Needed: A License to Drink
Mike Brake is a writer for the communication department at the Oklahoma State Department of Education he wrote an article, “Needed: A License to Drink,” proposing a national system of licensing on drinking, with appropriate penalties. This means in order to drink one beer a person would have to obtain a license. The article is from Newsweek (March 14, 1994).
Underage drinking is everywhere; high school, parties, and at college. How do they get the alcohol? The answer is simple get into the right crowd and alcohol will be as easy to get as juice. There is always going to be someone to buy for underage drinking no matter what the situation. Being twenty-one just means you do not have to hide drinking
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Prohibition is the legal prevention of the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages with the aim of obtaining partial or total abstinence through legal means. The Eighteenth amendment was ratified on January 29, 1919 making the purchase, sale, or consumption of alcoholic beverages illegal. (Ask Jeeves). It was put into action to reduce corruption, decrease the crime rate, and improve the people’s health. At the beginning alcohol consumption fell but then it increased dramatically. People experimented with other drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and other dangerous drugs. Crime rates and homicides more than doubled. The public turned to gangsters who were in the bootlegging industry to get their alcohol. These gangs became very organized and more gangs arose in big cities. The alcohol was smuggled in from Canada, overseas, stolen from government warehouses, or made. Prohibition did not stop anyone from drinking, people drank more but they switched to hard liquor because it was easier to transport, they could drink less to get drunk, and it was less expensive. Alcohol was very easy to acquire because the bootlegging business was large and everywhere. Prohibition did not work at all. It not only increased alcohol consumption it increased crime rates, gang activity, and riots. (Prohibition in the 1920’s). Having a license to drink would act much the same way as prohibition because it just caused more problems. People who like to drink heavily will find ways to get alcohol. Making alcohol illegal did not stop anything so why would a license do any
Edwin Black's War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race
The root causes of the war could be traced back in history to the imperialist policy of great powers of Europe, an international phenomenon during the 19th century. Eritrea as a new independent entity was created by Italian colonization. Italian colonization did not only create a new independent state of Eritrea but also a separate Eritrean identity. As a result of the socio-economic improvements created by the Italian colonial legacy, Eritreans developed a distinct Eritrean identity and a sense being “civilized” and regarded Ethiopians as “backward”. (Tekeste: 2000, p.54-157). In one interview, Eritrean President Issayas once said, “We have lived with Europeans; we have seen much of the civilized world. There are many things we have learned from them. The Ethiopians, on the contrary, have just come out of the forest. They are not civilized. They feel inferior because they have come out of the bush” (Solomon: 1998, p.15).
“National Minimum Drinking Age Act.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 21 April 2014. Web. 24 April 2014.
People constantly overlook the severity of depression, more importantly, major teen depression, which presents a legitimate obstacle in society. The intensity of teen depression results from society’s general lack of acknowledgement of the rising affair. In 2012, “28.5% of teens were depressed” and 15.8% of teens contemplated the option of suicide (Vidourek 1 par. 1), due to their major depression going unnoticed or untreated for. Even teenagers themselves often ignore their depression or remain in denial because neither them nor anyone else recognizes the signs. “A sudden change in behavior is a main sign of someone being depressed, which could lead to having suicidal thoughts,” stated Pam Farkas, a clinical social worker in California (Aguilar 1 par. 8). The warning signs and risk factors of teen depression include behavioral issues, social withdrawal, and inadequate interest in activities (Adolescents and Clinical Depression 2 par. 3), yet the unawareness of these signs does not allow professional medical attention to intercede. Deaths, illnesses, rejection, relationship issues, and disappointment present passages down the negative path of teen depression, but treatments, such as psychotherapy, intervention programs, and antidepressants express ways to subdue this major problem. Knowledge of the increasing dilemma needs to circulate, in order to promote stable teen lives in the present and future world. Understanding major teen depression, the events and incidents that lead to depression, and how to overcome the problem will lead to a decrease in major teen depression and its growing issue in society.
Eritrea was part of Ethiopian history since the first century A.D. it was one major part of the Axumite and Abyssinian rulers of Ethiopia. Historical and anthropological studies show that Eritrea was part of Ethiopia’s genealogy until the 1890 Italian invasion.1 Eritrea fall under Italian c...
were drinking to get drunk than their counterparts a decade earlier, and one recent study reported an increase, just since 1994, in the number of students who drink deliberately to get drunk? (Smith 1). I interviewed my friend Shelly Mitchell who recently turned twenty-one and asked her how she felt about finally being legal to drink. She quoted, ?It is not as exciting to drink anymore, I mean I still like to go out with my friends to bars, but the fun is all over, in high school and college it was so exciting trying to get alcohol by using a fake ID.? All of these factors could be changed by lowering the drinking age to eighteen. In a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health, binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a row for boys and four drinks for girls. And when they did a survey they found that 44% of the students attending Harvard binge drink (Jeffrey Kluger 1).
