Maptalk-Digest Wednesday, December 30 1998 Volume 98 : Number 510
Re: Jacob Sullum: Subtle As A Frying Pan
From: Phil Smith <>
Fwd: SENT LTE: Courier-Journal (KY)
From: Mark Greer <>
Fwd: Hypocrisy Abounds
From: Mark Greer <>
SENT: Washington Post
From: Paul Wolf <>
Response to Immigration Similar to Anti-Drug Hysteria
From: Jim Rosenfield <>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subj: Re: Jacob Sullum: Subtle As A Frying Pan
From: Phil Smith <>
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 10:53:31 -0800 (PST)
Hi all,
If anyone would like to see the "campy" images Jacob Sullum describes below,
particularly the lurid book covers for William Irish's "Marihuana," as well
as "Reefer Girl," "Dream Club" and "The Pusher," the graphics are all posted
on the "Quotes about the War on Some Drug Users" page at the Portland NORML
site:
http://www.pdxnorml.org/quotes.html
(Someday when I get a copy of Adobe Photoshop Deluxe again I'll use the
anti-moire effect on the newer photos - the software I have now doesn't let
you clean up the images as nicely as it should.)
Phil Smith
webmaster
pdxnorml.org
At 11:23 AM 12/24/98 +0000, you wrote:
>Pubdate: 22 Dec 98
>Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (MN)
>Contact:
>Website: http://www.pioneerplanet.com/
>Forum: http://www.pioneerplanet.com/watercooler/
>Copyright: 1998 PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press
>Author: Jacob Sullum, syndicated columnist
>
>SUBTLE AS A FRYING PAN
>
>Today's hit-you-over-the-head anti-drug propaganda can't help but
>become tomorrow's camp.
>
>The other day, I passed a car with a bumper sticker that read ``DARE
>to Think for Yourself.'' At first, I thought it was a satirical jab at
>Drug Abuse Resistance Education, the mindlessly puritanical program
>that is omnipresent in American schools despite a lack of evidence
>that it does any good.
>
>On reflection, though, I wasn't sure how to interpret the exhortation
>on the sticker. DARE purports to teach kids how to resist ``peer
>pressure,'' so its promoters probably do see themselves as encouraging
>independent thinking.
>
>According to this view, only a true iconoclast accepts the
>government's claims about drugs at face value. That conviction, of
>course, makes the bumper sticker even funnier; the only question is
>whether the humor was intended. I'm inclined to think it wasn't, since
>public discussion of the drug issue is rife with messages that subvert
>themselves.
>
>Look down in the men's room of certain restaurants, and you will see
>``Just Say No to Drugs'' imprinted on the perforated plastic liner at
>the bottom of the urinal. Leaf through a catalog of school supplies,
>and you will come across various items bearing similar slogans,
>including the doormats kids trample as they enter and exit the building.
>
>In a similar vein, the Associated Press recently reported an
>embarrassing incident involving a Plainview, N.Y., business called the
>Bureau for At-Risk Youth. Last fall, the company marked Drug
>Prevention Week by distributing special pencils to hundreds of schools
>around the country.
>
>``Too Cool to Do Drugs,'' the pencils proclaimed. But after repeated
>sharpening, the message became ``Cool to Do Drugs'' and then simply
>``Do Drugs.''
>
>The problem -- discovered, aptly enough, by a fourth-grader in
>Ticonderoga, N.Y. -- led to a recall of the defective product. The AP
>story said, ``a new batch of pencils will have the message written in
>the opposite direction, so when they are sharpened, they (will) read
>`Too Cool to Do' and finally `Too Cool.'''
>
>Too Cool to Do? Apparently, the new pencils will encourage kids to be
>teachers instead of drug addicts.
>
>Sometimes anti-drug messages subvert themselves less directly. A
>memorable scene in the 1989 film ``Drugstore Cowboy'' shows
>protagonist Matt Dillon laughing as he watches an anti-drug commercial
>on TV. This sort of reaction is not limited to junkies who knock over
>pharmacies.
