Paper 1
Underage Drinking
Underage drinking has become a major problem in our society today. The Institute on Alcohol abuse and Alcoholism says that “the average age of the first use of alcohol is fourteen” (NIAAA). One cause of underage drinking is the media; it influences young kids that drinking is cool and not harmful at all. Another cause of underage drinking is popularity; most kids want to be popular so they will drink so they can fit in. A scary cause of underage drinking is the easy access of the alcohol. Most kids get their alcohol from their parents or older siblings. Another reason for underage drinking is it may be hereditary, underage drinking could run in the family and no one in the family cares to stop it. The consequences of underage drinking are damage to the liver, damage to the brain, growth defects, and death.
The media plays a huge role in underage drinking. The shows kids are watching now are all about alcohol, sex, and drugs. Some shows and movies that have common scenes with underage drinking are One Tree Hill, the OC, and super bad. These shows and movies all show a variety of party scenes with kids under the legal drinking age drinking alcohol. They normally don’t show the effects of drinking though. The shows focus on how much fun it is. The shows show how cool the kids look doing these illegal activities. This only provokes younger kids to want to do the same. TV shows glamorize drinking, but they never show the effects of drinking. They only show the good things. Kids want to be just like the people they see on their favorite shows so they will start drinking. This is a major problem. We should not be influencing young kids to do illegal things, producers of TV shows need to cut down on the use of illegal substances and emphasize the repercussions of them.
In the school system all the kids want to be the “cool kids”. These “cool kids” in schools now are the ones who are drinking alcohol. So, in order for the kids to fit in they must to the same thing. This is a huge problem; schools should be taking a role in trying to stop this. The Century Council, a distiller for fighting drunk drivers and underage drinking, took a poll in 2009 and “thirty nine percent of eighth graders reported that they had already tried alcohol” (Century Council). This means that almost half of the eighth grade students in schools have been drinking alcohol. That is way too young; they are not even responsible enough to drive yet they think they are responsible enough to drink. The Logan County Drug Free Youth Coalition in Ohio took a survey of high school students in 2009 about underage drinking. The question they were asked was “to choose the top three factors that contribute to underage drinking” (Bellefontaine Examiner). The top result was peer pressure. These results are not shocking to most; peer pressure has become one of the leading causes of underage drinking.
A major problem with underage drinking today is how easy it is for the kids to obtain the alcohol. An easy way to access the alcohol is through the parents. Most of the kids parents have a drink or two occasionally, but the problem is the kids know where it’s at. The alcohol is so easy to get to when the parents leave for a little bit the kids go straight for the alcohol. The Drug and Alcohol Review from Informa Healthcare took a poll on how many parents are the suppliers for their underage kid’s alcohol. The results were shocking. The results showed that “sixty seven percent of fifteen to seventeen year olds said they had gotten alcohol from their parents in the last four weeks”(Drug and Alcohol Review). We really need to crack down on how easy it is to access alcohol for minors.
Another issue in underage drinking is it may be hereditary. The Alcoholism and drug addiction help center says statistics in 2008-2010 show that “kids of alcoholics are four times as likely to go down the same road themselves” (Alcoholism and drug addiction help). This is not always hereditary, everyone has a choice. Some kids have been brought up with this and they know they want better. This will help them stay away from alcohol. Others will turn out just like their parents because they don’t know any better. This is related to underage drinking because it leads to the easy access of the alcohol. They know where to get it and they know that their parents will be too drunk to even care to stop them. This just leads them to become just like their parents.
Some may say that we should not have a legal drinking age. Some will think that having the legal drinking age only causes more teens to want to drink just because there is a law telling them they can’t. Some countries don’t have a legal drinking age, and some may think they have fewer problems with the problems that come along with drinking. However, the economic inquiry shows differently. “In 1933 all states were given the right to make their own minimum legal drinking age”. After some states changed their legal drinking age “empirical studies showed that traffic collisions and fatalities were increasing” (Economic Inquiry). Obviously having a lower drinking age does not help solve the problem of underage drinking.
