Pubdate: Wed, 30 Nov 2005
Source: Up & Coming Magazine (NC)
Copyright: 2005, Up & Coming Magazine
Contact:  http://www.upandcomingmag.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3127
Author: Margaret Dickson

DRUGS AND VIOLENCE ARE A PART OF OUR CULTURE MORE THAN EVER

I saw a stunning sight on the way to my cousin's house in Chapel Hill
for Thanksgiving dinner.

As we drove out Bragg Boulevard to begin the trip, a jumbo-sized
pickup truck of the four-door style favored by many young men today
pulled up beside our car. It was green, clean, and highly polished,
indicating to me that the driver, who was indeed a young man in his
20s, was proud of his large possession.

What shocked me to the depths of my middle-aged soul, however, was his
choice of decal decoration for his treasure. Many of us adorn our
vehicles with stickers and decals giving voice to what we enjoy or
causes we support. Think "UNC Tar Heels," "I Love My Labrador
Retriever," yellow ribbons in support of US military troops, and pink
ones backing breast cancer research.

The young man beside us had opted not for any such positive
message.

The driver's door of his truck was sprinkled with small decals which
looked like very realistic bullet holes, as if someone had sprayed his
vehicle with gunshot. There were several along the tail gate as well,
and there may have been some on the passenger side, although we could
not see them.

I cannot imagine why that young man finds the notion of bullets aimed
at him satisfying or amusing or whatever he thinks about them. I also
cannot imagine where he bought them or who would manufacture such items.

The astounding sight of faux bullet holes came on the heels of several
other thought provoking events - the apparent drug related murders of
four young men in Durham who law enforcement officials suspect may
have owed money to a dealer, the Georgia murder of my walking buddy's
former office assistant by her youth minister husband, and a lengthy
article in the Fayetteville Observer recently about the high number of
murders this year in neighboring Robeson County, most involving young
people both as victims and as perpetrators. I also read a disturbing
piece in the Raleigh News and Observer about young, under-educated,
minority men finding themselves on life's dead end street, a route
frequently littered with drugs.

I know I may sound like your grandfather on a tear about "the world
today," but something is seriously out of whack here.

Social scientists talk about the mix of poverty and inadequate
education which often underlies violent behavior. Ordinary people,
including millions of parents, join social scientists in their concern
over the zillions of violent images, both real and fictional, we all
see on television, in movies, and other mass media. Toss into that
volatile pot any level of illegal drug use and sale, as Robeson County
authorities say is the case in many of those murders, and the result
far too often is violent, even lethal.

I do not know how to fix this modern reality any more than you do, but
I am increasingly convinced that we must work on it now and quickly.
As former White House counsel John Dean famously said during the
Watergate scandal of the 1970s, "there is a cancer growing," and to
not try to cure it, I believe, threatens the way we live in the United
States.

No less a personage than Burley Mitchell, former Wake County District
Attorney and Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court who is
not known for being soft on crime, shocked many observers several
weeks ago by declaring our nation's and our state's war on drugs
abysmal failures. Mitchell, who has certainly participated in a
boatload of drug cases both as a prosecutor and as a judge, now says
we should begin talking about de-criminalizing some drugs. He does not
believe drug use is a good thing, but says regulating and taxing
certain drugs as we do alcohol and tobacco could wipe out most of the
illegal drug market and the violence which accompanies it. It could
also clear some non-violent offenders from the ranks of the 37,000
people North Carolina taxpayers now house in state correctional
institutions at the annual cost of private college tuition each.

It is a view I hear discussed more and more often. Perhaps because my
own children are young adults, I know and love many folks in that age
group. If I could cocoon each of them until they become educated and
employed and achieve some level of maturity, I surely would. The
realist in me knows, though, that some of these precious young people
will, and probably already have, dabbled in illegal drug use, maybe
even sale. I have heard whispers of fights and of weapons, of court
dates, probation, occasional times away at taxpayer expense.

Burley Mitchell and those who agree with him may not have the answer,
but I do think they are correct in pushing the discussion forward. We
have been waging the war on drugs for several generations now, and
while we have had unquestionable successes, we have also had failures
and way too many lost souls.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake