Methland The Death And Life Of An American Small Town post 4

A central myth of our national culture is small-town residents, the story goes, are honest, hard-working, religiously observant and somehow just more American than the rest of America . . . Reding reveals the fallacies of this myth by showing how, over the past three decades, small-town America has been blighted by methamphetamine, which has taken root in--and taken hold of--its soul. Oelwein serves as a case study of the problems many small towns face today. Once a vibrant farming community where union work and small businesses were plentiful, Oelwein is now struggling through a transition to agribusiness and low-wage employment or, alternatively, unemployment. These conditions, Reding shows, have made the town susceptible to methamphetamine. He tracks the decline and, ultimately, the limited resurgence of Oelwein, while also examining the larger forces that have contributed to its problems. He links meth to the gathering power of unregulated capitalism beginning in the 1980's. It was then, he argues, that one-time union employees earning good wages and protected by solid benefits and begans to see their earnings cut and their benefits disappear. Undocumented migrants began taking jobs at extraordinarily low wages, thereby depressing the cost of labor. Meth, with its opportunity for quick profit and its power to make the most abject and despondent person feel suddenly alive and vibrant, found fertile ground. Meanwhile, in Washington, pharmaceutical lobbyists were working hard to keep DEA agents from attempting to limit access to the raw ingredients; ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, meth's core precursors, were simply too vital to the lucrative allergy-remedy market.  Reding positions the meth epidemic as the triumph of profits over the safety and prosperity of America's small-town inhabitants. But meth hasn't always been seen as a menace. In fact, Reding explains, 'methamphetamine was once heralded as the drug that would end the need for all others. He believed that this drug could replace all other drugs which meant a dangerous society. 

Methland The Death And Life Of An American Small Post 2

Through four years of reporting, Reding brings us into the heart of rural America through a cast of intimately drawn characters. "Methland "is a portrait not just of a town, but of small-town America on the brink. Centered on one community battling for a brighter future, it reveals the connections between the real-life people touched by the drug epidemic and the global forces behind it. "Methland" provides a vital perspective on a contemporary tragedy, ultimately offering the very thing that meth once took from Oelwein: hope. "This is a strong book, and it tells a complicated story in comprehensible, human dimensions. "Think globally, suffer locally. This could be the moral of "Methland," Nick Reding's unnerving investigative account of . . . Oelwein, Iowa, a railroad and meatpacking town of several thousand whipped by a methamphetamine-laced panic whose origins lie outside the place itself.  Details, with blunt statistics and apt anecdotes, the vanishing of educated young males from rural Iowa, as well as the butchering of middle-class jobs at the local packing plant. 'Vicious cycle' is not an adequate term. As Reding painstakingly presents it, the production, distribution and consumption of methamphetamine is a self-catalyzing catastrophe of Chernobylish dimensions. The rich, with their far-off, insulated lives, get richer and more detached, while the poor get high and, finally, waste.

Methland The Death And Life Of An American Small Town post 3

The Next part of the book we come across a very interesting character Ronald Jarvis.  Roland Jarvis, a former meatpacking worker who burned his house down in 2001. Jarvis, who had a methamphetamine lab inside, was hallucinating that he saw black helicopters hovering overhead and, in a panic, dumped chemicals down the drain. The home went up in flames, and Jarvis was burned so badly that he begged the police to shoot him. Jarvis had third-degree burns over 78 percent of his body and spent three months in the burn unit in Iowa City, Iowa.  Even though he burned his hands off he still found a way to smoke meth which is amazing.  He taught himself how to light a lighter with what was left of his hands and hold a pipe in his mouth.  When i read that i stopped and said holy shit this is the most addictive drug.  The guy fuckin almost killed himself and still couldn't stop smoking meth.  Jarvis' addiction encapsulates what has happened to many small towns in America. Meth is a drug of the American working class, because it gives people "inordinate amounts of energy."  The story's in this book were just incredible like this next one about Lori Arnold.  She is the sister of actor Tom Arnold.  Laurie Arnold, a woman in Oelwein who turned meth dealing into a highly profitable enterprise, capitalizing on what Reding referred to as a culture of "vocational" meth use. As Reding chronicled, Arnold dropped out of high school her freshman year and experienced her first divorce by the age of 16. She went back to high school after her divorce, but quickly dropped out and re-married by age 18. Her second husband was an alcoholic and cocaine user who beat her whenever he drank. Furthermore, Arnold's husband was unable to take care of their kids because of his alcohol and drug problem, leaving the responsibility solely with Arnold.With her marital troubles, Arnold turned to meth use, and later to selling meth. Originally, she began dealing meth in small quantities. Over time, she made much larger sums of money, eventually reaching thousands of dollars for her routine sales. Arnold hired a dozen "runners" who frequently traveled to Long Beach, Calif., to transport the drugs and then ended up buying a car dealership so she had access to a variety of cars and dealership tags, making it harder for the authorities to keep tabs on her operation. While Arnold's meth enterprise was going on, the Drug Enforcement Agency was primarily concerned with cocaine use, and was not rapidly investigating meth operations. This allowed Arnold to hide her meth operation for many years without people ever becoming aware of the situation.She was eventually arrested and sent to jail were she later got out and got back into the business.

