The Corner provides insight to the disturbing realities that plague the streets of urban America. This work has taken a belief held by many and shown it to be nothing more than rhetoric; futile in practice. The common belief that the drug war is succeeding has been popular since the war’s inception and while reading The Corner, many holes in the war on drugs become evident. Characters in the book such as Gary remind us of the fathers, mothers, and children caught in the crossfire of such a hopeless battle.
The effects of this never-ending war have been countless victims, suffering through poverty and addiction. While power hungry politicians cherry pick statistics for their own advantage as a means of clinging to power, while giving the voter an illusion of genuine progress. After thirty years of a drug war, nothing more has been accomplished except dealers who are much more brazen than before, dealing a more dangerous product. Traditional mindsets state these are lazy people who would rather get high than trying to better their own lives. Simon and Burns state that the problem “has grown into something greater than the medical mechanics of addiction, greater even than the dollars, and sense of economic theory.” This is something no law can stop.
The war on drugs is portrayed as “fighting off the bad guys” hance the erroneous images of cops going after the “bad guys” are conjured. Gary McCullough, considered one of the war’s “bad guys” was raised in a loving family environment only to slide into addiction. Gary was once successful but slipped up, leading to him becoming another victim of this war. There was hope for Gary but a lack of resources turned into into another statistic via incarceration launching him in the vicious free fall this war has created for so many of it’s victims.
The Corner is a powerful book that has the ability to change a once steadfast belief. This valuable perspective provides insight and has the power to make one question their own beliefs in a way not many books do.
