Lilly isn't like other soon to be teenagers are said to be. She doesn't like to spend time at school or with any friends that she may have. Lilly is actually one of the many homeless children in the United States. In this photo it shows that street life does not only effect adult lives, but it also shows that it affects childrens lives as well. In the photo you can see an adolescent child with a rag doll in one hand what looks like a cigarette in the other hand. As you see, Lilly is standing next to a wall that has the word "DOPE" written on it. The image isn't something that you are going to proud of. As you view the photo you see that the photo represents all the child homelessness in the United States of America. The photo also represents all the drug addictions in young adolescences in America as well. …show more content…
If you look at her face you can tell that Lilly is not a first time smoker, she clearly doesn't have clean lungs. Most children would cough with even one hit of a cigarette, but Lilly is looking as if she is a pro at smoking a cigarette. Once you see the doll in Lilly's hand you will see that Lilly still has a hold onto her childhood. You can see that she is having to be an adult, but would rather be a child like most others her age.
Heroin, Meth, Marijuana, and other drugs have had such a big impact on lives in America. You can see that there is even graffiti in the photograph that you see refers to drugs. Behind Lilly and her rag doll you will see a sidewalk, but on that sidewalk you see a person going on with their everyday normal life, while they are walking by a child who is smoking a cigarette. The people that are walking by aren't even acting like this is a terrible sight itself. Instead they are acting like they don't even see Lilly. They don't even try to do anything to
Besides this, many people are concerned because of the influx of hard drugs, especially heroin, to the mainstream rather than being hidden in the poverty-stricken inner cities. In recent years, crack, cocaine, and heroin have been more prevelant than ever, especially among the wealthy. Drugs are no longer something that only gang members and bad guys do, everybody is doing them. (Inciardi 1999)
In “Standing Up for Children” by Marian Wright Edelman, she states that people should stand up for children because they are the future of our country. In her essay she talks about how children are our next generation and people should do what they can to try to help and educate them. Edelman says“It’s time to do whatever it takes to make our nation treat our children right and to live up to its promise of fair opportunity”(44). Not only does she encourage people to treat children right but she also encourages people to treat children fairly regardless of their color or economic status. Later on Edelman mentions that programs that help children who are in need are being cut she then says “Don’t be afraid to be the voice in the wilderness
There was also Tiffany in the first chapter whose pimp cut her so bad that she had to have her hair shaved off in order to get some consistency in it. Tiffany did not have a drug problem but the author talked about how it was hard to find her placement because she wasn’t on drugs so Tiffany turned to drugs so she could receive help. The thought of someone having to turn to drug just to they could receive help is sad because it’s like what would happen if they were living a normal life that did not involve drugs, pimps, and johns.
The book “With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets” written by Marni Finkelstein refers to the homeless youth. This book describes the lifestyle of the teenagers with no home and explains with detail about what consist in their everyday lives in the streets of New York City. The purpose of this book is to explain to people who these kids are and to see life in their point of view. It explains the difference between street kids and the kids that live on the street. We need to understand that the kids that live on the streets have their own culture and their own way of surviving. Learning their point of view would be a great eye opening experience for everyone and to also understand their struggle. This book explains a study that was done to 50 street kids and life on the streets.
In sociology, the definition of a drug is “any chemical substance that has a direct affect on the user’s physical, psychological, and/or intellectual functioning” (“Drugs” 3). According to this definition, many people may argue that the United States is a pro-drug society because of its legalization of alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals, however I believe that the United States is an anti-drug society. Although the United States has legalized tobacco, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals, there are many drugs that are still illegal. It can be assume that these illegal drugs they are dangerous and somehow poses a threat to society, but its illegalization has more to do with economics and power more than anything else. According to the film, “A Marijuana
She argues that when President Reagan officially announced the War on Drugs, less than 2 percent of the American public viewed drugs as the most important issue of the nation. Crack began to spread within the black community two years after
Alexander claims that the sole reason that the war on drugs was started was to maintain the racist nature that faces America. Alexander realizes that even though the Jim Crow Laws were eradicated, we have just reshaped the ways in which we decide to ruin lives. As the old adage says, “The more things change, the more they remain the same”. I think to a certain point Americans need to have reassurance that things really are changing and here’s where Jim Crow ends, but in the background the powerful people in this country had to come up with a new plan to feed their racist nature. One politician after another want to show how tough they can be on drugs. Each wanting to be stronger than the other. They didn’t care who they were hurting on the bottom, as long as they looked extra tough.
