Captain Capslock (12/1/2002):"Someone travels down Franklin regularly and never is offered drugs or sees a drug dealer? I have one question, what color is the sky in that person's world? I can and will believe that one time Jim Mork might have traveled that route and had not seen a drug dealer. After all, there is the chance of a monkey writing a novel while playing on the computer. To believe Mr. Mork could travel that way regularly and not see a drug dealer is to tell me that the monkey can write an encyclopedia." http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2002-December/018943.html
Barb Lickness(12/5/2002):"Just how blatant do you think these drug dealers are? Do you think they walk around with sandwich signs saying I deal drugs and here's the menu? Those of us who have LIVED with this problem for years know the signs. There are many of them. Here's an example: Crack head calls his local supplier. The supplier slips the Mickey D's bag in the bush on Franklin and 3rd by the gas station that serves as the drop point for the drugs. You pull the bag out, slip in your $20 and take your little rock of crack. Away you go with no human interaction." http://www.mnforum.org/pipermail/mpls/2002-December/019087.html The Captain thinks it outrageously blatant. Barb thinks it is so subtle that only the trained eye can hope to see it. Now, remembering we're talking FRANKLIN, here, not just any place in Philips or Central, and if the Captain is right, I think it should be obvious. But maybe the captain was using poetic license to cast a bigger shadow. I don't know. I do know that I don't plan to assume it will be obvious when it starts up here in Cooper. I've already told SAFE that I don't want someone to die before I learn to SEE it. And SAFE agrees. By the way, the captain asks if we read the Star Tribune and Mpls Issues. Then as "proof" the captain quotes HIMSELF. Uh, cap' old buddy, I didn't say you hadnt been complaining. I'll take it on faith that you always did. And, no, I don't have a long history of sampling your views on the situation in Minneapolis. But if a very large number people agree with those views, I shouldnt have to have read something here on Memorial Day. As for the other list participants who doubt that drug activity wasn't going on, imagine you are called on to testify and the defense attorney is in your face. WHAT will you tell the jury makes you so certain that people deal drugs on Franklin? Did you BUY some? Did you see huge amounts of money passing hands between people who didn't look like millionaire. As Wendy's used to say: Where's the beef? As for Steve Meldahl's thermostatic woes, I think there are some people who shouldnt be living here. Obviously, the weather they want is Floridian. With all the job ops in the South, why do they live here where they must set their heat to 80 degrees to feel comfortable? Me, I love winter. 65 is fine for me all year long. There's been a lot of talk here about how to get candidates elected with a majority of votes cast. But I'd like to make another suggestion. I'm sort of bouncing off Vicky's theme of "voting ourselves other people's money". I'm sure she meant to imply "other people like us here in North Oaks". I'm sure that people who live in North Oaks ASSUME most money spent is from them or people like them. She forgets, of course, all the opportunities the rich have to shield their income. But still, I kinda like that point. Why should I get to vote how YOUR money is spent? And maybe the rich take vengeance through corrupting tax laws for the "one man one vote" principle. They are equated to people who pay little taxes, so they feel they MUST pay little taxes to keep their money from politicians elected by the less-affluent majority. So that makes me wonder if we shouldnt change the composition of government. There are a whole raft of political issues that aren't money issues. For example, should we or should we not prosecute drug use. That has nothing to do with how much taxes you pay. So, I think laws like that should be considered by a system that treats every citizen equally. But when it comes around to money issues, why SHOULD a burger flipper be considered "equal" with a rock star who pays millions in taxes? Why not let citizens vote their tax dollars, and let the chips fall where they may. My thought here is that this will hurt those people who are too clever to pay any taxes. They will no longer get to decide how the money of people who DO pay taxes is spent. But the rich people who do fork over big money to government will suddenly have big clout in electing the new legislative authority which has final say on SPENDING tax collections. One thing I think this will reduce massively are the "unfunded mandates". We'll only end up mandating what the taxpayers believe is important enough to SPEND money on. And it also means that we won't fight wars under the influence of tax cheats. Wars will be funded by the representatives of people who cough up tax money to government. Their money will be guaranteed to be where their mouth is. What I really hate most about our political institutions is the PHONINESS. All the laws we pass that are meaningless but which allow politicans to claim "we did something". I think that will end when the funding decisions are real. No law requiring funding goes anywhere unless the real taxpayers (rich or poor) back it. If that means a LOT less laws, but more REAL laws, I'm for it. Right now I'd like to see every law and ordinance repealed if it isnt enforced. My theory is the books will lose weight so fast Jenny Craig will blush. By the way, Captain, I don't doubt for a second crime goes on in Philips. I'm just challenging your lurid overdramatization of it. ===== Jim Mork -- Cooper Neighborhood ________________________________ Help stop spam -- Join SpamCon Foundation, http://www.spamcon.org __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
