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Just catching up . . . . Steve Shaw, the Carroll County man who figures in today's column, dropped this e-mail on me Thursday: "My son, Jonathan, and I delivered a sandwich, some snacks and a warm woolen hat to the woman's car yesterday. She was not in the car, so maybe she was indoors or elsewhere on this Christmas day. That would be a good thing. I will keep you informed on my follow-up efforts with the Carroll County Adult Services group."
Here's the most amazing-but-true thing we learned this past year, something that came up last summer in the midst of arrests of allegedly illegal immigrants in Frederick and Anne Arundel counties -- one of those realities that a lot of us didn't appreciate and many others refuse (or hate) to acknowledge: Illegal immigrants pay billions in taxes.
From a column in July:
Many Americans - I would wager, the majority of Americans - probably believe that the millions of undocumented workers are part of an underground economy that delivers no tax revenue while extracting gobs of benefits from our social services system. But most illegals pay taxes. In fact, experts believe they've paid billions in taxes and helped to shore up Social Security for the rest of us. . . . This explains why we don't see Internal Revenue Service agents chasing Guatemalan drywall-hangers through alleys in Baltimore.
Since 1996, foreigners have been able to obtain an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. Illegal immigrants have snapped up the vast majority of these ITINs and lined up to file tax returns in record numbers. "We have a financial literacy program, and every month we see an increase in applications for ITINs," says Kim Propeack of Casa de Maryland, the nonprofit group that supports immigrants here.
In 2001, then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan estimated that undocumented immigrants paid about $70 billion annually in taxes and received about $43 billion in government services. Revenue has grown since then. Between 2004 and 2005, the number of tax returns filed with ITINs jumped 30 percent, according to The New York Times. There was another spike in ITINs in 2006. In 2005, the Times estimated that undocumented workers contributed about $7 billion to the Social Security system. Three months ago, the trustees of the SSA noted the importance of revenue from "other than legal" workers, many of whom are young and won't be around to collect federal retirement benefits.
A Times editorial asked: "Would the people who want to deport all undocumented workers be willing to make up the difference and pay the taxes that the undocumented are currently paying?"
I asked Propeack, Casa's director of community organizing, why illegal immigrants would want to get ITINs - or even phony Social Security numbers - and pay taxes at a time when the feds are trying to round them up and deport them.
She said undocumented workers want to show a record of having paid taxes when - or if - they are allowed to apply for legal status or even citizenship. "Most [undocumented workers] hope that someday there's a program in the United States that will allow them to become citizens," Propeack says. "And they want to be able to show that they are a person of good moral character, and paying your taxes is a big part of that, one of the first things [naturalization officials] look at.
"There are some clear areas where expenses are associated with the undocumented," Propeak says. "Emergency room visits, for instance. ... K-through-12 education. But still, at the end of the day, they are ineligible for every other government program you can name. Every piece of research on this shows that [undocumented workers] are paying far more than their fair share."
They even help pay for the federal agents who raid their houses and scare their children.
Looking for a healthy start to the new year while supporting a good cause? Try the Resolution Run & Walk in Patterson Park to benefit Earl's Place, one of the vital links between prison (or homelessness) and the workforce for dozens of men over the years. The Resolution Run will be held on New Year's Day, starting at 2 pm. You can walk or run the 5K course or take the one-mile
"fun walk." They hold registration and a post-race event at St. Elizabeth's Church, at Baltimore and Lakewood. No experience necessary. For information on how to register -- $30 for adults, $10 for kids under 12 -- and get pledges, visit the Earl' Place web site.
Some excerpts of columns I've written about Earl's Place . . . .
In an East Baltimore shelter, a testament to pain, patience
STANDING THERE Tuesday morning in Earl's Place, a transitional shelter for homeless men, with Sheila Helgerson, who runs the place and who appears to be blessed with most of the patience God scattered on East Baltimore, I was struck by one of those truisms that seem at moments both trite and profound -- helping men who used heroin for a good part of their lives is hard. It's just ... hard.
Many of those in recovery do fine; they smarten up, clean up and make good choices. But others fall off track, or keep going back to the drugs and booze that caused all their problems in the first place, or they make bad choices that frustrate those who try to help them. Any of the hundreds of men and women who work in this field - as professionals in hospitals and clinics, or volunteers in shelters - know this. They live with it. They are missionaries in drug-infested Baltimore, trying to rebuild the soul of the city from the inside, one man and one woman at a time. Theirs is the quiet work critical to getting this city fully on its legs again by reducing the demand for the drugs that create the violence that mars municipal progress.
On the way to Earl's Place, I passed a remarkable neighborhood rising across Pratt Street from Little Italy, where there used to be high-rise public housing. There are new, smart-looking rowhouses and apartments everywhere, and more coming, all around Corned Beef Row. You can get downright optimistic about the future, especially if you remember the immediate past - the crime-ridden Flag House projects that for decades cast a long, sad shadow over this part of Baltimore.
Earl's Place is at the corner of Eden and Lombard, and it's where men coming out of addiction and homelessness can find a place to live and get their meals while they move into the working world. Helgerson and her staff have a lot of success stories to tell, and that's probably what keeps them going.
Tuesday, I finally met a man Helgerson has been telling me about for a year -- Perry Johnson. . . . he's a graduate of Earl's Place. . . . He's 53 years old. He started using drugs when he was 22. When I asked what he did all those years, Johnson said, "Heroin." A few years ago, when he came out of a recovery program and moved into Earl's Place, he was clean. He worked in a big catering hall, and when he was ready to leave Earl's Place, he found an apartment and moved in with his girlfriend. -- Originally published Thursday, February 3, 2005
A REPORT from the weekly house meeting at Earl's Place, a transitional home for 17 formerly homeless drug addicts and alcoholics in two renovated rowhouses at Eden and Lombard streets in East Baltimore:
Greg, a graduate of Earl's Place and now its resident manager, led the meeting in a prayer that all the men knew: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Sheila Helgerson, executive director, thanked everyone for helping with the Dec. 9 dinner celebrating the third anniversary of Earl's Place. Helgerson explained that Earl's Place is named after Earl Johnson, a homeless man who fell into the harbor in 1993 and drowned. Four years later, an ecumenical group called United Ministries created the transition house to help men like Earl.
Helgerson said most of the men have their own room. They share a kitchen, dining room, large living room and the long journey back to a more normal and healthy life. They can stay at Earl's Place for up to two years. Their average age is 38. Since 1997, 10 graduates of the program have found and kept jobs and homes, and stayed away from drugs and alcohol. Not every man who enters Earl's Place stays. But "very few" have left because of addictions relapse. When men graduate, Helgerson gives them a gift-wrapped copy of Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the Places You'll Go." Helgerson is a social worker who once lived on a farm in Iowa.
