Chapter 3 to 5
This week for class, we had to read more of the book Methland the reading told us several different peoples stories who were either smoking meth themselves or had their lives affected by the drug. Of the several different stories, which were mentioned, I found Lori’s the most interesting. Lori got her start in the world of meth when she dropped out of high school at age 15. Lori’s landlord let her trade paying rent or delivering illegal pills to the landlords clients. At age 18, she was married for the second time, and her real meth business began. Her husband’s brother gave her some meth, some for her to smoke, some to give away and the rest to sell. At this point, Lori knew she was this is what she was born to do. Lori eventually started dealing directly with the Des Moines middleman, rather than her brother in law. Soon after that she switched to dealing directly with the Long Beach supplier. Lori had made enough money to buy a car dealership, 52 racehorses with trainers and a horse farm. In the back woods of the horse farm, Lori was able to build her own meth lab, so she could make her own meth. However, after much “success” in the world of selling meth, Lori ended up receiving 10 years in federal penitentiary and as soon as she got out she went right back into the business of selling meth. The story of two brothers, Clay and Charlie, who lived in Oelwein, Clay was a doctor who referred to the meth in the town as a “ sociocultural cancer.” Charlie ended up moving out of the town with his family because he could not deal with the meth taking over the town. Also mentioned in this section was one Mildred Binstock who was the owner of the The Do Drop Inn. The story told regards the history of the inn and meth. Of all the stories which I read, I still can’t believe Lori’s, I would that someone who started out broker than broke but with a drop of her hat had more money than she knew what to do with. With this sudden change, I can’t believe that she did not get caught faster.
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| The Meth Epidemic |
Chapter 6: Mirror Imaging
This chapter discusses the history of meth in the United States regarding the ups and downs of the number of meth users, the different drugs used to create the meth and the government, both state and national, attempting to end the meth epidemic. In our class, we watched "The Meth Epidemic" a Frontline documentary detailing the history of meth in several different aspects. The facts given in both the documentary and book are the same as they should be. Off all the history regarding this drug, the most interesting is that to make meth; either ephedrine or pseudoephedrine can be used. They are a very similar drug which both can be used in cold medicines. There is a term introduced in this chapter called mirror imaging, which means the chemical’s molecular structure is reversed. When this process is done to pseudoephedrine it is equally effective when used in a cold medicine. When this is done to the drug, it cannot be turned into meth, and there are almost no side affects to the central nervous system. Unfortunately they were never able to produce the drug and bring it to the market.
Chapter 7: The Cop Shop
This chapter tells the stories of people of the town of Oelwein working to make the town as good as it used to be and attempting to get rid of all signs of meth. Larry Murphy was the man who between the years 2004 and 2005 tried in several ways to run the small lab meth business of out the city. He didn’t get very far and soon turned over the reins to the police chief at the time was Jeremy Logan. Logan was ready to get meth of the city; he started with training the police force with a level of aggressiveness and canine unit including an impressive twelve thousand dollar drug sniffing German shepherd. Logan was always around town, along with his kids and wife. Different people in the town had different feelings about Logan’s work; some thought he should be kicked out while some praised the work he was doing. In 2004, the police force kicked it up a notch pulling people over any one-thing wrong, even the small things. By 2006, the city had entered Phase II of Logan’s plan that included improving a seven-block area of the town to make it look good which was estimated to cost 4 million dollars. Secondly, he wanted to give the town a new sewer system, which would cost around 9 million dollars. With much work, including grants, higher sales tax referendum, and private donations the town was able to raise the money.
Chapter 8: Waterloo
This chapter started discussing Nathan, once again. At this point in time, he was having a “Girl Problem.” He had moved to Waterloo with Jenny, the girl he had loved who he met at school. Nathan’s parent didn’t approve of their living together before marriage. This continued on until Larry Murphy called to offer Nathan a position as assistant Fayette Country prosecutor and he moved to back Oelwein. The couple stayed together, but Jenny remained in Waterloo. However, the couple continued to stop talking less and less. When Nathan’s brothers died, he brought a local girl Jamie to the funeral. Jamie worked for the Iowa Department of Human Services. Soon, she lost her job, as 9 out of 10 socials in Iowa had. Jamie had taken a bartending job in a town 20 miles away, but also moved in with Nathan. He didn’t tell him parents that Jamie and him were living together. He continued to visit his parents without her, but he would visit her family on holidays. At the same point in time, Clay was entering a hard phrase of his life. Often he would play a show, have a few too many drinks, and then drive home. Clay was also upset because of the story of a man named Allan. Instead of going to jail for meth use, Allan wore a wire and continued to live him life as normal which included talking to several meth dealers, which the police overheard all the conversations. One night Clay was pulled over and ranted to the officer about the story. The cop claimed that Clay had verbally assaulted him and physically threatened him.
