We Need a Fence!

Yaren Obando

Professor Ross

Engl. 1020

5 Dec. 2011

                                                                                   

We Need a Fence!

            America within the last decades has quietly being divided by one of the most complex problem this nation has faced, Illegal Immigration. Prior to the 1970’s, the US.-Mexico border rarely received national-level attention reflecting immigration and boundary enforcement because they were largely non-issues until relatively recently (Nevins 21).  America as a country that was completely built on immigrants there is nothing wrong with the idea of immigration. The problem comes when people do it illegally. Typical illegal immigrants come to America primarily searching for the “American Dream”, meaning better job and a better life while adding value to the U.S economy. A study released by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates that illegal immigration now costs federal and local taxpayers $113 billion a year (Illegal Immigration Organization). According to the nonpartisan research organization in Washington D.C., the Pew Hispanic Center, there are around 11.2 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States (U.S. Immigration Support). And when 3 out of every 100 people in American are undocumented (or, rather documented with forged and faked papers), there is a profound security problem in our borders that calls for attention. Therefore the real problem presented by illegal immigration is our homeland security security, not just the threat to the economy. In fact, the problem is much bigger than we all think and should be dealt with at once and there is two ways to deal with this issue. Or whether we make every illegal immigrants contribute into Uncle Sam’s big bucket or we find a way to stop illegal immigrants from coming into the U.S. The first would be impossible to accomplish in real life, to actually do that we would have to legalize every illegal immigrants that already is in the United States. And here is when we realize that the best solution for this problem is number two. The United States needs to build a complete fence in the entire U.S.-Mexico border.            Illegal immigrants might pose no direct security threat. But the presence of millions of undocumented migrants distorts the law, distracts resources, and effectively creates a cover up for terrorists, criminals and for the big fat market of drugs.  In fact, illegal Immigration leads to a chain of problems which are turning into Americans burden. The main problem with illegal immigration is not that they are here, is that they are here using up all of our resources without contributing anything. They use our hospitals, our school, get health insurance, and end up in our jails without paying taxes. So we might ask ourselves, well where do these extra resources come from? Our American pockets. Ever since the illegal immigration problem has quickly arisen the government of the United States has tried to manage this issue from different angles. In the past decades Uncle Tom has tried almost if not everything to stop this. The Government has passed several legislations and laws regarding this issue, even tried building small weak fences between borders, but overall nothing big has been accomplished yet, Illegals still get through. Each year, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehends about one million people attempting to enter the United States from Mexico. Border apprehension rates have increased by a multiple of 15 over the last 30 years (Andreas 45). 

The graph proves the overwhelming increasing number of illegal immigrants throughout the last decades and it will not stop there unless we take action. Clearly we all know that illegal immigration is a broad problem which all American pay-taxers are supporting. But different people have different views and perspective to this issue and might not see this issue as a problem. At first is the Constitution of the United States which contains nothing regarding illegal immigration. Second, the actual illegal immigrants and their families back home support it. Because is primarily off what they live, meaning maybe one immigrant is working here illegally but back home his supporting his entirely family, therefore for them is a benefit rather than a problem. Also, some Americans benefit from this problem too. The agriculture and construction industries and fast-food restaurants are a few to mention. They all benefit from this problem by hiring illegal immigrants under the table. What is so good about this is that it increases the company’s revenue much more, by hiring undocumented workers and paying basically nothing to work for them so as they reduce expenses, revenue increases. And almost every industry in the country takes advantage of these opportunities.  Even economists say that the undocumented workforce is helping our economy grow and keeping us a float.

            However the truth to this is that the Constitution was written way back where illegal immigration was not a problem at all. Of course illegal immigrants and their families will never think that coming here illegally and make money is not a problem because they are the ones that truly benefit from it. And such industries are just making it worst because instead of hiring hard working Americans they are hiring cheap undocumented workers. The seasonal farm work often performed by foreign labor usually pays little less that minimum wage, something that according to economists is unlikely to attract U.S. citizens to apply for the jobs (U.S. Immigrant Support). Illegal immigrants are not taking our jobs is our employers that choose to hire them because is cheaper and is just hurting our economy more and more. At last, the economists only show you what you want to hear and the positive side of things and hide what is really going on, one of the factors that help our economy to reach this stage of stagflation we find ourselves in today was ironically illegal immigration the millions of immigrants that now live in the United States.

            As detailed throughout the previous sections of this proposal, much of the problem of illegal aliens is a direct consequence of little to no border security. If nothing else, proper border security would prevent all the illegal aliens and the previously deported from simply returning and committing more of the collateral damage. Proper border security is absolutely necessary to keep people out who do not belong here. And it is only getting worst with more illegal aliens. Therefore, building a fence is mandatory to reduce and finally stopping this problem once and for all. Such fence will block the entire U.S.-Mexico border and will stop illegal immigration in any form. Many people have seen photographs and television images showing it to be a concrete wall. Those pictures are deceptive. The concrete wall portion of the barrier will be roughly four percent of its overall length. Most of it is a fifty yard wide multi-layered composite obstacle comprised of several elements:

·      A ditch

 

·      Coils of barbed wire

·      Two tall, sturdy wire fences, with sensors to warn 

     of any incursion.

