Many events can happen in a person's life that can affect that person deeply: a death of a family member, moving to another town, conflict between family, an introduction of a person into somebody's life. Whatever it is, its affect can be dramatic. In the story, "To Kill A Mockingbird", A women recalls a few memorable years of her life as a young girl in the Southeast United States, or Maycomb, Alabama, to be more specific. During this period, the young girl nicknamed Scout discovers some of life's greatest lessons through her relationships with her family, her friends, her neighbors and the community around her. Time may have been different during the 1930's, but the basic concept of life remains the same: respect, honesty and the belief that all people are made equal, continue to be some of life's most important lessons. Many of life's greatest come through adversity, or conflict, where one has to rise above his or her personal standards, to achieve a certain goal, or to destroy a wall set in front of him or her. A saying that was used much during wars and during times of crisis was "A hero is a common pe

rson, doing an extraordinary thing". Many acts of heroism may not be considered as such by some people, but they all deserve merit. A person's character and words are his or her most deadly weapons and they can be used by anyone, by the young or the old, by men or women, by the innocent or the guilty. They do not belong to one country or one army; they belong to the person and only to that person.

During the last 70 years, a lot has changed: Hitler rose and fell, nuclear weapons became commonplace, legal equality for African Americans was granted, the United States became the richest country in the world, etc. In most places in the United States of America, these changes are visible, however, in some remote locations, you would be surprised if they ever knew about them. In the little town I live in next to the Mexican border, a great many things that happen in this town should not be happening. These things should be under controlled by law, but they are not. Drugs run rampant on this town's streets, they are like a mountain: unstoppable, unmovable, and unbeatable. The war against drugs is a long, hard fought battle that cannot be easily won.

Poverty was common during the depression. The economy was down, therefore jobs were down, therefore people lost jobs and were unemployed. Many families did not have monetary needs to receive services that the few people that had money could get. Some of the services that these families could not get were needed for their survival, such as medical and judicial help. Many people that offered these services, would try to find ways to give these people services. Sometimes it involved payment in different forms as in, food from these family's farms, wood from the trees in their land, and maybe doing a favor for the provider of the service. Some families lived entirely off the government, but this was never enough to meet their basic needs, since it was usually blown on alcohol. The vicious cycle of poverty continued, the ones that wanted to rise out of it slowly did, but the ones who refused to make themselves better just continued to go down.

Fanaticism against equality was ever occurring. Many white citizens, primarily in the Southeastern United States, thought that blacks having the same rights as whites, was immoral, and that the introduction of equality for African Americans would unbalance society, and we would go into an age of anarchy. With this mindset, they were very keen in fighting against anyone who promoted equality for blacks. This is shown in one of the most controversial Jim Crow Laws: "Promotion of Equality: Any person...who shall be guilty of printing, publishing or circulating printed, typewritten or written matter urging or presenting for public acceptance or general information, arguments or suggest in favor of social equality or intermarriage between whites and negroes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to fine not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six months". Wasn't America a democracy during this time? The land of the free? Where you could voice your opinion without fear of attack? If so, wouldn't this law be unconstitutional? So why did it survive for eighty years?

The state of economic prosperity is not too great in Zapata, Texas. That is if you're talking legal. Anybody can get rich selling drugs, but that is for another day and topic, so I will not mention it. The major way to get a job here is to go to the oilfields. People that have jobs actually usually make enough to money to survive, however, there are many people that do not have regular jobs, and that do not get in love to hold out for the long run. It is not a lack of money flowing into this area that makes this a poverty stricken region, but the lack of jobs flowing into the area that makes this a poverty stricken area.

The town of Zapata, TX has a questionable future. Their war with drugs has torn the town apart, the war again

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3643
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)