Greg, who once lived in an abandoned house - an "abandominium" - in East Baltimore, said he had had a "blessed week," though it was difficult with final exams at Baltimore City Community College, where he's studying to be an addictions counselor. He went Christmas shopping with his daughters. "Just seeing life on life's terms," he called it.
Neal said he had a good week and likes both his jobs. He loads ships and works at the Baltimore Convention Center. He visits his parents on weekends.
Mel, whose nickname is Sparky, said his first week at Earl's Place had been good. "Everyone has been real nice." He said he was an alcoholic who once had - and lost - his truck-repair business. He said his son, who lives with the boy's mother, has brain cancer.
Chris, also new to Earl's Place, said, "My family life has not been all peaches and cream." He said he used to have a good job in the emergency room of a Baltimore hospital. He also had an apartment. He lost both with a deep dive into drugs, "set off by small things that you might be able to cope with, but that I couldn't." Chris, who got addictions treatment and came into Earl's Place "clean," as all residents must, said he is still learning that he has a disease from which "I'll be in recovery the rest of my life." Chris said he was anxious to return to work, maybe even the hospital job he had before. For now, he said, he was thinking of volunteering one day a week at a downtown lunch program for the poor. Chris was asked if he was "happy" to be in Earl's Place. He said "relieved" was a better word.
Dwayne announced that he planned on getting married next year, after he leaves Earl's Place. He said he has two jobs - as a prep man for a car rental agency and as a courier for a messenger service. He sleeps at Earl's Place between jobs and attends a 12-step program on Sundays to keep his heroin and cocaine addictions in check.
Sam, perhaps the oldest man in the group, said he had been ill, but went to work anyway. He has a job as a custodian at the Social Security Administration. He stopped drinking after a seizure on the street that led to a frightening experience in a hospital. As doctors worked on him, he said, he felt he was "being buried alive." Sam was asked what he saw himself doing in another few months, after he leaves Earl's Place. "Sitting in a rocking chair and playing with my grandchildren."
-- Originally published Monday, December 18, 2000
It's very simple. It's one of the things coaches are supposed to teach kids -- you don't humiliate your opponent, particularly a hapless one that your team is in the process of trouncing. I support the NFL stiffs on this one.
This story was originally published 10 years ago in The Baltimore Sun, on Friday, December 25, 1998
Twelve days ago, a stranger with a kind face, an old man in topcoat and hat, handed me a gift. It was a rectangular box, roughly the size of a carton of cigarettes, wrapped handsomely and neatly in holiday paper. "Please, open it," he said, and I carefully pulled away the wrapping. When I saw the markings on the box, and understood its contents, I dissolved instantly into a quivering mound of sobs, crying as I had not cried since the day my father died.
-o-
Midst the two worst things that ever happened to my family when I was a kid, the president of the United States was assassinated. I don't mean to suggest that my family felt the pain in some unique way; the whole world seemed to sag under the weight of John F. Kennedy's death on Nov. 22, 1963. It's that now, looking at the event in the intimate context of my family's experience, I can finally appreciate how my parents must have felt at the time, with JFK's death coming in the middle of the mess. Going into the Christmas season that year, my parents must have felt overwhelmed, perhaps defeated, most likely depressed.
Consider that just a month before Dallas, my father's business had burned to the ground.
Joe Rodricks, a muscular Portuguese immigrant, had gone into a foundry venture with four Italian-American friends who lived in southeastern Massachusetts. Each of the guys had worked in various iron works and mills. My father had taken a job in a small-town foundry when he was only 14, after his own father died of pneumonia. He never finished school. Making things from cast iron -- machine parts, some ornamental stuff -- was what Joe Rodricks knew.
In 1949, he and his partners had pooled their savings and borrowed some money to buy the small foundry near Woonsocket, R.I. My father, 38 years old at the time, was listed as the Cumberland Foundry "president," but no one ever had a more overstated title; he spent his days in dirty khakis and steel-toed boots, sweating with the rest of the men, his lungs filled with fumes, his hair and skin coated with the blackish dust that settled, like dry fog, on everyone and everything.
The foundry had about 30 employees, mostly of Italian, Portuguese or French-Canadian ancestry. They had a modest profit- sharing plan, which produced, at Christmas, a modest bonus for each man. But then came that fire, in October 1963.
The phone rang in my house a few hours before dawn. Something about a propane leak. My father slid into his Chrysler and, with Uncle Ralph, his business partner and my godfather, roared off into the darkness.
When he returned home after the longest day of his life, my father was silent. His only words were, "No more foundry," uttered in a quivering voice as he disappeared into a bedroom. That was the first time I ever saw Joe Rodricks appear to cry.
The following Sunday, he drove my mother, my little brother and me to the foundry. He did not speak a word but chained-smoked his filterless Pall Malls, holding the lighted tip by the vent window of the Chrysler as he drove.
When we turned the last corner, the foundry appeared. It was a junkyard -- tin roofing and twisted steel girders already orange with a rusty film, charred wheelbarrows and steel drums, the scorched carcasses of machinery. Nothing was salvageable. I remember running around the place, looking for stuff to loot and to play with, and being scolded for doing so. I was 9, my brother Eddie 7. We couldn't fully grasp what had just happened to our family, and particularly to my father.
Later, when I could better understand, I learned that the foundry was not insured. If my father and his partners were to revive the dream of running their own business, they would have to raise money themselves. That was going to take time.
-o-
In the meantime, there was no income. Nothing. Another deceiving thing about my father's corporate title was the "president" of the Cumberland Foundry never made much money. He took home enough for mortgage and car payments, to keep us fed and clothed, to treat himself to a six-pack of Knickerbocker and a few strings of 10-pin every week. He didn't save money. He certainly hadn't had enough to send my older brother to college. The foundry was a small, hard-sweat business that provided minimal reward to its owners. My father once said that some of his employees, molders who were paid on a per-job basis, took home more pay than he did.
When the foundry went, so did the income.
And then, in early December, my father went into the hospital -- diagnosed with emphysema, 35 years of foundry fumes and cigarette smoke choking his lungs. He was hospitalized in Boston for several weeks. I thought he was going to die.
In addition to his physical decline, my father was deeply depressed. That's not something anyone mentioned at the time, but it's something I've come to know over the years. He had had a difficult life, losing his father at 14, bitter about never finishing school and being forced to work to support his mother. I suspect that, during the Cumberland Foundry years, he had terrible disagreements with his business partners. I think the fire, and the diagnosis, threw him into a spin. For a long time, either because of his mental or physical disability, he was out of commission as Iron Joe, the tough, masculine provider we had known.
So for several months, my mother, the former Rose Popolo, was a single parent. She went to work for minimum wage -- in late 1963 it was $1.25 an hour -- in an electronics component plant. She rose early and left before Eddie and I did, leaving us in the hands of my father's mother, who'd recently moved in to help out, and my older sister, Roseann.