by Barbara Haworth-Attard, readers have a chance at seeing just how hard life on the streets can be for teenagers. We should study
The relationship Americans have in The War on Drugs is similar to the relationship Jessica Stein in Kissing Jessica Stein has with men. The War on Drugs documentary explains how we put people in jail for drug related charges but it escalades over the years as more and more people are charged for this crime. Instead of incarcerating them we should try a different approach, sentencing them to rehabilitation, if this does not work then rely back to incarceration. To relate to the approach of The War on Drugs, in the movie Kissing Jessica Stein she dated guys for several years and never found the right one, so she chose to try the lesbian relationship. This worked out for a while until her girlfriend, Helen, decided that Jessica was not giving
Alexander (2010) also claims in her argument that, “The drug war has been brutal-complete with SWAT teams, tanks, bazookas, grenade launchers, and sweeps of entire neighborhoods- but those who live in white communities have little clue to the devastation wrought” (Pg. 116). Even though the drug epidemic is an
This is written as if not a call to action, then a call to galvanize. The purposes of this report is to enable readers to through empirical and contextual description see the war on drugs for what is really is: a public relations ploy whose end results are not fighting drugs, but
To be homeless is to not have a home or a permanent place of residence. Nationwide, there is estimated to be 3.5 million people that are homeless, and roughly 1.35 million of them are children. It is shown that homeless rates, which are the number of sheltered beds in a city divided by the cities population, have tripled since the 1980’s (National Coalition for Homeless, 2014). Worldwide, it is estimated that 100 million children live and work on the streets. Homeless children are more at risk than anyone else, and are among the fastest growing age groups of homelessness. Single women with children represent the fastest growing group of homeless, accounting for about 40% of the people that are becoming
These people believe the war on drugs should not be viewed as a war against a particular collection of inanimate objects, but a convenient, yet inaccurate, representation. To ones that oppose the War on Drugs being all about race, they believe it should be understood as a special case of what war has always been-the engagement of force and violence against certain communities, and/or their institutions, in order to attain certain political objectives. Race has played an important role over the years in identifying the communities that became the targets of the drug war, consequently exposing their cultural practices and institutions to military-style attack and police control. Although the drug war has certainly sought to eradicate controlled substances and destroy the systems recognized for their circulation, this is only part of the story. Ones with this state of mind believe that state efforts to control drugs are also a way for dominant groups to express racial power. Overall, the significance of the drug trade and the oppression of African people and other people of color, they believe one must recognize the central role that drug trafficking has played and the maintenance of white supremacy worldwide. Addictive and harmful substances have historically been used to undermine societies and further white
It is something that a lot of us are used to seeing on a regular basis standing at the end of an off ramp holding a sign say “homeless and hungry.” You will see them wondering the streets digging through trash in search for something to eat. We see them everywhere and our initial reaction when we see them is to ignore them and not look at them. You especially avoid making eye contact with them and automatically label them as someone who is too lazy to go get a job or is a drug or alcohol addict and that they would much rather live on the streets.
On the other hand, society's negative reactions to the heroin user are more than to the marijuana user. We assumed the case took place in the United State, where marijuana was commonly used and was legalized, people think taking marijuana is acceptable, like in Jennifer's case, she stated that most of her friends also like to smoke marijuana as a tool to stay calm, from this example we can see that taking marijuana is an acceptable act. Moreover, Jennifer is running a kindergarten, a part-time artist, and a mother, all these identities affect people's view of her behavior since she subjected to stricter social control than others. In the public's eyes, heroin is a harder drug and they may think the people who take heroin are connected to the