Susan Maricle: That's a novel perspective. Drugs cause loitering and foul language? I don't think so. I think the idle lifestyle that fosters drug business is reciprocally related to loitering and foul language. Not completely sure what all the reasons for it are, though my first reaction is "Well, how many years have we accept a double-digit unemployment rate for black youth?" Have you EVER seen anyone of any color say "This is a tragedy, a crisis, we need to stop it and stop it soon"?
It is foolish to try to suggest that you can leave that problem alone and resolve the problems you mention MERELY by going after the drug business. In any case, if loitering and foul language are against the law, they are among the MANY laws that are dead laws. And anti-drug laws are nearly so, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars WASTED trying to cure a symptom of a sick culture. Our richest corporations push drugs. It is a drug culture. Many people in my clan swear by drugs, though they are of the "legal" kind. And people who aren't addicted to drugs are addicted to something else (child pornography, the lottery). Do you seriously believe you will exterminate one form of addiction in a society that reeks of it. As I said, Don claims that the reason he is against drug dealing is the shooting of innocent people. Well, then make a campaign against the thing which you fear. But don't tell yourself it has one cause. It doesnt. It is the outgrowth of a culture, and you cannot make a pretty lawn when you are using dirt full of weed seeds. Work on the real causes, and stop playing the "game" of scapegoating a culture that you know will be here a long, long time (in which regard, the Supreme Court has on its docket a lawsuit to prevent Maine from getting check prescriptions for its people, filed by the big corporate pushers. -------------- Jim Mork--Cooper "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our Country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out." Gen. William T. Sherman (1864) Letter to the Mayor of Atlanta. Get your free Web-based E-mail at http://www.startribune.com/stribmail TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ 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
