I spent much of last Thursday morning and early afternoon talking to 20 Midtown residents, average people who do not hold any positions of power. All are African- American. I spoke with these people to get a sense of the mood in the area related to Police chief Chuck Harmon's announcement that the police department intends to rid the city of the most violent elements of drug trafficking. Harmon especially wants to remove the increasing number of military- style weapons drug operatives seem to favor. [continues 744 words]
One thing most white people will never understand is that the individual black person, male and female, represents the entire black race when the individual's behavior or opinions are negative or are perceived as negative. White people do not have this problem. Each individual white woman or man represents herself or himself. Period. Just think: If I, a black male, do something deemed bad by the majority culture, I represent all African-Americans, even total strangers. And the black thug who sells drugs next to a public school represents me. [continues 769 words]
At the outset of the 2000 presidential campaign, Vice President Al Gore told the nation that he had smoked marijuana as a college student. After being exposed by the press, Texas Gov. George W. Bush reluctantly acknowledged that he had been arrested for driving while drunk. In light of these illegal acts (driving while drunk is potentially lethal to innocent people) by these wealthy, powerful men -- one of whom will be the next president of the United States -- I sympathize with the former migrant farm worker who telephoned about her son who has been ruled ineligible for federal aid to attend Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. The 18-year-old became ineligible because he got himself busted for sharing a joint with friends at a party in Belle Glade. [continues 852 words]
Operation PAR Inc.'s success in treating addiction can be attributed in part to the cooperation of both Democrats and Republicans. It is changing how Florida's leaders view treating youthful drug abuse. Sundae, a Florida native, is divorced and has a 4-year-old son. She wants a successful future for the boy, and she dreams of owning a restaurant. She could just as easily have been a statistic in America's politically charged war on drugs, except that she found a place in Largo that taught her how to turn her life around. She came to grips with her "insanity," as she calls her drug habit, through the help of PAR Village, a residential drug treatment and parenting center. [continues 2366 words]
(Gainesville) - During last week's Police Community Committee meeting, angry black residents told members that they are sick and tired of cops' harassment and physical abuse. In attempting to stamp out drug sales, GPD officers have become overzealous, blacks argue. Several young men described being stopped, searched and detained for no legitimate reasons -- other than "standing still while black" or "walking while black" or, as one told me last Sunday, "existing while black." Many African-Americans said they do not want drugs in their neighborhood, but neither do they want to see young men mistreated simply because their skin is black. "I worry about my son, not because he uses drugs or sells them but because these cops are going to get themselves a black male no matter what," a woman said outside a gas station. "My boy's been harassed three times this year simply because he's black and lives on Fifth Avenue. Why don't they go after some of those rich white kids over on University Avenue doing all those fancy drugs all night at those "rave' parties?" [continues 512 words]
When flora and fauna are involved, Floridians, especially elected officials and other sundry bureaucrats, are some of the dumbest people in the union - -- perhaps the world. We, the human menagerie who choose paradise as our home, love to import exotic stuff. However, almost every time we bring home a botanical or zoological stranger and sink it into our tropical soil, cage it, imprison it in an aquarium or float it in our waterways, we regret our actions. Each year, though, we welcome dozens of noxious outsiders that cost us millions of dollars in equally exotic efforts to control. [continues 999 words]
