Drinking Laws Essay -- essays research papers

I. Introduction and Description of Problem (APX 2 PAGES) 1) Statement of the Problem: (5 pts) Eighteen-year olds throughout the United States are considered legal adults in almost every way, with one notable exception: the privilege of having an alcoholic beverage. In every state, eighteen-year olds are legally permitted to drive, live as they choose, and work where they choose. Eighteen-year olds pay taxes as other adults do, are subject to all criminal and civil laws, and are punished, jailed and even executed for crimes they might commit against such laws. They are also permitted to hold most local, state and federal government public offices, and can sponsor and pass new laws if elected. Again, the only exception to complete adult rights is a prohibition against an eighteen-year old buying or enjoying a beer or other type of alcoholic beverage anywhere in the United States. Many countries elsewhere throughout the world have lower drinking ages or no age limitation or prohibition at all on consumption of alcoholic beverages. Interestingly, these countries likewise have lower incidences of abuse, lower death rates in automobile accidents, and lower arrest rates for alcohol-related offenses than in the US. Both Canada and Mexico, as examples, have legal 18-year old drinking age laws, and have abuse indices well below those in the US. Likewise, the Italians, Chinese, German, Austrian, and French have for years allowed for younger adults to purchase and consume alcohol. Again, social and criminal problems among 18-21 year olds in these countries are much smaller in number and severity as opposed to those in the US. Sociological and psychological researchers studying this problem attribute the difference to the various countries’ accepted methods for mentoring â€Å"acceptable† behavior.† Their premise is that we in the US tend to rely on the force of law as a deterrent to bad behavior, rather than our families teaching acceptable behavior (including drinking) in adult settings. Even between states in the US, patterns of alcohol-related injuries point to proof of an age/alcohol bias among our legislators. It has been proven that when two similar jurisdictions (e.g., Wisconsin vs. Illinois in the 1980’s; Vermont vs. Other New England states in the early 1980’s; and New York vs. Quebec in the mid-1980’s), the one with the lower drinking age had a lower rate of al... ...iquor store, gain income from his investment, but be unable to buy something from the store that produces income for him. An 18-year old Army private, sworn to protect the United States from danger and harm and serving in the caves of Afghanistan, might find himself at risk of death to protect a Congressman who would not or could not offer him a â€Å"thank you† drink if he had the chance to do so. Our nation would be better with passage of this bill by recognizing finally that ills of drinking to excess are not limited to those less than 21 years of age. This Bill would make 18-year olds more responsible and less likely to harbor behavior that leads to a host of other social ills and problems. Finally, the Bill would also establish a fund for aiding victims of drunk driving – a cause very much deserving of national attention rather than hyped-up charges of teenage abuse The United States has long recognized that adulthood is sanctioned at 18 years of age for every other reason except our national drinking age. It is time for us to recognize this inequality with a sanctioned study of the consequences and a long-awaited and carefully drafted Bill for lowering the drinking age to 18.