·      A patrol path for vehicles between the fences.

·      A smoothed strip of sand that runs parallel to 

     the fence, to detect footprints.

·      Closed circuit TV cameras and motion detectors.

           Something that might end that looking like following picture shows. A fence which is not too fancy but it will get the job done. It will definitely stop the cross of pedestrians, any vehicles and even those who build tunnels under surface to cross our border. The first thing that the proposed solution brings up to debate is the cost. Well we are already paying $113 billion dollars to support illegal immigrants, I am sure that we could use $9 or $10 billion dollars to build this fence. Second, is that this will not stop illegal immigrants from entering our country, but is more than clear that this solution will reduce if not completely stop this problem. Well if you build a 30-foot wall, you might say well the 35-feet ladder business will get real good and which might sound funny; but the contrary is  proven already in parts of San Diego border where little fences have been implement to try this new approach. The outcome of this experiment clearly showed the reduction of illegal trespassing by 80%. (P.F. Wagner). Additionally, the fence is mandatory to significantly decrease the amount of drugs that are pouring across the southern border. Illegal immigration into the United States is massive in scale. More than 10 million undocumented aliens currently reside in the U.S., and that population is growing by 700,000 per year (Nevins 21). On one hand, the presence of so many aliens is a powerful testament to the attractiveness of America. On the other hand, it is a sign of how dangerously open our borders are. That is why I propose that action must be taken now. Each day we delay results in another few thousand immigrants entering our country.

            As we go start looking at this problem more in depth implementation will play an important role in the effectiveness of the proposed solution. The biggest challenge for the implementation of the proposed solution is that policymakers and some government entities need to not just support it and take part in the solution but act upon it as well. Once the government decide take this as the best approach to defend ourselves from illegal immigration, we need to actually build the fence. We can achieve this two ways. If we want to save money we can use military personnel to build the fence or maybe we can provide jobs by hiring people that would want to work under the government to build it. The materials to use in the construction of fence are to be provided from government agencies or the government can hire certain companies to provide such materials. The cost of a border security fence has been estimated to cost between four and eight billion dollars. If we started today, a proper physical border security along the 1,951 mile long US-Mexico border will take a few years to build (We Need a Fence).  Although, it might take some years and might seem expensive in terms of initial outlay, in the long term it is both less expensive and more accurate once it takes full effect.  Also, if teamed with the right surveillance from border officers will make our fence more effective than any other solution currently being proposed.

            On the other hand people might argue that some of the consequences after the solution is implemented are that it might increase the pressure for immigrants to stay here longer, or to not even comeback to their home. As we tightened border controls, illegal immigrants must rely increasingly on "coyotes" -- professional smugglers -- who take them across the border for a fee. The more difficult it is to cross the border, the more expensive the journey becomes and the less people try to cross our border (Andreas 45). It also might affect the U.S. international affairs with Mexico and other allied countries down our south border. Which might also be truth but the fact any country has a right over their own homeland security would defeat any issue or claims regarding neighboring countries. And also that due to building the border fence many of the wildlife and natural settings of our borders might be hurt, which indeed could happen that is why the government needs to make sure that careful measures are taken so we do not hurt our earth in any way, plus the fence will only take 40 to 50 yards wide.

            Overall, it is indeed important for us to deal with illegal immigration for various reasons. So we can control the overwhelming Government spending that only hurt our pockets and our economy, so we can stop pulling families apart, and foreign women from using  newborns as anchors to obtain citizenship here, to stop fraud and the market of faked papers, faked Social Security Numbers and people from breaking our laws, and finally to secure our borders and country from drug trafficking, human trafficking, weapon trafficking , terrorists, fugitives, gangbangers and all the dangers that enter our country illegally. These are all the reasons why we need to act now and the thing that makes the proposed solution the most accurate option to encounter this issue, even though it might seem expensive and might take a couple of years to take full effect is that is it completely solves the entire problem. It has been proven throughout this piece that the Border Security Fence is in fact one of the most if not the only realistic solution that would control activity on our borders and will secure them and our country from any threat, whether is the right thing to do or not. What really matters at the end of the day is that we all are humans and we need to understand that illegal immigration is such a complex problems affecting two different worlds with millions of people in it that find themselves in different situations. We are a lucky few, but we take it everything for granted, just for not knowing what really is going on the other side.

Works Cited

Andreas, P (1994). "The making of Amerexico: (mis)handling illegal immigration". World policy

            journal(0740-2775), 11 (2), p. 45.

Camarota, Steven. “A Record-Setting Decade of Immigration: 2000-2010”. Center        Immigration Studies. October 2011. <http://www.cis.org/2000-2010-record-setting-       decade-of-immigration>.

Illegal Immigration Organization. “The $113 Billion Dollar Drain on the American Taxpayer”

            Web. 25^th Sept. 2011. <http://www.illegalimmigrationstatistics.org/illegal-immigration-

a-113-billion-a-year-drain-on-u-s-taxpayers/#more-331>.

