"There are two Americas"

[bean fidhleir]

"There are two Americas - separate, unequal, and no longer even acknowledging each other except on the barest cultural terms. In the one nation, new millionaires are minted every day. In the other, human beings no longer necessary to our economy, to our society, are being devalued and destroyed.

...

But school teachers, city workers, shopkeepers, delivery boys - they too were jacked up, cuffed and hauled down to Eager Street - hundreds of them a night on the weekends. Some were charged, but few were prosecuted. And in 25,000 such cases, they were later freed from the detention facility without ever going to court; no charges were proffered because, well, no crime had been committed.

I wasn't arrested. Nor was Ed Burns or Dominic West or Aidan Gillen. Nor were my neighbours or the Baltimore Sun's editors or the members of the Maryland Club. But then, we're all white. Among the black members of my cast and crew, it was often impossible to drive from the film set to home at night without being stopped - and in some cases detained or arrested - on nonexistent probable cause and nonexistent charges. The crackdown came wholly in black neighbourhoods and it landed wholly on the backs of black citizens.

And now, just a few years later, comes this document that causes the state's attorney to deny the obvious and leaves everyone else wondering weakly and vaguely as to the why of it. Is it so hard to understand that the same people who had their civil rights cleanly dispatched, who spent nights in jail because police officers lied on them and dragged them off without charge - that these people might be inclined to disbelieve the word of law enforcement in any future criminal case?"

more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/sep/06/wire

[ensho]

1. yeah there is two americas

one is racist, sexist, religiously insane

the other is none of those things, thank goodness.

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[Bigmack]

3. "The Wire"...

was perhaps the best series on TV...ever. The most realistic, gritty portrayal of inner-city life ever.

This piece by the writer/producer is excellent.

To me, it shows that the government now has no role at all in civilizing our society. Government only functions as a control on behavior. The "small government" people have really won. Safety nets are gone, schools are starved, and programs that actually help real people are cut off. The press no longer even cares.