Chapter 9: The Inland Empire: Part Two
This chapter brings back another meth smoker and producer, Lori. After she got out of jail, she moved back into her parent’s house, and got herself a job at the plant trimming hams. While Lori was in jail, the meth world had completely changed. People were relying on local dealers who could only produce small amounts and there was never enough for everyone. Mexican super labs had helped with this problem, they had access to the drug but sometimes they had a hard time getting a customer base because the people of the town, both smokers and non-smokers didn’t like the Mexicans working at the plant and also they didn’t speak the language. Lori was doing well, as not going back to her old habits. She was working hard to be able to move out of her parent’s house, pay her back taxes and every few weeks she had urine tests to send to her patrol officer. Until one night when she went to the bar and had eight beers to remember her eight years in jail, a friend that night that offered her a small amount of meth and she took it. This sparked her addiction to meth again. She started selling small amounts of meth to make quick money, and soon enough she had brought a house, paid her son’s debt and had a boyfriend who she was going to marry soon. Lori herself had also started using the drug herself and paying a co-workers daughter for her urine for her urine tests. All was going well, until Lori sold to an uncover officer. She ended up with seven and a half years in a medium security federal work camp for women. The world was meth was picking up again.
Chapter 9: Las Flores
This chapter contained a ton of information in regards to what was going on in the meth world and continued efforts to stop it. However, I think the most fun part to read about the Las Flores, it was a new restaurant that had opened up in Oelwein. Reding (the author), Larry Murphy, Nathan Lein and Clay Hallberg had all gathered for dinner one evening there. Reding spent several paragraphs describing both the building that restaurant is located in and the people who work there. The temperature of the restaurant is kept so cold that most people keep their parkas on and the walls are covered with random artisanal mementos.
Chapter 10: Algona
This chapter, I found to be super cool because Reding was able to take his own family history and apply it to the meth world, and also his father’s story of being able to get out of the town that we was born and raised in which was Algona, just down Highway 81 from Oelwein. Reding’s father was able to get out of the town simply because he had so many scholarships for room, board and books to Iowa State in Ames (I have friends who go to school there!) He was on the baseball team, although drafted by the Yankees he took a job with Monsanto in St. Louis with his engineering degree, he met his future wife while working there. Working for this company, which was a powerful one, helped end the small town life in America because of their ability to improve the farming world with modernization the system. I really enjoyed this chapter because I love learning about history of people and besides going into details about Reding’s father, he also went into details of how his family came to America.
Chapter 11: El Paso
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| Malcom Gladwell |
MALCOLM GLADWELL!!! I freaked out when I read about Malcolm Gladwell, I find everything that he says or does brilliant. In this book, Reding used a piece that Gladwell had published in the New Yorker in 2008. The article was about the world shifting ideas, which tend to occur to more than one, more but only one person is credited with the concept. An example relatative to the meth story is Lori Arnold, who had a huge effect on the meth world, but without the help of the horse super and others who knew the drug routes she wouldn’t have been able to do what she did. While Jeffery William Hayes, a man of Oelwein was trying to do the same thing, but didn’t have the resources that Lori did. Malcolm Gladwell is known for lots of things, but my current favorite is a TED Talk that a friend showed to be which can be found here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIiAAhUeR6Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player. Here is another TED Talk by him, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpiZTvlWx2g.
The chapter also had a lot of other information regarding the story of a former Mexican drug trafficker named Rudy and the fact that less meth was being made in the USA due to the drug laws.
Chapter 13: Disconnected States
In this chapter, the most intense thing that was written about meth was comparing it to the common flu. As long as the drug world keeps changing and makes the government figure out what they are doing, the system will continue on in this way. This system doesn’t just apply to meth, but it did to LSD, PCP, cocaine, and crack. As long as the drug world keeps shifting, the meth problem could go on forever!
Chapter 14: Kant’s Redemption
This chapter details Reding’s last trip to Oelwein where he had to deal with the harsh winter and slows of the area including having his plane being delayed and driving in a cars that take half the time of the drive to heat up. Reding had revisted Nathan and Jamie, who had gotten a job in a nearby town in her field of work, so she didn’t have to work at the bar anymore. However, Nathan still had not told his parents about her and Jamie wanted to get married and have children. Reding went to work with Nathan in the courthouse one day where a man was back again for violating his probabation was given three years in jail, but everyone knew that he would be out in six months due to over crowding of the jail. Clay Hallberg had worked to open the Iowa Children Health Specialty Clinics to offer help to child of meth attics and Clay himself had been sober for 18 months. New business had also opened in the town including Lou Ann’s Quilt Garden and Larry Murphy was reelected as mayor for his fourth term.
Chapter 15: Independence
On Reding’s last night in Iowa, he had traveled to visit Major in Independence. Major was doing so much better and currently meth free. He and his son Buck was were doing well, however Major had a free that at some point in time Buck’s long term health could be affected by being around meth as a young child, but these effects haven’t been determined yet. Major was still attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings, had a job and only six more months till he could drive again, but Major still didn’t feel as “happy” as he did when he used meth. However, he was doing much better than other people who’s stories were in this book, Lori Arnold was supposed to be getting out of prison for the second time in June 2008.
