AMNESTY? LET'S HELP OUR OWN, ALSO

Ignoring the elephant in the nation's living room, the Bush Inc. A- team
(members must either have a bad heart, or no heart at all) are scrambling
to find ways to make their hapless president appealing. Recently they hit
upon amnesty for some 3 million illegals, who have crossed our southern
border and are working in the U.S., illegally. Bush Inc. thinks that such
an amnesty would increase Republican popularity among Hispanics.

Maybe. Maybe not. But the elephant is still being ignored, as it was during
the Gore-Bush campaign, i.e., the nearly 100-year-old Drug War, America's
version of the Spanish Inquisition.

One galling aspect of this latest Republican twist on human rights is their
inability to work up the same political and economic sympathy for our own
citizens, who are political prisoners of their insane Drug War, a political
war, with conservative politicians controlling Drug War funding, and
spewing anti-drug venom to the media, a practice which should be condemned
as a denial of the human rights of those who choose what we call drugs,
while those who choose tobacco and alcohol, America's major killers, are
considered merely exercising their right to slow suicide.

So what happens if 3 million illegals are given amnesty by Bush Inc.?
Little beyond sighs of relief from the illegals and from their American
employers. The illegals would be able to go about their lives without
worrying about getting busted and deported, and the employers of illegals
wouldn't have to worry about getting busted and imprisoned. Will such an
amnesty affect the economy? Not much. Basically it would just shuffle
papers, print visas, and expand a computer database of low-wage jobs.

But what happens if 1 million Drug War prisoners are granted amnesty? A
lot. The average cost of maintaining a prisoner is somewhere around $25,000
annually, give or take a few, depending on the facility. Now let's multiply
1,000,000 by $25,000 on our computer calculator, and the product is (the
envelope, please): $25,000,000,000. That's $25 billion (b as in bucks) that
could be cut from government budgets, or spent on drug rehabilitation,
education, medical research, etc. With an end to incarceration for drug
offenders, the $25 billion saved and the $16 billion or so that law
enforcement spends directly on the Drug War annually would amount to more
than $40 million. Suddenly we are talking about extra funding for
government projects, or for more tax cuts, an idea that Republicans with
dollar bills for brain cells would be drooling to embrace.

But the benefits go on. Releasing Drug War prisoners would help millions of
families on welfare, especially children at risk living in poverty with a
single parent or no parent. With two-parent families being re-established,
welfare rolls would shrink, as these former prisoners of the Drug War
assimilate back into society, some taking their places as mechanics,
plumbers, bricklayers, truck drivers, cooks, managers, accountants,
doctors, lawyers, and business owners. And especially as mothers and
fathers, sisters and brothers, friends, and neighbors: the glue that keeps
a culture from fragmenting.

In addition, with amnesty for political Drug War prisoners, law enforcement
budgets could be slashed. Hundreds of millions currently spent on new
prisons could help fund needed programs. Empty prisons could be turned into
schools, businesses, hospitals, museums, or half- way houses for those who
need assistance to re-enter society.

With the end of the Drug War, the border could become a 2,000-mile,
cross-cultural paradise, a world-class environmental and archeological
research laboratory, a resort destination for those who wouldn't dare go
near the border before for fear of getting caught in the violence of the
American Drug War.

Once again we see Republicans putting their political greed ahead of any
humanitarian considerations. The idea that they should be lauded for coming
to the aid of poor illegals, while letting the energy, talent and minds of
our own generations rot in prisons for breaking race-based drug laws is
detestable.

American politicians are quick to condemn China, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan
and others for what they consider a blatant disregard of human rights. But
it is laughable to think that our society has cornered the market on human
rights. Consider inmates in American prisons spending decades behind bars
for non-violent drug offenses, in prisons where they are subject to any
kind of abuse that other inmates and prison staff can inflict upon them.

So, go ahead. Legalize the illegals. But also re-legalize the Drug War
prisoners and give them back the rights stolen from them by ignorant people
making and enforcing bad laws.

If we can offer charity to others, we can at least offer justice to our own.