Work for a Safer City!

Have you ever had something bad happen to you and decided to do something about it, so that it won't happen to someone else? I haven't been in the same situation but I heard about someone who did. Sammy Cohen- Eckstein’s mother, Amy Cohen. She lost her child when a van hit him at the intersection of Third Street and Prospect Park West. So she decided to make the city safer so that other children won't die for the same reason. She started to take a borrowed raider gun outside of her house. In just 15 minutes, 25 drivers ignored the speed limit of 30 mph. Some of them were going over 40 mph. Three drivers drove through a red light.

The author N.R. Kleinfield wrote After a Son’s Death, Parents Channel Their Grief into Activism to teach us to make a difference. It shows the strength of a mother who goes through grief of losing her 12-year old son and decides to help the city become safer. She even went to the senator, Charles E. Schumer to get his help on this issue because she just couldn't take it anymore. This article explains the story of how a mother and a father went from not signing petitions, writing imploring letters to elected officials pushing to see the mayor, speaking to the legislature, nor speaking at public hearings to doing those very things. It shows how Amy Cohen decides to make a difference in grief of her child. This is part of why I think Kleinfield’s claim was to make a difference. This claim is shown when Kleinfield chooses to quote Amy Cohen when she tells mourners to “write their representatives and urge traffic-safety measures.” He used this quote in particular to show that anyone can make a difference, even a grief-stricken mother. What Amy Cohen means by this is that she is telling everyone to make a difference and help the city become a safer place to live in. Kleinfield chose to include this to show that writing letters to representatives is a good idea for us to do. Kleinfield also quotes Mr. Eckstein when he says “People are killed and families are turned inside out. It’s important for people to see this.” What Mr. Eckstein means by this is that people die and that has a big impact on families, so it teaches others to be prepared for the worst when the other people find out that this happens. Kleinfield included this quote to prove that showing people the cold hard truth can also help to make a difference in people’s way of thinking. It helps them realize that life isn't perfect but that they should try to make the best of it and help make a better and safer world. This evidence backs up the claim that Kleinfield wants us to make a change in the world.

I have noticed several craft moves throughout this article. I noticed one where Kleinfield kept on quoting Amy Cohen in particular. He also used a lot of statistics and included comments from the Internet in which some of them were rude. This includes “His parents should have conditioned him not to run out into the street without looking” and “…So while it is human nature for the parents of the child to look for someone other than themselves to blame, perhaps they can best perpetuate their son's memory by setting up a foundation to teach children never to jaywalk, never in fact to enter streets other than at an intersection - for any reason - without adult supervision.” This lines show that people are blaming Sammy Cohen-Eckstein himself for getting himself killed even though he is only a 12-year old boy who doesn't know any better. Also they are blaming his parents for not teaching him to go out into the street when they really don't know if the parents did or not. For all we know, the parents could have taught him not to do that but in the moment he had forgotten what his parents taught him-being a middle-schooler- and went out recklessly into the street without really pay mind to the street lights or where he was.

Even though I never met Sammy Cohen-Eckstein, I still thought this article was hard to read because it brings out so much emotion from his family and even me. I couldn't help but to write about him when I found out what this article was about. I too would like to join this movement even though I am not capable of doing much at my age. This article inspires me to never give up no matter how hard and hopeless life seems. Just as Amy Cohen and Gary Eckstein have done. Even though they had to cope without their beloved son, they still managed to hang onto life as much as they might have wanted to let go of it. This article was so well-written that it brought out emotions in me that I kind of felt that day I found out that Sammy died. I didn't even know him, but I was still deeply saddened by the tears of my classmates. It almost brought me to tears just seeing them that sad. This article and Sammy’s family inspires me to make a difference when I get older and am more capable of helping.