Drugs & Prison

I do not think it is fear that people involved with drugs are sent off to prison instead of rehab. These junkies get no help because once they are released, they have no support system to help them stay clean. They just go right back into their old habits. I'm thinking that the guy from 30 Days who was going through heroin withdrawal, will not lead a successful life after prison. He will probably just go back to doing heroin. It also doesn't make sense that people caught with marijuana can serve more years in prison than rapists and murderers. Drugs hurt oneself, rapists and murderers are hurting (killing) other people. Keeping the killers in prison is way more important than locking up the junkies. After reading the article, I know how inhumane the prison system is. The guards blame everything on drugs. When a person complains of feeling sick they say they are "dope-sick" or just going through withdrawal. Although this is the case sometimes, when that crippled man complained of an illness, they blamed it on the drugs. However, it wasn't drugs at all. And the man died because of that misjudgement. Prisons must reform and lock the right criminals up in jail. The prisons are already overcrowded, thus, they should just send the people involved with drugs off to rehab. The people in prison aren't getting much resocialization because all they do is eat and sleep. They don't do anything to reform themselves. That is why 2/3 of released inmates go back to prison.

When Do You Become An Adult?

Legally, you are considered to be an adult at age 18. The funny thing about age 18 is that it is so random. There are still so many restrictions. An 18 year old can go off to war but he can't have alcohol. So he is responsible enough to carry a gun but not responsible enough to drink? In addition, I think you become an adult when you are independent in all ways (financially, emotionally, ect). At 18, most of us are still living at home. Yes, we are most likely in college living in a dorm away from home but we don't consider that our home. We still have a bed waiting for us in Buffalo Grove. That home is the one we go back to on holidays, over the summer, or just to visit the family. Living away from home is when we no longer have a room in our parent's house. But, having your own place does not make you an adult. You also need to be financially independent. That means your parents aren't paying your bills and managing your home. The question is, how do we learn how to do all this. After college, we are expected to move out and be independent. Yet, it doesn't happen over night that we understand how to live on our own. We must ask our parents to help us. Maybe for the first couple months or so we still have our parents help us manage the house. Soon, we will be able to do it by ourselves. It is just like learning to cook or do the laundry. It is a gradual thing that your parents try to teach you before you go off to college. I am a little nervous to be on my own because I am very dependent on my parents. Possibly it is because I am the youngest child. My sister always mimicked my mom and took care of me as well. Because she could play "mom" she learned how to cook and do the laundry. My problem was that I had two moms doing these things for me. I got so used to it, I never bothered to ask my mom if she could teach me how to make real food (not just mac & cheese). Now that I am aware of this, I am going to do all that I can to watch my mom and ask her questions so I can someday be prepared to live on my own and become an adult.

Masculinity

In class we have been talking about the sociology behind school shootings. All of them are white boys who feel a need to re-establish their masculinity. Throughout the video and Kimmel's article I kept on thinking about the One Tree Hill school shooting episode. The writers got everything right. I watched the episode again and I really analyzed the sociology behind the episode. First of all, Jimmy (the school shooter) made a time capsule video about how much he hates school and all of social cliques. When the time capsule videos got released, everyone heard what Jimmy had to say. That night, he was beat up by a bunch of jocks. The next day, those same boys were messing up his locker and making fun of him. That's when it happened. Jimmy took out his gun and pulled the trigger. Jimmy quickly hid the gun and ran into lockdown rooms with the rest of the students. In his room, all of the people were discussing why somebody would bring a gun to school. Someone suggested that the person was crazy. Next, they suggested that they try to leave. Then, Jimmy took out his gun and proclaimed that nobody go anywhere. One guy tried to stand up to Jimmy and called him a fat-ass (hurting his masculinity). Jimmy asked a girl in the room if she even knew his name. She didn't. Jimmy said how he was practically invisible. Nobody knew he existed. His best day at school was when nobody said one word to him. That was depressing so he took some anti-depressants. For fun, he took 12 more. 2 weeks later when he returned to school, nobody knew he had been missing. Mouth (his former best friend) told him that things will get better and that he fix this. Jimmy got upset that Mouth was now trying to help because they haven't talked in years. Jimmy had no support system at school. He had no friends to turn to when things got rough. He thought that bringing the gun to school would make people notice him and maybe even respect him. I just think that this episode is a perfect explanation of why boys bring guns to school!