End the Drug War

Radley Balko writes what Phelps should have said.

Tell you what. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll apologize for smoking pot when every politician who ever did drugs and then voted to uphold or strengthen the drug laws marches his ass off to the nearest federal prison to serve out the sentence he wants to impose on everyone else for committing the same crimes he committed. I’ll apologize when the sons, daughters, and nephews of powerful politicians who get caught possessing or dealing drugs in the frat house or prep school get the same treatment as the no-name, probably black kid caught on the corner or the front stoop doing the same thing.

Gawain de Leeuw3 Comments

Obama as a Leader

Obama won the stimulus package, which was passed in a perfectly partisan way. I want to note a couple things about his leadership style.

Obama is doing what a strong leader does. Stay connected. State what you believe. Listen respectfully. He understands that the primary way to defeat slackers, freeloaders and complainers is to listen to those who are honest and trustworthy.

For example, by inviting leaders over for cocktails, by simply addressing the Republicans, contacting foreign leaders, appointing special envoys, Obama demonstrates courage and respect. The community organizer’s rule is there are no permanent enemies. He should know that he is not going to get Republicans to back him. It is enough if he simply creates a culture where work gets done.

Republicans seem to be digging their own grave. Obama’s popularity has been increasing over the country. By telling Citi not to purchase a personal jet, by speaking directly to the common concerns of the people, chastising the elite for their entitlements, he’s conveying to the voters that he cares and he’s in charge.

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A couple thoughts about the inauguration

Like the two million people who went to the inauguration, I’m captivated by the change in administration.

Although my personal politics are non-partisan (heh, heh), I think that Obama has demonstrated – even apart from his political slant – sophisticated and agile leadership. The most important evidence is his ability to stay connected to people who think differently. He is motivated by curiosity and a sense that everyone has a view worth sharing.

I share some interests with our President. I moved to Chicago in 1992 because community organizing was part of the Divinity School ministry curriculum. Furthermore, the city’s physical landscape was organized around neighborhoods, and the city was a laboratory for many different kinds of effective, non-state institutions. In 1982 it elected Harold Washington, who some think was one of the truly great politicians of all time – a man who combined realism with idealism in a way that transformed Chicago. At the time, I was fascinated by Chicago much more than New York. And Chicago also gave me a full fellowship.

The university itself was also the center of rigorous conservative thought. It avoided an instinctive leftish position but was rigorous and fair, generally unimpressed by identity politics. Obama’s teaching at Chicago was a time when he would have been connected to social action, politicking, and conservatism that would help ground his ability to look at the world in complicated ways. I think this is a worthy gift – being able to see the world through many different lenses.

He inherits a challenge. Yet, our role is not to assent without understanding, to idealize without reflecting, or to worship. We must still organize ourselves as witnesses to love in the world, speak truth to power, and hold up a mirror to our leaders, holding them accountable for their actions. We can do so by remaining magnanimous and remembering the cardinal rule of organizing: there are no permanent enemies. Which is another way of saying, “love your neighbor.”

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A Cup of Kindness

A wonderful Guardian Article about Kindness.

But we are all dependent creatures, right to the core. For most of western history this has been widely acknowledged. Even the Stoics – those avatars of self-reliance – recognised man’s innate need for other people as purveyors and objects of kindness.

That it is kindness, fundamentally, that makes life seem worth living; and that everything that is against kindness is an assault on our hope.

Via

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Who Cares about the Palestinians?

Robert Fisk: Crammed into the most overpopulated few square miles in the whole world are a dispossessed people who have been living in refuse and sewage and, for the past six months, in hunger and darkness, and who have been sanctioned by us, the West. Gaza was always an insurrectionary place. It took two years for Ariel Sharon’s bloody “pacification”, starting in 1971, to be completed, and Gaza is not going to be tamed now.

He quotes Edward Said:  “It’s a horrifyingly sad place because of the desperation and misery of the way people live. I was unprepared for camps that are much worse than anything I saw in South Africa.”

Amira Hass Reports:  ““Seventy policemen were killed there, not all Hamas members,” said S., who opposes Hamas. “And even those who supported Hamas were young men looking for a job, a salary. They wanted to live. And therefore, they died. Seventy in one blow. This assault is not against Hamas. It’s against all of us, the entire nation. And no Palestinian will consent to having his people and his homeland destroyed in this way.”

Peace Now has an interesting Q&A:  “Israel could release its counter-productive economic chokehold on the Gaza Strip the moment the current military operation ends. This would reflect recognition that economic warfare has never altered Palestinian attitudes toward Israel, while the current blockade constitutes collective punishment with severe humanitarian consequences. Israel could declare that henceforth, if Hamas attacks Israelis, the IDF will punish the Hamas leadership, not the population-at-large.”

The Church Speaks:   Immediate attention should focus on vital humanitarian assistance to the suffocating people of Gaza. In March of this year, I spent a day in Gaza visiting religious and community leaders and the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. Since that visit, the situation, which was already devastating, has only worsened, with supplies of food, fuel, power, and medical supplies either cut off or indefinitely delayed. Our hospital must now try to treat the wounded under the most impossible circumstances.

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