[Mb-hair] FW: Garrison Keillor on the drug war

[Michael Butler]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Mha Atma Khalsa <drmhaatma at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 18:10:52 -0800 (PST)
To: Michale Butler <michael at michaelbutler.com>
Subject: Garrison Keillor on the drug war

 
  A Foul Tragedy
  Democrats fled in the face of danger
  
  By Garrison Keillor
  November 2, 2005
  http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2375/
  
  We Democrats are at our worst when we try to emulate
  Republicans as we did in signing onto the "war" on drugs
  that has ruined so many young lives.
  
  The cruelty of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 is
  stark indeed, as are the sentencing guidelines that
  impose mandatory minimum sentences for minor drug
  possession-guidelines in the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act
  that sailed through Congress without benefit of public
  hearings, drafted before an election by Democrats afraid
  to be labeled "soft on drugs." As a result, a marijuana
  grower can land in prison for life without parole while
  a murderer might be in for eight years. No rational
  person can defend this; it is a Dostoevskian nightmare
  and it exists only because politicians fled in the face
  of danger. That includes Bill Clinton, under whose
  administration the prosecution of Americans for
  marijuana went up hugely, so that now there are more
  folks in prison for marijuana than for violent crimes.
  More than for manslaughter or rape. This only makes
  sense in the fantasy world of Washington, where
  perception counts for more than reality. To an old
  Democrat, who takes a ground view of politics-What is
  the actual effect of this action on the lives of real
  people?-it is a foul tragedy that makes you feel guilty
  about enjoying your freedom.
  
  If suddenly on a Friday night the red lights flash and
  the cops yank your teenage son and his little envelope
  of marijuana into the legal meatgrinder and some bullet-
  headed prosecutor decides to flex his muscle and charge
  your teenager-because he had a .22 rifle in his upstairs
  bedroom closet-with a felony involving the use of a
  firearm, which under our brutal sentencing code means he
  can be put on ice for 20 years, and the prosecutor goes
  at him hammer and tong and convinces a passive jury and
  your boy's life is sacrificed so this creep can run for
  Congress next year-this is not your cross alone to bear.
  If the state cuts off your right hand with a meat
  cleaver on my account and I don't object, then it is my
  cleaver and my fingerprints on it.
  
  I don't dare visit Sandstone Federal Prison here in
  Minnesota for fear of what I'd see there: People who
  chose marijuana, a more benign drug than alcohol, and
  got caught in the religious war that we Democrats in a
  weak moment signed onto. God help us if we form alliance
  with such bullies as would destroy a kid's life for
  raising cannabis plants.
  
  Garrison Keillor is the host and writer of A Prairie
  Home Companion, now in its 26th year on the air.
  
  
  

        
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