With these new boundaries formed, eugenicists began their own “testing”, classifying people as either superior or inferior based on the size of their pocket book or their social connections. Families across the country rushed to be tested and deemed genetically fit, or otherwise...
We've all heard it before: "Too much of anything is bad for us." The amount of binge drinking occurring on American college campuses today proves that college students do not heed this warning. Binge drinking, or drinking for the purpose of getting drunk, harms both drinkers and non-drinkers alike. As today's college students come dangerously close to being swept away in the sea of papers, exams, jobs, and interviews, they use bingeing as the lifeboat that allows them to escape the stress. It allows them to forget their worries, fit in with the crowd, and live on the edge in a fast-paced world that normally does not leave time for such activities. Teetering on the brink of adulthood, yet still trapped in childhood makes drinking decisions difficult for many college students. A desire to get away from our usual lives because of societal regulations and conformity, psychological and emotional problems, and the stress of everyday life causes college binge drinking.
The history of harmful eugenic practices, spurring from the Nazi implementations of discrimination towards biologically inferior people has given eugenics a negative stigma (1,Kitcher, 190). Genetic testing, as Kitcher sees it through a minimalistic perspective, should be restrained to aiding future children with extremely low qualities of life (2,Kitcher, 190). He believes that genetic engineering should only be used to avoid disease and illness serving the role of creating a healthier human race. He promotes laissez-faire eugenics, a “hands off” concept that corresponds to three components of eugenic practice, discrimination, coercion and division of traits. It holds the underlying works of genetic testing, accurate information, open access, and freedom of choice. Laissez-faire eugenics promises to enhance reproductive freedom preventing early child death due to genetic disease (3,Kitcher, 198). However there are dangers in Laissez-faire that Kitcher wants to avoid. The first is the historical tendency of population control, eugenics can go from avoiding suffering, to catering to a set of social values that will cause the practice of genetics to become prejudiced, insensitive and superficial. The second is that prenatal testing will become limited to the upper class, leaving the lower class with fewer options, creating biologically driven social barriers. Furthermore the decay of disability support systems due to prenatal testing can lead to an increased pressure to eliminate those unfit for society (4,Kitcher, 214).
Black, Edwin. War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race. Dialog Press, 2012. Print.
The debate of whether the minimum legal drinking age should be lowered or not has been around for many years even since the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 raised the MLDA to age 21. Prior to that, the government has t...
The suicide rate for adolescents has increased more than 200% over the last decade.[2] Adolescent suicide is now responsible for more deaths in youths aged 15 to 19 than cardiovascular disease or cancer. Recent studies have shown that greater than 20% of adolescents in the general population have emotional problems and one-third of adolescents attending psychiatric clinics suffer from depression.[3] Despite this, depression in this age group is greatly underdiagnosed, leading to serious difficulties in school, work and personal adjustment which often continue into adulthood.
Its symptoms often differ, too, so many depressed teens are dismissed as simply being “difficult” or “delinquent.” Yet it is a serious problem, particularly when one considers the high rate of depression-related suicide among teenagers. Because its symptoms are varied and often subtle, depression at any age can be hard to identify. Many people, particularly teens, who are undergoing so many changes that affect mood and behavior are unaware that they are depressed. Even when they seek treatment, it is often only for the physical symptoms, such as sleeplessness or fatigue, and not the actual underlying cause. Many factors increase the risk of developing or triggering teen depression, those factors include - having issues that negatively impact self-esteem, such as obesity, peer problems, bullying, or academic
When created in 1923, the American Eugenics Society exemplified an air of reform with a seemingly positive purpose, however this cannot be further from the truth. In reality, the society polluted the air with myths of weeding out imperfections with the Galtonian ideal, the breeding of the fittest (Carison). The founder of the society, Charles Davensport , preached that those who are imperfect should be eliminated(Marks). From the school desk to the pulpit, the fallacies of the eugenics movement were forced into society. Preachers often encouraged the best to marry the best while biology professors would encourage DNA testing to find out ones fate (Selden). A...
Teenage depression is a growing problem in today's society and is often a major contributing factor for a multitude of adolescent problems. The statistics about teenage runaways, alcoholism, drug problems, pregnancy, eating disorders, and suicide are alarming. Even more startling are the individual stories behind these statistics because the young people involved come from all communities, all economic levels, and all home situations-anyone's family. The common link is often depression. For the individuals experiencing this crisis, the statistics become relatively meaningless. The difficult passage into adolescence and early adulthood can leave lasting scars on the lives and psyches of an entire generation of young men and women. There is growing realization that teenage depression can be life- changing, even life threatening.