Money To Combat Crime example essay topic

Is the Government doing the right thing? The statement made by Honorable Jess A. Helms seems to be pretty clear when he says that the government, instead of giving sources to save the country, is actually providing freedom for crime rates to increase. "You can stand on the Capitol steps and almost throw a rock into neighborhoods where you cannot walk at night because of the violence that takes place nightly" (Helms 1). From this statement it is possible to understand why Helms is criticizing the government politics that are only spending money to combat violence, instead of spending money to prevent it. So as a possible solution for the violence problem, Helms defends the re institution of the prayer in public schools. He finds support for it on three main arguments: first is the fact that the government is spending huge amounts of money and it is not solving the violence problem; second because people agree with it and actually want it back to schools, and finally because the freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution.

Throughout his arguments becomes to see that instead of spending that amount of money to combat the crime, it is cheaper and better effective to use God and religion as a weapon against violence. Honorable Helms criticize the fact that since he got into US Senate a lot of money have been spent on violence combat, specially on motions described by the term "crime bills after crime bills" (Helms 1). He criticizes this attitude because it is not been efficient, since The United States has right now a higher crime rate than ever. ". ... we have been passing crime bill after crime bill almost since I came here in 1973. And what has been the result?" (Helms 1). Helms also believes that the senators are feeling that their job is done.

They think that they". ... really took care of it... ". (Helms 1), but the real fact is that crime rates are still going up, what proves that their job is not even close to be done. It is time to start looking for different alternatives to solve the problem. Seeing that all the money spent on the direct combat of crime is not working as well as expected, Helms starts to analyze a different approach to solve the problem. Seeking for the right move Helms find a possible solution on the article published by Reader's Digest called "Let Us Pray" that defends the re institution of prayer classes to public schools.

Helms believes that with the prayers schools the relationship among students would be better therefore a lower crime rate would exist. According to the article, Helms is not the only one that thinks that God is a solution: "75 percent of the American people strongly favor prayer in the public schools and want it restored" (Helms 1). With the prayer classes restored to public schools a higher commitment from the students would occur, so they would achieve better results on other classes also. Ironic the United States spends". ... more money per pupil than any other industrialized country in the world [... ] [and however has] the lowest math scores, the lowest English scores, and the highest crime rate... ". (Helms 1).

It becomes really clear that the way the government is spending money is not being very effective; a lot of money for education and worst scores, huge amount of money to combat crime and highest rates, something is wrong. Helms seeing that propose that maybe God is the solution. If students have religion classes and follow what they learn for example the crime level would decrease for sure. The Bible says "Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law' (Romans 13: 10), and that is what would for sure happen if the prayers schools were once again restored: the law would be followed.

Although the idea of the prayer classes back into public schools seems to be very good, Helms faces another problem before that becomes possible: The Constitution of The United States of America. Helms states the fact that". ... liberals in Congress and in the media claim that Constitution somehow forbids governmental establishment of religion and, ipso facto, prayer school cannot be permitted" (Helms 1), therefore this is being a very big problem on the process of reinstating praying to school. The problem stands on the First Amendment that says: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" (Helms 2). So if the Congress just decide that all public schools have to reinstate the prayer classes, it would be going against the Constitution. However Helms see the solution on the same Amendment.

According to the First Amendment the civil population cannot be prohibit of exercise their own religion. So instead of wait for the government to come with a different solution for the elevate crime rate, society should start looking for possible solution for problems which are affecting them as well as the government. Helms knows that wouldn't be an easy task to create prayer groups or even ask schools to create them. They would suffer pressure from all sort of groups like other religions, ethnic groups and maybe even from students and teachers; but nothing come without sacrifice. God made a lot of sacrifices to clean His people from sins, and maybe it is time for the population fight against crime.

The best way to do it is going back to God, even better when people can have their speech's protected by the constitution since". ... The Constitution protects students' rights to free speech, whether religious or not... ".

(Helms 2). Making a general analysis of Honorable Helms, it seems very clear that there are a lot of possibilities to solve the crime problem. It is of course a group effort. The main question now is what each part should do to help solving the problem that is affecting everybody. Government is responsible to promote a reorganization of the politics that are going on against the crime rate; that means pay more attention on what is really happen and not only approve some simple motion that will give more money to combat crime.

They actually have to prevent it also. They have to feel free to walk at night without being afraid of what could happen to them. On the other side, society has also something to look after. They have to start helping the government to solve this problem since the problem also affect them.

The way for them to help mentioned by Helms is through religion. Helms believes that if society put some pressure is going to be easy to make prayer schools come back. And as a part of the society, students and teacher should also embrace this kind of campaign to help it develop. To solve the problem everybody have to work as a community, as a team, and to make that works the easy way is to work under God's law.