Sunny Youth Journal

This is why the kidnapped boy in O . HENRY’s “The Ransom of Red Chief” is the weirdest person ever.

First of all, when he gets kidnapped, instead of running away or frantically asking for help (Like I would’ve done), he decides to throw a brick at the kidnapper’s eye. But when you take a step back and think about it, he’s just a ten-year-old. With a brick. There are two kidnappers and they both are way older than the happy little boy playing with bricks out on the street. And they probably have a lot of experience to aid them in capturing the boy as well because they have, as the story says, “stood by [each other] without batting an eye in earthquakes, fire and flood—in poker games, dynamite outrages, police raids, train robberies and cyclones” (19). … So just attacking his kidnappers with a brick is a really weird decision to make.

Second of all, this boy thinks taking the scalp off of Bill is a good idea. I mean, if he was Make Believe-ing, then I suppose that would be all right, but when Sam wakes up abruptly to find Bill screaming like a girl and the boy on him, holding a knife to his head, that’s… a bit weird (and disturbing too). I even found a quote for this one: “[Sam] was awakened by a series of awful
screams from Bill … and [Red Chief] was industriously and realistically trying to take Bill’s scalp, according to the sentence that had been pronounced upon him the evening before” (15). Ten-year-olds may not be old enough to attack two grown men, but ten-year-olds sure are old enough to know that that first night was a much better opportunity to escape than to further convince the kidnappers that they need to keep an eye on him at all times. Like I said, weird. But, the boy doesn’t seem to want to go back to his home either, which leads to my next point.

Third of all, the boy needs to know that it’s a lot safer in his own house than outside in the wilderness with two kidnappers who are only keeping you for money. I just can’t believe that he would rather stay in the cave and try to damage the kidnappers even more than go home and play with his family and possibly even friends. He literally says, “I never had such fun in all my life” (14). Oh yes, definitely, I would love to camp out with my kidnappers and play games with them and eventually even try to take the scalp out of one of them! It’s still really weird how he’s enjoying all this.

In the end, even the kidnappers would relinquish their dream of receiving two thousand dollars just to give him back to his father, Ebenezer Dorset (And he knows that no one can stand living with the boy). Surely, this means that the kidnapped boy in this story is truly, truly, weird.

You may have seen information about the number of deaths or number of people infected by COVID-19. However, how exactly do they get these numbers? One thing that happens when someone dies is that they get a death certificate. This is the main thing that the people use while counting the amount of deaths. The cause of death is also described on the certificate. These gets signed by doctors or other people in charge of it. Autopsy also helps determine whether someone’s cause of death is COVID-19 if they died before a doctor could check them. One big problem that makes the exact number inaccurate is that the definition of a coronavirus death may differ between states. There are people who die with the virus and people who die from the virus. People can die from other diseases while having COVID-19, but does that count as a coronavirus death?

The Ransom of The Red Chief is a short story about how two men want to earn some money, so they kidnap a boy to get a ransom. The characters in this story include of Sam and Bill, two “criminals”, Johnny, the 10 year old boy who is kidnapped, and Ebenezer, the father of Johnny. I personally think the main theme of the story is to not try to find the easy way to success, or to get money. This is the theme, because when Bill and Sam attempted to earn money by kidnapping a boy, it resulted in getting their plan backfired, as they kidnapped a little rascal who was too much of a pain to keep with them. The story starts off with Bill and Sam kidnapping Johnny, and driving him off to a cave. The two criminals soon begin to learn that Johnny is quite annoying and bratty. Johnny forces they two men, especially Bill, to play games with him. While they play his games, Johnny has a fun time hurting Bill which frustrates Bill. Later on in the story, Sam leaves Johnny with Bill so they can send off a ransom letter to Ebenezer. As Bill endures Johnny , he eventually gets sick of Johnny and sends him back home. When Sam returns from sending off the letter, Bill finds that Johnny had followed him back to the cave. The climax of the story starts when they receive their letter back from Ebenezer offering them a deal. The deal consists of them returning Johnny back to Ebenezer while also paying him 250 dollars to have Johnny off their shoulders. In the end, Johnny is returned and the two men find that their plan had been backfired. I recommend this short story because it is quite funny and has a exciting plot twist and lesson learned.

Coronavirus has swept through the United States and many schools had been shut down. Even when a pandemic like this is happening there are still many people who have been infected due to lack of testing. For example, to have an official count of coronavirus, they will have to test every one first. However, data shows that the cases in the United States are probably being undercounted rather than overcounted. There are three reasons why that has happened.

primarily, In “How are COVID-19 deaths counted?” by  Stephanie Pappas stats that. “Death certificates can be signed by a physician who was responsible for a patient who died in a hospital, which accounts for many COVID-19 deaths.” This means that the counts counted a great number of people that have died, died in a hospital. Therefore it means that a lot of people have not been counted because that did not get identified. Same with getting the vires.

following, the next reason that this has happened was that “Contributing factors such as heart disease, diabetes or high blood pressure would then be listed further down. This has led to some confusion by people arguing that the “real” cause of death was heart disease or diabetes, Aiken said, but that’s not the case.” says Stephanie Pappas. And this causes people to not count some of the cases that they knew. It also makes people believe that COVID-19 is not that dangerous.

The last reason that the counts for COVID-19 were undercounted was that the leader of a state or country sometimes does not tell the real count. The reason for that is so they will not make their country look bad. In my opinion, that was not a smart house because people need to have a consequential number, in this case, to get alerted. And understand how dangerous COVID-19 really is.

