Meshugginah posts, and other things sundry

[Charles F. Albert]

Vaska opines:
> They might even start demanding, and vehemently too, some real job training
> programs for some real jobs -- not to mention better housing, medical care,
> decent schools and other minor things of the kind...

Except that it may have little to do with the problem. I have spoken 
to some on the front line that have become quite disillusioned with 
the idea that the constituency in question is receptive to such 
programs. Not that I am crazy about the idea of sitting idly by, but 
there may be something, after all, to the simplistic drivel about 
"values education" as much as it galls me to credit the morons who 
sing it.
Recent studies have suggested that young mothers who were enrolled in 
a substantial federal program to keep them in school show no long 
term benefits from the assistance. Immigrants recently arrived on 
these shores speak disparagingly of the dependence and victim status 
in which many of their stateside brethren wallow, and many go to 
tremendous lengths not to subscribe to programs available to them.
I still won't vote for any yahoo that calls for the dismantling of 
federal assistance programs, but one has to begin to wonder whether 
the answer may lay elsewhere.

> >Besides that, who says most drug dealers are black or hispanic or urban?
> 
> They are the ones who tend to do time, though...  
A shameful legacy of the War on Drugs. Statistically blacks and 
hispanics are less prone to hard drug use than whites. Current laws 
have created drug marts in areas of urban blight, managed by its 
inhabitants for the benefit of people from the high rent districs and 
suburbs where such activity is not tolerated. A few years ago a 
Boston Globe scribbler looked into the demographics of heroin dealing 
in a Dorchester neighbourhood. Less than 5% of the customers were 
local, the rest from more "gentrified" zip codes. These laws are a 
disgrace, and we are reaping a bitter harvest. People who insist on 
the criminal model for illegal drug use management usually have some 
financial stake therein, they should be dragged out of their homes 
and buggywhipped into a deep sleep in front of their families.
love,
cfa, who wishes things were different.