Underage drinking has many consequences. Drinking alcohol causes liver and brain problems, but when you drink before you are twenty one these problems will occur a lot sooner. Kids who drink before they are twenty one have not fully developed their liver and brain. Underage drinking has a negative effect on the brain. Since the brain is not fully developed yet the alcohol will cause development problems. Underage drinking also affects your memory. It decreases your ability to plan and remember things, and also causes attention problems later on in life. Drinking also makes you become very disorient and you can easily be taken advantage of especially as an underage drinker. Underage drinking can also cause many different types of depression. The alcohol causes a mental disruption which may lead to depression. Overall underage drinking causes many problems with your body. So why would anyone want to enjoy a couple hours of intoxication to be punished for the rest of your life.
The main consequence of underage drinking is the automobile accidents. Many teens think they are not impaired and they will be fine. They don’t want to get in trouble with their parents so they won’t call home for a ride. Most of their friends are there with them; also drinking, so they think they best solution is to just drive themselves. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism said that “the rate of fatal crashers among alcohol-involved drivers between the ages of sixteen and twenty years old is more than twice the rate for alcohol-involved drivers twenty one and older”(NIAAA). This is a major problem that needs to be stopped. We need to try to enforce our laws harder, and parents need to start talking to their children sooner about these issues.
Underage drinking is a major problem today. There are many causes of underage drinking and there are also many consequences. We need to work with these young people and try to solve these problems. It could save many lives, and keep these young kids healthy.
Source
NIAAA, . (2006, Jan). Underage drinking. Retrieved from
Century Council, . (2009). Underage alcohol consumption. Retrieved from
N/A, . (2008-2010). Is alcoholism hereditary?. Retrieved from
Kypri K, Dean J, Stojanovski E. Parent attitudes on the supply of alcohol to minors. Drug & Alcohol Review [serial online]. January 2007;26(1):41-47. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 31, 2010.
Hochstedler, Mandy. (2009, May 22). Peer pressure, parental tolerance contribute to underage drinking . Retrieved from
Miron, Jeffrey A., and Elina Tetelbaum. "DOES THE MINIMUM LEGAL DRINKING AGE SAVE LIVES?." Economic Inquiry 47.2 (2009): 317-336. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 4 Nov. 2010.
Paper 2
Languages, philosophy, arts and humanities. These are things that we have always been told we should learn, have always had pushed into our brains. Why though? To torture poor school children? As plausible as that sounds, have you ever wondered what would happen if we got rid of those things? I believe that the extermination of the Humanities departments will affect the future of the U.S. in a negative fashion.
First, I think we should talk about why Humanities matter . So why do they matter? "Their (Humanities) subject matter is culture...... is as indispensable to functioning effectively in the professional world as knowing how to use a computer" said Menand, an English professor at Harvard University. Everything we do and know is related to culture in one way or another. Think about it. What we eat, what we wear, the way we speak, is all dictated by culture. Why is culture important? Culture is believed to be one of the things that define us as human. Humanities teach us about our own culture as well as those around the world. It brings everyone together.
Today's global market requires over sea trips and long distance phone calls to other countries, where the person on the other side might not speak english. How do we know what they are saying if they don't speak english? How are we supposed to communicate our needs to our countries if we can't understand them and they can't understand us? Learning another language is one way we can fix that. Where do you learn another language? You go to the Humanities department of a college/ university, or if you really want you can go to the country and learn through immersion but that's pretty difficult. Either way, learning a second language can benefit you in the long run. In the words of the comedian Eddie Izzard, “We are just going to have to be bi-lingual. We just have to.”
The U.S. isn't isolated from the rest of the world, we are a leading world power! We have connections with every other country. People all around the world are taking time to get to learn about our culture and our language, shouldn't we also learn about theirs? We are collaborating with people who are learning to speak English. They come here, to America and we go to their country. If we expect people who come here to speak English then shouldn't we learn their language before we go there, for any purpose? Really, almost every corporation has a branch overseas, whether it be computer help lines or McDonald’s. We depend on the other countries for resources that we can't produce here. If we can't communicate effectively then we could lose a lot of trade and resources that are important to the American way of life. Besides, America is called a “melting pot” and you really can't melt very well if you can't communicate with the people around you.