In December, all signs pointed toward Christmas, except in our house. That year is remembered for the darkness in which it ended -- the destruction of the foundry, and my father's absence from our house, the loss of life's simple rhythms, and all the fears that visit a kid when his family seems adrift in loss and uncertainty. I have thought of that Christmas so many times -- because of the vivid memories and the strong feelings they stir, and because of the way things turned out.
-o-
My brother and I came to expect nothing that year, not even a tree. I could sense in my mother, in her hectic coming and going from work, an anxiousness and pensiveness I hadn't seen in her before. A kid sees a parent that way, a kid worries.
Rose dropped hints, too. "When I was little, all we got for Christmas was an orange in a stocking." She told us that every year, but in 1963 she seemed to say it every day. By age 9, I had heard enough arguments between my parents to understand the sad and vexing truths about money and expectations. I can tell you honestly -- the memory of this is clear -- that, going to bed Christmas Eve 1963, I expected nothing, and felt a strange sort of relief from it. I didn't want to compound my mother's problems by whining about a lack of Christmas. Her struggles -- going to work again, rolling pennies and nickels, concocting as many cheap but filling rice, pasta and polenta dishes as humanly possible -- saddened me as much as my father's absence did. I knew why there was no Christmas tree in the living room that year. I was 9, but I understood.
And yet, the next morning, when we arose, there was a white pine in our house, fully decorated with lights and ornaments too heavy for its branches, and glowing beneath it the only gift my little brother and I would share that day: an electric Lionel engine with one car, on a track with no straight pieces. It hummed and rattled, round and round and round, monotonously and beautifully. The engine was yellow. The one piece it hauled was a green cattle car that had a unique see-saw mechanism inside. As the train moved, a western outlaw with cowboy hat, bandanna and six-shooter popped his head through one end of the cattle car roof and, alternately, a sheriff figurine did likewise at the other end.
Remarkable, finding such a thing in that house that Christmas.
My mother -- with the help of my sister, I suspect -- had found a last-minute way to surprise us. My brother and I lay on the rug and watched the train go around the track a thousand times, the heads of the sheriff and the outlaw popping up and dropping down. In all the years since then, no gift has ever meant as much.
-o-
My brother and I augmented the train set with new track and cars for a few years, but neither Eddie nor I had collecting Lionels in our destiny. Though I appreciated all my mother had done to surprise us with the best of all baby boomer boy toys, I developed other interests. The train set, with that special outlaw-sheriff car, went into a box in the basement, and eventually to some other kid, perhaps a nephew. I'm not sure.
Years later, after fruitlessly trying to determine the train set's whereabouts, I realized something: I may have lost the Lionel but, through the great gift of memory, I still had the feelings that went with it.
And then 12 days ago in Baltimore, a man named Ralph Fisher approached me with a wrapped gift. Fisher had never met me, but he had heard this story from a friend, to whom I had once confided the spare details, with a description of the green cattle car with the popping heads. Fisher, an avid collector of trains with a large display in his Baltimore County home, had never seen the car, but he set about to find one.
He succeeded, too -- at a model train show in Timonium a couple of weeks ago. "In all the shows I've been through over the years, I had never seen one, and there it was," he said. "A collector from New York had one."
And in its original orange box -- Lionel's No. 3077, the green "Animated Sheriff and Outlaw Car." I held it in my hands, clicked the gear underneath that made the heads pop up and down. It transported me, in the next instant, to that one and only remarkable Christmas, when my mother brought light to darkness. When I finished sobbing, I offered to pay Ralph Fisher for the car and the memory. "No," he said. "It's a gift."
Originally published: 12/25/98
All content herein is © 2008 The Baltimore Sun and may not be republished without permission.
This became known in my family as the "Portuguese stuffing" because my grandmother, Justina Gomes Rodrigues, worked it up and everyone loved it and looked forward to it at the holidays. I don't know if my Vovo -- that's what we called my father's mother -- brought this recipe over from Madeira, but I suspect not. I think she found New England poultry stuffings boring and wanted to give the flavor a boost with a taste of the old country. Anyway, if you want to try something new with the Christmas goose, I highly recommend this.
Rodrigues Family Portuguese Stuffing
1 lb. pork sausage meat
1 pkg. bread stuffing
1 onion diced
3 stalks celery diced
1 bell pepper diced
1 potato boiled and mashed
1 hard-boiled egg chopped
Cinnamon -2 shakes
Cider vinegar -1 capful
About 1/2 can black olives chopped
Bell's poultry seasoning - 2 shakes
Salt and pepper to taste
Boil the egg and potato.
Soften bread in warm water and remove to colander and squeeze out excess water. Sauté the sausage meat in a very large skillet, break it up as it cooks. Add bread and mix, then add celery, onion, and bell pepper, cinnamon and vinegar. Mash potato into mixture, mix again. Add black olives and boiled egg
and dash of poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Mix well. Cook on low to medium heat as you add and mix everything.
In today's column, I quote the James Fallows from his cover-story essay about the economic collapse in The Atlantic three years ago. Here's another excerpt from a section called Cocking The Gun, about our march to collapse: "Late in 2003 Congress dramatically escalated the fiscal problem by adding prescription-drug coverage to Medicare, with barely any discussion of its long-term cost. David M. Walker, the government's comptroller general at the time, said that the action was part of ‘the most reckless fiscal year in the history of the Republic,’ because [it] added roughly $13 trillion to the government's long-term commitments.” The Fallows piece, Countdown to a Meltdown, looks back at the crash from a hypothetical national election in 2016. It was a memorable piece, and an interesting read in light of all that's happened since it was published, summer '05.
Here are three of the several letters received in response to Sunday's column about the death of the recovered heroin addict Darryl Logan -- two from people who have themselves been "in the life" and a third from the brother of an addict.
"The old adage, 'Once an addict, always an addict' is slowly slipping away from society. I'm not ashamed to be a recovering addict who once roamed the streets of East Baltimore all hours of the night mired in the 'far below' subculture. I once stood the corner of Harford Road & Northern Pkwy, homeless, hungry and destitute. . . . I, too, was tired of being hungry, tired of being cold, tired of being tired and high. . . The sad truth is this: As addicts we cross the threshold at some point where we lose touch, where mothers, fathers and siblings have answered that call too many late lights, where friends have lent enough of their good fortune, money and clothes, and the point where our death seems an obscure blurb. Thank you for helping another one of us from beyond the gates of hell, thank you for shuttling the cause."
-- Ray Polen
"I know that the end was very sad but it is very encouraging to a drug addict to know that people actually can and do overcome drug addiction. When addicts see people who go through the same things getting a job, a license, a place to live -- these are simple accomplishments to everyday people but to drug addicts they seem almost impossible to obtain. The reason I know this is because I am an addict and I am in the process of getting my life together and sometimes all it takes is one small chance for someone to turn their life around. Keep writing about successful recovery stories. It gives hope to people like me -- a single mom, 33 years old who thought her life was over and would never have the chance again to raise and provide for her children. Someone gave me that opportunity just like Darryl had for a job and that one chance helped me turn my life around. Yes, I still struggle everyday but life is so much easier and brighter without drugs and this message needs to be delivered so much more than it is."
