Legalize drugs and prostitution. Arm every citizen with a gun and reinstate public hangings. If the government wants to solve some problems, it might as well start here. These radical some may think psychotic ideas will probably get me nowhere fast in the public’s eye, but for a moment, forget everything you have learned or believed about these controversial institutions.

There are so many different problems within America that the government feels the need to declare war on just about anything it cannot justify or control. The most obvious example is the war on drugs.

Either the government hasn’t a clue how to reduce our drug problem or it is involved in an enormous conspiracy. Now, I know many would like to believe in a conspiracy theory, but that is just not the case. I do believe that we lack a coherent goal in fighting drugs. It is almost as though the war on drugs is the Vietnam of this generation. The war is never-ending and seemingly useless. I personally have had access to every drug imaginable since the eighth grade.

I say make drugs legal. Why, you may ask? Because there is no way the government is going to, in this lifetime, end drug trafficking if it continues the same useless tactics used heretofore.

However, if we changed our outlook on such problems, maybe there would be hope.

If drugs were legalized, the government could sell the drugs at a cheaper rate, cut out the middlemen and maybe appropriate certain areas for the use of drugs, such as the late 19th century opium dens. Then the government could use the money made from drug sales to create programs and facilities to help people who would subsequently become addicted to those drugs.

Drug legalization is certainly a novel start, but we cetainly can’t stop there. We have a myriad of comprehensive problems, and it will take a lot more than the restructuring of one institution to amend our society. Why not make prostitution legal, too? Don’t ostracize these people; help them. Do you think that arresting occasional offenders is going to eradicate prostitution? Let’s regulate prostitution. Keep the women off the streets and free from disease and make a little profit. Would that really be so bad?

Prostitution is going to be around far longer than you possibly would want to imagine. Change the name if you have to, but make it a better situation for the women forced into it and correct the dangers its filthiness wreaks on society.

Next up: Guns. Firearms are vast and dangerous. But not all the people with guns are killers, muggers, carjackers or rapists. Part of the reason people are able to use the power of the gun is because it is a symbol of power and force. The victims usually cannot defend themselves. And since the Constitution gives the right for everyone to own a gun, why don’t we take that document up on its hospitality?

Give everyone a gun!

What would this do to society? If everyone had a weapon, there would still be violence, but half of those who use weapons would be scared because they might be committing their last crime. If everyone has the power to inflict harm on one another, then a majority of people will be less apt to provoke those very people they once stalked. Why not give it a try? If you have doubt, maybe you could use the nuclear arms race as an example of mutually assured destruction (or, in this, case, mutually assured harm).

And, finally, public hangings. Dig deep into the woodwork and bring out the gallows. Take those men and women who have performed such sadistic, heinous crimes and hang them for all to see. Yes, go back into time when people were killed by hangings, in public, to instill fear in those people who might have otherwise thought of acting in future senseless crimes. Is this that insane? We already watch nightly incessant murders and crimes on television that are cruel and repugnant. Take these detestable offenders and display to the world that when you kill, you too will be killed, no exceptions. That is the problem we have today. We try to be “humane” and “moral” in our punishment of criminals, but we, in turn, show weakness and vulnerability. We have children killing themselves and their elders for fun, a man killing his professors because his thesis was rejected, a young rap star sentenced to death at the age of 25 by his peers and countless other abhorrent crimes. There is no respect for punishments or repercussions.

These are just a few things I see wrong with society. I have plenty of other creative ideas. For those of you who are reading this, I think you should take heed that someone of my youth can see so many problems within our society and offer different solutions to the problems. The only way to help society is to speak up and challenge everything that is being done to destroy that very society.

America’s forefathers had their problems, but they had the ingenuity and prophetic sense to create in the Constitution countless possibilities for all people who reside in this country to live fruitfully and free from harm by others. It is the people of each subsequent generation who interpret that document into a viable means to restore society to something peaceful and bearable. And it is about time we had people like our forefathers who can work through their own problems, look into the future and instill some inkling of order in today’s society.

Jeremy Kuklin is a history senior and a contributing columnist for The Daily Aztec.