Drug Problems and Poverty in All Souls by Michael McDonald - Essay Example

Drug Problems and Poverty in "All Souls" by Michael McDonald McDonald grew in the best in the world, South Boston.All souls: A family story from Southie is McDonald’s story that tries to educate the society about common social problems such as drug abuse and poverty. In his book, he talks of white in the US and how affects everyone in society. For a long time, people have held that poverty is a menace that attacks only the minority people in society. This assertion is not true and will never be true. In real sense, poverty is unequal in terms of ethnicity; however, the pain of wandering in poverty is colorblind. Poverty is stressful and painful no matter what or who you are. In the novel, McDonalds discusses his code of silence in his community. Residents in South Boston refused to talk about the issue of poverty and other social problems like crime, violence and drug abuse since they thought talking of such issues would demean their status. From his narration, the fact was that South Boston had increased poverty within the white society or community in the US. This happened in 1960s before the problem of poverty in South Boston was addressed, and this meant that the poor people had to relocate. In addition, McDonald’s states that forced busing worsened the situation in that children were forced to places where people hated them. This was risky. People got injured and murdered. As a result, many children dropped out of school and got pregnant or turned to crime and drugs in order to satisfy their life pleasure. McDonald witnessed his four brother’s die but he could not figure this out in his head. He turned into a political activists and a writer to make people exchange ideas and change in order to address real life problems such as poverty and drug abuse. Should Drugs Be Legalized?" William Bennett and how it manifests in the “All souls” by Michael Patrick McDonalds. William Bennett argues that legalization of drugs will reduce the rate of crime in society and take the profits out of its sales. Contrary, legalization of drugs would generate profits out of drugs, which will be utilized to educate and enlighten people about the effects of drugs and treat those affected by drugs. Drug regulation poses a challenge for the entire society. How can reprimanding a person for behavior that injures or harms only himself or herself be explained and justified? According to Bennett, current regulation on drugs is unjustified. Therefore, instead of criminalizing drugs, they should be made legal. The main argument for making drugs illegal in society is because of the harm inflicted on the second party (Bennett 26). The use of drugs among people is not a new phenomenon. It has been part of human life. In fact, the Eskimos are the only people lacking tradition because they have been unfortunate to grow anything and wait for other people to bring them alcohol. The use of drug is justified in that it represents human appetite. The question of drug legalization either for medicinal or recreational value refers to whether or not people should be allowed to legally sell, buy, and use drugs for their own personal pleasure. Human beings have used psychoactive drugs as back as many centuries ago. Many drugs are produced naturally by plants and easily accessed by people in society where they grow. Therefore, recreational drugs should be legalized in society and stop criminalization of people. If drugs are not legalized, criminalizing these drugs will cause more harm than good since it will create large profitable industry, which supply these drugs. In addition, it will increase level of crime in society when people try to finance habits of the users. Just like in the “All Souls,” the problem of drugs is a big problem that needs urgent attention since drug menace is unequal in that it affects both the users and non-users (Bennett 27). When discussing the issue of drug legalization, it is sensible to talk about the harm associated with these drugs. There are some health risks associated with recreational drugs such as sexually transmitted diseases that arise from poor precautionary judgment. Apart from the self-inflicted harm, there is harm that is caused to others in society such as increased crime rate from the users who cannot control their system since drugs consumed inhibits their legitimate decisions. Theft and muggings are commonly associated with addiction and women who are under the influence of drugs would engage in prostitution without their own convictions to do so. Children born in families where parents are drug user’s end up homeless while family resources are depleted (Bennett 30). The idea of selling and using drugs has both legal and moral issues. On one hand, if the government legalized the use of drugs in society, we can deduce whether application of such drugs is immoral or not. If the law allows an individual to engage or do certain things, it does not mean that the person should do it. On the other hand, even if use of drugs is not morally acceptable we can question ourselves whether the use of such drugs is illegal or not. The law has many flaws in that it allows us to do many things that are immoral such as saying lies to other people. People should morally avoid such things; we do not tolerate situations where the laws command us on how to lead private lives. The whole purpose and motive of using drugs especially recreational drugs is for pleasure that they produce to the user. Search for pleasure comes natural to us as human beings. It is human nature that people are pleasure seeking and what makes life enjoyable is in pleasure of larger variety. There are pleasures in food, drugs, or romance. This way brain chemistry is altered in manner that provides unique pleasure to our body and through this; we seek what can bring pleasures in our lives. Human beings seek pleasure in moderation, whereby pursuing pleasure is morally acceptable or permissible and it is something that we should do. Therefore, the pleasure people get in taking recreational drugs is so rewarding in that they should refuse any move to prohibit intake of drugs such as alcohol or marijuana. Use of recreational drugs is one