Reflective Essay: Eleanor Roosevelt And Women's Rights

For many years, drugs have been the center of crime and the criminal justice system in the United States. Due to this widespread epidemic, President Richard Nixon declared the “War on Drugs” in 1971 with a campaign that promoted the prohibition of illicit substances and implemented policies to discourage the overall production, distribution, and consumption. The War on Drugs and the U.S. drug policy has experienced the most significant and complex challenges between criminal law and the values of today’s society. With implemented drug polices becoming much harsher over the years in order to reduce the overall misuse and abuse of drugs and a expanded federal budget, it has sparked a nation wide debate whether or not they have created more harm than good. When looking at the negative consequences of these policies not only has billions of dollars gone to waste, but the United States has also seen public health issues, mass incarceration, and violent drug related crime within the black market in which feeds our global demands and economy. With this failed approach for drug prohibition, there continues to be an increase in the overall production of illicit substances, high rate of violence, and an unfavorable impact to our nation.

Back in the nineteenth century men and women were not treated equally as they are now. Women did not have as much freedom as the men did and that caused a national movement. Not only were the women segregated from the men, but the discrimination against the African American race was a huge ordeal as well. With both movements combined, it led to a controversial development at that time. Not only were women fighting for equality, they were also fighting for the prejudice to end amongst the different races. The beginning of the Women’s Rights Movement and the Abolitionist Movement was not only a historic development, but it changed the world forever.

The American “War on Drugs” war created to keep an exorbitant amount of people behind bars, and in a subservient status. First, America has a storied history when it comes to marijuana use. However, within the last 50 years legislation pertaining to drug use and punishment has increased significantly. In the modern era, especially hard times have hit minority communities thanks to these drug laws. While being unfairly targeted by drug laws and law enforcement, minorities in America are having a difficult time trying to be productive members of society.

The idea of peacekeeping and the maintaining of order began centuries ago. However, long ago women were not involved in this. As women did enter within 20th century their role was limited. As time passes, change takes place.

On September 28, 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt delivered a speech titled "The Struggle for Human Rights" in Paris, France. In this speech, Eleanor Roosevelt places emphasis on the issue of preservation of human freedom, especially the political and moral significance we give it. Roosevelt’s speech thoroughly analyzes the perceptions of democratic and totalitarian countries. She especially targeted the Soviet Union, which criticized the Declaration’s importance of individual rights over collective rights. The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone should have the privilege of human rights without distinction as to race, gender, language or religion. She believes that this is a very pivotal subject matter because the issue of human freedom is decisive in the settlement of outstanding political contrasts and for the eventual fate of the United Nations.

The War on Drugs is one cause for the mass incarceration that has become apparent within the United States. This refers to a drastic amount of people being imprisoned for mainly non-violent crime (“Mass Incarceration” 2016). In addition to people who are not an immediate threat to society being locked up for a substantial duration of time, the economic consequences are costing states and taxpayers millions of dollars. Specifically, every one in five people incarcerated is in prison due to some

Before we begin our tour of the drug war, it is worthwhile to get a couple of myths out of the way. The first is that the war is aimed at ridding the nation of drug "kingpins" or big-time dealers. Nothing could be further from the truth. The vast majority of those arrested are not charged with serious offenses. In 2005, for example, four out of five drug arrests were for possession, and only one out of five was for sales. Moreover, most people in state prison for drug offenses have no history of violence or significant selling activity.5

The war on Drugs played a heavy role in minority American society. It affected policing and most importantly the American minority people. The war on drugs started by President Nixon and up until President Bush was a disaster that affected America with high incarceration and high recidivism rates for low level and non-violent drug offenses that mainly targeted minorities in America. The war on drugs was a massive American failure that mainly affected minorities. President Obama and his drug reform alongside the American public’s strong opinion to switch towards marijuana reform which we see in places like Colorado and Washington has caused the war on drugs to lose steam. The American public’s decision for drug reform is no surprise after nearly 40 years of the unsuccessful war on drugs.

In the American colonies, it was not uncommon for women to crave to be more than what they were designated to be which was mothers and housekeepers. Women wanted to pursue new beginnings such as teaching, printing, and being merchants. Women were often kept out of the loop in the political spectrum. Abigail Adams emerged as a public figure to promote women becoming independent and equal. Abigail Adams wanted men and women to be equal way before her time.

There are many who would argue that the “War on Drugs” is a well-meaning attempt by the government to rein in the rapidly growing trend of drug use and abuse in the United States. However, statistics do not support this claim. The “War on Drugs” has been likened to Prohibition and labeled a “Trillion Dollar Failure.” (Cable News Network [CNN], 2012) In addition, a recent study by the National Employment Law Project (NELP) found that many employers hedged, or out-right refused, to consider employing people with criminal records. Even though the range of jobs were wide, and in spite of the fact that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has warned employers that blatant refusal to hire those with a criminal past is discriminatory, few

One of the largest factors that has contributed to the high numbers of the prison populations and the racial disparities of the criminal justice system has been the “war on drugs”.

The 1970’s the United States signaled a pivotal shift for a “ just deserts,” philosophy to model their criminal justice system. With increase punishment for individuals, thousands of prisons were built in order to cope with the rising number of inmates. With the adoption of a punishment oriented philosophy, “ the war on drugs,” emerged as the nation’s solution to deter drug use and drug related crimes. Changes in the criminal justice system produce policy spillover into other branches like prisons, police, and even drug enforcement ; the “ war on drugs,” and stop and frisk are examples of this policy spillover. The crack epidemic in the 1980’s ( approximately 10 years after the start of the “ war on drugs,”) only further prompted politicians

The women’s movement began in the nineteenth century when groups of women began to speak out against the feeling of separation, inequality, and limits that seemed to be placed on women because of their sex (Debois 18). By combining two aspects of the past, ante-bellum reform politics and the anti-slavery movement, women were able to gain knowledge of leadership on how to deal with the Women’s Right Movement and with this knowledge led the way to transform women’s social standing (Dubois 23). Similarly, the movement that made the largest impact on American societies of the 1960’s and 1970’s was the Civil Right Movement, which in turn affected the women’s movement (Freeman 513). According to

The drug problem in the U.S. and around the world is an important issue and seems to be a difficult problem to tackle across the board. The inflow of drugs has become one of the largest growths in transnational crime operations; illicit drug use in the United States makes it very difficult for nation states police and customs forces to get a handle on the issues. War on drugs, drug trafficking has long been an issue for the United States. There has been a proclamation of “war on drugs” for the past 44 years.

The war on drugs has led to the increase of mass incarceration of people of color and minorities, which is a problem in the United States. The United States is known for holding more children and adults in jails, and