If The Rumors . . .
If the rumors about Joe Biden’s daughter are true, then I hope she is treated with compassion. It’s not fair that the spotlight shines on her, and I feel uncomfortable even writing about this, except that it does implicate a matter of public policy, and we need to talk about the War on Drugs.
The trend, of course, is that the children of the powerful are exempted from the criminal sanctions applied to normal people. Biden, as much as anyone, is responsible for the draconian laws that apply to the normal. Perhaps this incident, if it did happen, will make Biden a more compassionate person. We desperately need more compassion from our leaders.
Our President oversees an executive branch that puts people in jail for doing things he did when he was young. This is unlikely to change. He will keep putting people in jail for this. He will laugh when people want to talk about it. This is wrong. This is cruel. This is unconscionable.
We would not be better off if we’d put Obama in jail for drugs; if we’d precluded him from becoming a lawyer; if we’d derailed him from his life. Who can say that there aren’t a thousand Obamas sitting in prisons right now?… people who would have gone on to do great things, but we wouldn’t let them.
I deplore drugs; I don’t think anyone should use them. I think they destroy a lot of lives. But the War on Drugs destroys more lives. Using drugs didn’t destroy Obama’s life; going to prison would have. Why don’t we talk about this? Why don’t reporters ask him about this?
From this week’s Time Magazine:
It’s a war without a clear enemy. Anything waged against a shapeless, intangible noun can never truly be won — President Clinton’s drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey said as much in 1996. And yet, within the past 40 years, the U.S. government has spent over $2.5 trillion dollars fighting the War on Drugs. Despite the ad campaigns, increased incarceration rates and a crackdown on smuggling, the number of illicit drug users in America has risen over the years and now sits at 19.9 million Americans.
That’s just part of of the toll inflicted by the War on Drugs. There’s also the epidemic of botched paramilitary police raids. There’s the racial disparity in sentencing, which prevents the healing of old wounds. There’s the destruction of families.
No reasonable person could look at the War on Drugs and decide that change isn’t necessary. Let’s have Change; real Change; not just a slogan on a sign, but actual Change. All of you who voted for Obama … make him be the leader he promised to be; press him to be more than words; convince him not to look away. Chide him for laughing in the face of tragedy. Call him out on his hypocrisy. Hold his hand and lead him to the courage he aspires to. Lift him as high as his rhetoric. Demand more from him. That knee-jerk reaction that makes you want to defend him or rationalize his actions … stifle it. This is not the time for petty politics and gamesmanship. This is not a matter of convenience. Lives hang in the balance. Teach him that these lives do matter … every one of them. And make him see that inaction is complicity.