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| Nick Reding |
Epilogue: Home Again
I think that the meth world just follow Nick Reding around or maybe it was just one of those right places at the right time things, but after moving to St. Louis in 2008, the local newspaper ran stories about a murder who killed eight people and the entire time he was high on crank. Within the first two weeks of living there, several other stories were run about meth manufacturing within the county.
Another update on the town of Oelwein is that in April 2008, Nathan was elected to the city council, Major graduated from college and his son Buck begins kindergarten in the fall. Lori Arnold was released but within one week she failed her first mandatory urine analysis and was sentenced to five years probation.
Afterword
This gave several numbers regarding meth, drug bills, and different things about Oelwein, but I think that I found to be most unique was that after the book had been published and was on the New York Times best sellers list, Reding traveled back to Oelwein according to Clay, Nathan and Murphy no one from the town had even read the book. The closest bookstore was thirty miles and the library’s three copies of the book had a waiting list of 46 people.
Overall, after finishing this book, I just can’t believe how many people Reding must have talked to this get all these stories and how he connected different things happening at the same thing. This book is a very impressive piece of literary journalism, which clearly would take a TON of effort and impressive memory and note taking by Nick Reding.
New York Times Examples:
A great example of literary journalism was published in the October 27th edition of the NYT. The story was in the travel section and titled “36 Hours in Cape Town.” The article was separated into different times on each of the days spend in the town. Each of the time periods involved participating in a different event that could be done by visiting. The layout of the article was different than a typical news article due to its arrangement.
A wonderful example of literary journalism could have been found in The Arts section of the November 3rd edition of the paper. The article was titled “Painful Baby Boom On Prime-Time TV” and written by Neil Genzlinger. First of all this article was written in the first person, which I still cannot believe that these news stories can make it into the NYT. Anyways, the article starts by addressing the fact that several prime time shows have shown several pregnancies. The article goes on to explain six episodes that involved pregnancies on recent prime time shows. The article also address the prediction the current population being able to maintain the current number of people in the world after watching all these shows which can show the process not always in the best light.
“An Action Hero Who Needed No Words,” was tucked away in the middle of the Weekend Arts section of the Friday, November 4th edition of the paper. The article address the “not so shaggy dog story with the appeal of a folk ballad or a children’s story” Rin Tin Tin was a dog who has made several different aspects of the world; possibly he was the most famous dog franchise. This article discusses a book written by Susan Orlean about this dog, titled “Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend.” We have read about Susan’s Orleans work in a different book for this class and also a sample of her writing. I cannot believe I found this example of literary journalism relating to an author who is widely known for work within this field.
In hopes of my idea of doing my own literary journalism piece on a specific person, I wanted to find a sample like in the NYT. Recently the New York Marathon took place and there were several stories about different people who participated in the event. The title of the article is “26.2 Miles to Be Faster at 3.1” which details Lauren Feshman, who was known for finishing seventh in the 5,000 in the world championships. She thought training for the marathon would help her running at the Olympics. The article details exactly what Lauren did the morning of the marathon and the process of how she got the idea for running this race. I really liked this article because they gave so much details and it showed much how much detail there can be in a literacy journalism piece.
I really like how literary journalism pieces can be used to help people realize that there are things that they should have in case of emergencies. This story was called “Dark with Envy: After wild weather, the generator emergences as a status symbol.” The article details what different people did during a power outage, when they didn’t have generators so they would have to spend the night at friends house who had generators or for some families this wasn’t possible because of a larger family. However, after telling all the stories of how these people were affected with either having or not having a generator. The story continued onto the inside of the Home section of the November 10th, 2011, and right next to the original article was an article about finding the right generator for you. I think that this can be really helpful because people can be inspired to make sure they have the right generator can reading about people who were affected about their decisions towards generators.
My Own Ideas:
After my previous post on this blog about ideas for my second literary journalism piece I have been thinking a lot of who would fun to read about. I thought about maybe possibly doing a story about an RA on campus. Most RA that I know are so busy, it’s hard to do anything social with them. It might be a unique topic to know exactly what keeps them so busy. However, I’m not one hundred percent sure I would want to write this piece. I really want to make my own literary journalism piece something that both I would enjoy writing and the audience would enjoy reading.
However, I have officially decided to write my literary journalism piece on my experiences working at a pickle factory that I worked at this summer. I hope to include many details of the smells and sights of what I experienced. Also I want to include details of how I got the job. I hope that it will be a great piece, but I’m nervous about getting it down on paper.
Photo Links:
Meth Epidemic: http://www.findinternettv.com/images/movies/f/frontline-the-meth-epidemic.jpg
Malcom Gladwell http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Malcolmgladwell.jpg/180px-Malcolmgladwell.jpg
Nick Reding: http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1243355919p5/484608.jpg
