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Hassan Farnaz
Professor Laura Arzola
English 1302
20 january, 2019
Preliminary Thesis for RP : Family separation in childhood results in illnesses in adults.
Audience for RP: Parents and educationists.
Source title: The Deepest Well
Author: Nadine Burke Harris
Note #1: The connection between early childhood trauma and poor health is
demonstrated by Dr. Nadine in her book The Deepest Well. “But now, sitting in Bayview,
I saw that what people experienced in childhood could be enough to set them on a
devastating medical trajectory. The very idea that the events of childhood could affect
people’s health for the rest of their lives was scary but if the stress-response system
was indeed the mechanism in play, it opened up a huge runway for change. It meant
that if we figured out the problems early enough in a child’s development, we could
make a significant impact on his or her later life.”
Interpretation: Dr. Nadine in her observation of numerous patients and their health
issues was able to link them with the past trauma they had encountered in life. While
this idea that past events in a person’s life could affect a person’s health in adult life was
disturbing yet it provided a powerful tool whereby damage control could be put in effect
by pin pointing the reason of the ill health in the adult.
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Discussion Statement: Here Dr. Nadine emphasizes the relationship between adversity
a child experiences in his or her early life and the ill health he might encounter as an
adult. Her thesis is convincing because it stems from years of experience as a
Pediatrician and her interest in researching the cause of various illnesses in adults who
have had traumatic childhoods.
Note 2
Source Title: Sacrificing Families: Navigating Laws, Labor, and Love Across Borders
Author: Leisy Abrego
A Leisy Abrego is a Chicana and Chicano studies professor at UCLA . Her special
interest is El Salvador from where about two million migrants have crossed the border.
In her book she states “in the Salvadoran immigrant community … everyone has a
sibling, cousin, uncle, or neighbor who lives or has lived away from their children or from
their mother and father.”
Interpretation: Abrego, in her observation of the migrant families from El Salvadore,
states that during the process of migration there is almost no family that is not affected
by family separation. Every single migrant is related to someone, or knows someone
who was, or still is separated from either his children or from his parents.
Discussion Statement: In her book Leisy Abrego works with migrant families and study
the effects of childhood trauma on people as they grow up. Her area of interest is the
immigrants from El Salvador. Here, almost every person has experienced either first
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hand the trauma of being wrenched away from his or her loved ones or knows someone
who has gone through this terrible experience. She realizes that family separation at
the US border is much more common that we initially thought. It is too close to home
and wreaking psychological havocs in the hearts and minds of the immigrant families.
Note #3
Source Title: "Melania Trump 'Hates To See' Children Separated From Their Families
At Borders."
Author: Kate Bennett, CNN
In her article Kate Bennett writes about the First Lady’s trip to the shelters where the
separated children were being kept. "Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from
their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve
successful immigration reform," her communications director, Stephanie Grisham, told
CNN on Sunday. "She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a
country that governs with heart."
Interpretation: Bennett, a CNN correspondent quotes Melania Trump’s communications
director as saying that she finds it despicable that children should be torn away from their
families and is hoping to see better immigration laws being developed. She emphasizes
that where laws are extremely important for good governance, she also thinks that
emotions must be considered when laws are being made.
Discussion statement: Melania Trumps takes the important, rare decision to speak out
against her husband’s policy on separating children from their families at the border. She
expresses her strong feelings against child separation and stresses the need for better
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immigration laws that will keep families united. She articulates beautifully that while laws
ae important, they should not overrule humanity and should take into account feelings of
young children.
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