Harris Family

Missy Chott
Op-ed column opinion piece--Harris Family
The Harris family was wrongly accused of many things. Their house and property was wanted and the Harris’ refused to sell it, and I believe they were accused of many things such as drug making and possession, mistreating their dogs, and the poor condition of their house. This family was a hard working family and they have done some hard labor to get the house they lived in. Mr. Harris had jobs like dumping rocks, loading ice, piling huge water jugs on skids, and a custodian while his wife worked as a file clerk. Mr. Harris blew a disk in his back doing all the hard labor in order for his family to survive. I can relate to this, because my dad blew a disk in his back working as a carpenter. It’s impossible to have a job doing physical labor with a bad back from what I’ve seen what my dad has been through.
The Harris’ are an older couple and are retired and just wanted to enjoy time with their family in their home. Now that their home has been wrongly taken away, they have no place to go. To top it off, they had some neighbors talk badly about them and now they have all kinds of lies and rumors all over the media about how they make meth, abuse their dogs, are loud and that their house looks like a dump and they don’t take care of it, when they were one of the first people to live there. When they moved in the neighborhood, their house fit in fine. Now richer people are moving in and they stand out a little bit. They are not ashamed of what they have, because they know they have worked hard for what they have and have come a long way in their lives. All they want is to be left alone and live happily with their family. They even stated in the report that if anyone had a problem with how they lived, all they had to do was knock on the door and talk to them about. There was no need for their neighbors to go behind their backs and talk to the media about what kind of people they think they are when in reality, they have no idea the struggles they have been through.
The way the police barged in and woke the family up was ridiculous. They thought they had evidence to do so because of the rumors they heard from the neighbors and what the vet told them about the dog which was all not true. Also how they came in with like forty cops was over the top. They came in like this family had killed someone or something. They should have got their facts straight before they intruded someone’s home and found absolutely nothing.
I do not understand why this family is being evicted from their home. They were targeted for their property and it’s a shame how cold hearted people can be to get what they want. I’m amazed by how some of their neighbors turned on them and told the media and police what they thought this family did. The neighbors were so judgmental. It is really sad that this family has worked so hard for what they have and it was all wrongly taken away. It is hard to trust anyone these days and like the family said no amount of money can make up for the humiliation that they have been put through after all this.
If they would have knocked Mr. Harris said he would have let them come in and investigate whatever they wanted to. Instead the police choose to smoke out the house and barge in on the family with at least forty officers. This makes you question the reasoning’s they had to do this. The Harris family said they weren’t mad at their neighbors but they were hurt by how betrayed they felt and how humiliated they felt. They did have the smallest house on the block and their house was surrounded by nicer, much fancier houses. They were also surrounded by many different races, them being the only black race. it’s hard to tell what the reasoning’s were that they were truly targeted in this situation. Now this innocent, hard working family is out a home and has no place to go.

Geman and the Euros

Germany is one of the biggest countries that the euro zone depends on. With the value of the euro decreasing and other countries that use the euro not being able to repay their debts, Germany is considering leaving the euro as its currency. Germany is one of seventeen countries that use the euro for its currency and a lot of the euros fate relies on Germany. Germany is the location of the headquarters for the European Central Bank. Germany is struggling to float due to loaning money for emergency bailouts to Greece, Ireland, and Portugal along with Italy, Spain, and Greeks failing to meet financial obligations. If these countries cannot pay back their debts, it will not only impact the European countries that use the euro, but it will also affect the U.S. and China, because those two countries are Europe’s biggest trading partners.

            Germany is in the middle of all of this and has the biggest impact on the euro zone, because Germany contributes the most. Germany can do one of two things, either expand the bailout fund or do nothing about it at all. In order for the euro to survive, countries that don’t have a huge impact in the euro zone must step their game up and “act like more sensible Germans.”

