Elle Degeneres is fantastic. If you don't believe me then watch her show. And here I was thinking I wasn't going to like it and Sharon's show was gonna be better. Pssst, Sharon's show kinda sucks. But I still love her. Cause ya know, we're good pals and all.
I've been reading The Corner by David Simon and Edward Burns lately. It's amazing...in a highly disturbing and depressing sort of way. It reminds me of when I had to read Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol, just a tad. ((yes, I had to read that for Freshman Year Seminar in college)). Im sure a ton of you, whoever you are, have heard of The Corner because of the mini series that was made out of it. I haven't seen that yet but look forward to it when I finish the book. Anyhow, Im reading this particularly disturbing part. Disturbing enough that I started a long conversation about it with the boy last nite. I just want to share some tidbits of the last few pages that I've read.
"...the public [alcohol] consumption law posed a dilemma: You could try to enforce it, in which case you'd never have time for any other kind of police work; or you could look the other way, in which case you'd be opening yourself to all kinds of disrespect from people who figure that if a cop is ignoring one illegal act, he'll probably care little about a half-dozen others.
But when the first wino dropped the first bottle of elderberry into the first paper bag...the point was moot. The paper bag allowed the smokehounds to keep their smoke, just as it alloweded the beat cop a modicum of respect."
"But with no equivalent to the bag in the war on drugs, there can be no equilibrium on the corners, no accomodation between the drug subculture and those policing it,...Granted, a paper-bag solution wouldn't reduce the power of addiction, or steal any of the profit, or mitigate the disaster of a single life lost to narcotics, it is in no sense a cure for the drug epidemic. But there is still a priceless lesson in the idea, a valuable bit of beat-cop sensibility that could rescue both the patrolmen and their prey from their own worst excesses...we might have saved ourselves from the psychic costs of the drug war- the utter alienation of an underclass from it's government, the wedding of that alienation to a ruthless economic engine, and finally, the birth of an outlaw philosophy as ugly and enraged as hate and despair can produce-"
I shared this portion with you because to me it points out a simple common logic kind of solution to some of the problems they face in the drug war. The bottom line, I feel, is that there is no way on this earth that the drug war will ever end or be won. This is my opinion. Drugs will always be around, as long as there are doctors to give out prescriptions, people with low self esteem or any other personal problems of which they feel drugs are the answer or as long as there are people out there looking for a "good" time that doesn't involve being sober. Drugs will never go away. So is the "drug war" just a big fat waste of time?
No, I don't really think so. There are drugs out there that have always scared the crap out of me and it boggles my mind that people let themselves get addicted to these things and waste their lives away in a haze. However, because Im not one of those people, I can never understand their "need" for it. Their lack of something that drives them to this life of slowly killing themselves. Perhaps this is what Darwin was talking about?
Anyhow, the chapter continues on about the constant struggle on the other end of the stick. Prisons. There's not enough room, obviously most of us already are aware of this "problem." They, particularly the Baltimore courts, have to save the room they do have for the major offenders; murderers, rapists, etc. What can they do with these drug offenders? Put them in probation, rehab centers, detention, a nite or two in lock up. Putting them in a high security prison takes money and space needed for the afore mentioned "major offenders."
Im really not so hot and expressing how I feel. I have no solutions. I'm not sure if there are any solutions. But I'll share with you the one line that seriously got to me enough that I wrote it down in a paper journal...
"Soon enough, you're spending more to lock a man down than it would cost to enroll him at Harvard."
This is so wrong on so many levels. It costs the government nothing to build a prison because they just add it to the national defecit, yet the states themselves must work out the budgets and costs of maintaining them. There's why building new prisons would cause a problem.
Why can't we send them to Harvard instead? Why can't we take these children and families out of there and give them something better? Im sure there's a good reason why and doing that for some reason or another would make no sense. But if financial issues are the only problem, then it seems it would be more cost effective to try and help them rather than throw them in prison.
I am by no means an expert on this subject. It's all brand new to me as I read this chapter. I didn't know that the rate of arrest for drug charges in Baltimore was three times that of L.A. and Philadelphia and two times that of Detroit and New York. It all just makes me sad and confused. Where is common sense? Where is the logic in any of this? Who knows. But it has driven me to want to learn more, so I spose that's a good thing.
