Blame it on “Affluenza”

On the fateful day of June 15, 2013 Ethan Couch and some friends went to the local Walmart to pick up some beer. The only problem was they were all underage; Ethan was only sixteen. So they did what any other teenager would do an steal the beer. 

The story could have ended here, with the boys drinking the beer that they stole until their blood alcohol content (BAC) reached 0.24, three times the legal amount allowed in the United States (0.08). But it didn’t. Instead, Ethan decided to take his two friends on a drive in his pickup truck.

Around the same time, Breanna Mitchell’s SUV broke down. She pulled over to the side of a rural road in the town of Burleson, Texas. She waited here until her neighbors Hollie and Shelby Boyles and youth minister Brian Jennings stopped by to help her out. But the, Ethan’s pickup truck came hurtling at them at 70 miles per hour and there was no escape. Breanna, Hollie, Shelby, and Brian all died because of the crash. Ethan’s two friends, Solimon Mohmand and Sergio Molina were violently tossed from his pickup truck. Solimon suffered numerous broken bones and internal injuries. Sergio became paralyzed and is now only able to communicate through blinking his eyes.

The scene of the accident.

Ethan was arrested and underwent trial. He was charged with intoxicated manslaughter and the prosecution sought a minimum twnety year prison sentence.

Just yesterday, Texas Judge Jean Boyd shocked the victims’ families as well as the country by sentencing Ethan to ten years’ probation. Judge Boyd agreed with the defense’s claim that Ethan was a victim of his parents’ wealth, a condition known as affluenza. The term affluenza is defined as “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more“. The defense argued that Ethan was handed everything by his wealthy parents and that he never learned to take responsibility for his actions. A psychologist claimed that the boy had a cold and distant relationship with his parents and was taught to “throw money” at his problems.

This isn’t the first time Ethan has been in trouble with the law for alcohol related charges and got away. According to trial testimony, he was caught passed out and undressed in his car with an underage girl. 

Ethan’s father has offered to pay $450,000 a year for Ethan to attend a rehab center in southern California. This center has everything from chef-prepared meals, to yoga, to nature hikes.  These so-called rehabilitation centers are essentially a get-out-of-jail-free card for the wealthy.

We must remember that Ethan accepted a plea deal in order to go to rehab. This becomes an injustice for the poor or even most middle class Americans who cannot afford to go to such rehabilitation centers. If any other less affluent teenager were to commit this crime, the book would have surely been thrown at him. A less affluent teen would have never been offered this plea deal because their family wouldn’t be able to afford this treatment. 

How can one call this justice? A seventeen-year-old that participated in a $2 stickup also received 10 years probation. When he was caught smoking marijuana while on probation, a Texas judge sentenced him to life in prison.

Similarly, John Alexander Wood, a Texas business man shot an unarmed prostitute and only received ten years probation. Even when on probation, he constantly broke the law, smoking crack cocaine and failing drugs tests various times. The Judge let him remain free and soon exempted him from the usual conditions that must be followed while on probation, such as drugs tests, meeting with a probation officer, and owning a firearm.

How about this for injustice: A thirteen-year-old boy in California was sentenced to ten years in a state juvenile facility after killing his abusive neo-Nazi father. This boy also grew up in a broken home, yet his status was not enough to be deemed as a conditional to excuse his behavior, unlike in the case of Ethan. 

What this judge has done is essentially tell the affluent youth of America to go ahead and do reckless and moronic things, you’ll get away with only a slap on the wrist. This kid won’t learn from this. If anything, you can expect more reckless actions from him in the future.

Apparently in America, you can be too rich to know better, but if you’re poor, they throw the book at you.

Nelson Mandela has Passed Away at Age 95

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela has passed away this Thursday after battling health issues the past few years. Often hailed as one of the greatest human rights advocates in the world, Mandela fought to end the system of segregation known as apartheid. He was imprisoned for inciting worker's strikes in the early sixties and spent 18 years of his 27 year sentence in one of South Africa's most horrid prisons, Robben Island. Despite the oppression he underwent for nearly three decades, Mandela remained strong and optimistic. On February 2nd, 1990 Mandela was released from prison. 

He then proceeded to work with his former enemy, President F.W. de Klerk, to dismantle apartheid and turn South Africa into a democratic nation. Both Mandela and de Klerk would later earn the Nobel Peace Prize for helping end apartheid. The nation's first elections were held on April 27, 1994. He won the presidency and his political party, the African National Congress obtained 62% of the vote. 

Here's Mandela casting his vote in the election.

