United States Army General George S Patton famously said: “It is better to fight for something than live for nothing”. Fighting for ones ideals is a righteous and a dangerous game played by many around the world. Usually fighting for ones ideals or what one thinks is right is regarded as heroic and something to be aspired to. However, in many cases the longer and harder one fights for their principles the more they can become misguided and lose sight of their goals or their values. This is clearly seen in the article Mission Gone Wrong by Mattathias Schwartz, in this article Schwartz paints a picture of the United States’ War on Drugs asking the critical question: why are we still fighting this war? Showing how the US has lost sight of the …show more content…
Specifically in chapters fifteen and in chapter twenty, Wolf Dreams tells the story of Nafa Walid a young Algerian man living in Algiers in the 1990’s. During this time a military dictatorship rules Algeria who at the time of the novel is clashing violently with radical Islamic militias in the country. Nafa is more or less untouched by this violence until his father is killed by police due to Nafa’s affiliation with a radical mosque. Nafa is galvanized by this death and vows to avenge his father: “Nafa felt he would go mad. He blamed himself for the tragic killing of his elderly father. Hunched in a corner, he banged his head, silently ruminating his grief and his hatred, entreating his friends to leave him alone….At the end of his tether he asked to join the Maquis. He had only one thing in his mind: revenge” (171). Here we see that Nafa has a clear goal , that he will avenge the death of his father by fighting the government. Many would agree that this is a just cause, much like the US governments’ efforts to eliminate the scourge of drugs from the US. However, much like the US war on drugs, Nafa’s struggle to avenge the death of his father too becomes misguided as he loses sight of his original goals and
Is there something that you’re constantly told is worth fighting for? That you’re told is for a good cause so you feel as if you need to be a part of it? Well, that’s what many people have been told before. People such as troops fighting for independence from England. They were told to fight for their independence, which they did want, but they leave out all the many disadvantages that come with fighting.
As director of the National Drug Control Policy, William J. Bennett shares his stance on the drug war in “Drug Policy and the Intellectuals”. He addresses the arguments that American’s have proposed in regard to the legalization of drugs. Bennett goes on to say that the justification behind legalizing drugs lacks the seriousness that a topic like this should have. In addition, the results would likely be disastrous. Rather than “taking the profit out of the drug business”, Bennett’ alternative is to make the usage of drugs a less appealing option.
Some adults can have a mentoring role in a child’s life. The Wednesday Wars by Gary D Schmidt is a novel about Holling Hoodhood’s seventh grade year. In the story Holling is always told by his father how to act so he can inherit the family business, Hoodhood and Associates. When Holling has Mrs. Baker as a teacher he must be nice because Hoodhood and Associates wants to win a bid for her families sporting business. Holling starts to read Shakespeare with Mrs. Baker and begins to see the world around him differently.
Throughout the book, A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, violence is a predominant theme. Ishmael is a witness to violence at the early age of twelve when the civil war reaches his village in Sierra Leone. The death of his family, the loss of his childhood/ innocence and his transformation into a killer were all direct results of the violence due to the war. The rebel forces killed Ishmael’s mother, father, brother and grandparents during the war.
The House I Live In, is a documentary that visually represents how the War on Drugs affected drug dealers, parents of those who took drugs, enforcers of the drug laws, prisoners convicted of drug violence or drug dealing, poor neighborhoods, and historical recordings about the war. All of these were captured through clips of interviews by those imprisoned due to drugs, experts from academic institutes, and police personnel. Moreover, it is a discursive narrative, since the film exhibits conversation of past and current results of the War on Drugs. Additionally, it has been a ‘hot button’ topic actively discussed by victims and authoritative enforcers of the war, outlining how ineffective it has
1 This review is about the novel Of Things Not Seen, by Don Aker. Don Aker used to be a high school teacher in Middleton, Nova Scotia. Now he currently works as a Literacy Mentor for the Annapolis Valley Regional School Board. He began writing in 1988 and he usually concentrates on writing short fiction for an adult audience. Don never planned at first to write this young adult novel, Of Things Not Seen.