Nevins, Joseph (2008). "Barricading the Border - The Secure Fence Act of 2006 ordered the

building of 850 miles of at least two layers of "reinforced fencing" along the U.S.-Mexico boundary. The utility of these barriers, as " NACLA report on the Americas (1993) (1071-4839), 41 (6), p. 21.

 Let Freedom Ring, Inc. “The Solution”.  We Need a Fence. Web.             <http://www.weneedafence.com/the_solution>.

Let Freedom Ring, Inc. “The Problem”.  We Need a Fence. Web.             <http://www.weneedafence.com/the_problem>.

P.F. Wagner. “Border Security and Border Fence”. The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration.

<http://www.usillegalaliens.com/border_security_and_the_border_fence.html>.

U.S. Immigration Support.  “A Look at Immigration to The United States”.

            <http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/look-immigration-united-states.html>.

U.S. Immigration Support. “Americans Leave Farm Work to Immigrants”

            <http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/farm-work-to-immigrants.html>.

                               

Justice for the Lost--Natalie Kellett

As a bumper sticker once said: “It takes 8,460 bolts to assemble an automobile, and one nut to scatter it all over the road.” Accidents caused by people who drive under the influence of alcohol have become an enormous social problem not only for the United States, but also the world. This year alone, 10,839 people will die in an accident caused by a drunk driver ("2008 Traffic Safety Annual Assessment-Highlights" 5). Calculated out, this number means that every fifty minutes a person is killed in a drinking and driving accident. The deaths that are caused by those who drive under the influence have been occurring almost since cars were invented. The first person to actually get arrested for driving under the influence was George Smith who ran his taxi into a building in London on September 10, 1897 (“Londoner George Smith gets caught driving drunk” 1). Since this first arrest, drinking while driving has only increased to such a degree that more than 112 million people got behind the wheel drunk with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) above 0.08% in 2010 ("Impaired Driving: Get the Facts" 1). Drunk drivers affect everyone because they are constantly driving on the roads. Last year alone 1.46 million people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in the United States; this is an arrest rate of 1 in 139 licensed drivers ("Traffic Safety Facts" 5). If drunk drivers are not stopped immediately, then the death toll will only rise and lives that could have been saved will be lost. People who drive under the influence of alcohol should be arrested and placed in jail for no less than two years and this can be implemented by having a congressman create a bill that could be passed into law.

The biggest issue that has caused the problem of drinking and driving is the availability and consumption rates of alcohol. The local bar puts no limits on the amount of alcohol their customers consume and the average high school or college student can find ample amounts of alcohol at a tailgate or party. Since alcohol is so easy to find and consume, it is inevitable that many people are going to get drunk past the legal driving limit of 0.08% BAC. When a person gets drunk they are usually not at the place they need to be at the end of the night, like their home or their dorm room. Many of these people get drunk beyond the legal limit of a 0.08% BAC and find themselves driving home because they have no alternate form of transportation; these people find themselves in a conundrum where they must get home or to some other destination, but have no means of getting there other than driving their cars while they are drunk. These are the underlying problems of drinking and driving: alcohol is too available for consumption and people don’t have an alternate for of transportation when their BAC is above 0.08%.

There are those who would argue that drinking and driving accidents are on a decline and will eventually disappear on its own. A statistic that many of these naysayers may use is that accidents caused by those driving under the influence have gone down 30% in the last five years ("Drinking and Driving: A Threat to Everyone" 1). These naysayers may also say that many of these accidents are already being stopped by current preventive techniques and advertising. The current law in Colorado for those who are caught driving with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) above .08% for the first time is a suspension of their license for 90 days; if they repeat this offense, then their license is suspended for one year ("DUI Penalties"). These laws and penalties are not enough because many thousands of people are still dying every year because of those who are persistently driving under the influence of alcohol. No matter what the penalties are, there are still people driving under the influence of alcohol. It is not worth it to drive with a BAC above 0.08% when there are countless numbers of people on the road that can be injured or even killed by a drunk driver.

Penalties that are much harsher than the current penalties need to be put into place in order to stop drunk drivers once and for all. A solution that would address this problem fully would be to automatically put first time offenders who drive under the influence of alcohol, above the legal limit of 0.08% BAC, in the county prison for two years. If the person is caught driving under the influence a second time, they will be placed in prison for no less than five years. Lastly, if a person is caught a third time while they are intoxicated above a 0.08% BAC then they will receive no less than ten years in prison.

