FORUM
Is your halo on too tight?
Nigel
Alston
Motivational
Moments
"Life leaps like a geyser for
those willing to drill through the
rock of inertia."
- Alexis Carrel
Immorality and a dependency
on welfare are the root causes of
the cries for help from thousands
of people in New Orleans, result
ing from Hurricane Katrina's
destruction. Welfare dependent
people were waiting for the gov
ernment to step in with a handout.
They were not resourceful enough
to take care of themselves.
That's the opinion and per
spective of some people who lay
the blame for the mess in the city
at the feet of the powerless people
we all saw on television without
food and water and on the gov
ernment they say created the
monster.
David Warren, writing in The
Ottawa Citizen, took direct aim at
the faces we saw in need. "Soon
er or later we must acknowledge
that welfare dependency creates
exactly the sort of haplessness and
social degeneration we saw on
display, as the floodwaters rose."
He believes that the great
majority of those not evacuated
lived in assisted housing and
receive food stamps, prescription
medicine and government support
through many other programs.
"Many have, all their lives,
expected someone to lift them to
safety, without input from them
selves," he wrote.
I believe he and others are like
the man who went to the doctor
with an awful headache.
"Doctor, could you give me
something for it?'
"I will," said the doctor, but I
want to check a few things put
first. Tell me, do you drink a lot of
liquor?'
"Liquor?' said the man indig
nantly. "I never touch the filthy
stuff."
"How about smoking?'
"I think smoking is disgust
ing. I've never in my life touched
tobacco."
"I'm a bit embarrassed to ask
this, but - you know the way
some men are - do you do any
running around at night?'
"Of course not. What do you
take me for? I'm in bed every
night by 10 o'clock at the latest."
'Tell me," said the doctor,
"the pain in the head you speak of,
is it a sharp, shooting kind of
pain?'
"Yes," said the man. "That's it
- a sharp, shooting kind of pain."
"Simple, my dear fellow!
Your trouble is you have your
halo on too tight. All we need to
do is loosen it a bit."
Of course a tight halo doesn't
deter the critics, like retired New
Orleans police Capt. Robert John
son. While sympathetic, he
believes the situation was pre
dictable. According to an Internet
message, he said. "We are now
reaping the benefits of a welfare
state."
How?
"We have provided food,
clothing'and shelter to the extent
that the recipients became entirely
dependent on government
resources to live. They have
reached the point that no longer
do they have the knowledge to
take care of themselves. They will
sit there and drown or go hungry,
and curse the fact that the govern
ment has not gotten them out of
this mess."
Welfare depletes available
resources, according to Johnson,
instead of addressing the true
needs of the community, such as
roads, bridges, levees, police and
fire protection, sanitation and
drinking water. I believe he needs
to loosen his halo a bit too.
The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson,
an African- American, has a tight
halo too. "If you're black and a
hurricane is about to destroy your
city, you'll probably wait for the
government to save you," he
wrote in a piece on worldnetdai
ly.com. He is the founder and
president of BOND, the Brother
hood Organization of A New Des
tiny. ,
There is a hint of moral supe
riority in his tone. The people left
behind in the city were "primarily
immoral. welfare-pampered
blacks that stayed behind and
waited for the government to bail
them out."
According to his perspective,
the black community's perform
ance was pathetic. It would not
have happened 40 yeans ago. He
believes if white people were to
leave the United States, blacks
would turn America into a ghetto
within 10 years.
He has now changed his mind
as a result of what he observed in
New Orleans. He was too opti
mistic. "I gave blacks too much
credit. It took a mere three days
for blacks to turn the Superdome
and the convention center into
ghettos, rampant with theft, rape
and murder."
It was blacks' moral poverty -
not their material poverty - that
cost them dearly in New Orleans,
according to the reverend.
Now 1 know what the real
problem is. Some people need to
loosen their halos.
Nigel Alston is a radio talk
show host, columnist and motiva
tional speaker. He is a member of
the Winston-Salem State Universi
ty board of trustees. Visit his Web
site at. wwHjnotivationalmo
ments.com.
Racial double standard
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Guest
Columnist
Last March, Atlanta hostage
Ashley Smith got a rousing cheer
from public officials, law enforce
ment, and much of the media for
cajoling accused rampage shooter
Brian Nichols to give himself up.
Smith deserved the praise. It took
courage, compassion, and good
sense to do what she did. But it
also took something else, drugs.