The publication by Christina M. Gaudio is critical of the War on Drugs and focuses on its effects on juveniles. She takes time to outline the issues that are present with our current system, and specifically how the system is particularly unjust to juveniles. Gaudio details how the juvenile justice system operates state and federally, then she gives a brief history of the Drug War, the Drug Wars effect on Juveniles, its overall effectiveness, and possible solutions to what she sees as the problem. The Drug War is extremely costly to the taxpayer and is in many respects failing.
For example, agencies have been established with the sole intent to manage drug use and distribution and technology has been exclusively developed to detect the presence of drugs. Yet, evidence has indicated that such exhaustive efforts have been relatively unsuccessful. First, it has been assumed that drugs have perpetuated violence in society and based on this rationale, it was believed that by the suppressing the pervasiveness of drugs that incidents of violence would simultaneously diminish. However, reality has failed to align with the expectations that had initially been anticipated. Research findings have suggested that the decriminalization of drugs would result in a less adversarial drug market in which conflicts have tended to arise among dealers as well as between dealers and buyers (Common Sense for Drug Policy, 2007, p. 21).
In his essay, “Louis Cost Drugs for Addicts” (1995), Louis Nizer claims that we should offer legal, low-cost drugs to people. For his logos appeal, he mentions three reasons to support his claim. Which are the mobs would lose the main source of its income, the pushers would be put out of business, and the police and other law-enforcement authorities, domestic or foreign, would be free to deal with traditional nondrug crimes. He uses a pathos appeal when he says murder and serious crimes under the influence of drugs and talks about different types of domestic’s terrors in our nation. Finally, he uses ethos appeal when he says that the government should create clinics that provide drugs for nominal charges or even free.
In his article, “Toward a Policy on Drugs,” Elliot Currie discusses “the magnitude and severity of our drug crisis” (para. 21), and how “no other country has anything resembling the American drug problem” (para. 21). The best way to describe America’s drug problem is that it is a hole continuously digs itself deeper. America’s drug issues were likely comparable to other country’s at one point in time, but today it can be blamed on the “street cultures” (para. 21) that continue to use and spread the use of illegal drugs. These street cultures transcend the common stereotype of drug users, such as low income communities in cities or welfare recipients, and can be found in every economic class and location. They are groups of people who have
The use of narcotics like cocaine, claimed many lives and earned widespread coverage by media and news. Following this Nancy Reagan began the “War on Drugs”, a campaign to combat pre-existing drug usage and prevent future
Upon reading Gore Vidals "Case for Legalizing Marijuana" one may wonder why drugs are not legal in the United States of America. Afterall, several valid reasonings were made throughout the article. There is a demand for drugs and many people are supplying them, while also making a small fortune. If drugs were made legal and sold for high prices, their market would decrease because many people would not be able to afford them. Most people involved in the drug world do not know the consequences of that which they consume.
Introduction: Attention getter: according to ohio.gov, over 4,000 people died of drug overdose in 2016. Relevance: drug abuse is a growing epidemic especially here in Ohio, which is ranked 2nd worst overdose rates in the united states. Credibility: multiple of my family members have been addicted to drugs and i have first hand experience of how drug abuse can affect someone's life, and how rehab affects people addicted to drugs vs how prison affects people addicted to drugs. Thesis & Preview: as a result of the growing drug epidemic in the United States, thousands die every year. There are many proposed solutions for this problem such as decriminalization, rehab, prison, and even the death penalty.
As of recent, the war on drugs has been a very often discussed topic due to many controversial issues. Some people believe the War on Drugs has been quite successful due to the amount of drugs seized and the amount of drug kingpins arrested. I believe this to be the wrong mindset when it comes to the war on drugs. The war on drugs isn’t a winnable one so we must do all that is possible to assist those who struggle with drug addiction and decriminalize small amounts of drugs. These minor changes in the way we combat drugs will create significant change and have lasting effects.