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Summary Of The Train From Hate By John Hope Franklin

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I’ve Got the Power
Our lives are what we make of them. We don’t have the power to tear someone else down or even build someone up. John Hope Franklin is an author who lived back in a time when whites felt superior to blacks. In Franklin’s personal story “The Train from Hate”, the conductor sought to demean a black woman and her children, Franklin being one of them. The white conductor unfairly kicked the black family off of the train. The woman did not get upset though. Even though they still had a long way to walk before they got to their destination, she did not complain or cry. I’ve been laughed at, pushed down, and bullied before. It happens regardless of my race. I’ve seen it happen to so many others around me but we are in charge of how …show more content…

We can, however, decide if we let others comments and actions role off our back or sink in like a toxic sponge. Franklins mother said to him, “Under no circumstances should you be upset or distressed because someone sought to demean you” (Franklin). We also see what we want to see. Recently, we’ve been through a lot in my small town of Anadarko, Oklahoma. Four young suicides, one murder where the suspects were two teenagers, and countless other terrible things are going on in the background. You can choose to see that and be upset about it or you can look to the schools, to the young people that are making a difference, or to the tribes outside the schools with signs telling kids they care. What I see is more good than bad. I see people coming together and working for a bigger picture. I see the thank you cards, and the reaching out, and the signs that people make. There are those who want to make a difference and there are those who want to complain. Those who complain are often apathetic as well. They let the bad sink in and just boil on inside them. They choose to let their outlook on their destiny be determined by others actions in such a small town. They see these tragedies and decide that there is something wrong with the youth and there is something wrong with the people in this town. You get to decide which one you want to be. You can be the glass half empty or the glass half full. There’s no way anyone but themselves can stop them from saying bad things about my town but I can choose to ignore it and continue to make my town a better place. My destiny is not determined by any of my peers’ actions and it’s not determined by the thoughts of the adults. The same goes for all of the people in my town and all over the world. There’s bad stuff everywhere but there is also good, isn’t it great that we get to choose how we feel and which one we want to

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