Journal 6 from Theo

I learned a lot from doing this interview. I think the biggest take away I got from this profile was that there are good and bad people in this world and race, religion, none of that matters. Hearing Brian's story about meeting the most unlikely of friends like his roommate from college who was a full red blooded white boy from NC who became good friends with Brian. I also learned some very important writing skills from this interview. I learned that preparation can make or break a good interview. Even with Mikes training I was still very nervous to ask or even prepare some hard hitting questions. If it wasn't for all of our practice before hand I would have been like a deer in headlights at our interview. I think the thing I'm most proud of when it comes to this interview is the person I picked. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say Brian made that interview great. My questions were kind of lacking and looking over the transcript I realize I didn't really give him much to talk about, but he did it anyway.

My hands down favorite profile in this book was Moreese Bickham. I think this profile is the strongest in portraying holing onto hope. This guy has basically been beaten down by the system and he refuses to give up. This profile really makes you look at how different of a world we live in compared to just 80 years ago when people were killed and thrown in prison just for being a different race. My second favorite, though one of the shorter profiles, was Donald Bean. Donald is the living embodiment of holding onto your dreams. Although his park full of fake old dinosaurs is outdated and doesn't really attract costumers, he still visits the park everyday and lives his dream. I think we could all learn from Donald, we should chase our dreams and never let them go because if they make us happy then nothing else really matters. 

The best research question I can think of is what were the stonewall riots and what impact did they have on history? This question is based off of Syliva and Seymour profile, both of whom were in the riot. I think we could learn a lot from any riot, because there is always an underlying reason most people don't see. I would also like to do further research on Haily Stillwell and the town shes from. I think it would be cool to look at what the town was like before her and her husband moved in and what type of an impact they had on the community.