Marie+V's+Op-Ed+Article

media type="file" key="marniev-muckrakers-2012.mp3"

You know that scene in the movie where the good guy gets framed for doing what the bad guy did? Or when the husband gets accused of cheating on his wife, when really the wife was cheating on her husband? Those parts of the movies are equivalent (in my eyes), to the grating of nails on a chalk board. When people get framed for things they didn't do, and the other person is found without any sort of consequence, I swear I could cry.

The part that upsets me the most, is that this doesn't just happen in movies This happens in real life, every day. People get away with murder, literally. And sometimes, the wrong man is convicted, Does this mean I want to do away with our current legal system? Of course not, the situation just makes me frustrated.

That being said, this situation doesn't have to apply only to high crimes and misdemeanors: it manifests in our every day lives. For example, my brother has been getting away with everything he does for about 10 years now. He's 14, and probably spawn of the devil. I could have written and entire rant just about him, and what he does to our family, but frankly, it's not worth my time. He blames my little brother and I for everything that he does wrong and yet still gets praise for things he doesn't do.

He has had years of practice with manipulating my parents and everyone else in his life, and it irks me to no end. I want everyone else to see him in the light that I do, but they don't. And the worst part? I come off looking like a Grade A bitc*. Everyone sees him and says, "Awwww! How could you be so mean to Nick, Marnie! He's so nice and cute! And he sings, and plays guitar,and basketball, and he's such a ladies man!" But he's not. He's really not. He's not the person that everyone thinks he is, and it kills me that people don't it.

I die a little inside when someone doesn't see the whole truth: when they are lead to believe a lie, and because of it, their views of someone else change. There was a girl at my old school who disappeared one day, and there were rumors that she got pregnant and that the nuns kicked her out. People automatically assumed that this was true, and nobody reached out to her. She was looked down upon for "making the wrong choice." How dare us, how dare we assume thing without full knowledge of the story, or without hearing both sides first? Yet, we continue to do it all the time, justifying it each time with a different excuse. We (the students) found out a year later that she had an eating disorder, and had been sent to a remote rehabilitation center somewhere in Utah. I didn't know her that well, and still felt guilty for not finding out the truth sooner. Things like this happen all the time; but the difference is that people usually never find out what really happened, and they never stop believing the lie.