HOW TO END THE WAR NEXT DOOR!—a CALL FOR REFORM PDQ, AMERICA!
HOW TO END THE WAR NEXT DOOR!—a CALL FOR REFORM PDQ, AMERICA!
By Kevin Stoda, non-drug-user but angry about waste of lives and money for decades
Today, in the daily DEMOCRACY NOW [DN] News Program, the following was reported in Afghanistan:
“The US military . . . has confirmed it’s ended poppy eradication in several areas of Afghanistan. US forces have previously targeted Afghan farmers responsible for poppy crops that produce large quantities of opium and heroin. But the US says it’s ended the eradications in a bid to win over Afghan support. A US military official said, ‘We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.’”
http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,1973998,00.html
I think that is an important phrase to repeat in NORTH AMERICA, don’t you?
“We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.”
Let’s Stop the WAR ON AMERICAN—alias THE WAR ON DRUGS--, or better known as America’s Longest War.
THAT WAR on DRUGS has been extremely wasteful of the lives’ of minorities and marginalized Americans for decades.
Even the enforcer of the U.S. War on Drugs, i.e. the so-called DRUG CZAR, Gil Kerlikowske, has called for the END of the WAR. In 2009, he said, "Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124225891527617397.html
This is how most people in North America, see the issue: “What there is is a cynical program of political duplicity; the intent of which is not to prevent drug abuse (which it encourages), but to create a climate of distrust, fear, hostility, alienation, divisiveness, and violence within our society. The so called ‘War on Drugs’ is in reality a war of cultural prejudice waged primarily against the young, the poor, the non-white and the socially disaffected to the advantage of the Elected, the Corporate, the Privileged and the Few.”
http://www.lycaeum.org/drugwar/
Last Charles Bowden spoke last week on DN on the topic of “The War Next Door”. Bowden was speaking just after US foreign service personnel were killed in violence near Juarez, Mexico—the murder capital of the world thanks to our “border wars”. Bowden noted:
“We’re spending $30 to $40 billion a year on narcotics officers in this country. Every state in the union, if you get out of the house and drive, is now studded with little prisons, some private. They’re all dependent on the—on laws outlawing drugs. The income from drugs in Mexico exceeds all other sources of foreign currency, except possibly oil, and that’s debatable. In other words, if President Calderon succeeded in his claimed goal of eradicating the drug industry in Mexico, Mexico would collapse in a minute. That’s what I mean. I mean, why don’t we face the fact that drugs are like alcohol? They’re part of our culture now. They’re not going away. If we want to make them illegal, we can continue to live the way we have: imprisoning our own people, creating a police state, having prisons everywhere. But no matter what we do, they’re going to be in the neighborhood, just as they are.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/16/charles_bowden_on_the_war_next
Bowden continued, “There was an interesting government study released a while ago that said 232 American cities now have the presence of Mexican drug organizations. Well, look, I’m a little older, possibly, than some of your listeners, but if you bought a joint in 1975, it wasn’t coming from Finland or some place. They’ve always been here. It’s a market. All we’ve got to decide is whether it’s legal or illegal. That’s it. It’s like gambling. It’s got a life of its own. But we are destroying, or helping to destroy, a country next door by our policies. Although there are many explanations for the problems in Mexico, and most of them lie with Mexicans, but certainly our economic policy, NAFTA, our drug policies, the war on drugs, and our militarization of the country have proven to be nothing but a disaster for the Mexican people.”
People, like me who see the connections between the war on drugs, war on terror, and the military industrial complex running the political-, social- and economic landscapes of good-hard working (when there are jobs) Americans think that the current policy in Afghanistan’s poppy fields should be as soon as possible the liaise faire approach of the U.S. military in Afghanistan. “[D]on’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.’”
COME ON CONGRESS
Tell your congressmen to get America’s military- and incarceration budgets under the 1% level of the U.S. ASAP.
Imagine, how such a revolutionary political approach came from local, national and regional leadership and pulpit punchers.
DON’T TRAMPLE THE LIVELHOOD OF THOSE WE’RE TRYIING TO WIN OVER!!!
By Kevin Stoda, non-drug-user but angry about waste of lives and money for decades
Today, in the daily DEMOCRACY NOW [DN] News Program, the following was reported in Afghanistan:
“The US military . . . has confirmed it’s ended poppy eradication in several areas of Afghanistan. US forces have previously targeted Afghan farmers responsible for poppy crops that produce large quantities of opium and heroin. But the US says it’s ended the eradications in a bid to win over Afghan support. A US military official said, ‘We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.’”
http://www.time.com/time/quotes/0,26174,1973998,00.html
I think that is an important phrase to repeat in NORTH AMERICA, don’t you?
“We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.”
Let’s Stop the WAR ON AMERICAN—alias THE WAR ON DRUGS--, or better known as America’s Longest War.
THAT WAR on DRUGS has been extremely wasteful of the lives’ of minorities and marginalized Americans for decades.