“Given the long-term cutbacks in state support for public colleges and universities that has forced those institutions to rely ever more heavily on tuition revenues.” said Yeshiva University history professer, Schrecker. What happens when colleges lose money, they cut programs. Then they lose students who are looking for a certain program. A university has to keep a certain number of students or government funds decrease. Less money means more cuts and less programs offered at the institution. If our colleges aren't preparing people for the job market then who is going to do the jobs that the world requires? Unqualified individuals with only a high school diploma. I don't think math, science or history can teach you how to conjugate French verbs or how to do a Japanese tea ceremony.
Some people will say that we don't need the humanities and that we should focus on today's job market. The jobs that are needed now.Jobs like technicians, mechanics and engineers. People that can get the job done, now and environmentally friendly. That is true, jobs in the field of technology are important but that isn't the only field that workers are needed in. Translators, teachers, and anthropologists are needed as well! Without those jobs, who are we going to have to tell us what people from other countries say, or teach us important skills, or teach us about other cultures and societies. You can't go to school, including technical or vocational school without teachers to teach you. Vocational school seems to be an economic choice, it's fast and promises experience for the job of your chosen field. But not all careers can be learned and mastered in a couple years. Things like translating and anthropology can take years to study.
Money is a very important thing in our society. We need money for almost everything these days. Not having the money to keep something or to receive it isn't a very helpful thing, especially when it is something that needs to be kept. But one thing I really want to know is why they think that Humanities is causing them to lose money in the first place. Is it because the job market is more competitive? You have to be really good at what you do to be a writer or actor or translator. Is it because it's hard to create new jobs in the humanities market?
The base of the word humanities is human and it is part of us as a species. The Humanities are an important part of education because it teaches you things that math and science can never grasp, like about other places and the different peoples that inhabit this planet that we share, about art, music and language, about being human. It teaches as much about ourselves as is does about others. It is apart of our culture and a special part that I think needs to be cherished and taken care of, not thrown out like old Chinese food. It is a special thing that helps make us human.
Menand, Louis. "The Point of Education." The New York Times. n.p. n.d. Web. 30 October, 2010.
Nussbaum, Martha. "Cultivating the Imagination."The New York Times.n.p. n.d. Web. 30 October, 2010.
Schrecker, Ellen. “Unegalitarian Assumptions.” The New York Times. n.p. n.d. Web. 08 November, 2010.
Tuchman, Gaye. "Putting a Price on Racine." The New York Times. n.p. n.d. Web. 30 October, 2010.
Paper 3
Reasons Why States Shouldn’t Carry the Death Penalty
There are 35 states that carry the Death Penalty. Death penalty/Capital cases are much more expensive than any other non-capital criminal case and cost more than imprisonment for life. To have this luxury comes at a high price. These states put so much time and money into having the death penalty, some states are spending thousands to millions to execute inmates, states budgets and jobs are being cut, states that carry capital punishment have higher crime rates then those who don’t, the death penalty is inconsistent and sometimes innocent people are wrongfully convicted.
An increasingly significant consequence of the death penalty in the U.S is the crushing financial burden it places on local governments. An article I read from MSNBC.com written by Pat Sullivan (To execute or not: A question of cost?) stated “it’s 10 times more expensive to kill an inmate than it is to keep them alive”. This statement was given by Donald McCartin, a former California jurist known as “The Hanging Judge of Orange County” for sending nine men to death. There are 5 different methods of execution, Lethal Injection, Electrocution, Gas Chamber, Hanging and Firing Squad. Majority of the states use lethal injection which is called a three drug cocktail, it contains Sodium Thiopental (lethal dose-sedates person), Pancuronium Bromide (muscle relaxant-collapses diaphragm and lungs), and Potassium Chloride (stops heart). Cost per execution for this drug is $ 86.08. Also included in the article (To execute or not: A question of cost?) stated that “California has the nation’s biggest death row population at 667. It costs an extra $90,000 per inmate to imprison someone sentenced to death, and an additional expense that totals more than $6.3 million annually,” this was according to a 2008 study by the state’s Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. A case that I felt was example of wasted money was the Eddie Lee Spraggins case in Meriwether County. I obtained this information from Richard C. Dieter (Executive Director of Death Penalty Information System). Meriwether, Georgia is a small community of 21,000 residents with an annual budget of $ 4 million. The prosecutor sought the death penalty three times for Mr. Spraggins. This cost the county $84,000, not including the defense attorney’s bill for appealing and the third conviction being overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court. Spraggins was finally granted a plea and received a life sentence.