-- Nena
"Sunday's column reads like a recounting of my brother's life. My brother's story has many parallels, except for Darryl's successes in struggling with addiction. Now 47, he has had mixed success fighting his chemical dependencies; many periods of remission, as a productive member of society, have been interlaced with periods of relapse. He has received many "breaks" from people of good will, like you helped provide for Darryl. He has been through so many recovery programs that he could recite their mantra in his sleep. This is not to say that recovery programs are not needed. On the contrary, I believe, as you do, that aggressive treatment is important. I long ago stopped taking my brother's addiction personally and defy anyone to argue that drug use is a choice for addicts. Mental illness can be the only explanation when an individual continues behavior that they know will damage them, cause them pain and ruin their lives. Treatment programs work for some, but addiction is a life struggle; there are no silver bullets. This is the story of my brother's life.
"I also read with great interest your Dec 2 column re Legalization and was worried where you were headed. I too have used the money argument in discussing society's approach and, in general, support it. It is a complex issue. Society needs both proactive and reactive investment. Education is the most powerful tool. I am not talking about drug education, though that has its place. We need to make broad-based education the most important and highest priority investment, as we are now growing the generation that has to solve many of society's problems. We need to give our children the tools to do that and a understanding of their place in and responsibility to their community, both locally and globally. Lacking a vision of a future of opportunity, and burdened by many years of starting from behind has produced urban generations that are most at risk. If we make this investment, we will help provide a knowledge of self-worth and hopefulness in our young people that will push chemical dependency further toward the periphery. There will still be those that will fall. In legalizing drugs, we will be making a choice that we will be "writing off" some of these people (including my brother). I was glad that your Dec 2 column ended with a similar thought.
"Thinking back to the 'Freedom from Chemical Dependency' parents night in November, I was struck by several things: students have much they are willing to discuss; parents don't listen well enough even after the exhortations of the program leaders to do so; those parents who felt they had to preach, talked mainly to their fear of immediate tragedy (e.g., fatal car crashes) rather than life impacts (emphasis was on parent's fear rather than student's fear/pressures/issues); and most startling is that, to the very intelligent students to whom I listened, the dangers seemed distant and vague. I think the parents need to be given the week-long program. The students possess plenty of knowledge and not enough understanding. How does one make perceptions of the dangers real and immediate? I fear that most -- or at least many -- schools do not or can not. Our path to educating our way out of epidemic drug abuse in our cities will be a long one and, though in the long run, legalization may aid the journey, many will fall victim in the process."
-- John
Jonathan Ehrens, engineer and director of Midday, played a piece on the air the other day in honor of Davey Graham, the folk guitarist who died Wednesday in London. Graham was a leading figure in '60s British folk music. Here's a BBC clip via YouTube.
Yesterday on Midday, we were again treated to a conversation with Paul Payack, president of Global Language Monitor and the man who counts the number of words in the English language. Paul predicts English will hit the million-word mark in April. His web site lists the Top Ten most common words of 2008 ("Change" was No. 1, and "Phelpsian" came in at No. 9); most common names of 2008 ("Obama" was No. 1, "Phelps" was No. 3) and most common phrases ("Financial tsunami" was the topper).
Paul adds words, he doesn't subtract them. . . . I asked Midday listeners what words or phrases they'd like to see subtracted from English -- those terms or phrases that are overused, misused and abused, or just generally annoying.
Here is a list of listener contributions, as compiled by WYPR intern Claire Caplan.
What can I tellya?
It is what it is.
One caller said she hates to hear "At the end of the day..." when someone tries to "bottom-line" a conversation that involved some disagreements that may not yet be resolved.
Laurie hates the term "greenwashing," a derivative of “whitewashing” that means making an essentially non-green product sound green even when it isn’t.
Karen hates overuse of the phrase "speaks to." "Speaks to" in the context of "reflects" or "is an illustration of...". Says she: "This is just one of those cases of people speaking blindly. Makes more sense to say 'speaks of."
Adina thinks the most obnoxious new word is "meme." She says, "What is it? Where did it come from? Why is it all the rage all of a sudden?"
Another listener who did not identify him/herself hates the use of "more importantly" in place of "what is more important."
Louise hates "long story short."
Mike in Monkton would like to see the use of the word "utilize" reduced and replaced by the word "use."
Kevin in Baltimore hates use of the slang word "'hood," for neighborhood, primarily because the slang use leaves out the most important part, neighbor.
A phrase Robert from Catonsville is tired of hearing is "going forward." He says, "We hear this with great frequency from talking heads and pundits of all stripes. Every time I hear it, I think, 'as opposed to what?'"
Dan Fans: Please feel free to add to the list on Dan's new Facebook page
Yesterday, on Midday, I asked Thomas F. Farr, visiting professor at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, what advice he'd give the new U.S. Secretary of State. We ran out of time, so Farr obliged me with the written answer that follows. . . . Farr, author of a new book, World of Faith and Freedom, believes for too long American diplomats and national security advisers have missed a major factor in geopolitics -- the role religion plays in cultures around the world, particularly in its hot spots. Hard to believe, but Farr makes the case that most who have their hands on foreign policy over the last 40 years consider religion irrelevant or irrational, not something to be taken seriously when negotiating with foreign powers. That's completely upside down, he says. I asked him what he'd tell Hilary Rodham Clinton if he could get 10 minutes with the woman designed by President-elect Obama to be the new secretary of state:
Farr:
"Hilary Clinton will need to initiate changes in the American foreign policy establishment, both from the top down and the bottom up.
"First, as she approaches the problem of religion in foreign policy, she should adopt a fundamental principle: religion is normative in human affairs; it is not an occasional add-on, or a therapy that some people seek to increase their self esteem. While religion is terribly personal, it is seldom a purely private matter. Most people quite naturally wish to draw on their religious beliefs to shape the laws and policies under which they live their lives. Tocqueville put it this way: 'Alongside every religion lies a political opinion which is linked to it by affinity.' In the 21st century the challenge for American policy is to help shape the religion-state relationship in key countries -- such as Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, India, Russia, and China -- so that religious ideas and actors are accommodated to the public good.
"Second, Secretary Clinton should deliver, early in her tenure, a major address before a secular foreign policy audience, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, in which she makes it clear that this administration will begin to integrate the issues of religion and religious freedom into three major areas of policy: democracy promotion, counter terrorism strategy, and public diplomacy. She should also urge President Obama to address this issue both publicly and privately with the White House and NSC staff.