Most people would argue that it is extraordinarily expensive to keep a person in prison and the number of inmates that the United States is carrying rises exponentially every year. This quote from the book Critical Criminology explains the problems that the United States is experiencing with these numbers: “The US prison population grew consistently for almost 30 years. In 1970, there were approximately 200,000 persons in the nation’s prisons. By 2002, the number had increased to approximately 1.4 million (Austin, Jones, and Richard 243).” These numbers are high and many people would argue that with these high numbers would come the increase in taxes and other expenses that Americans would have to pay just to float this large inmate population. This quote from The Journal on Civil and Criminal Confinement describes how much it costs to keep a prisoner every year: “Using the 2001 figures for the number of prisoners incarcerated (around 1.3 million) at the cost per day of $62, the United States spends about $ 80 million per day on prison inmates in state and federal facilities (Webster 1).” This number is shocking and according to those who would oppose this solution, this is a big enough reason not to put first time drunk drivers in prison.

Those opposed to this solution have a good point because apprehending drunk drivers would greatly increase the amount of people in prison and it is exceedingly expensive to pay for all of these prisoners. There is a solution for this problem. When a drunk driver is placed in prison, they could be used to work for various communities and pay off their jail time debt through manual labor on large community and state projects. This solution would not only pay off their jail time debt, but existing taxes could be used to fix roads and other areas that need fixing through the labor of inmates. When this happens, taxes will be put to good use because they will be going towards the upkeep of the nation instead of the maintenance of prisoners. Projects that inmates could do would include road maintenance, road construction, construction of state and community buildings and upkeep and maintenance of state buildings. There are many more occupational options for these inmates that would be profitable for the state and a good use of the nation’s taxes, but there are so many that the list is too long to state here.

This is not only beneficial to the state and the nation, but also the inmates themselves. A study done by The Prison Journal showed that community service was as effective a short-term jail sentences with the correction of inmate problems. This passage from the journal explains the extra benefits of community service: “Given that the use of community service sentences also likely results in other benefits to the community that do not materialize with the use of fines, correctional officials may wish to consider the expanded use of this type of alternative sanction, at least for some types of low-level offenders (Bouffard, and Muftić 189).” This quote shows the benefits that community service brings not only to the community, but to the prisoners also. The best of both worlds could be combined here; a prison sentence along with a sentence to do community service will surely cause people who once drove under the influence of alcohol to learn a harsh, but effective lesson.

This solution will get all of the drunk drivers off the streets, either by imprisoning them or scaring them to the point where they will never drive drunk out of fear that they will be imprisoned. When this happens, there will be far fewer accidents on the roads and a much lower death toll due to the newly implemented system. The only way to have this plan carried out is to make a bill that will be made into a law after passing through the Congress and the President. Making this into a law and actually implementing it into the nations’ system will easily cost billions of dollars of taxpayer money for upkeep of prisoners and the construction of new prison facilities. Not only will this law cost so much money, but also new programs will have to be created so that these new prisoners can contribute to society. These programs will be made by government officials connected to the running and upkeep of prisons and will be created to fit individual community needs. The great part about this new law is that thousands of new prisoners will be placed in communities where they can work to improve the roads and labor on other projects that taxpayer dollars would have gone towards anyway. This law may take many years to implement because of the need for creation of programs where inmates can contribute to various communities; also raising the money needed to build new prison facilities to incarcerate people caught driving under the influence of alcohol may take many years to build.

The specific steps of making this law are very tedious and provide a bunch of areas where something can go wrong. The first step that must be taken to start this process is to create a bill. A congressman or other prestigious people in government must make an initial draft of this bill. This bill will be looked over in a committee and if they approve, they will pass it on to the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives will vote on the bill and if they approve, they will pass it through to the Senate. Once the Senate decides that they approve of the bill, they will pass the bill on to the President. Once the President approves of the bill, it will be made into law. At this point, the process is not yet over because the prisons must be built in order to hold all of the people convicted of drinking while driving. Taxes must be raised in order to accommodate such a request and another bill must be passed through the government in order to do so. Once the facilities are finally built, a government committee will need to be organized in order to create programs that must established in order to get these new inmates to do community service in individual communities. The biggest barrier to this implementation is the governmental system and the checks and balances that it possesses. The different branches of government may decide that this it is not a spectacular idea to pass a law that will put so many people in prison and therefore create a burden on Americans in the form of increased taxes. A great way to get rid of this barrier would to be to remind these different branches of government about the lives they would be saving in the process. When these branches realize that the roads will be much safer and less people will die as a result, they will be ready to implement such a plan.

This is the perfect solution because it not only keeps the roads safe and decreases the death toll, but also helps maintain and build communities. With this solution being implemented many people will benefit from the community service that these drunk drivers will provide upon their entrance into prison. This solution will also create fear in many people because they will not want to get caught drinking and driving. When this happens, not as many people will risk drinking and driving and the amount of inmates in prisons will not increase as dramatically. Today, one in 139 licensed drivers drives drunk (“Traffic Safety Facts” 5). When these drunk drivers are apprehended one time, the amount of repeat offenders will radically decrease because they will not want to be locked up for another five years. Although this type of solution may never be put into action because of ethical and money issues, it would be an effective way to address the growing problem that drinking and driving has become. There are a bunch of roadblocks in the way of such an implementation, but thousands of people’s lives would be saved if such a solution were made into a law. As long as we can find a way to get all of the inmates to pay off their prison debt with community service and other various kinds of work, then this solution will sustain itself and will not use up too much of the tax money. From this solution Americans and people from all over the world will learn that the highest priority in our world is preserving life and consequences will come to those who endanger the lives of others.

