BEG A QUESTION, GIVE WILLIE A GOOD SIGN, AND RETHINK DRUG WAR

Finally, the government is giving the panhandlers a helping hand.

Oh, the government doesn't know it, but there's a flip side to a plan
to make transients stop begging for money in low-income
neighborhoods.

This might force the beggars to think smart and go where the money
is. They can set up shop on Spanish Trail, Scenic Highway and Marcus
Pointe.

They will reach a much wealthier audience in those areas and no doubt
get better handouts from the Mercedes and SUV set.

The Escambia County Commission is set to talk Tuesday about a
proposal to ban the bums from soliciting at intersections in
Brownsville, Warrington and other redevelopment areas.

Safety is one issue, but that's a bit of a red herring. Drivers who
run red lights are more likely to kill you than a transient, yet
when's the last time you saw a cop pull over anyone for running a red
light?

A more subtle reason is the wish of some people to make the
panhandlers go away because they are unsightly reminders that some
folks are unable or unwilling to work or participate in the numerous
government and private programs available to them.

Maybe if the panhandlers vanish, we won't get daily reminders of the
many mentally ill or addicted people unwilling or unable to
participate in numerous programs open to them.

Then we can pretend everything is hunky-dory in the Pensacola Bay
Area.

More O'pinions:

This idea didn't originate with me, but I like it.

Since we have a street named after W.D. Childers, let's name one
after the late Willie Junior.

Junior was much nicer and kinder, and he deserves some recognition
for the good he did before he and Wily Devil ran amok on the Escambia
County Commission.

Option B: Rename W.D. Childers Plaza, now honoring a man in prison
for corruption.

When Jerry Cameron was police chief in Fernadina Beach, he
thought cops could "arrest our way" through the drug dealers.

Over time, however, he did "a complete 180," deciding the war on
drugs is a waste of money and resources. Since this war on drugs
began, Cameron notes, illegal drugs have become cheaper and purer.

Now, he said, 60 percent of the heroin in the United States comes
from Afghanistan, and the money goes to our enemy, the Taliban.

He's a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which likens
the drug war to the days of alcohol prohibition, when corruption and
public disregard for the law undermined efforts to ban alcohol.

And then there's the hypocrisy of someone who can legally get stoned
on beer but his sister risks arrest if she touches marijuana, Cameron
said in an interview from his home in St. Augustine.

He's right. The drug war isn't working. Ask some prosecutors or cops
yourself and hear what they say.

We need to rethink the whole matter.

"The emperor has no clothes," Cameron said.

But who will be the first leader to dare state the obvious?