>
>When the Partnership for a Drug-Free America started airing its ``This
>is your brain on drugs'' ad in the 1980s, the eye-catching image of a
>frying egg must have seemed awfully clever. But the spot quickly
>generated a rash of lampoons -- including a T-shirt announcing ``This
>is your brain on drugs with a side of bacon'' -- that neutralized any
>power the message may have had to scare people.
>
>The Partnership clearly did not learn anything from that experience,
>because its latest batch of ads -- co-sponsored by the federal
>government and financed with your tax dollars -- includes a spot that
>plays off the fried-egg theme: A sexy young woman who exemplifies the
>skinny ``heroin chic'' look smashes an egg and wrecks a kitchen with a
>
>frying pan while screaming about the damage done by drug use.
>
>The Partnership has thus taken a concept that was not exactly subtle
>to begin with and transformed it into a very loud, over-the-top bit of
>hectoring. If the spot has not already been mocked on a sketch comedy
>show, it's only because broadcasters have promised to reinforce the
>government's ad campaign, which is bringing them a lot of money.
>
>The combination of titillation and moralism in the frying-pan ad is
>reminiscent of the old paperbacks that warned people away from drugs
>even while treating them to a salacious peek at the demimonde. ``A
>cheap and evil girl sets a hopped-up killer against a city,'' says the
>cover of William Irish's ``Marihuana,'' which shows a menacing man
>smoking a joint over the prone body of a woman in a low-cut red dress.
>
>Books with titles like ``Reefer Girl,'' ``Dream Club'' and ``The
>Pusher'' featured similar themes and illustrations. A sample of the
>covers is available as a set of magnets at a gift shop near my apartment.
>
>So if the folks at DARE, the Bureau for At-Risk Youth and the
>Partnership for a Drug-Free America ever wonder whether their work
>will amount to anything, they should take heart: Today's anti-drug
>propaganda is tomorrow's camp.
>
>>>>---
>Checked-by: Rich O'Grady
>
>
>
>
------------------------------
Subj: Fwd: SENT LTE: Courier-Journal (KY)
From: Mark Greer <>
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 08:56:50 -0800
>X-Authentication-Warning:americium.baremetal.com: mapinc set sender to
> using -f
>Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 09:55:00 -0500 (EST)
>From: Mike Gogulski <>
>To:
>Subject: SENT LTE: Courier-Journal (KY)
>
>Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 09:54:00 -0500 (EST)
>From: Mike Gogulski <>
>To:
>Cc: Mike Gogulski <>
>Subject: to the editor
>
>TO THE EDITORS:
>
>A DRUG PUSHER'S HYPOCRISY
>
>To hear a drug pusher like Ken Singer simultaneously bemoan the dangers
>of his drugs and also call for a crackdown on his competitors' business
>practices ("Liquor/Beer Regulations", Courier-Journal, 12/16/98) should
>give pause to even the most gullible among us.
>
>Singer calls for stricter quotas on beer licenses, removal of beer licenses
>from gas stations, and government shutdowns of entire grocery stores that
>happen to violate liquor or beer laws. All these measures should go a long
>way toward boosting sales volume at Mr. Singer's own Expressway Liquors.
>Surely even the Courier-Journal's most sodden readers must question Mr.
>Singer's disingenuous attempt to get government to intercede in his little
>market-making ploy.
>
>Also interesting to note is that Mr. Singer is President of the local
>chapter of Champions For a Drug Free Kentucky, whose mission is "to promote
>the prevention of alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse, and violence, in
>Kentucky Communities". Hypocrisy, you say, this consummate drug pusher
>lobbying for a "drug-free" Kentucky?
>
>Fear not, gentle reader, for though the Panel on the Understanding and
>Control of Violent Behavior concluded in 1994 that "Alcohol is the only
>psychoactive drug that in many individuals tends to increase aggressive
>behavior temporarily while it is taking effect," alcohol (whether delivered
>in beer or liquor form) is not a drug.