Works Cited

Austin, James, Richard Jones, and Stephen Richard. "Thinking About Prison Release and Budget Crisis in the Blue Grass State." Critical Criminology. 12.3 (2004): 263-243. Print.

Bouffard, Jeffret, and Lisa Muftić. "The Effectiveness of Community Service Sentences Compared to Traditional Fines for Low-Level Offenders." Prison Journal. 87.2 (2007): 194-171. Print.

"Colorado DUI Penalties ." DUI Penalties. DUI Law Firm Marketing , 06 Jul 2011. Web. 1 Dec 2011.

“Londoner George Smith gets caught driving drunk.” 2011. The History Channel website. Dec 1 2011.

United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Impaired Driving: Get the Facts. Atlanta : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011. Web.

United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drinking and Driving: A Threat to Everyone. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011. Web.

United States. U.S. Department of Transportation. 2008 Traffic Safety Annual Assessment Highlights. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2009. Web.

United States. U.S. Department of Transportation. Traffic Safety Facts. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration National Center for Statistics and Analysis, 2008. Web.

Webtser, Andrew. "Environmental Prison Reform." New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement. (2010): n. page. Print.

Suicidal Thoughts - Kieu Nguyen

The act of a person ending one’s own life is called suicide. There is an estimate of about a million deaths a year with suicides alone, and it has become one of the leading causes of death. The reason for one’s decision of performing this act varies upon people, origin, emotions, surroundings, and ethnicity. People have attempted and also succeeded in suicide for many years. In fact, it has been going on for centuries. It has become such a large controversial issue that any solution to prevent high rates seems hardly possible. Putting everyone from all around the world, including youth, teens and adults, on anti-depressants will keep themselves from having a chance of being suicidal, regardless of all risk factors and any difficulties.

Those who have suicidal thoughts assume that this act is appropriate and not wrong in any way. Most victims are usually going through emotional pain, mental disorders, depression, or stress they believe that they cannot handle. Their only solution in their minds is that suicide is the only way to end all pain. Although there is an American proverb: “Time heals all wounds”. This means that any pain, physical or mental, will eventually heal. Everything just takes time. Even though this proverb may be right, because it is such a long process to get over and through a certain type of distress, people believe they are not strong enough to keep themselves in such a painful state for that long time period. Most of those who experience depression believe their pain is inevitable.

The youth is also in position to be inclined to attempt suicide. They also have the possibility of depression or insecurity. Teenagers are going through “phases” at this point in life that they believe is too much on their plate to handle. Family issues, losing a certain loved one, a major breakup with a significant other, or some sort of trauma that these kids face all leave psychological scars. This triggers them to become victims. Bullying is also one of the biggest reasons for suicide in youth. According to the Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior journal, (High School Bullying as a Risk for Later Depression and Suicidality, pages 501–516) studies show that the younger kids of about 11 years of age that go through bullying, become a victim of suicidality as a young adult.

Young adults are the ones who are most likely to become victims. They are facing the responsibilities of growing up, and this is the stage where young adults are finally learning more about life. Young adults are more prone to substance or behavior disorders which can also be factors. For example, college students who party and abuse alcohol have a higher rate of suicide. Studies show that some college students who go through a psychological state of trying to belong with a certain person or a group of other students, who also like to drink, become victims because of some sort of unhappy state or becoming addicted. (Alcohol-Related Problems and Risk of Suicide among College Students: The Mediating Roles of Belongingness and Burdensomeness pages 543–553)

Even adults or the elderly who actually have their life together and are settled down with families can also be targets of suicidality. Some may have also been going through substance abuse, trauma, certain types of psychological disorders, depression, or even a feeling of their independence lost. (Keith Hawton, the Lancet.) A man may have just lost his kids through a divorce, lost his job, and started drinking consistently. He may be feeling like he’s lost everything that was stable in his life and this could be one factor to his depression and suicide. The rate of suicide, in all ages, differs from all different origins of the world. India may have a higher rate than the U.S. because of the many various factors in each different location from around the globe.

There are those who have health problems. There are psychological disorders in about 90% of those who were suicidal (The Lancet). Most of these victims were experiencing substance abuse, disorders that came from traumatizing events, and mainly depressive reasons. There are also those who are physically ill. For example, a hospitalized cancer patient may become so ill and may be suffering from every single surgery and chemotherapy session they have gone under. With the right treatments and procedures, she may have a chance of becoming better, but she believes that she will not. They have decided they want to end all the pain and suffering and undergo assisted suicide. Assisted suicide is the help of a physician to the act suicide. It is illegal in most states, but there are few states and other places round the world where it is found legal.
People who are on anti-depressants would generally become happier people who will keep themselves from examples like bullying or substance abuse. There are other solutions that others have proposed that have not been too highly effective. Some proposed therapy was the effective way of preventing a higher risk of suicide, but it has not become effective to the point where rates did go down. Targeting the high-risk victimized groups to treat and help stabilize their emotions was one strategy of prevention as well. As there are different proposals for a solution to prevent the rates of suicide from going up, putting everyone on anti-depressants would benefit people regardless of any refutations.

