Exploration Three- Devon Beck

       A year ago I lost my cousin Becky. She was only twenty eight years old with a lot of life left to live. She fought aneroxia for many years before finally dying due to it . When it happened I was lost and confused. You hear about people dying from eating disorders all the time but it is completely different when it is your own cousin. Around the time of her death she was finally getting serious about trying to get better. She was going to go in for treatment a week later. The whole dynamic of my family changed when she died. We've had family tragedy but nobody in our family has ever died so young. We all were left wounded and we still are trying to heal.   Whenever we have family cookouts her kids are usually there. Her physical presence is not with us but she is always with us mentally. Since her death my family has got together more times than I think we have in years. Since her death I realized how little time we could have with someone. I realized that we need to talk to the people that we love as much as possible. I realized that if someone is suffering from eating disorders or any other type of problem you must get them help before its too late. I realized that life is precious and at any moment everything you thought you knew could be changed.

Issues of substantiation to me means that you are wondering about something. If you read a nonfiction book about an abortion and one of the facts is 100 percent of women have agreed that abortion you might check the source the author got the information to see if they are a reliable resource. You might question evolution and the facts around it. Issues of substantiation is about not just believing whatever you read just because it is online but instead about finding more evidence that supports that claim.

A huge issue for me would have to be more protection for people that are enduring domestic violence. I've had countless family members that have had abusive relationships and some that are currently still in them.  I've seen them struggle to find peace when they do end the relationship due to the pressures of trying to stay save. A cousin of mine who recently got out of an abusive relationship received more then sixty calls in one day from her ex her husband. She blocked him but all he did was get a new number and the cycle started all over again.  She even thought about getting a protection order. Protection orders to me do not serve as protection. They serve  as a warning. If someone really wants to cause you harm a piece of paper is not going to matter.  Countless stories have been posted on the news concerning women and sometimes children being murdered by their partners after leaving an abusive relationship.  Anybody that abuses their partner should be locked in jail long enough for that person to get somewhere safely. They should also have to be monitored to make sure that they are not trying to cause harm. I believe that the children should not be forced to go see their father if the woman feels in danger for herself or her children  because to me that seems like access to the mother which could prove to be deadly.  People will argue that this is wrong to keep a child from their father. What happens though if a father shoots the mother of his children? They both will be without a parent when it could have all been avoided if the mother did not have to give her kids up.