>
>One has to wonder how children take all this hypocrisy. It seems obvious
>to me in light of just-released government numbers showing teen drug use
>has neither increased nor decreased over the last two years (a "turning
>point" in Drug Warriorese), that they are simply shrugging off all the
>"messages" and inviting their friends to take drugs with them saying, "Let's
>go fry some eggs."
>
>Mike Gogulski
>[contact info]
>
>
Mark Greer
Executive Director
DrugSense
http://www.drugsense.org
http://www.mapinc.org
------------------------------
Subj: Fwd: Hypocrisy Abounds
From: Mark Greer <>
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 08:59:54 -0800
>X-Authentication-Warning:americium.baremetal.com: mapinc set sender to
> using -f
>X-WebTV-Signature: 1
> ETAuAhUAjRBqdGkviCuQZwlagOIMP90s4qMCFQCFi21or6HC6GMQ0U1WiNWMy2p3vw
>From: (Sandie Bjornson)
>Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 10:19:50 -0600 (CST)
>To:
>Cc:
>Subject: Hypocrisy Abounds
>
>After reading Ken Singers article on the web, i must reply in regard to
>his concern over regulation of beer and alcohol sales. More people die
>from the consumption of alcohol than any other drug available on the
>planet. Alcohol destroys more families and causes more violent behavior
>than any other drug, and yet we still have the hypocrisy of which drug
>is good and which drug is bad. Regulate and control all drugs which will
>reduce crime and
>end prohibition of some drugs. Alcohol reigns as the drug of choice and
>does the most harm.
>Sandie Bjornson
>Gilbertsville, KY 42044
>502-362-3268
>
>peace, love and hempiness!
>
Mark Greer
Executive Director
DrugSense
http://www.drugsense.org
http://www.mapinc.org
------------------------------
Subj: SENT: Washington Post
From: Paul Wolf <>
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 20:06:57 -0500
The Washington Post
1150 15th St. NW
Washington, D.C. 20071
Dear Editor:
I was disappointed in your December 27th article, “U.S. to Aid
Colombian Military: Drug-Dealing Rebels Take Toll on Army,”
particularly because it was reprinted in other newspapers.
You say that the rebel attack on the Miraflores base, in which
hundreds of automatic rifles and tens of thousands of rounds of
ammunition were stolen, adds urgency to the situation and justifies
further U.S. military aid. Perhaps you do not appreciate the scale
of the conflict.
In 1991 alone, the U.S. provided Colombia with over ten thousand
M14 and M16 rifles, 70,000 grenades, 3,000 Claymore mines, and
fifteen million rounds of ammunition. (1) This level of aid has
been maintained each year until recently, when it was tripled. We
have also provided Black Hawk helicopters equipped with rockets,
and high caliber gatling guns for Colombia’s fleet of fifty Hueys.
This military aid is reportedly used for coca crop eradication.
Colombia is now the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid
in the world, behind Egypt and Israel. This is hardly, as you
call it, a trickle.
You also say that while much of the weaponry has gone to the
Colombian navy and air force, it is the army which is guilty of
human rights abuses. According to U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy
(D-VT), the Barrancabarmeja navy intelligence network was set up
with the assistance of the CIA in 1991. (1) It is clear that
the navy intelligence network is used to identify rebels and
rebel sympathizers, and the paramilitary death squads are used to
kill them.
The United States has played a central role in this conflict
already. Of 247 military personnel linked to human rights
violations by the Latin America Working Group, 124 are graduates
of the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. (3)
These abuses have included hundreds of civilian massacres
(defined as the killing of four or more people at once) in a
policy called “draining the sea to kill the fish.” Attacking
civilians is a violation the Geneva convention. (4) The
primary targets of this policy have been human rights observers,
Catholic priests opposed to the war, and anyone supporting the
rebels. The primary purpose of the policy is to terrorize the
population.
It is a hoax to call this a war on drugs. Just as in Nicaragua,
we see that fighting communism is a higher priority than fighting
drugs. Too bad no one at the Washington Post is doing more than
quoting anonymous Pentagon sources.
