone, and people work, it was hard for me to talk to the people who meant the most to me.

I still see their marriage today as a mistake on my mother’s part, and think that if she had never gotten married how much better my life would probably be. I would have been around all of my family, I wouldn’t be constantly unhappy, always wanting to be at work so I don’t get yelled at. Sometimes you have to live with people, or deal with people that you don’t get along with or just don’t like, I have accepted that fact and have stopped telling my mom it was a mistake to get married to Keith. I just tell her that I will be moving out on the day of my 18th birthday. She got married to somebody that changed when they actually got married, Keith was no longer nice to me, he threw temper tantrums, hypocritical, very controlling, he was a pack rat, and could never find any thing. I was 1,000 miles away from everything and everybody I had ever known, and didn’t have a safe house to go to if things ever got bad, I was stuck.

"Live your life"

If i had a bumper sticker that would model my philosophy of life would be "Live Your LIfe".

I believe that no matter what, people should be living life to its fullest, as if it was the last day that anything could be done. It is important to be able to do things unhindered, without any regrets. You should be able to live, laugh, love, forgive, forget, and love again, and never regret what you did, because no matter what it makes you a better person and you are actually living you life, instead of doing the same day to day boring schedule.

Because life is an experience we all live through. Many emotions are felt; sadness, happyness, loss, sorrow, love, heartbreak, hopelessness, joy, hate, and many others. We do not feel every emotion at one time, but in life we do feel every emotion at one point, and until every emotion is felt, you haven't lived life.

Live everyday as if it were your last because you never know when your time will end, so do something that scares you, or something that makes you uncomfortable, do something spontaneous, but no matter what live life to its fullest.