Right, so Im done for now. I have no idea if any of this makes sense, just thought I would try and share some bits with you so it might interest you to pick up this book as well. It's an amazing piece of journalism.
I've been reading The Corner by David Simon and Edward Burns lately. It's amazing...in a highly disturbing and depressing sort of way. It reminds me of when I had to read Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol, just a tad. ((yes, I had to read that for Freshman Year Seminar in college)). Im sure a ton of you, whoever you are, have heard of The Corner because of the mini series that was made out of it. I haven't seen that yet but look forward to it when I finish the book. Anyhow, Im reading this particularly disturbing part. Disturbing enough that I started a long conversation about it with the boy last nite. I just want to share some tidbits of the last few pages that I've read.
"...the public [alcohol] consumption law posed a dilemma: You could try to enforce it, in which case you'd never have time for any other kind of police work; or you could look the other way, in which case you'd be opening yourself to all kinds of disrespect from people who figure that if a cop is ignoring one illegal act, he'll probably care little about a half-dozen others.
But when the first wino dropped the first bottle of elderberry into the first paper bag...the point was moot. The paper bag allowed the smokehounds to keep their smoke, just as it alloweded the beat cop a modicum of respect."
"But with no equivalent to the bag in the war on drugs, there can be no equilibrium on the corners, no accomodation between the drug subculture and those policing it,...Granted, a paper-bag solution wouldn't reduce the power of addiction, or steal any of the profit, or mitigate the disaster of a single life lost to narcotics, it is in no sense a cure for the drug epidemic. But there is still a priceless lesson in the idea, a valuable bit of beat-cop sensibility that could rescue both the patrolmen and their prey from their own worst excesses...we might have saved ourselves from the psychic costs of the drug war- the utter alienation of an underclass from it's government, the wedding of that alienation to a ruthless economic engine, and finally, the birth of an outlaw philosophy as ugly and enraged as hate and despair can produce-"
I shared this portion with you because to me it points out a simple common logic kind of solution to some of the problems they face in the drug war. The bottom line, I feel, is that there is no way on this earth that the drug war will ever end or be won. This is my opinion. Drugs will always be around, as long as there are doctors to give out prescriptions, people with low self esteem or any other personal problems of which they feel drugs are the answer or as long as there are people out there looking for a "good" time that doesn't involve being sober. Drugs will never go away. So is the "drug war" just a big fat waste of time?
No, I don't really think so. There are drugs out there that have always scared the crap out of me and it boggles my mind that people let themselves get addicted to these things and waste their lives away in a haze. However, because Im not one of those people, I can never understand their "need" for it. Their lack of something that drives them to this life of slowly killing themselves. Perhaps this is what Darwin was talking about?
Anyhow, the chapter continues on about the constant struggle on the other end of the stick. Prisons. There's not enough room, obviously most of us already are aware of this "problem." They, particularly the Baltimore courts, have to save the room they do have for the major offenders; murderers, rapists, etc. What can they do with these drug offenders? Put them in probation, rehab centers, detention, a nite or two in lock up. Putting them in a high security prison takes money and space needed for the afore mentioned "major offenders."
Im really not so hot and expressing how I feel. I have no solutions. I'm not sure if there are any solutions. But I'll share with you the one line that seriously got to me enough that I wrote it down in a paper journal...
"Soon enough, you're spending more to lock a man down than it would cost to enroll him at Harvard."
This is so wrong on so many levels. It costs the government nothing to build a prison because they just add it to the national defecit, yet the states themselves must work out the budgets and costs of maintaining them. There's why building new prisons would cause a problem.
Why can't we send them to Harvard instead? Why can't we take these children and families out of there and give them something better? Im sure there's a good reason why and doing that for some reason or another would make no sense. But if financial issues are the only problem, then it seems it would be more cost effective to try and help them rather than throw them in prison.
I am by no means an expert on this subject. It's all brand new to me as I read this chapter. I didn't know that the rate of arrest for drug charges in Baltimore was three times that of L.A. and Philadelphia and two times that of Detroit and New York. It all just makes me sad and confused. Where is common sense? Where is the logic in any of this? Who knows. But it has driven me to want to learn more, so I spose that's a good thing.
Right, so Im done for now. I have no idea if any of this makes sense, just thought I would try and share some bits with you so it might interest you to pick up this book as well. It's an amazing piece of journalism.
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