"Third, she should alter the way America's diplomats are trained at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute. Currently the subjects of religion and religious freedom are treated in an ad hoc manner that reinforces the religion-avoidance syndrome at Foggy Bottom. Those subjects should be integrated into political and economic training so that they are viewed as part of the world U.S. diplomats are paid to engage in pursuing American interests. She should instruct the Under Secretary for Management to establish a sub-specialty on religion and religious freedom under the existing political, economic and public diplomacy career tracks that Foreign Service officers choose.
"Finally, Secretary Clinton should elevate the status and authority of the State Department's Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. That position, created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, has been isolated bureaucratically and functionally under two administrations. The new Ambassador-at-Large should be experienced in foreign policy and capable of mainstreaming this issue into democracy promotion, counter-terrorism and public diplomacy."
Addendum to today's column:
The widely respected former U.S. Attorney General said yesterday on Midday that he hopes Marylanders read the report of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment with an open mind and learn something from it, as he did as commission chairman. "My hope," Civiletti said, "is that people will look at the facts as we presented them and say, 'I never knew that.' There are three myths about the death penalty -- that it serves as a deterrence to other homicides, that it is cheaper than keeping someone in prison for life, and that there's no chance we'd actually execute an innocent person."
Reader Sharon Carson shared this hopeful sign of the season:
"I was driving north on 295 Monday afternoon, still depressed after being at the Ravens' game last night, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but the HON sign, back in all of its glory. It is absolutely beautiful in Christmas red and the 'O' is actually a wreath. It truly brightened up my day and I couldn't wait to get home and tell you. I just hope they leave it up for the season."
For those not familiar with Hon Man and his addendum to the welcome-to-Baltimore sign on the Spellman (nee Baltimore-Washington) Parkway, here's some background.
Make sure you read some of the columns tagged to this post.
Dan Morhaim, the physician and state delegate from Baltimore County, wants to address the last major problem a lot of Americans (me included) have with repealing laws against not only marijuana but cocaine and heroin -- ending prohibition would lead to more usage and more addiction. Morhaim's thinking -- and he's among the legislature's leading thinkers, particularly on health matters -- follows. I appreciate his contribution to this ongoing discussion. While I, too, have spoken to hundreds of drug addicts and have heard the same thing, I think Doc downplays the heightened risk of more addiction in the population from younger people who would experiment once these drugs were legal.
Dan Morhaim:
"I wanted to get back to you about a concern of yours that 'legalizing' drugs (however defined) would lead to more addiction. I don't think it will, and here's why.
"There already is a major incentive for addicts to find and create new addicts. It's a pyramid scheme really. By creating new addicts dependent on a source addict, that source addict now has a small circle of people to sell to. That's how his/her addiction is funded, and so on up the line. From a business point of view, that's how to grow the business.
"Most people who engaged in poor judgment behaviors, whether mild (like drinking too much when underage or smoking) did so because of peer pressure. How many of us would have done that if some 'friend' hadn't encourage us to do so? Hopefully, one overcomes those events, but when dealing with cocaine and heroin (along with other social factors), addiction happens.
"So, a major source of new addicts is old addicts. There is a built-in incentive for them to find new folks to addict. That's how they pay for their addiction...it's with the marginal profits they make from selling.
"If drugs were legal, would people go to a center, roll up their sleeves, and say, "OK. I'm here. Shoot me up"? Yes, I guess some would, but only a very few, and quite likely it would be those who would get addicted anyway. But lots of folks who get addicted in our current system would not.
"How do I know all this? Because I've talked to literally hundreds, maybe thousands, of addicts over the years in health care settings (where we can talk openly and honestly), and that's the story over and over again."
A reader sent this quote, from George Carlin, after reading today's column: "We are being distracted and silenced by our toys and gizmos."
You can join a discussion about the future of live performance and the arts by visiting my new Facebook page.
Yeah, I know -- the headline on this post is a little, well . . . it creates an image, doesn't it? I mean, you can imagine what kind of instrumentation might have lurked on this particular corner of medicine in, say, the 18th Century, or even before that. Yow!
On last Thursday's radio show, we spoke to curators and directors of some of Maryland's smaller museums, and a couple off the beaten path and maybe a little offbeat. For the many who've called or written for more information, here's the rundown from our Midday staff:
National Cryptologic Museum
http://www.nsa.gov/MUSEUM
located adjacent to National Security Agency headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland
(301) 688-5849
Open Monday-Friday 9: am-4: pm, first and third Saturdays 10:00 am-2:00 pm
William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History
http://www.urologichistory.museum
located in Linthicum, Maryland
(410) 689-3785
Tours can be scheduled for Monday through Friday between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Special requests will be considered for all other times, including weekends.
Dr. Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry
http://www.dentalmuseum.org
located in downtown Baltimore, a short walk from Harborplace
(410) 706-0600
Open Wednesday-Saturday 10:00 am-4:00 pm, Sunday 1:00-4:00 pm
National Museum of Civil War Medicine
http://civilwarmed.org
located in historic downtown Frederick, Maryland (with a second site, the Pry House Field Hospital Museum, on the Antietam National Battlefield)
(301) 695-1864
Open Monday-Saturday 10:00 am-5:00 pm, Sunday 11:00 am-5:00 pm
Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum
located at Martin State Airport in Middle River, Maryland
http://www.marylandaviationmuseum.org
(410) 682-6122
Open Wednesday-Saturday 11:00 am-3:00 pm
Other museums we'd like to recommend:
National Museum of Language
located in College Park
http://www.languagemuseum.org
Open Tuesday and Saturday 10:00 am-4:00 pm, first and third Sundays 1:00 pm-4:00 pm
Eubie Blake National Jazz Center
on Howard Street in Baltimore
http://www.eubieblake.org/
(410) 225-3130
Open Wednesday–Friday 12:00-6:00 pm, Saturday 12:00-3:00 pm, Sunday by appointment
Havre de Grace Decoy Museum
http://www.decoymuseum.com
(410) 939-3739
Open daily 10:30 am-4:30 pm
Geppi's Entertainment Museum
located in downtown Baltimore near Camden Yards
http://www.geppismuseum.com
(410) 625-7060
Open Tuesday-Sunday 10:00 am-6:00 pm
Radio and Television Museum
located in Bowie, Maryland
http://www.radiohistory.org
(301) 390-1020
Open Friday 10:00 am-5:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday 1:00 pm-5:00 pm
National Pinball Museum
looking for funding to find a space to display all 500 (!) of their machines
http://www.nationalpinballmuseum.org
Sadly without spaces in which to display their collections are:
The Mount Vernon Museum of Incandescent Lighting
and the Museum of Menstruation and Women's Health (like the urologic museum, but for ladies!)
Bob from Baltimore called in to the show today to suggest we discuss the Computer Museum, but I've been trying to locate its website and haven't had any luck. Bob?
Update: Check out the comment threads -- we've heard from some of the guys associated with that rowdy, boozy band of stupid Santas who hit downtown Baltimore last Saturday . . .
-o-
Gee, what I miss when I don't listen to 98 Rock . . .