Scariest thing that has happened to me

This essay describes my scariest experience in life which happened two years ago in the second year of my graduation term. The Disclosure The local Red Cross society had organized its half yearly blood camp, choosing our college campus as the venue. I had always an inexplicable apprehension in donating blood, never having donated an ounce before. But on that particular occasion, many of my friends donated blood, which created a kind of social pressure on me to participate in the event. On the last day of the camp, I went ahead and enrolled in the list of donors. It was slight pain and a little weakness, which was more imaginary than real, in my perception. A day later and I was feeling fine as ever. Things followed their usual routine for a couple of weeks and one day when I received an envelope from the Red Cross society, I assumed it to be a note of thanks from them. The shock that the content of that note gave me is still etched vividly in my memory. In just one line it stated that my blood could not be accepted for donation as it was found HIV positive. Sweating and trembling I tried to comprehend the meaning of these words as they kept getting in and out of focus Effect and Impact I’d always thought that ‘earth shifting beneath the feet’ is a figure of speech- at that moment I found how true it could be. There was a sudden sense of collapse and devastation around of my world. My career plan, my friends, my family, my life, my dreams, they all were wiped off by that single line. A moment ago I had years and years of time to achieve all that I had planned, and moment later I had been handed my death sentence. The worst part was I did not know whom to seek counsel. I was seeing myself as an anathema and I was sure the moment anyone hears about my state, I would be pronounced as socially dangerous and put into quarantine. The specter of impending death surrounded my vision and its fear impeded my rational and normal approach in life. I stayed up through next couple of nights, unwilling to waste my remaining days or hours in slumber. I tried not to think about it, but surreal images of my last hours, with me alone and forsaken, kept floating before me. They took a more concrete shape in my dreams, which was another reason for my desire to forsake sleep. There was a continuous hammering inside me all the time-a fear that wanted to tear me from within and come out in open. I fought to keep it inside, and hid my mental agony, suffering and torture from even best of my friends and family. Very soon, the idea of suicide started to appeal me. I argued repeatedly with myself on whether I should await the impending doom or shall I take my destiny in my own hands. But for a person like me who had always loved to live life, suicide had only a conceptual appeal. On many occasions, I took a gun in my hand; or leaned out of our 7th floor apartment, contemplating a jump, and found myself unable to do neither. On these occasions, I experience a surge of such pure anger and frustration that I was scared rather than committing suicide, I could murder someone in this state. Unreasonably though a considerable part of my anger was devoted to Red Cross society itself- if they had not organized the blood donation camp, I had never been brought to face this fearsome situation. After Effects Two weeks later, I was visited by a batch-mate who had secured admission in the medical school. She was surprised at the unkempt state of my apartment- I was known to be finicky about cleanliness- and she deduced as much from my demeanor as by my general state that I was holding something within. Once she forced out truth from me, she led me over to the local hospital for a full body check up-including blood and urine culture. She had refused point blank to accept the results of Red Cross and assured me that mistakes could occur in their analysis. The local hospital had to give its report after two days and those days were the tensest and perhaps scariest in my life-scarier than even all the previous weeks which I had spent under shadow of death. It seemed incredible how my fate was being decided in a hospital laboratory some blocks away, and I could not do anything about it. I did not close my eyes for a moment in the two days, swaying between deepest dejection and slightest hope. Two days later when I received the envelope from the hospital enclosing my reports, I could not bring myself to open it and read it. There in my hand was my statement of life or death and I was mortally afraid to take a sneak in it. It was for hours that I kept it clutched in my hands, unable to bring myself to see its content. In the evening my friend visited me again, specifically to know the result of tests. She took the report from me and as she was about to open it, I turned away from, unable to withstand the tension and the probable expression of doom on her face. For several second she did not speak and I felt I would implode-the tension was unbearable for me to withstand. Then she tapped me and said â€Å"Sorry to disappoint you.. but you are as HIV negative as one possibly can be! †

John Collier and the Indian New Deal Essay - 2960 Words

John Collier and the Indian New Deal At the beginning of the 20th century, Native American culture was on the edge of extinction. Indians were at the bottom of the economic ladder. They had the lowest life expectancy rate, the highest infant mortality rate, the highest suicide rate and the highest rate of alcoholism than any other group in America. The Meriam Report of 1928, an 872-page study, laid the blame at the foot of the Federal Government. When President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took office 1933, a series of major reforms were implemented that would later come to be known as the â€Å"Indian New Deal†. An important chapter in contemporary Native American history was about to begin. This essay will outline the major elements of the†¦show more content†¦Taking his first step toward reform, Collier convinced President Roosevelt to abolish the Board of Indian Commissioners, an agency created during the Grant Administration to oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The board long dominated by supporters of land allotment and assimilation policies, was a major obstacle to reform. Elimination of the agency was a deft political maneuver that allowed Collier a freer hand in implementing Indian New Deal policies. Soon thereafter, Collier pushed through Congress the Pueblo Relief Act of 1933. The measure provided additional payments to Pueblos and settlers who were inadequately compensated by the Pueblo Land Act of 1924. This marked a successful conclusion to a battle Collier had fought in previous years and the first of many legislative triumphs. As outlined in the Meriam Report of 1928, reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Montana and Washington were in dire need of conservation programs. Responding to these problems, Collier and Congress established the Indian Emergency Conservation Work (IECW) program, which provided $5.9 million dollars for the establishment of seventy-two work camps on over 30 reservations. The program employed Native Americans during the worst of the depression while at the same time allowing them to stay close to their families. With the support of the President firmlyShow MoreRelatedEssay on American Indians and World War II1345 Words   |  6 PagesCitizenship Act and the Indian New Deal. Alison R. Bernstein examines how the Second World War affected the status and lives of Native Americans in American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs. Bernstein argues that natives’ experiences in the military and munitions factories reduced isolation by getting them off of reservations and increasing their contact with mainstream American society. 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