The opposition may disapprove of this solution simply because it is a medication. People may defy the idea of having to take a treatment for some disorder or problem they may not have. The entirety of this solution is to prevent the chance of becoming a victim, more than treating it. Although the treatment of depression is incredibly important as well, the chance of helping people who are already victims is somewhat high, as preventing the risk of suicidality will help us decrease numbers in people needed to help. So as time goes on, less people with lower risks will mean fewer victims.

Some may also argue about the financial part of the treatment. Paying amounts of money for a medication that a person might think they would not need would be hard to force upon them. Informing a person about the risks and seriousness of the situation may change their perspective about taking the medication. Another proposal on the taxes of medical bills may go to helping the decrease of the price of the purchase of the medication. Doing so, money would not be such a large issue into taking the anti-depressants.

Anti-depressants today are created and prescribed to victims for the help of depression from any difficult time period in their lives (Jens Ludwig, Anti-Depressants and Suicide). Putting everyone on this medication should keep most people happy, and if not happy, then at least stable enough to go through life challenges without either less, or a single suicidal thought(s). This solution would require everyone more in a range of ages ten and up, and everyone who is capable and physically well enough would have to take daily anti-depressants. This medication is mandatory to making this solution beneficial to the community because it would help prevent future risk of becoming suicidal.

A complete system will be made for the solution to be more effective and beneficial. Mandatory visits from doctors will be required in order to come and pick up doses and prescriptions of the medicine, and clients are to take them as told. Clients will also be signed up for therapeutic appointments in order to see if they are stable and have any clear signs of depression. Those who have lower symptoms or fewer signs will have smaller dosages as those who have more signs of any of the listed factors will have larger dosages of anti-depressants.

Having these mandatory therapy sessions and checkups will help the rate of suicides become lower. People from all around the world every day suffer from the loss of a loved one that has attempted and succeeded at the act of suicide. This method, as a prevention solution, will help people into becoming closer to one another, and will help people become more open with their emotions. Lending an ear or a hand will always help one person think they have the help they need to go through any difficult life challenges. As those with mental disorders, the dosage that you will be required to take will also help their psychological state and put them into a better one into valuing life.

This solution may be more significant than any other proposal solutions made from others because it is actually taking a stance into something different. This is a medication that is made to help a person’s emotional feelings into improving their life conditions. Giving them out individually to everyone will help greatly. It is necessary for this solution to be effective because people’s lives are taken away from them when it should not be. Taking your own life when you actually have a decision to live is basically wrong. Life is valuable, so taking at least one of the leading causes of death off the list will help greatly in the number of deaths a year in general.
Suicidality is becoming one of the biggest death-related controversial issues from all around the world. The factors that lead to suicidal can all be treatable if each individual is willing to participate in a required situation of taking medication. Because suicide is one of the leading causes of death, this solution benefits not only decreasing death rates, but also the loved ones of the victims. A person with suicidal thoughts won’t negatively affect a certain loved one if they are on anti-depressants. As a victim taking the treatment, it will also keep loved ones from having the feeling of loss. The daily required dosages of anti-depressants will help each individual take a step toward becoming a more content person. Any person has the capability of becoming a victim of depression, and with the help of this special treatment, taking it regularly will help decrease the risk and rate of suicides.










WORKS CITED.
1) Hawton, Keith, and Kees Van Heeringen. "Suicide."
The Lancet 373.9672 (2009): 1372-381. Print.

2) Lamis, Dorian A., and Patrick S. Malone. "Alcohol-Related Problems and Risk of Suicide among College Students: The Mediating Roles of Belongingness and Burdensomeness."
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"High School Bullying as a Risk for Later Depression and Suicidality." Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 41.5 (2011): 501-16. Print.

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An Education of Their Own - Chelsea Mason

Schools in America today have followed a standardized format of education. This is a problem because it leaves some students behind and others held back. In January 2002, George W. Bush passed the No Child Left Behind Act to try and guarantee that everyone would have access to an education, and that every child could keep up. This is a problem for all Americans as people become standardized, and nobody is able to reach their full potential. This standardization could lead to ignorant Americans that become prey to government scams, to marketing scams, and to attacks on the nation. To improve education by 2050, schools should be de-standardized and individualized by the government.

Americans who have found success in the standardized schools and the government might say that this aspect of education is not a problem and might say that the education system teaches “everything that might be needed in everyday life,” but with the jobs that are being created today, such as big businesses like Google, this becomes increasingly untrue. It is difficult in America today to get a job without an education that is good enough to allow a person to go to college.

