|
In this Ted talk, Shaka Senghor gives us insight into his life. He engages in a life of crime at a young age of 19, becoming a drug dealer with a "short temper and a semiautomatic pistol." Early problems start in his life from his parents divorce, to growing in a harsh environment being shot 3 times on a street corner. He gets caught up at the age of 19 murdering a man and having a 23 year sentence on his hands. He had no one to go to through these hardships and it corrupted him as a person. When he got out of his 23 year sentence, he was devoted to making a drastic change to his life. Senghor can't express enough how his past actions were from a boy that was lost with no guidance and that he made his mistakes as a young man who never knew any better. Senghor truly proved that a person's past actions don't define them as a person and their true character. In the novel In Cold Blood, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock murder the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. Dick and Perry didn't have the best childhoods, and these factors led them to the same destructive life Senghor went through at a young age. The audience saw much good in Perry Smith, for he was kindhearted and gentle, only seeming to have good intentions with everything he did. His companion Dick seemed to drag him into the most trouble throughout the book and gave Perry a introduction to a life of crime that he didn't ask for. Both being released from the Kansas penitentiary, the crime didn't stop there. After they murder the Clutter family, they try to scrap up as much cash as they can to flee to Mexico for a good portion of their time after the murder. They move from state to state, trying to find a new, stable life while still on a fleeing getaway from law enforcement. Their fleeing soon came to an end when they get caught in Kansas by the police and get charged with the Clutter family's murder. They go on a trial and the jury comes to a quick decision, both men guilty and hereby sentenced to the death penalty. Nobody knew why they did it, and no one gave them the right or time to explain. The remaining members of the family never said they forgave them for the mistake they made in the senseless and vulnerable state they were in. Perry and Dick could have been deeply genuine on the inside but we will never know that, for they didn't get a second chance like many others do these days. A person can do very gruesome deeds in this world but it doesn't define a person and their character for their mistakes. Dick and Perry could've lived today to tell their story, and apologized for the wrongful acts they did at these times. These wrongful acts still didn't define them and they deserved a second chance for a clean sleight and a fair opportunity to a new life.
|