Pubdate: Mon, 17 Sep 2012
Source: Reporter, The (PA)
Copyright: 2012 The Reporter
Contact:  http://www.thereporteronline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3468
Author: Jose de la Isla
Note: Jose de la Isla writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News
Service.
Cited: Caravan for Peace: http://www.caravanforpeace.org/caravan/

PEACE CARAVAN DECRIES TOLL OF DRUG WAR

Participants in the historic Caravan for Peace with Justice and 
Dignity already have tried to hold Mexico responsible for the violent 
drug war that its government estimates has claimed at least 60,000 
victims and devastated families.

Now, they want the United States to accept its share of blame.

The caravan set off in mid-August from Mexico City on a journey to 27 
cities - many in border states - to raise awareness about the drug war.

The caravan, sometimes including up to 500 participants in cars and 
buses, was scheduled to end this week in Washington, D.C.

In the participants' view, the 40-year-old U.S. approach to the drug 
war - emphasizing military and police action - has done little to 
diminish the violence.

In Baltimore on Saturday, two busloads of peace petitioners pulled up 
to tree-shaded Irvington Park. Representatives of the local NAACP and 
a law officers association joined dozens of area residents extending 
their hands to greet them.

These Baltimoreans were among of 200 groups nationwide supporting the 
caravan. Many of the caravan's participants have lost kin in the 
bloody civil strife.

 From a platform in the park, Baltimore resident Kimberly Armstrong 
shared her own sorrow as she related how her son was murdered - shot 
nine times by a 14-year-old. How was it possible the shooter could 
get his hands on a gun, when most people couldn't even buy a tomato 
in the neighborhood? (There's no grocery store.)

"I can't say it in Spanish," Armstrong told the arrivals, looking for 
the word "lucha" to describe their mutual struggle to protect sons 
and grandsons.

Women of the caravan, holding photos of murdered and missing kin, 
reached out to Armstrong as she descended the platform. One was 
Mercedes Moreno of El Salvador, now living in Los Angeles. Her son, 
JosU Leonidas Moreno, disappeared in Mexico in 1991 after being 
detained by federal police.

Moreno said the drug war corrupts government and its authority, and 
she said members of civil society were collateral damage.

When your son is murdered, you have a grave at which to cry. But when 
your loved one is missing, you don't even have a place to do that. 
Pain like Moreno's, on its most elemental level, just doesn't go away.

Enrique Morones, one of the Caravan's key partners, told the audience 
a fable about starfish. An old man and his grandson, walking on the 
beach, find thousands of dying starfish in the sand. The boy throws 
one back into the water. The old man says, "What's the use? There are 
thousands and you can't save them all."

The boy picks up another starfish to throw back in the sea.

"It won't make a difference," says the old man.

"It will make a difference," says the boy, "to this one."

That's Morones' point. Change comes by saving one life at a time.

Stephen Downing, president of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and 
retired deputy chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, said his 
job used to be to cut off those who control the drug flow.

U.S. policymakers didn't learn from Prohibition, which was 
ineffective at stopping alcohol consumption, he said.

To cut off the flow means cutting off what drives it in the first place.

If you want something to go away, he says, you starve it out. You 
deny it nutrition. The nutrient is money.

That reminded Downing about the time J.W. Marriott was asked if there 
were one piece of advice he would give his guests, what would it be?

Put the shower curtain inside the tub, the hotelier answered.

Downing said the solution to the war on drugs was simple as that: 
Stop feeding it.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom