Like a Young Kurt Schmoke

I just saw a headline at CNN.com ("Anti-war sentiments grow in 50 and older crowd") that made me roll my eyes. At first I was like, "Why the fuck did I just roll my eyes? Was that some right wing thing?" But then I realized that I'd rolled my eyes because it might as well have said, "Anti-slavery sentiments grow in 50 and older crowd". A little late to the party, gang. Or crowd, I guess it is.

Also, I've been watching "The Wire" for the last couple weeks, just starting in on season 4. It's a swell show, and the season 3 final made me try, without any real success, to cry, tears of sadness, shame, and hopelessness over man's selfishness and inhumanity, and tears of joy and pride over those occasional acts of selflessness and humanity that somehow make me want to give homo sapien man another chance to win me over. So it's a pretty good show, and I'm not just saying that because of my inextricable ties to the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Ol' B.M., we liked to call it. Of course, things were different when I was there than they are on "The Wire". See, I came up in the '70s and '80s, son. We did things different, up to the point in '82 when my family packed up they things and moved up to PA, where my pops got hisself a job as a VP at Rite Aid, yo. Also, since I was only 8 when we moved, I was never involved in the sale or distribution of narcotics, but I'm sure I would have been had we stuck around. That's just Baltimore, kid. Ain't no escapin' it. All my cousins that are still down there, all my aunts and uncles, even my grandma all still roll deep in the game. That's life in the projects, yo. And if you livin' in Baltimore, you livin' in the projects.

Season 3 also got me thinking, of course, about legalization. Even though I sometimes enjoy marijuana (I smoke it constantly, but only sometimes enjoy it), I've never been at all political about it, and I've never understood the rationale for legalizing it for non-(quasi-)medicinal purposes. I agree that it shouldn't be illegal, and I agree that its illegality accomplishes nothing but waste taxpayer money and prison space, but there is no concrete need to legalize it. At the same time, I understood the reasons people had for wanting to legalize all drugs, but I'd always get stuck on questions like, "How can the government control and regulate something like LSD?" Which, having had my mind's ass blown wide open by this TV show, now seems like a foolish question. All that matters is the cocaine and the heron. Because that's the shit that's killing our communities, our people. People say it would lead to a rise in drug addiction and, subsequently, property crime, but who the fuck isn't shooting up because they don't know where to find heroin, or better yet, because heroin is illegal? So maybe a handful of white teenagers will get into it earlier than they would have, or maybe some people who would have been afraid of running afoul of the law will be able to freely turn to smack instead of the bottle. And maybe crime will go up, but it'd mostly be petty thefts.

I guess one could argue that it sends a bad message, that the government is in effect saying that it condones the use of life-altering drugs. But I think the government is more than capable of spinning it. No one's saying it should be treated as a consumer product. Build horrible, gray distribution centers, make every visit a tedious, bureaucratic bummer. And make the laws for those who try to operate in any way outside the system as harsh as you please. Fewer laws, tougher penalties, that's my motto.

But legalizing marijuana? What the fuck is that gonna solve?

Oh, also, I got fired from my job a week ago. I'd tell you about it, but it's not much of a story. Kind of came out of nowhere and kind of a pain in the balls, but whatever. Fuck those people. They can take away my paycheck, but they can never take away my thirst for civic change.