Jennifer L. Rubenzer wrote:
Me: So what your saying is that we don't disagree.WM: We disagree. The police are so bare bones at this juncture that they don't have time to do all their work, let alone initiate any proactive measures to stem the growth of problems.
And government interference has been tried and doesn't work.WM: Not exactly accurate. Government interventions are invariably badly funded and subject to the whim of changing leadership. At the same time bad ideas promulgated by government go on interminably. The "war on drugs" being a glaring one.
WM: I'm not either self righteous or stupid enough to address the drug dealers, prostituted women, drug and alcohol abusers all geeked to the eyeballs, many armed. They are angry, forlorn, on drugs the provenance of they have no idea. I could step across the street, where they are nested in since about 6pm yesterday (having picked the lock on one of the car dealers vehicles), and talk to them. They know that. From their point of view they have several choices, all bad.How many of us are comfortable looking at a behavior and instead of calling it a persons right to make what we know is a bad choice, stand up and say it's a WRONG choice? We're so afraid of moral judgments, we excuse behavior and perpetuate the problem.
Are you going to walk into someone's house, uninvited, and do a critique of their lives? How would you feel if the situation were reversed and the truly hopeless were allowed to come in and run the dozens on you?
Many of Bill Cosby's recent speeches have merit and speak to the issues of a beautiful culture that has been kidnapped by a excuses and lack of personal responsibility.WM: Bill Cosby has some things going for him that neither you nor I do. He's extremely bright, he lived on the fringes of the culture you are presuming I'm talking about as a kid, and he's well respected in his community because he escaped poverty and got extremely rich and he's funny. I grew up in a city where fewer than half the traditional scofflaws were black, the other half were white. The culture of poverty, if you will, has existed since before the Pharaohs. It's incredibly resistant to change. And the people who are in it understand, in a sort of vague way, that they would not be poor if there were not those who were incredibly wealthy. They never see the incredibly wealthy, except maybe on TV, but they do see people who appear to have a life that is head and shoulders above theirs--and they resent it. They have no idea how to break the cycle of poverty, but they do not trust those who are not in poverty to tell them the truth about how to get out of poverty.
All the same, I would like to have enough police officers so that there will not be another instance of my foster kid (now adult) being held at gunpoint on our front porch by two men who followed him home from the bank on pay day. That might not have happened if the police had the troops to keep an eagle eye on Park and Lake. When the cops can deploy an officer squad to sit on that corner, things are quieter--crimus interruptus.
WizardMarks, Central ________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
REMINDERS:
1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