            Greece is hurting the euro zone greatly and is it is said that the Greeks party and do little to help with the problems of the European debt crisis. German taxpayers are finding it unfair to pay higher taxes so that they can help out countries like Greece when they are unsure if the debt from that country will ever be repaid. Germany has done a lot to help Greece by giving them a lot of exported products and a vendor loan, not knowing if that loan would be repaid. All Germany can do is hope Greece will repay their debts back to them.

            From the looks of everything, it seems as though Greece will be unable to pay back their debts, which is increasing fears for other European countries that use the euro. Questions being asked are will weaker countries that use the euro turn their back and not continue using the euro as their currency, knowing the demands are high and it could too much for them to handle. Or will countries that have a bigger impact, such as Germany leave, because they are going into debt when they loan out money to other countries that are unable to pay them back.

            To Germany it almost seems that leaving could be the better choice if they are going further and further into debt and the perks of being a part of the euro currency may not worth staying for Germany. So far the benefits of the euro zone is better than joining a weaker currency but Germany can only take so much of this. Germany needs the benefits, because it is a huge exporting country and the benefits are essential for an exporting country. If Germany left the euro currency for a stronger one, Germany would be alone and Germany does not know how that would affect their exports.

            Meyer had to talk to multiple people in order to get this story. She had to talk to Jean-Claude Tricher, the president of the European Central Bank and find out the monetary policy in the euro zone. She had to talk Chancellor Angela Merkel to figure out who the euro involves and what would happen if the euro failed and find what role Germany has in the euro zone. She talked to Jurgen Stark, the ECB’s former chief economist to figure out figure out what weaker countries in the euro zone need to do in order for the euro to survive. She talked to Uli and Jens who both own little shops in Germany and are fed up with working so hard so that the country lends out money to Greece when they know the money will never be returned. She had to talk to financial chiefs and corporate masters to understand how much weaker countries rely on Germany and need them to stay in the euro zone. She talked to German taxpayers, such as, Martin Blessing, CEO of Commerzbank, to find out their opinion is as citizens and found that they are fed up with paying more money in takes to help other countries out. She even talked to business partners and cousins, Isabel and Tobias Hahn to find out how this is affecting their business. A lot of people were involved to put this article together and to get both sides of the story.

            Meyer had a minimum of eight sources. That is just the number of people she interviewed to get information for this story. She still had to do research on what the problem Germany is facing and how they are going to fix it and what impact other countries have that may influence Germany’s decision. She had to do research on all the pros and cons of Germany staying in the euro zone or leaving. This probably took her weeks to get all the information and contact all these people, maybe even months. It was worth her time, because this is a very important issue that could have a huge impact on Europe’s currency, so it was worth her time to write this for people who use the euro. I think the details help add persuasion on how they feel about Germany wanting to switch currencies and or not. I think this story is hard news. Whatever decision Germany makes could greatly impact Europe’s economy and the citizens need to be prepared for whatever happens. This story has a soft lede. It starts off giving back round information on Germany and how it came about. It’s not until the second and third paragraph that we begin to hear and learn about the euro zone crisis and how Germany has a great impact on the euro zone. For the most part this seems like a factual piece, the only parts I think she threw in her opinion were when she interviewed local German store owners. I think that, just because the German owners would most likely be mad about having to pay higher taxes so she knew the answers she would get from them in the interview. I think she takes the Germans side on wanting to drop the euro as their currency. Literary techniques that she used were adding in quotes and giving both sides of the story, even thought I personally think she tried to show why Germany had good reasons more than the weaker countries in the euro zone.

Bakke's Story

What Don Murray means by the line of the story is the most memorable part of the story. Whatever quote or sentence that has impacted you the most is the line of the story. Don Murray thinks that craft is all the years and work you have put into becoming a better writer for yourself. Whether that be sitting next to someone who has been writing for years and reading their writings or just practicing and writing as much as you can to improve. Murray means by art to learn and discover things for the first time. This story is an art. It is about how Jean had her dog and saved him from the shelter. She had him for ten years when she learned that the dog was there for her just as much as she was for him. He was more than a dog, he was family that was looking out for her and Jean learned that through this experience.