To draw things to a close, the numbers of COVID-19 counts need to be accurate to keep people alerted, so they can keep themselves safe.

Who are you?

Take some time to ponder

Why do you exist?

You think and wonder

What is the meaning

The solution, the answer

Of the reality of you

However it may occur

Are you a human

A dog, a cat, or a mouse

Do you live in a tent

A mansion, or a house

Do you enjoy rice

Or oatmeal, or bread

Do you prefer running

Or brainstorming the head

Love yourself

Set goals in your life

Be proud yet modest

Work very hard and strive

Know thyself

Said an wise old man

Continue to learn about yourself

As much as you can!

I’d say its likely undercounted, as the machines are not perfect, and likely missed some cases. Some cases were not completely proven they had coronavirus, so they didn’t count those. Even if they actually had it. Also, the death toll only counts those who went to a hospital, meaning if they stayed home, and died, they likely weren’t counted. Another factor is that the lack of tests earlier on made early cases go undetected and uncounted. All of these factors give reasons why the death toll was undercounted. There is not necessarily any sort of evidence to prove exactly how many there were, but we’re sure there were at least a few.

Counting COVID deaths are straightforward most times. This is because the lung will have much more weight. The extra weight is a result of fluid and cell detritus from the damaged lung tissues. The other ones are hard: “‘The challenge is knowing who died of COVID-19 versus who died with the virus that causes COVID-19,'” Faust told Live Science.

Is it underreporting or overreporting? Both are not good, but we cannot be perfect. Underreporting is bad because it allows people to be less scared of the virus, while there are many more people with coronavirus. Overreporting is bad because it may allow people to panic. “Both undercounts and overcounts of COVID-19 deaths are possible, Wolfson said, but it’s not yet clear which is more likely, or whether they might simply balance each other out. Fowkes said that based on her experience, it’s more likely that COVID-19 deaths are being missed than overcounted.”

The importance of The Ransom of Red Chief is that to plan out what you do before you take action. Bill and Sam wanted to kidnap Johnny Dorset then return him for a ransom. Instead, they had to pay 250 dollars to return him back to his father, and earned no money in return. Also, Johnny, nicknamed as Red Chief, surprisingly liked to camp out because the people in his town probably despised him. Bill and Sam wanted money to kidnap more children and getting more money, but that plan totally failed.

Learning from Bill’s and Sam’s mistake, planning and organizing before taking action is critical- one may make a big mistake when they are doing something and feel like as if they are dumb. For example, when you forget to do your homework because you were too busy playing video games, you feel busted and super dumb for not completing your homework. Additionally, organizing can also help an event or activity flow better and be prepared for whatever may come up. For instance, if you prepare food for a hiking trip, you are ready to provide someone with food if they are hungry.

Moreover, planning and organizing prevents disorder from interrupting an activity or event. When you only invite the peers that behave come to a tour of your home, they will not go crazy and destroy your belongings, unlike what misbehaving and disrespectful people will do. Also, turning off your phone rings and notifications during a talk with a close friend is respectful and planned for. For if you do not think of “disabling” the notifications, there would be text messages, phone calls, and breaking news “ringing” from your phone like a fire alarm.

Life is confusing. I have experienced that many times. So when I saw the story today: Henry Red Chief, I saw how a masterplan to get big money turned in a huge catastrophe.

In this story, two men, Bill and Sam, needing money, decide to kidnap a boy of the rich banker of Summit. But they soon found out how naughty this boy Jimmy, or Red Chief. We see how he made Bill be his horse and so on. When the two men sent a letter to the kidnapped boy’s Father asking for $1,500, they are pleased. But when the Father sent a messenger to the two men for the response to the letter, he counters it, saying. You give me my boy and pay me 150$. How surprising this is. He gets the boy and money, instead of paying money himself. By now, Bill is driven crazy because of the boy’s ” games ” and begged Sam to agree. Sam agreed and they paid the father and gave the child.

From this story, we see how people found a great blueprint to success, and immediately sent it into action, without a second thought. From the result we saw from this story, when we do this, we instead of striking gold, lose some of what we have already. When these two men, put their plan into action without a second thought. We see that they received a negative effect, which was giving back the boy and paying $150. We see how these two men, Sam and Bill, were now confused. Of how a masterplan turned into a disaster. Of how they were uncertain of how life was run. Instead, they should have thought twice of what could have happened or be less greedy. Now these men saw what I call ” Life, Oh Life”.

Samuel Ma

  I don’t agree with the coronavirus magazine. I personally think that they are under counting the number of deaths because of the Covid19. I know that I am writing an argument against a magazine written by health officials and government officials that know more facts than I do. My reasons are that it could be other cases, like natural causes or that the person was already sick or has health problems. 

   It could be other cases because people are just commonly telling the doctors that someone died in their family. The doctor, who probably was getting ready for another task to save another person’s life, most likely would just mark it in the CoronaVirus death list. He or she, which probably would be very busy, wouldn’t really ask the cause of death. It could be natural causes, such as old age.

   My other argument is that the person was already sick, and then, got the coronavirus. Technically, that person died of other causes and didn’t die of coronavirus, because he was already sick, so it’s like he recovered and has a weak body system, then the COVID19 just comes and kills that person. So if that person is 100 percent recovered, the person just might not die.

As you can see, these are my reasons why I think that the number of corona virus deaths is not an under count but an over count. My reasons are that the person get killed by regular causes and that  the person already was sick or has health issues.