Even the enforcer of the U.S. War on Drugs, i.e. the so-called DRUG CZAR, Gil Kerlikowske, has called for the END of the WAR. In 2009, he said, "Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124225891527617397.html
This is how most people in North America, see the issue: “What there is is a cynical program of political duplicity; the intent of which is not to prevent drug abuse (which it encourages), but to create a climate of distrust, fear, hostility, alienation, divisiveness, and violence within our society. The so called ‘War on Drugs’ is in reality a war of cultural prejudice waged primarily against the young, the poor, the non-white and the socially disaffected to the advantage of the Elected, the Corporate, the Privileged and the Few.”
http://www.lycaeum.org/drugwar/
Last Charles Bowden spoke last week on DN on the topic of “The War Next Door”. Bowden was speaking just after US foreign service personnel were killed in violence near Juarez, Mexico—the murder capital of the world thanks to our “border wars”. Bowden noted:
“We’re spending $30 to $40 billion a year on narcotics officers in this country. Every state in the union, if you get out of the house and drive, is now studded with little prisons, some private. They’re all dependent on the—on laws outlawing drugs. The income from drugs in Mexico exceeds all other sources of foreign currency, except possibly oil, and that’s debatable. In other words, if President Calderon succeeded in his claimed goal of eradicating the drug industry in Mexico, Mexico would collapse in a minute. That’s what I mean. I mean, why don’t we face the fact that drugs are like alcohol? They’re part of our culture now. They’re not going away. If we want to make them illegal, we can continue to live the way we have: imprisoning our own people, creating a police state, having prisons everywhere. But no matter what we do, they’re going to be in the neighborhood, just as they are.”
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/16/charles_bowden_on_the_war_next
Bowden continued, “There was an interesting government study released a while ago that said 232 American cities now have the presence of Mexican drug organizations. Well, look, I’m a little older, possibly, than some of your listeners, but if you bought a joint in 1975, it wasn’t coming from Finland or some place. They’ve always been here. It’s a market. All we’ve got to decide is whether it’s legal or illegal. That’s it. It’s like gambling. It’s got a life of its own. But we are destroying, or helping to destroy, a country next door by our policies. Although there are many explanations for the problems in Mexico, and most of them lie with Mexicans, but certainly our economic policy, NAFTA, our drug policies, the war on drugs, and our militarization of the country have proven to be nothing but a disaster for the Mexican people.”
People, like me who see the connections between the war on drugs, war on terror, and the military industrial complex running the political-, social- and economic landscapes of good-hard working (when there are jobs) Americans think that the current policy in Afghanistan’s poppy fields should be as soon as possible the liaise faire approach of the U.S. military in Afghanistan. “[D]on’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.’”
COME ON CONGRESS
Tell your congressmen to get America’s military- and incarceration budgets under the 1% level of the U.S. ASAP.
Imagine, how such a revolutionary political approach came from local, national and regional leadership and pulpit punchers.
DON’T TRAMPLE THE LIVELHOOD OF THOSE WE’RE TRYIING TO WIN OVER!!!
Labels: HOW TO END THE WAR NEXT DOOR a CALL FOR REFORM PDQ AMERICA
posted by Kevin Anthony Stoda at 7:28 PM
1 Comments:
ONE READER COMMENTED:
One need not travel to China to find indigenous cultures lacking human rights. America leads the world in percentile behind bars, thanks to the ongoing open season on hippies, commies, and non-whites in the war on drugs. Cops get good performance reviews for shooting fish in a barrel. If we’re all about spreading liberty abroad, then why mix the message at home? Peace on the home front would enhance global credibility.
The drug czar’s Rx for prison fodder costs dearly, as lives are flushed down expensive tubes. My shaman’s second opinion is that psychoactive plants are God’s gift. Behold, it’s all good. When Eve ate the apple, she knew a good apple, and an evil prohibition. Canadian Marc Emery is being extradited to prison for helping American farmers reduce U. S. demand for Mexican pot.
The CSA (Controlled Substances Act of 1970) reincarnates Al Capone, endangers homeland security, and throws good money after bad. Fiscal policy burns tax dollars to root out the number-one cash crop in the land, instead of taxing sales. Society rejected the plague of prohibition, but it mutated. Apparently, SWAT teams don’t need no stinking amendment.
Nixon passed the CSA on the false assurance that the Schafer Commission would later justify criminalizing his enemies, but he underestimated Schafer’s integrity. No amendments can assure due process under an anti-science law without due process itself. Psychology hailed the breakthrough potential of LSD, until the CSA shut down research, and pronounced that marijuana has no medical use. Former U.K. chief drugs advisor Prof. Nutt was sacked for revealing that non-smoked cannabis intake is scientifically healthy.
The RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993) allows Native American Church members to eat peyote, which functions like LSD. Americans shouldn’t need a specific church membership or an act of Congress to obtain their birthright freedom of religion. God’s children’s free exercise of religious liberty may include entheogen sacraments to mediate communion with their maker.
Freedom of speech presupposes freedom of thought. The Constitution doesn’t enumerate any governmental power to embargo diverse states of mind. How and when did government usurp this power to coerce conformity? The Mayflower sailed to escape coerced conformity. Legislators who would limit cognitive liberty lack jurisdiction.
Common-law holds that adults are the legal owners of their own bodies. The Founding Fathers undersigned that the right to the pursuit of happiness is inalienable. Socrates said to know your self. Mortal lawmakers should not presume to thwart the intelligent design that molecular keys unlock spiritual doors. Persons who appreciate their own free choice of path in life should tolerate seekers’ self-exploration. Liberty is prerequisite for tracking drug-use intentions and outcomes.
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