Sincerely,
Paul Wolf
Colombia Support Network
(1) “Colombia’s Killer Networks: The Military-Paramilitary
Partnership and the United States,” Human Rights Watch
Publications, 1996 http://www.hrw.org
(2) Foreign Military Sales Facts, 1996, published by the U.S.
Defense Security Assistance Agency (DoD) see http://www.fas.org
(3) Colombian Human Rights Abuses Tied to School of Americas
Graduates, Press Release 07/23/98 from U.S. Rep. Joseph P.
Kennedy II (D-Mass.) http://www.house.gov/josephkennedy/soa7-23.htm
(4) 1977 Protocol Additional, Part IV, Art. 13.2
------------------------------
Subj: Response to Immigration Similar to Anti-Drug Hysteria
From: Jim Rosenfield <>
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1998 20:58:14 -0800
>Good find, Jim, but the drug connection won't be obvious enough. Thanks, PH
I thought that the connection for this article to our cause might not be
obvious,
but I think there is something very important here.
The "roundup" response to Immigration is similar to the anti-drug hysteria
we have all experienced.
Some well-meaning folks, in the interest of public "hygeine", law and order,
racial purity or whaever decide to do a big round up and get rid of "them".
they ake being one illegal or very inconvenient, or lethal. in this case,
the
injustice became very obvious and a vocal aggrieved group has stood up to
express rage at the unjust effect of such a
practice.
to me this is our case exactly, and we have something to learn from the
latin-Americans
who are making those white folks think twice about their "good idea"
how could pot users get the same kind of response?
>Source: Los Angeles Times
>Contact:
>Fax: 213-237-4712
>Pubdate: December 28, 1998
>Author: HECTOR TOBAR, Times Staff Writer
>
>An Ugly Stain on a City's Bright and Shining Plan
>Raids: In a roundup of illegal immigrants, Chandler, Ariz., snared many U.S.
>citizens who 'looked Mexican.'
>
>CHANDLER, Ariz.--The city fathers of this fast-growing Phoenix suburb
>had a plan to create a bright and shining center to their community, a
>downtown worthy of the self-proclaimed capital of "the Silicon Desert."
>
>The Police Department took the first step, with what soon became known
>as "the roundup," an apt term for a place where cattle still live side
>by side with the factories of high-tech giants Intel Corp. and
>Motorola Inc. A plan to clear the city of illegal immigrants, the July
>1997 roundup was a resounding success--and a plan gone horribly wrong.
>Too late did city officials realize that their five-day operation was
>targeting scores of legal residents and U.S. citizens who happened to
>"look Mexican," according to witnesses. The resulting controversy--a
>big-city-style brouhaha tinged with ethnic overtones--has consumed
>Chandler ever since. "They just can't stop people based on looks,"
>said Phoenix attorney Stephen Montoya, who has filed a $35-million
>lawsuit against the city. "They thought the Hispanic community would
>not unite against this, but we did."
>
>Just this month, the city manager officially reprimanded Police Chief
>Bobby Joe Harris for the way he conducted the raid, while a group of
>Latino activists launched a recall against the mayor and two City
>Council members.
>
>Much to the dismay of leaders in this city of 143,000 people, the
>drama long ago took on a life of its own. The next chapter may come in
>February in a federal courtroom in Phoenix, when opening arguments are
>scheduled in Montoya's civil rights suit. At the same time, the
>Arizona Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will
>hold hearings on the affair. The U.S. Border Patrol is conducting its
>own internal investigation.
>
>A spokesman for the Police Department declined to comment on the
>operation, because of the pending lawsuit. In a written statement,
>Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny echoed the findings of the city's
>investigation, saying the operation was flawed and that officers were
>not properly trained to carry out complex immigration laws. He called
>for a "cultural diversity training program" for the department.
>"Things are more scrutinized" in the wake of the controversy, said
>Sgt. Ken Phillips, a police spokesman. "We're more careful."