The ever-vigilant Matt Gonter, a one-man citizen on patrol, dug up some background on the parade of drunken Santas who fouled up Baltimore on Saturday. "It appears that the drunken Santas have their own website," Gonter reports. "It says they were once on 98 Rock in 2006 but haven’t been invited back since."
Gee, even Mickey and Amelia have discerning taste!
Previous post: To the 40 or 50 dopes from Virginia who dressed like Santa and who invaded Harborplace between pubs Saturday afternoon -- please, bear in mind, there are lots of impressionable, small children around this time of year, particularly near Santa's house at Light and Pratt, and we could really do without the stupid, rowdy, drunken antics. Next year, stay home, OK? And one other thing -- at least you could sing a Christmas song as you roam the streets. The pirate growls and howls and the F-bombs are not exactly in the spirit of the season.
Apparently the same posse of bad Santas hit Cross Street Market around 5 pm.
According to Paul Robinson, president of the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association, the drunken Santas passed flasks among themselves openly as they stumbled down Light Street.
"Once they arrived at the Light Street entrance of Cross Street Market they took a moment to organize, at which point they flung open the double doors and “stormed down the center aisle headed west toward Nick’s Inner Harbor Seafood. Joining the drunken Santas were several provocatively clad young women (one allowed as how she had been 'hired') who loudly proclaimed themselves as 'Santa’s Ho’s.' . . .
"Not only where the many families with children still in Cross Street market frightened, this conflicting image of Santa threatened one of childhood’s most innocent pleasures. This is not a scene I would like to see repeated in our neighborhood, particularly without warning to parents who might prefer not to have their children exposed to this type of behavior.
"Even as street theater, I resent being forced to cede my neighborhood market to this bunch of inebriated offensive fools even for 10 minutes. Obviously this performance was for their own pleasure with no consideration paid toward the community. Harborplace and the Cross Street Market, though public spaces, are not an appropriate venue for this type of offensive 'expression,' even under the terms of the First Amendment."
This is a follow-up to my column about Home Movie Day. Reader Jim Burkin of Perry Hall says it stired some memories and motivated him to get to get his family's films out of the closet.
"I have a box in my closet that has about 10 400-foot rolls of 8mm film dating back to 1953," Jim says. "They include a trip to Niagara Falls before the collapse of part of the American Falls, the 1954 Orioles Parade, construction of the Harbor Tunnel Thruway, Midshipmen and the Notre Dame Band marching along 33rd Street to Memorial Stadium, the old inner Harbor, Friendship Airport, 1976 Tall Ships, etc. . . . I haven't looked at them in a number of years; however, your article has prompted me to get them out and crank up the old projector - hope it still works!!!
Oh, and, of course, we have a mayor with a thing for fine clothes and Jimmy Choo shoes, so maybe that's why she needs the extra dough. "Dice be nice," I've heard it go at the craps table. "Baby needs a pair of shoes!" (That's a little casino reference, see, because She' Mayor is all over slots and Baltimore having a casino on the south side so all of the city's poorest citizens can go there and blow what little money they have so the rest of us can get a property tax break and She' Mayor can take credit for it.)
Posted last night: I just heard that She' Mayor says she intends to keep the raise because she believes she earned it and because city law insists she take it, and she has no intention of giving it to charity. Which goes to prove, all in one news cycle, that Baltimore's current mayor has no command of political symbolism -- in fact, she may be completely tone deaf when it comes to what she says and how she says it. She came across obtuse, and seemed dismissive of the idea that she should just say no to a raise for now.
I was trying to kid a little about this when I commented earlier (below), and I actually thought we'd see Dixon use today's news cycle to at least feign some kind of humility and show she's truly one of the people, sacrificing a little bonus at a time when others are really hurting. And, oh, well. So much for seizing the moment . . . It's not a lot of money. It's the symbolism, and the announcement that Dixon intends to keep the raise will come back to bite her next time she needs a little sympathy from Baltimoreans. For $3,700 she could have scored major points with voters.
Earlier comments . . . .
Hey, Mayor Dixon, and the other city officials who are supposed to be getting "salary adjustments" -- just say no, OK? They tried to slip this one by us, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but y'all got caught. Now, do the right thing. Just say, "Whoops, sorry. We didn't really want a raise this year." Timing is everything -- in comedy, love, politics and going to the bathroom. And your timing -- not just the timing, but the very thought of another raise while you're trimming the city budget and services -- stinks like 10,000 polecats in summer. I know: Voters approved the process for pay raises for top city officials, but don't tell us you didn't see this coming, and, worse, didn't see the lousy timing of it. . . . Just say no. We'll get back to you when it's OK for a raise.
Ed Reed is the football player's football player, and a pleasure to watch. In the offseason, we should hire him to track down Osama bin Laden.
Mayor Dixon's comments in support of the Baltimore Sun are very much appreciated. Nice to know there are no hard feelings about the fur coat and stuff.
There were 208 tubas at this year's Merry Tuba Christmas at Harborplace, and one baritone player who looked like an angel.
Every time I look at the Man-Woman statue in front of Penn Station, I still think of Gort from The(original) Day The Earth Stood Still.
The nation needs a car czar. How about Ed Reed?
Elkton should go back to quickie weddings. The bulldozing the homeless thing didn't work out.
The discovery of zebra mussels in the Susquehanna River can only mean one thing -- we're all gonna die!
The Baltimore Opera ran out of sugar daddies, or the sugar daddies ran out of sugar, or some daddy ran off with the sugar. Whatever, bankruptcy stinks, and here's a prayer that the BOC makes like Don Giovanni's Commentadore and comes storming back from the dead.
Just to make it fair and interesting, in next year's Army-Navy game, Navy should not be allowed to pass.
The mayor has appointed to the city ethics board someone who, like the mayor, works out at the Downtown Athletic Club. Well, I park near the Downtown Athletic Club. Do I get anything?
I envy the people of Chicago. The White Sox won the World Series as recently as 2005 and now they've had their governor arrested by the FBI. In Baltimore, the Orioles haven't won a World Series since '83, and we haven't had a governor indicted since the 1970s. Talk about dry spells.
Plus, Chicago has given the nation a president. The closest Baltimore got was Albert Ritchie.
Spaghetti alla carbonara is the ultimate comfort food and the ultimate heart attack on a plate.
The sales at The Gallery at Harborplace were fabulous Saturday. Got a pair of $73 J. Crew wellies for 20 percent off the sale price of $29. Now, all I need is a stable, a horse and some mud.
It's still weird -- Baltimore's NFL team putting together offensive drives, scoring touchdowns, putting some big points on the board. I'll tell you why Ravens fans have all those purple marks on their arms -- from pinching themselves.
I like the new programming at WHFS-FM -- more Bruce Cunningham, more Scott Garceau, more Anita Marks, more Viv and The Bulldog. There's a hole in morning drive, but I'm sure they'll fill it with some talent soon.