Government workers might say that the standardized education allows for all students to be educated and that the different programs allow for every student to be educated. If the standardized schools were not a problem, the need for special education for the deprived and gifted programs for the successful would not be necessary because all students would be able to succeed in all areas according to the grade they were in. According to Genius Denied, “Instead, perhaps because of ignorance, but in many cases because of ideology, the nation prefers to live with the consequence of the sorry state of gifted education: thousands of frustrated kids whose talents are wasted” (Davidson 49).

If the education system today was a success then the tests students take in the classrooms would reflect 100 percent every time since all students would understand the material the exact same. The problem is that not all students learn at the same pace since not everyone is the same. According to Salman Khan, “And even that 95 percent student, what was the five percent they didn’t know?” According to Khan, in order for students to do well, there must be mastery and that anything below 100% is not good enough. That 5% of lost information could turn into that proficient student’s downfall. Khan then continues with an analogy of being tested after learning to ride a bike for two weeks, “‘Well, let’s see. You’re having trouble taking left turns. You can’t quite stop. You’re an 80 percent bicyclist.’ So I put a big C stamp on your forehead and then I say, ‘Here’s a unicycle.’ But as ridiculous as that sounds, that’s exactly what’s happening in our classrooms right now.” Khan is trying to point out that in American schools today, students can receive an “average grade,” C, and still be allowed to go onto more difficult subjects that require the mastery of past knowledge, riding the bike, in order to be proficient in new information, riding a unicycle.

With standardized education, students continue to learn, to do homework, to study until the test, and after the test, it is onto the next subject that builds upon the previous ones. In this system, students attempt to continue to learn concepts they do not fully understand. Following Khan’s analogy of the bike, a student gets a low B in algebra and passes before taking geometry, where they get a C because they had not gained the full knowledge from algebra needed for the mastery of geometry. Rather than promoting mastery, America promotes efficiency, which causes students to fall behind due to misunderstood concepts. This mindset keeps even the best of students from achieving their full potential.

In this standardized method of learning, schools try to have students learn material by offering good grades. The students who are unable to maintain good grades wonder why they did not achieve this and often, continue to stay behind even if they are trying their best to keep up. Achievement motivation, according to Myers, is “a desire for significant accomplishment; for master of things, people, or ideas; for rapidly attaining a high standard” (490-491). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations help to keep people motivated. Intrinsic motivation is an internal drive that leads people to do well for their own sake. Extrinsic motivation, however, is caused by rewards and punishments (Bihun). By constantly rewarding children for good grades and punishing them when they do not, it undermines the intrinsic motivation of children to learn. The extrinsic motivation that society casts upon children, in the long run, is de-motivational to the joys of learning and lead to feelings of entitlement as rewards like extra credit are continually offered to promote success.

To solve this problem and restore the intrinsic motivation of children, the solutions are to de-standardized schools and make them more individualized according to each student. De-standardizing schools would allow for every student not only to feel unpressured by the thought of standards but also allow every child to focus on their own abilities and help others in theirs. Tests would not be eliminated in this system, but rather, be used as a way to measure the areas students are performing well in and the areas they are having trouble in so that teachers could intervene earlier and help the students to achieve mastery.

By individualizing education, the American dream of divergent-thinking students who are fluent, flexible, original, and elaborative can finally be achieved (Baer 14). Khan pointed out, “When you let every student work at their own pace – and we see it over and over and over again – you see students who took a little bit extra time on one concept or the other, but once they get through that concept, they just race ahead.” In order to have an effective education for all learners, the curriculum must “provide opportunities for students to develop in-depth understanding… is mentally and affectively engaging to the learner… recognizes and supports the need of each learner to make sense of ideas and information, reconstructing older understandings with new ones” (Tomlinson, et. al. 11-12). This means that children need to have the time to be engaged in course material and to really develop understanding by building upon old knowledge before new knowledge can be gained.

To achieve this individualized system, tenure would also need to be removed. Tenure is another extrinsic motivation that causes teachers to slack off once tenure has been reached. Tenure started as a way to “protect professors from arbitrary or political reasons” (Guggenheim). However, many teachers who do well in the classroom get paid the same as teachers with tenure who do nothing. Students progress about three times as fast with a good teacher than one who covers only about half of the material. In New York, about 100 million dollars is spent each year for teachers awaiting tenure meetings at the Reassignment Center to read and do nothing rather than teach. About 1 out of 57 doctors lose their medical license, 1 out of 97 lawyers lose their law license, yet only about 1 in 2500 teachers lose their teaching credentials. Tenure has become less of a protection in the equal-opportunity employer nation America has become and more of an obstacle to providing good teachers to students who need it (Guggenheim).

America in general might be against this solution. De-standardizing schools would be a long and difficult process. Parents might be against reform in the schools due to the sheer difficulty of overcoming the system that America has. In the film Waiting for “Superman,” multiple offices and unions have been formed in an attempt to better schools. These offices and administrations, however, “have become the things that prevent [schools] from working” (Guggenheim). Reforming the offices of America and providing evidence that a more individualized education, such as Khan Academy, does work can revise the education system. It is a long process to change the way a school system works, but as Hopkins says, “There are no pat answers. Experimentation, imagination, and determined effort can provide the means to help youth find their place in life” (10). Without the effort of America, nothing in education will change and students will continue to fall behind.