>
>Friction Can't Be Erased Overnight
>
>"It's going to take 10, 15 years for people to feel comfortable in
>Chandler again," said Ed Delci, a Latino native of the city and a
>plaintiff in the civil rights lawsuit, although he was not detained
>during the raid. "Reparations have to be made." The raid was one of
>dozens of similar actions taken by authorities in Southwestern and
>Rocky Mountain boomtowns, where an explosion of Latino immigration has
>dramatically transformed the social milieu. In few places are the
>contradictions of rapid urban growth--and the role of immigrants,
>legal and illegal, in that growth--as stark as they are in Chandler,
>the second-fastest growing city in the country.
>
>Chandler's raid may have provoked the strongest outcry, because local
>authorities failed to take into account a basic truth about the city:
>Its immigrants live side by side with a large, well-established
>Mexican American community. Latinos make up about 15% of the population.
>
>Four government agencies have conducted investigations, and a small
>group of activists staged the latest in a series of protest marches
>Dec. 19. Local newspapers have editorialized against Chandler's city
>leaders and its police. Perhaps the most cutting comment came from
>Arizona Republic cartoonist Steve Benson, who depicted Chandler's
>finest as a group of obese men with batons standing over a cowering
>immigrant.
>
>"You have the right to remain silent," the caption reads. "Any brown
>pigment in your skin can, and will, be held against you."
>
>Phillips responded, "Our people come to work, they do a good job, and
>then we're perceived by some media as being the bad guy. We take the
>hits and we move on." Still, it's not the sort of publicity that
>Chandler's leaders envisioned when they launched Operation
>Restoration. The city was breaking ground for a new civic center,
>including a new police headquarters, municipal court and library on
>the edge of the Spanish-style plaza first laid out by Dr. Alexander
>Chandler in 1912.
>
>Chandler was once a resort for snow-weary Midwesterners, and then a
>farm town where irrigation turned the desert soil green with cotton
>and other crops. Later, it became another in a line of bedroom
>communities swallowed by the spreading asphalt grid of greater
>Phoenix. After the techno-boom of the 1990s spurred a dozen
>subdivisions, Chandler had become, in effect, two cities: an affluent
>sprawl of cul-de-sacs and the old, impoverished downtown. City
>officials concluded that illegal immigration--and the resulting
>crowding--was partly to blame for the city center's decay.
>
>"Since July [1994], citizens in the central and eastern portions of
>downtown have continuously complained about the criminal activity
>relating to illegal immigrants," one police official wrote in a
>post-mortem to Operation Restoration. "This criminal activity ranges
>from simple disorders and liquor violations to murder." (FBI
>statistics show the city's crime rate is near the average for Arizona.)
>
>Unfortunately, the local Border Patrol office didn't have the manpower
>for the sort of wide-ranging sweep Chandler officials felt they
>needed. Chandler police proposed a joint operation, and the Border
>Patrol agreed.
>
>Operation Restoration began July 27, 1997. What happened over the next
>five days has been dissected in two different investigations released
>so far, first by the Arizona attorney general's office and then by the
>city itself.
>
>Both inquiries agree that the joint operation was a dramatic event
>that saw two dozen police officers and five Border Patrol agents fan
>out across downtown, sometimes chasing suspected illegal immigrants
>from work sites, filling up buses with captured people. In all, the
>police held and eventually deported 432 illegal immigrants, all but
>three of them from Mexico.
>
>As the police questioned people leaving markets patronized by Latinos,
>they invariably encountered U.S. citizens. Venecia Robles Zavala, a
>resident of nearby Mesa, said she was stopped outside a Food 4 Less
>market as she was leaving with her children. She was disciplining her
>son, in Spanish, when an officer stopped her and asked for her papers.
>"What papers?" Zavala responded in English. "Newspapers?"
>
>"No," the officer said. "Immigration papers." Thirty tense minutes
>later, she found a copy of her birth certificate in her car and the
>officer let her go. Another U.S. citizen, Catalina Veloz, charged that
>officers placed her in handcuffs and released her only when she
>started to curse at them in English. For attorney Montoya, who is
>representing Zavala, Veloz and 13 others, such stops violate the equal
>protection clause of the 14th Amendment because white people in the
>area were not stopped. "We see this as a law-and-order case," Montoya
>said. "The police have to obey the law."
