Final Paper

Potential Topic Ideas:

1. Homeless people with a mental illness - in and out of jail, medication, etc.

How will your paper explore the "limits" of the body, body modification, or disability?
 Will it explore a combination of these categories?:

1. Limited social structure of U.S. makes it hard for homeless, especially mentally-ill ones, to get resources needed to have a sustainable lifestyles 
2. Why they can't get a job - lack of education, lack of medication, lack of support
3. Homeless shelters - how it's more dangerous to live in them then outside of them - usually robbed, held at gun point, shootings, etc.
4. Lack of government funding 
5. Political debate about how much "free money" should be provided for the mentally ill who are homeless (Free medicine trucks, organizations who wander the streets, etc)
6. The fact that the only real place they are safe and secure is in jail cells - provided meals, medicine, a bed, safety, etc.

Which of the following qualities/categories might shape your paper? How?

1. Social class - money factor, how they can provide for their mentally ill children/family members 
2. Mass Media - the ideas of being homeless as dirty, lazy, etc
3. Government - political party feuds on healthcare, lack of money means, look up court cases on disabled and medication, etc

-List all of the viewpoints/differing perspectives on this issue that you can think of.
Is there a dominant or popular viewpoint?

1. We should provide - it is important to provide medication and better facilities for the mentally ill when they are out on the streets so they can have a chance to undo the limits put on their bodies and go back into the world. A lot of the times people believe that medication is the answer and that people should be put on it so that they can live a sustainable lifestyle in the current world we live in
2. The opposite view is that it isn't the governments job to take care of people who are "mentally disabled," in quotes because a lot of the time people with these opinions undermine the meaning of a mental disabled, making it seem less-than a physical disability. 

How is this issue represented in the media? Can you think of any particular examples?

1. Movies, homeless shelters, governmental disputes about healthcare and who should get it/how much we should be paying for others, political party campaigns and ideals, etc Obviously I need to look up more specific examples to help support my case.

What is your own opinion on this issue?

• My opinion is that it is sad that the mentally disabled people are going from homeless shelter to jail back and forward for the majority of their lives. It isn't right that people are forced out into the streets because they are unable to find jobs and our economy is terrible making it hard to support people who can't support themselves. The political debate should be swayed from wondering why there are so many "slackers" to wondering how we can help our society in America for the better as a whole. It doesn't look good seeing people wandering around under bridges or in the streets of cities because they literally have no where else to go. I will need to look up more evidence on both sides however before I can make an opinion accurately. But, for the most part I don't really know how I feel about medicating all of the homeless people, not for the reason of money, but for the ethical reasons of what those medications can do to a person long-term (frying your brain, etc).

-What secondary resources do you think could help you with this paper?

1. Movies
2. Pictures
3. Newspaper
4. Interviews
5. Case Studies