James McCollum

Professor Benton

English 102

26 September 2011

Informative Proposal: All Drugged Up

            “One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called.  I said at once ‘The Unnecessary War’.”  If Sir Winston Churchill only knew how many wars his quote actually described he would probably become sick to his stomach.  Ask Americans currently between the ages of 18 and 50 what the most significant war has been that they have been alive for and the answers will come back quite varied.  Responses might include the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and even the War on Terror currently in process in the Middle East.  The importance of these wars can be argued until their respective generals turn over in their graves, but I would argue that every single one of these wars rivals in comparison to the War on Drugs. But I digress; a paper of that sort can come only after a general understanding of the War on Drugs has been achieved, and as such will be saved for another occasion.

            War is a topic of vast importance to every citizen of the United States; and it is a topic that is often times greatly underestimated.  One might argue that war, in every situation, is in some way avoidable.   As a citizen, it should be understood that taxes are essentially unavoidable, and the realization that taxes have funded every major war that the U.S. has been involved in should not be a hard on to make.  This fact has never been truer than with the War on Drugs, and as a taxpaying member of society it is important to understand exactly what those hard earned tax dollars are financially supporting. 

            The man who coined the phrase “War on Drugs” is none other than the 37^th president of the United States, Richard Milhous Nixon.  President Nixon is tied to quite a few historic moments in this nation’s history.  His presidency saw the end of the draft, witnessed the first lunar landing by American astronauts, and is even linked to the infamous Watergate scandal. (The Nixon Library and Museum)  Arguably more important than all of those was the establishment of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973, and his declaration for “an all-out global war on the drug menace”.  (Drug Enforcement Administration)  With that quote, Nixon slapped a name on what has amounted to a 40+ year war on substances deemed useless or illegal by the United States government. 

            This year alone, the Unites States has spent over $30 billion in tax dollars on the War on Drugs since the 1960’s (While the phrase War on Drugs was coined in the 70’s, preventing a national drug problem began in the early to mid 60’s.).    That number is growing at an estimated rate of $500 per second, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing any time soon. (Media Awareness Project)  Those numbers alone should be enough to send out an alarm to the American public and raise a few questions.  What exactly is the War on Drugs?  Is this global drug war working?  If the numbers do in fact point to the contrary, why has there been no change?  What can be expected in the future?  I hope to answer all of these questions concerning such an impactful subject.  The War on Drugs has impacted more lives that statistics could begin to estimate, and the time to be informed is now. 

Bibliography

Drug Enforcement Administration. www.justice.gov. September 2011. 26 September 2011 <http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/history/1970-1975.html>.

Eldredge, Dirk Chase. Ending the War on Drugs: A Solution for America. Bridgehampton: Bridge Works Publishing Company, 1998.

Fish, Jefferson M. Drugs and Society: U.S. Public Policy. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006.

Media Awareness Project. Drug Sense. September 2011. 26 September 2011 <http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock>.

Meier, Kenneth J. The Politics of Sin: Drugs, Alcohol, and Public Policy. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe Inc., 1994.

The Nixon Library and Museum. www.nixonlibrary.gov. August 2006. 26 September 2011 <http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/thelife/apolitician/thepresident/index.php>.

Note: All listed books are possible sources for the upcoming paper. 

Hacker

James McCollum

Professor Michael Benton

English 102-J010

21 August 2011

What A Hack

Ethical. Moral. Useful. Helpful. Criminal. Mischievous. Dishonest. Although it may come as a surprise to most, all of these words are used to define the term.  A ‘hacker’ is more commonly defined as “a computer user who attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems’.  Like most, I fell into the lot that carried around this shared misconception of the term as a definition.  Thankfully I was able to carve out a more accurate description of the term after a little digging on the subject.

            The task of responding to a single word in any format seemed broad to say the least.  Being tasked with responding to a word as socially recognizable as ‘hacker’ seems damn-near impossible.  The difficulty didn’t come from lack of information available on the subject.  A Google search returns back about 314,000,000 (yes that’s million for you math whizzes) results on the topic.  The trouble came from a personal misunderstanding of what the act of hacking really was.  Defining the hacker after gaining a knowledge of this skill (some would call it art) would then be a fairly easy task. 

            My research into the topic began fairly common; reading definitions and perusing the first few results on popular search engines.   I moved on to search in other forms of media for insight.  Having the internet at my fingertips I was able to utilize one of my favorite forms of information gathering: documentaries.  Personally I find documentaries to be sort of like a visual encyclopedia entry; a fact-filled detailing of a topic or event in the form of a film.  A well made informative documentary will present as many different angles on the subject as is possible; and this was what I was after.  At the end of my research I found myself watching a 50 minute Discovery Channel documentary on YouTube called “Hackers: Outlaws and Angels”.  I was glued to the screen from beginning to end left wanting more.  I had gained an entirely new prospective on hackers, and the hacking community as a whole, while also sparking an interest in the topic that was previously absent. 

            Towards the latter part of my high school career I had developed into “Renaissance Man” of sorts.  I played a few different sports, dabbled in theatre, took a few art classes, and had always been fairly tech savvy.  A few of my friends started tinkering with some software and learning various programming languages.  As with many Renaissance Men I fell victim to over-involvement and barely scratched the surface of this new ‘hacking’ hobby.  I’d catch a few tips and tricks here and there and even installed a few programs onto my computer that I would eventually never learn to use.  Unfortunately, this tiny dip into the hacking culture left me with an uninformed view on hacking. 

With a little bit of reading, a well directed documentary, and some personal opinion on the subject thrown in for good measure, I have found the following to be true of the common idea of a ‘hacker’.    Very simply, hackers can be good or bad, right or wrong, ethical or unethical, or any combination thereof.  Most computer professionals will give them very definite distinctions.  These usually come in the form of White Hat and Black Hat hackers; with white being the good guys and the black being the contrary.  Black hat hackers are predominately linked with malicious hacking.  Attempting to gain access to bank accounts, company files, or any other form of electronic information with the intent on using it for personal gain or to somehow cause harm are examples of these black hatter’s “evildoing’s”.  On the other side of the law are the white hats.  Often ex-black hat hackers, these men and women are the sheriffs of the hacking community.  They will often assist companies with electronic security, helping to find holes in the security measures that are in place.  They can also come in the form of any person using their computer prowess and hacking skills for a positive means.  While the figurative ‘Grey Hat hacker’ can occasionally be found, most in the community tend to gravitate to one side or the other. 

            I have grown to appreciate assignments such as this one.  A word as recognizable as ‘hacker’ seems impossible to define, let alone write about.  Luckily through a little research I was able to expand on my own personal knowledge of the subject and develop a better understanding of what the word hacker means.  I’ve felt a bit of inspiration stem from this as well- a sort of desire to challenge my usual conceptions of a single word or idea.  Maybe I’ll start hacking into my vocabulary for a while and see what I come up with. 

Works Cited

Hackers: Outlaws and Angels. Dir. Ralph Lee. Perf. Ian Murphy, Steve Wozniak Kevin Mitnick. 2002.