>
>Report Cites Operation's Missteps
>
>Four months after the raid, Arizona Atty. Gen. Grant Woods released
>the results of his inquiry. The Chandler police, the report concluded,
>had stopped residents and had entered the homes of suspected illegal
>immigrants without warrants "for no other reason than their skin color
>or Mexican appearance or the use of the Spanish language."
>
>What's more, city officials had failed to request formal permission
>from the U.S. attorney general to pursue such an action, as required
>by a 1996 federal law.
>
>The city's own review, written by a former Arizona Republic reporter,
>was released last month. The review included an expansive report on
>the events leading up to the raid, highlighting the spread of illegal
>immigrant camps on the outskirts of town. Residents complained of
>"naked aliens" wandering about and others who tried to entice
>schoolgirls into the citrus groves.
>
>"Today, as the Chandler economy diversifies and flourishes," the
>report said, "hordes of Mexican immigrants continue to be drawn
>northward." Still, the report chastised the police for a lack of
>preparation, saying its officers were not trained to enforce
>immigration laws.
>
>The Border Patrol, meanwhile, is conducting its own internal
>investigation.
>
>Tibshraeny has outlined a series of measures designed to improve
>relations with the Latino community. The Police Department has hired a
>Latino liaison. The city's Human Relations Commission has been
>resurrected. Only Harris, the police chief, has been reprimanded. A
>second lawsuit, seeking $8.7 million in damages on behalf of about 40
>plaintiffs, has been filed in state court.
>
>City spokesman Dave Bigos thinks the controversy has already begun to
>dissipate, in part because there are so many new people in Chandler.
>In boomtowns, community memory is a fleeting concept. "Sure, we
>[angered] a large segment of the Hispanics in the downtown area. Our
>biggest mistake was not establishing a dialogue with the community
>before," Bigos said. "But the majority of people are going about their
>jobs, and it really hasn't touched their lives."
>
>More than a year after the police and Border Patrol descended on
>several building projects, hauling away Latino workers, Chandler
>remains a vast construction site.
>
>The new police headquarters opened this month. At new subdivisions,
>with names like Clemente Ranch and Eden Estates, Latino workers push
>wheelbarrows and wield hammers as more homes sprout from the dusty red
>farmland.
>
>Tired of talking about immigration, city officials would much rather
>engage visitors in a conversation about the shopping "power centers"
>going up on the edge of town.
>
>Bigos sits in a conference room with a large map of the city that
>looks a lot like maps of Southern California in the 1960s, with long
>dotted lines representing the new freeway that will soon reach
>Chandler and others planned for the next century. "The city is
>confident that it can take off," Bigos said. "It's the right time."
>
>For others, the mood is not quite so sanguine. Juanita Encinas, 43,
>sees dark forces threatening the neighborhood where she grew up.
>
>Just a few blocks from the city's central plaza, the old, sagging
>wood-frame houses and dusty lawns of the barrio abut a new,
>adobe-colored cement wall. Behind that wall, the frames of much taller
>homes are being erected, part of the San Marcos Country Club Estates.
>
>"This has been el barrio, and all of a sudden you have development
>coming in," Encinas said. "The gringos say the downtown area is a
>disgrace. I tell them, 'These are the same people who take care of
>your children, who clean your yards.' "
>
>Several downtown property owners have sold out to developers, and new
>homes will probably displace many immigrant families. Eventually,
>Encinas and others fear, the economics of the real estate market may
>accomplish what Operation Restoration could not.
>
Jim Rosenfield
tel: 310-836-0926 fax: 310-836-0592
Visit http://www.insightweb.com
------------------------------
End of Maptalk-Digest V98 #510
******************************
Mark Greer () ___ ___ _ _ _ _
Media Awareness Project /' _ ` _ `\ /'_`)('_`\
P. O. Box 651 | ( ) ( ) |( (_| || (_) )
Porterville, CA 93258 (_) (_) (_) \__,_)| ,__/
(800) 266-5759 | |
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ (_)
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