CITY SHOULD JOIN FIGHT AGAINST METH

Thank you for your front page article June 19 on the meth epidemic in
Missouri. Also, it's nice that you publicized and lionized the group
Victory Circle a few days later. But I'm wondering why the News-Leader
hasn't connected the dots and called upon local governments to get
involved with these issues. Will it take one or two more jails being
built before it dawns on you that the meth problem is the problem in
Springfield?

It will be nice if the Mayor's Commission can instill in some kids the
idea that meth is to be avoided, but if the kids' parents are meth
dealers that's going to be a pretty hard sell.

I notice we don't mind taxing ourselves to provide services to Greene
County seniors, but ex-cons can forget about getting any local
government aid.

The city can put up signs proclaiming "progress as promised" and send
out endless streams of propaganda for Jordan Valley Park -- but it
can't hire a few people to look into fighting the meth morass? (Maybe
it's hoping The Kitchen will step in and save the day.)

Do you know that in Missouri ex-felons who are on parole are barred
from voting? We want people to play by the rules but not have any say
in what the rules are.

Why can't the City Council lobby the state legislature to get this law
overturned? When people have paid their debt to society, it is time to
let them participate in society.

It may make some of us feel good to look down our noses at ex-cons,
but I'll bet that if your nose gets busted by an ex-con mugging you
because he can't rejoin mainstream society, you'll come round to a
we're-all-in-this-together world view. The alternative is to lock 'em
up and throw away the key and bankrupt ourselves morally and
financially.

Until we come to grips with meth and the rising population of cons and
ex-cons, we're going to see more of our tax dollars funneled into the
warehousing of people who have turned to crime to support their
addictions. It's not like there are no alternatives. For reintroducing
people into society, there are organizations like the Sentencing
Project. A report released in January by the Re-Entry Policy Council
(www.reentrypolicy.org) is said to be "encyclopedic" in scope where
alternatives to our current policies are concerned.

Robert Reed, Springfield, is an urban planner.