A Little Background on Apartheid

Apartheid in South Africa was a system of racial segregation enforced by legislature put in place shortly after the conclusion of the second World War. It was put into place by the Afrikaner-majority National Party. What apartheid did was curtail the rights and freedoms of the black majority and kept the white Afrikaner minority in power. Such atrocities that Apartheid ushered in include a ban on marriages with someone of a different race,  "whites only" on most public areas, inferior education to blacks, the banning of opposition parties, and the arrest of anti-apartheid leaders, such as Mandela.

A man with every reason to be vengeful, with every reason to be full of hate, Mandela focused reconciliation rather than revenge. The sheer compassion and forgiveness that Mandela had was evident when he placed de Klerk as his first deputy president. Through his policies, he helped curve the rampant racism and discrimination that were long held practices of the former governing political party. He assuaged the skepticism and fears of both blacks and whites alike and helped reunite both under a new flag, which represented the unity of the new, democratic nation. 

I have nothing but pure reverence and admiration for Nelson Mandela. He had a goal in mind and refused to let it go, despite the daunting obstacles he faced, including a 27 year prison sentence. Mr. Mandela has shown us how reconciliation is much more efficient than retribution. He is an inspiration to all and a truly exemplary member of the human family.

Rest In Paradise Madiba.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
-Nelson Mandela

freedom

                A single drop of water awoke me from my otherwise peaceful sleep. I tried to raise my hands to wipe my eyes but there was some type of restraint preventing me. As I became more conscience, I noticed there was some type of cold heavy apparatus about my neck. I tried to look around to figure out where I was, as I was in strange, unrecognizable territory. As I couldn’t twist my head, I looked forward and saw some type of distorted silhouettes flickering and swaying. I heard voices around me and figured that I wasn’t the only one here.

                As time passed, I became accustomed to my surroundings and became comfortable with them. This once strange and alien place soon became my home and I liked it. I felt as if I was covered by a veil of some sort, a warm, comforting veil that left me with no worries. Whenever a new object appeared before us, we would all come to a consensus to what it was. Anyone who disagreed would be ridiculed by the rest. Conformity became the norm; we lived day in and day in that same spot.

                One day something strange happened. A man came down to our little enclave and began urging us to leave. He told us that there was a world outside of this one, a grandiose world where everything is “colorful” and “vivid”. The images we saw in front of us were only poor distorted misrepresentations of what was really there. He told us that we could break free from these “fetters” that held us back, that they were only mentally there. The rest of the inhabitants looked at him strangely and scoffed at these ideas. You could see the frustration on his face that resulted from the futility of his attempts to convince us that there was much more to this.

I became conflicted; something inside of me told me to follow this man. I began to feel a sensation that I had never felt before, a sensation to fight conformity and to explore. I realized how monotonous life here had become. But the comfort of my home and the fear of the unknown prompted me to stay. I fought the temptation to follow the strange man as long as I could, but soon the temptation defeated me. I was set on exploring the outside, the unknown. With some strain, I was able to raise my arms and prop myself up. The restraints were broken! I was finally able to be out and about and to look around. I noticed that the place that I had called home for as long as I can remember was a dark, dank cave.

The man’s eyes lit up when he saw me get up. The others’ facial expressions turned aghast with a combination of fear and amazement. They didn’t believe it was possible. I left them with their mouth ajar as I followed my guide up the stop steps on the side of where we were prior. As we ascended the steps, I noticed that there was some type of light that cackled bright colors and felt warm when we drew near it. In front of it, men paraded sticks with figures on them, casting the images we saw and accepted as the real thing. In the distance I saw a tunnel of light and it drew me closer; it seemed to have been calling me. At this point, I began to race up the steps making sure not to lose sight of this precious gleam. As I had not used my legs for as long as I could remember, I stumbled a bit on the way up.

I broke through the darkness and into the blinding light. I shielded my eyes from the intensity but soon I became adjusted. At that moment, I was flooded with new, strange sights. Everything was so vibrant and vivid; I was finally free. The sheer awe of my surroundings made me drop to my knees and my eyes just became inundated with what I later came to know as tears. These sweet, salty droplets of water that originated from my eyes kept on coming without refrain. It was all just so beautiful. Everything around me, from the creatures up above, to the soft grass that hugged and caressed my body as I laid there and wept. I finally had my first taste of true freedom.

The freedom was overwhelming. Simply put, the real world was frightening. The monotony of conformity and life in the cave ceased to exist, and with it also died the veil of ignorance that once cradled me and protected me. I was no longer in my comforting cave. At times, I just wanted to return, to live a simpler, worry free life. But the freedom, the reality, the immaculateness of it all convinced me to stay. I was finally able to experience things for myself. I was finally… free.

JAVI "FLAMEZ" SOLIS READS "FOX IN SOCKS"