To achieve a de-standardized and individualized educational system, reforming the administrations that run the schools would need to be the first step. In America, the federal government and the state governments both provide funding to the schools and have their own rules about how the money is to be distributed (Guggenheim). With so much funding being passed around, the different administrations are unable to focus on which schools need help. By reforming the way the flow of money gets to schools, funding would reach even poorer schools.

To receive the funding necessary to de-standardize the schools, money from the teachers unions, such as the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) could be used. In the past 20 years, both the NEA and AFT have contributed at least 50 million dollars to candidates running for president. This makes them the biggest contributors to campaigns so far (Guggenheim). By focusing less on who gets elected and more on what is actually happening in the classroom, it might help a lot of teachers receive the necessary funding to do their jobs.

Though it is expensive at first, technology can also be used as a way to lower costs while also promoting education. By having lectures online, like Khan Academy, students could watch lectures at home, allowing them to listen, pause, and repeat material to understand what is actually being said. If students wanted, they could also do practice exercises to see if they understand the material. Then, in class, teachers could focus on what the student did and did not know having watched the lecture. Work could be done in the classroom, allowing the student to help students with concepts they did not understand rather than having another lecture and not allowing for questions to be asked or answered. Tests would be used to measure the understanding of the student and to focus on trouble areas. This use of technology could cut the need for paper and ink since handouts would be less imperative to understanding the material being covered since some of the work would be done at home.

If this problem is not solved, America will continue to fall behind other nations and students will continue to fail at education. In Washington D.C., reading proficiency is at 12 percent (Guggenheim). The rest of the nation does not look much better. To have students truly understand subject material and to learn, this issue must be addressed. Without a strong education system to base students learning upon, the chance of attending college decreases, the chance of a good job decreases, and the chance of jobs being shipped overseas increases, creating an economic sinkhole.

Growing up in America, people are told, “The children are our future.” By reforming administrations, using technology that is available to us, and having better teachers in the classroom, some of the systems that are already in place can be improved upon. The entire system does not need to reform, but many of the aspect of it do. Other solutions like special education and gifted programs do not work. Even with such programs, some students race ahead and others are left behind, de-motivating them to continue learning. Individualizing the education system is the only way for every child to succeed.

De-standardizing and individualizing schools allows for students to understand material and to do peer mentoring to achieve their full potentials. Without the ability and time to fully understand the material being taught, students need to be given the chance to enjoy education rather than to be stressed that they cannot keep up with required material. Not only do students receive a better education by finding ways to understand what they do not know, the economy could boom because of the younger generations’ ability to comprehend and to adapt to new situations, allowing for more flexible and higher achieving jobs.

Even if this solution is not the correct or viable solution, education is an issue that needs to be addressed as more people think learning is not fun. Many students refer to school as difficult, boring, and a waste of time. As Daisy said in Waiting for “Superman,” “Find different ways to make the learning fun” (Guggenheim). By individualizing education, students might have the opportunity to grow, finding education more fun for it will be an education of their own.

To achieve this type of reform, Americans need to reform their thinking that “no child is left behind.” In the system that is currently set up, every child is left behind as they struggle and compete with their peers. By de-standardizing schools, students can stop competing and actually help each other in their educational pursuits. The idea that some are gifted and some are special needs affects the way children learn, having already set a notion of overachievement and over-justification or the notion that “you just aren’t good enough.”

Every parent wants to see his or her child succeed. Almost every president since the 1900s has proposed some kind of educational reform (Guggenheim), but no one has succeeded. More and more students are failing out of school in schools that the Washington Post calls “drop out factories.” Everyone keeps thinking to try and improve what is already there when what is already there has been proven to not work. Perhaps it is not crime that causes poor education but poor education that causes crime. To improve the quality of lives, the quality of the economy, and the quality of America, education needs to be reformed.

Works Cited

1) Baer, John. Creativity and Divergent Thinking. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers, 1993. 14. Print.

2) Davidson, Ian, and Jan Davidson. Genius Denied: How to Stop Wasting Our Brightest Young Minds. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Print.

3) Guggenheim, Davis, dir. Waiting for "Superman.” 2010. Film. .

4) Hopkins, Lee. Let Them Be Themselves. 3rd ed. New York, New York: Harper Trophy, 1992. 10. Print.

5) Khan, Salman. "Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education." TED Ideas Worth Spreading. TED. March 2011. Speech.

6) Myers, David. Psychology. 9th ed. New York: Worth Publishers, 2010. 490-491. Print.

7) Tomlinson, Carol, et. al.. The Parallel Curriculum: A Design to Develop High Potential and Challenge High-Ability Learners. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, Inc., 2002. Print.

References

1) Bihun, Joan. "Motivation" Introduction to Psychology I. CU Denver. Denver, CO. 11/14/2011 – 11/28/2011. In Person.

2) West, Martin, and Paul Peterson. "No Child Left Behind." Education Week. (2011). Web. 28 Nov. 2011.