Ed Reed for president, 2016!
We started the day with a sunrise photograph from Kent County, by my old friend Kurt Kolaja. (See below.) Here's the just-about-sundown version:
Filmmaker and photographer Kurt Kolaja, who lives in Kent County, sent this photograph a few minutes ago, taken from his kitchen window (while he was in bathrobe and slippers) this cold December morning. It's a shot of an icy Chester River, looking east toward Crumpton. Nice work, Skip. Thanks for getting up early.
Every time I write on the subject of our "economy of consumption," I get loads of e-mail. It's already coming in this hour, in response to today's column. Here's just one, quick example. (If you want to add something, please post to this blog. I am happy to get e-mail letters and comments, but it's best if you just go ahead and post here, for others to read more immediately.)
From Rob in Bel Air, Md.:
I've always been a money "saver," sometimes called cheap, but I saw this collapse coming several years ago. I was often criticized for not spending, but I am in a pretty good position now, better than most my age I think (I'm 39). My wife and I just moved to Bel Air from Parkville, and were able to take advantage of housing price decreases, and still sell our house at a profit since we purchased in 2003.
In recent years I was always shocked at the way people were spending, and how Wall Street reacted to quarterly earnings. I believe the pressure on companies to continually grow and meet Wall Street expectations, is one factor in this mess. Management is so shortsighted, they are so focused on meeting Wall Streets expectations, there is no room for long term thinking and planning (See Ford, GM, Chrysler).
I don't know how bad this correction is going to get, but I fear we have only seen the beginning, and this thing will play out over several years, not months, as many analysts will try to tell you.
Here's another:
Companies and corporations are run by greedy shareholders, they want the biggest bang for their buck. . . so no new jobs. We will build it overseas where labor is $2 a day, Even now, the Big 3 complain about what? as their major cause for problems? US! workers wages are too high, benefits. All the companies want to downsize and outsource jobs so they don't have to pay us.
Housing prices were falsely inflated because their were millions of people receiving loans that should not of been allowed to have a credit card, but greed again takes over and everyone made lots of money all the way along, banks, lenders, Realtors, builders and associated companies. Now they cry poor when the bottom falls out. An average house price was $48K 30 years ago, now it is 10 times that. My pay has not increased 10 times.
During the campaign they talked about people who made $250k a year!? I am 54 years old and have only made $375K in my life! No savings, no home or new car. I am a steel fabricator, I have worked since I was 14 years old. Most of the companies I have worked for have long since closed. I was making $20 an hour, no insurance other wise I would have to take a cut in pay, and yes I screwed myself. On my way to work at 6 am April 4, 2008. Riding my motorcycle (gas prices) A driver coming from the opposite direction on York Road decided that I was not there and mad a left hand turn and ran me over. The left front tire of the vehicle went across my body from my left leg, pelvis, chest and shoulder. Leg snapped, broke back, every right side rib broken, collar bone, shoulder, shoulder blade, brain trauma. In a coma for two weeks, hospital for two months. Have not been able to get medical assistance for aftercare or physical therapy. Now I am 200K in debt. But what really burns me is the person who ran me over was driving an uninsured motor vehicle, he did not have a MD drivers license and his out of state license was suspeneded...I called the prosecutor;s office because I was bedridden and had no way to go to the hearing the man had. I explained to her the damages inflicted on me, that I wanted the judge to realize that this individual just didn't get pulled over for driving without a license. He ran ME over and I will never be able to use my right arm again and can barely walk.....a week later I get a letter stating that they decided not to prosecute! . . . I did not see that coming either
Everyone says that certain minorities work jobs Americans do not want, well we will probably see the situation come to a head when millions are out of work and they are competing against illegal aliens for their families food. Everyone cries the blues for them now, but the hatred will increase when they start taking food out of our mouths...then what will happen? Maybe you will get to write another story of How we should of seen that coming too.
Sincerely,
William John Rumbos Jr.
The Z-Man will be the Tee Kid of the Ravens-Redskins game Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium. The Z-Man, of course, is Zach Morris, the 13-year-old Dundalk lad who, despite having cerebral palsy, just finished a season of youth football.
I wrote a column about Zach a couple of weeks ago.
The Ravens' Heather Blocher, the team's marketing and promotions coordinator, says Zach and three guests will be on the field during player warm-ups, get to stand behind the media line and "literally be an arms' length away from the players." They will stay down on the field during all the pregame festivities. After the game-starting kickoff, Zach gets to run out to midfield to retrieve the kicking tee and bring it back to the Ravens' sidelines. He will also get some mug time on the Smartvision boards.
Props to the Ravens for recognizing this boy's accomplishment.
It was still a grand affair, and in a light snowfall, too. This year, 208 Sousaphonists, euphonies, baritonistas, tubists and one heliconion showed up at Harborplace for the 25th Anniversary Merry Tuba Christmas. The turnout hit 280 last season. I told one of the organizers, Ed Goldstein, I'd do my best to help him get 500 tuba players out next year. (Let this be a warning to readers: I'm going on a crusade to make Baltimore's Merry Tube Christmas the biggest in the world!) Congratulations to Jim Wharton of Catonsville High for his conducting and singing of, "Santa Wants a Tuba For Christmas," and hats off to the other organizers -- Lisa Schultze and Rob White, plus players from the Marching Ravens, Towson U., and the University of Maryland College Park, to mention just a few. Hats off to the youngest players -- Sarah Nemsick and Natalie Miller -- and the most senior -- Anne Hardin and Charles Moose.
Click here for a video from last year's concert
Listen live on WYPR 88.1 FM or online at wypr.org. You can call during the show at 410-662-8780 or toll-free at 866-661-9309, or drop us an e-mail at midday@wypr.org.Dec. 4 1-2 pm
Enrollment in the Baltimore City Public Schools system has increased for the first time in nearly 40 years. A conversation with Baltimore Schools CEO Andres Alonso about the increase in enrollment and what he thinks about a Harlem Children's Zone-type project in Baltimore.
Alonso is also speaking tonight at Bolton Street Synagogue at 7:30. Free and open to the public. The program is part of a community public affairs series called Uncommon Voices. The synagogue address is 212 W. Cold Spring Lane, just west of Charles St.
There's info at the Bolton Street Synagogue website: www.boltonstreet.org.
Listen live on WYPR 88.1 FM or online at wypr.org. You can call during the show at 410-662-8780 or toll-free at 866-661-9309, or drop us an e-mail at midday@wypr.org.
December 4 Noon-1 pm EST
Listen live on WYPR 88.1 FM or online at wypr.org. You can call during the show at 410-662-8780 or toll-free at 866-661-9309, or drop us an e-mail at midday@wypr.org.
