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LEAP on the Hill - September 28, 2007 ( 1214 reads) |
Friday, October 12, 2007 (19:05:58) |
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Lest We Forget: Every three months the Director of the Open Society Institute, Nkechi Taifa invites all those in the DC area who work on social and criminal justice issues to come together to learn and share. This week the usual 45-50 suspects showed up and after two hours we were about done. Nkechi asked a woman to talk about her idea/project. This woman wants to try to establish a method where persons could donate their frequent flyer miles in order to provide free airfare for those parents who do not have the resources to fly to an out-of-state prison. The room nodded in agreement that the idea had merit. The woman went on to say that she has a 19 year old son doing a 30 year mandatory minimum and a 15 year old she is worried about. She was thanking the assembled professionals for our dedication to help moms like her, when halfway thru, she broke down and sobbed.
Yes, we constantly read about individuals chewed up and ground down by the system. It is quite another thing to have victims express themselves in person. Last year drug prohibition created nearly 1.9 million moms like her. Lest we forget.
Shake my head: On Friday I attended the annual seminars put on by the Congressional Black Caucus. The issue was gangs, violence and drugs. I listened for hours as 10 experts bemoaned the growth in gangs, their violence and the link to illegal drugs. No one had the courage to say the obvious, so I did:
The Drug War is the most immoral, dysfunctional policy since slavery. The black community was first butchered by slavery. Then, they were terrorized by Jim Crow. In the ‘60s about the time Jim Crow ended, the country began the war on drugs, which took the place of Jim Crow. The growth of gangs and their violence is a direct result of drug prohibition. The policy gives a job option for 15 year olds to sell drugs on the sidewalk, which gets them killed. I hope one day soon the Congressional Black Caucus will pass a resolution calling for the end of the war on drugs. The policy should be: if you have a drug problem, see a doctor, not a prison.
The 80 people in the room gave me a nice applause. The experts and members of Congress did not applaud. Later an African-American came up and said mine were the most salient comments made during the entire seminar. At the wine and cheese reception thingy afterwards, another 6 or so said my ideas were spot on. As I rode the Metro back to my pickup truck, I kept racking my brain about how to get my message out so that the leaders and gatekeepers would actually take action. Any ideas? |
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