odies pile up”(76), which is a discomforting statement but it helps to explain his frame of mind and how he has become numb to violence of this nature. Comments like these forced me to attempt to remove myself from the present and try to see life as it must be for those who live with such violence and hate. It is very difficult because nothing I have experienced could ever come near to what these people have lived through, and being a middle-class, white Sebastopolian, I feel foolish even trying to imagine what these people have had to endure. Another tactic Myers uses to illustrate the type of violence occurring in his neighborhood is putting it in terms people can easily understand, even if it’s not something they have ever had to experience first hand. “Everybody was panting—after a shooting there’s a panicky rush to find out who has been shot, because people we know get killed in our neighborhood more often than strangers do” (73). Myers states this after recalling the shooting of two teenage boys inside a local liquor store. The manner in which he speaks impresses his point; that this is the reality of his neighborhood and that events like these must be accepted as a fact of life. He can reach those who are unfamiliar with this situation on a personal level, make them feel what these people must feel when they rush to a crime scene, hoping that the body isn’t a friend, sibling or even a parent. The more the reader can relate, the more likely it is that the essay will have an impact on his or her life. I believe that people would rather be blind to the truth, then shown the true horrors that occur every day. We as a society have gotten comfortable with our ability to change the channel or flip the newspaper page when we read or hear something that frightens or discomforts us. This is why it is essential for these stories of brutality and murder be heard and accepted as fact. For those of us ...