Methland The Death And Life Of An American Small Town

For my project i chose the book Methland The Death And Life OF An American Small Town by Nick Reding. The book takes place in a small town in Iowa.  The name of this town is Oelwein, Iowa.  A town with only 6,159 people Oelwin Iowa is like thousands of other small towns across the country, has been left in the dust by the consolidation of the agricultural industry, a depressed local economy, and an out-migration of people. As if this weren't enough to deal with, an incredibly cheap, long lasting, and highly addictive drug has rolled into town.In the first part of the book we meet some characters one being Nathan Lein, the town prosecutor, whose caseload is filled almost exclusively with meth-related crime.  Most of the people in the city live in poverty due to the fact of very little jobs.  Many of the plants were closed down in the town causing people to turn to what some call the most dangerous drug in the world.  " Talk about a nightmare," said Nathan reflecting back. " We'd lost all the bases of civilized culture around here.  It was a third- world.  people began to referring to Olwein as Methlehem." Another Character we learn about is Larry Murphy who arguably has the tough fist job the mayor of the city.   Murphy is the one who hired Nathan to clean up the town. Its amazing to think how a town can go from a normal small town to a town were chaos is taking place.

Death Penalty #3

Death Penalty is got many ins and outs.  The system is set up so the man who is guilty gets convicted.  The lawyers are hired by the government.  The lawyers for the people that cannot afford are usually not very good.  Sometimes cases could be won but they do not have the proper lawyer to help defend them.  Most times the cases are unfair and much of the evidence is never revealed or the police lose it.  The most humane way to kill people is by lethal injection.  It is a pain free way to kill people unlike some of the other ways.  Hanging and firing squads are violent ways to kill people.  I would rather die a painless death then be killed or hung.  There are fourteen states that don't have the death penalty.  The United States government and the military have their own death penalties and death rows.  Most of the states use lethal injections including Illinois.  California has the most inmates with 669 and the state of New Mexico has one.  Some of these statistics are really stunning when you look at them.  I expected more states to have more inmates I guess I was wrong.  When it comes to execution more white people have been excused then black people.  There have been over 1200 executions in the United States.  This chart gives the clear story on the death penalty. 

Abortion

 The Pro Life website was more organized and was easier to navigate.  It had facts on the side that gave me somethings to think about.  The pro choice website was not as easy to navigate as the pro life website.
I think a parent should have the right to know if their daughter is having an abortion.  I believe this because the parent could be paying for it so they need to know what is going on.  At age 17 your parents still have rights over you.  Once you turn 18 your considered an adult so your parents cant tell you what to do but i think they should know what is going on.  If they know maybe they can help in a way.  It also depends on the circumstances of the abortion if it is rape or medical danger they might not have a choice. Parents have a right to know what their children are doing: they are legally responsible for their care, and as parents they have a proper interest in any case. Any good parent would want to know if their daughter were having an abortion; any good parent would want to help her daughter make a good decision on the matter, and to prevent her from making a bad decision.  It seems that Illinois is a pro choice state.  Illinois laws lean more toward the pro choice side but are for the most part understandable.

Should Clifford Boggess have been executed?

In my opinion Clifford Boggess should have been executed.  The reason I say this is because he was a crazy man who committed two murderers.  He killed two people over wanting more money.  His car broke an in order to pay for it he needed money.  He was saving up for college and didn't want to use that money so he went out and killed a guy who he knew had cash.  He stabbed a 86 year old guy who had no way to defend himself.  His brother who has too live the rest of his life without him because a guy was selfish and needed money.  On top of that he killed another guy after he ran out of money.  He also told his friend that if she told anyone about the murderers she to would be killed.  The way he murdered these people was horrible.  After watching the doucmentury about him I dont think he changed.  He made some art work  exppersing his feeling, but he murdered two people and we must keep murderers of the street.