of the many pleasures available to human beings and if certain moral acts such as escapism are permitted or accepted, then, the use of drugs should be legalized. The issue of moral duty to avoid injuring oneself was rampant in earlier years but it is less in modern society. As human beings, we are aware that some behaviors or actions are good for us than other people and we are all familiar with the pros and cons of living healthy life. For instance, exercising on daily basis and eating nutritious meals are good for us. All these things are good for us, it is difficult to conclude that we are immoral creatures when we ignore these things and engage in harmful behaviors. There is no true moral force behind responsibility to oneself other than personal understanding and conception of self-respect and that is outside moral penalty that other people might inflict on us (Bennett 31). The war on drugs is about the desire to change ones mental state is an innate idea that cannot be changed by external force but rather internal force. This is because people take drugs to satisfy their drive and find life worth living. But in situation where the government want to make certain drugs illegal it will be infringing on the rights of certain people who derive their pleasure in taking drugs. Government should legalize both medicinal and recreational drugs, as they are morally permissible. Selling of drugs for recreational purposes is not bad because what is important for the user is to avoid harming other people as they exercise their freedom. People are morally permitted to sell and use drugs but they must protect against the impact these drugs may have on behaviors of the users on other people. Drug merchants argue that it is not fair for people who are responsible to be morally judged for the actions of the irresponsible people. People who are addicts should not be condemned at any point until their behavior is harming others. In order to effectively control and regulate the markets of recreational drugs to make sure that they are only accessible to adults, drugs should not be prohibited but rather legalized. When drugs are prohibited and criminalized, sellers of these drugs go underground and therefore it is hard to control and contain them from selling drugs to people. When sellers are underground, it is easy for them to sell drugs to minors than adults. Legalization of drugs will make them available to those who want them at low cost through authorized and licensed merchants (Bennett 31). The Singer Solution to World Poverty by Peter Singer and how it affects family characters in the “All souls” Michael Patrick McDonalds. Singer argues that in order to tame the problem of poverty in society, the wealthy and prosperous people should donate funds to charity organizations to assists the impoverished. Poverty is the most serious global problem and it has risen drastically in the previous years especially in the third world countries. Poverty should be addressed with no negligence in the rightful proposition. Starvation mainly affects the powerless in society. Starvation leads to malnutrition, death, and poor living standards. In addition, it leads to poor hygiene in society that endangers many children. Singer asserts that instead of people buying luxurious things, they should use that money to help the starving children. Advancement in communication and technology has raised the living standard of Americans in that they spend their money on unnecessary things. Due to this, Singer raises the alarm and alerts wealthy Americans that there are people in the world dying because of lack of money while they use money on things that they desire. Children are suffering in that they are deprived of basic needs and other die because of lack of medication. The question is, should the prosperous people aid the situation? Eliminating world poverty has been precedence. However, despite the efforts to eradicate it, some programs and strategies have not worked. Instead of Americans being materialistic, they should try to help destitutes, old men and mothers begging for money in order to survive. Poverty as manifested in the “All Souls” novel affects many people in society. Further, many factors contribute to poverty. For instance, lack of individual responsibility in that laziness and poor decisions among family members has led to abject poverty. Another reason can be attributed to bad government policies such as unpreparedness to disasters, which lead to food shortages in society. Exploitation by the powerful and the wealthy people in society who enjoy the benefits as intermediaries in food supply over others. Global decisions, poor policies, and practices affect the society negatively in the sense that governments of developing nations remain powerless in the global context as a few get wealthy while the majority struggle. Poverty affects the educational and health needs of people. For instance, it poses serious health risk in the sense that hunger leads to malnutrition and nutritional diseases that affect the poor in society. In addition, starvation has increased mortality rates and easy spread of preventable diseases and illnesses. Food aid especially in third world countries destruct the economy of the recipient country because free, subsidized, and cheap food below the market prices undercut the local farmers, which amounts to dumping, a trend that increases poverty. Solution to Poverty is through reduction in inequality. For example, inequality between the haves and the have not brings enmity between them because of the unequal standards. Large income inequalities within societies and families destroy social fabric and quality of life for everyone thus; equality among people should be encouraged. Enhancement of educational system will provide a chance for children from poor families to uplift themselves in that they will able to acquire skills that would make them become self-employed. Works Cited Bennett, William. Should Drugs Be Legalized? The Mercury Reader. Ed Neulieb Janice, Boston: Pearson, 2005. Print. McDonald, Michael. All Souls: A Family Story from Southie. New York: Beacon Press, 2007. Print. Singer, Peter. The Singer Solution to World Poverty. n.d. Web 3 Dec 2012. Read More