In her recently released tell-all
book, "Unlikely Angel," Smith
admits that she got Nichols to give
up by plying him from her stash of
methamphetamine. Meth is dead
ly, destructive, and, of course,
patently illegal.
A month before Smith pub
licly announced she's a former
drug user at the launch of her
national book promo tour. Attor
ney General Alberto Gonzales
called meth a scourge that devas
tates families and communities.
Gonzales, Bush drug czar John
Walters, and Mike Leavitt, Health
and Human Services secretary,
met in Nashville, Tenn., in August.
They announced that the feds
would pour more resources into
drug prevention and treatment, but
they also promised a big crack
down on meth sale ^nd use.
Gonzales claimed that the Jus
tice Department had more than
quadrupled the number of cases
filed during the past decade. The
DEA has aggressively targeted
meth producers and traffickers,
resulting in the initiation of nearly
3j000 criminal cases related to
meth production, distribution, or
diversion of ingredient chemicals
in 2004.
But Smith didn't have to
worTy about being one those pros
ecuted. Police didn't catch her
with the dope in her apartment and
prosecutors quickly made it clear
that they wouldn't file charges.
KRT Photo
Police escort Brian Nichols offer his capture on March 1 2.
And they shouldn't. Smith is a
victim, and needs counseling and
treatment, not jail. Smith, howev
er, is white, middle class, and a
former housewife, and she would
likely get the help she needed any
way without risk of a prison sen
tence.
Yet Smith, far more than her
captor, Nichols, fit the profile of a
meth user, as well as the profile of
the majority of America's drug
users. Surveys have repeatedly
shown that middle-income young
whites use drugs more frequently
than blacks or Latinos.
The drug pass that Smith got -
and thousands of low-level, most
ly poor and desperate small-time
black drug offenders don't get
once again exposed the glaring
racial hypocrisy and double stan
dard in America's drug war. That
double standard has been
enshrined in the popular culture.
The entertainment magazines,
scandal tabloids, and TV talk
shows are crammed with legions
ef articles, and news features on
and interviews with high-profile
white stars, starlets, and athletes
who openly brag or cry about their
drug escapades. They are not vili
fied or stereotyped. They are the
object of public pity for their hero
ic battles against addiction. Holly
wood celebrities such as Robert
Downey Jr., and conservative talk
show mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh
continued their careers even after
they had been convicted or
accused of drug offenses.
Newly turned celebrity Smith
got the same royal treatment. An
exuberant Oprah shouted to her
audience, "Jesus loves you girl,"
during Smith's appearance on her
TV show as part of her national
book tour. She was publicly
praised for her heroic fight against
drug addiction. While the lopsided
meth use by middle-income
whites, such as Smith, ignites no
public outcry for mass arrests,
prosecutions, and tough prison
sentences, the consequences to
society are just as disastrous as
heroin or crack cocaine use.
Meth manufacture and use are
blamed for automobile accidents;
explosions and fires; environmen
tal contamination; increased crim
inal activity, including domestic
violence; emergency room and
other medical costs; spread of
infectious diseases, including
HIV, AIDS and hepatitis; and lost
worker productivity.
The penalties for use and sale
are every bit as severe as crack
cocaine sale and use. The basic
mandatory minimum sentences
under federal law are five to 10
years in prison. Lawmakers even
talk of dropping the amount of
meth that an individual caught
with can be prosecuted for. It's not
clear just how much meth Smith
had in her illegal stash, but pre
sumably if police found even a
small amount she could have been
prosecuted.
If whites such as Smith,
though, were jailed and prosecut
ed for their criminal drug use, it
would radically change the CMn
plexion of the nearly 2 million
prisoners that now jam America's
jails and prisons. At preseijt. near
ly half of them are black. The
overwhelming majority of them
are there for petty crimes, and
drug offenses.
The Comprehensive Metham
phetamine Control Act of 1996
mandated seizures of chemicals,
the destruction of meth labs, and
longer prison sentences. That was
supposed to be a major step
toward preventing meth from
becoming the next crisis in drug
abuse.
A decade later, Smith is glar
ing proof that the act didn't do
much to stop that from happening.
Smith was declared a hero for get
ting Nichols to surrender. She is
not a hero for using or kicking her
meth habit. If the public and law
enforcement praised her for her
action, thousands of others who
aren't heroes but are drug addicted
should get help, not jail. After all,
Jesus loves them too.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is
political analyst and social issues
commentator, and the author of
"The Crisis in Black and Black"
(Middle Passage Press).
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