December 3 1-2 pm EST
Well, winter is coming and so is the weather -- the high season for meteorologists and snow-paranoid Marylanders. Today on Midday: An edifying and amusing conversation about predicting weather and adapting to it. Our guests include Comedy Central contributor and author Dennis DiClaudio, whose book Man vs. Weather, suggests how we might "beat weather at its own game." Also joining us is WMAR-TV meteorologist Justin Berk, left, who broke into weather reporting in the snow belt of upstate New York and has been following the skies for Baltimore-area television viewers for a decade. Yes, yes, let's talk about the weather, right after the news from NPR.
Listen live on WYPR 88.1 FM or online at wypr.org. You can call during the show at 410-662-8780 or toll-free at 866-661-9309, or drop us an e-mail at midday@wypr.org.December 3 Noon-1 pm EST
Frank Bond broke into local television news with a film camera, then moved into the age of videotape and became a reporter at WBAL-TV. For the last 10 years he's been a producer and moderator at the Newseum, the Washington museum that chronicles the history of journalism and news reporting. Today on Midday, a talk with Frank Bond about local TV news and programming over the decades and where affiliate television stations, no longer the cash cows for the media companies that own them, go in the ever-changing warp-speed world of news and information. Also joining us is the Sun's media critic David Zurawik. Local TV then, now and future . . .. next on Midday after the news from NPRHere are more excerpts from the Harvard study cited in today's column. The study was undertaken by Jeffrey Minor, an economics professor who is described in various press reports as a libertarian.
Government expenditures
"This report concludes that drug legalization would reduce government expenditure by $44.1
billion annually. Roughly $30.3 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, while roughly $13.8 billion would accrue to the federal government. Approximately $12.9 billion of the savings would results from legalization of marijuana, $19.3 billion from legalization of cocaine and heroin, and $11.6 from legalization of all other drugs."
"The estimates are ballpark figures that indicate what order of magnitude policymakers should expect from legalization."
"To estimate the state and local savings in criminal justice resources, this report . . . estimates the percentage of state and local arrests for drug violations and multiplies this percentage by the state and local budget for police. It estimates the percentage of state and local felony convictions for drug violations and multiplies this percentage by the state and local budget for prosecutors and judges. It estimates the percentage of state and local incarcerations for drug violations and multiplies this percentage by the state and local budget for prisons. It then sums these components to estimate the overall reduction in state and local government expenditure. Under plausible assumptions, this procedure yields a reasonable estimate of the cost savings from drug legalization. "
Taxes
"In addition to reducing government expenditure, drug legalization would produce tax revenue from the legal production and sale of drugs. To estimate the revenue, this report employs the following procedure. First, it estimates current consumer (retail) expenditure on drugs under prohibition. Second, it estimates the expenditure likely to occur under legalization. Third, it estimates the tax revenue that would result from this expenditure based on assumptions about the kinds of taxes that would apply to legalized drugs."
"Legalization would also generate tax revenue of roughly $32.7 billion annually if drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. Approximately $6.7 billion of this revenue would result from legalization of marijuana, $22.5 billion from legalization of cocaine and heroin, and $3.5 billion from legalization of all other drugs."
Demand
"This report assumes there would be no shift in the demand for drugs. This assumption likely errs in the direction of understating the tax revenue from legalized drugs, since the penalties for possession potentially deter some persons from consuming. Any increase in demand as a result of legalization, however, would plausibly come from casual users rather than heavy users, since heavy users are the ones with strong desire to consume drugs and are therefore already consuming despite prohibition. Any increase in use might also come from decreased consumption of alcohol, tobacco or other goods, so increased tax revenue from legal drugs would be partially offset by decreased tax revenue from other goods. Forbidden fruit effects from prohibition might also tend to offset the demand decreasing effects of penalties for possession. Thus, the assumption of no change in demand is plausible, and it likely biases the estimated tax revenue downward. "
Lower drug prices
"Under the assumption that demand does not shift due to legalization, any change in the quantity and price would result from changes in supply conditions. Two main effects would operate. On the one hand, drug suppliers in a legal market would not incur the costs imposed by prohibition, such as the threat of arrest, incarceration, fines, asset seizure, and the like. This means that, other things equal, costs and therefore prices would be lower under legalization. On the other hand, drug suppliers in a legal market would bear the costs of tax and regulatory policies that apply to legal goods but that black market suppliers normally avoid. This implies an offset to the cost reductions resulting from legalization. Further, changes in competition and advertising under legalization can potentially yield higher prices than under prohibition."
My hangup on decriminalization is this -- heroin and cocaine are highly addictive and destructive; make them legal and more people will try them and get hooked, contributing to more dysfunction in American society. In all the debates I've had with the legalization proponents, none has presented a convincing counter-argument, an assurance that we won't have more users and abusers than we do now. So, I'm not still not getting on the bandwagon . . .
"I used to think the same as you as far as more people getting into drugs if they are legal," writes Eddie Somers from the Eastern Shore. "I live in Crisfield and grew up on Smith Island and Tangier. All three of these very small places now have drug (yes, heroin) problems. If our legal system cannot stop it in small places such as these they just cannot beat it. I think we should let the state (through local health departments) give these people their drugs and you would see a much safer place for all of us to live in."
Well, Eddie, if under legalization there are state stores selling the stuff, believe me, you'll see even more Crisfielders giving it a try. (Believe it or not, some people actually refrain from using heroin or cocaine because there's a chance you'll go to prison if caught with it. Imagine!)
As for medical distribution -- that's not a bad idea. That would eliminate a good chunk of the black market and serve the already addicted. But legalization of heroin and cocaine, and taxing its sales in the way we tax alcohol and tobacco now -- that will just lead to more addicts than we have now. We might eliminate the gangland violence related to drug trafficking, but increased addiction will mean more petty crime, more lost work days, more family trauma, more car accidents, more poverty, more kids growing up in broken homes, more child abuse. More of what we have now.
Listen live on WYPR 88.1 FM or online at wypr.org. You can call during the show at 410-662-8780 or toll-free at 866-661-9309, or drop us an e-mail at midday@wypr.org.Monday, December 1
Noon-1:00 EST: Today is the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day. From the Midday studios in Baltimore, a city with one of the nation’s highests rate of HIV, we’ll discuss how far HIV/AIDS treatment has come in the past two decades with Dr. Laura Herrera, medical director of the Ryan White Initiative for the Baltimore City Department of Health and a senior staff member at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Rev. Frank M. Reid, Senior Pastor of Bethel AME Church will also take part in the discussion addressing the Church’s response to the HIV/AIDS problems in Baltimore.
1:00-2:00 pm EST: The Harlem Children’s Zone is a groundbreaking initiative to help impoverished neighborhoods with high crime and low levels of academic achievement. Could it work in Baltimore? We’ll talk with Paul Tough, author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America, and with Matthew Joseph, Executive Director of Advocates for Children and Youth, who would like to see taxpayer resources go into a Harlem Children's Zone-like project here. Done well over time, it could save hundreds of millions in government social and justice expenditures.
